Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Danvers, seriously? You beat up aliens from outer space for a living, yet you’ve been brought to your knees by cargo pants? You're pathetic.”

Maggie's laughter echoed through the bedroom. A loud thud was heard as Alex Danvers stumbled upon the mattress unceremoniously, her pants halfway through her legs, her back to Maggie showing a black bra, shirt already on the floor, boots still on. Her face was buried in the quilt, voice muffled by the fabric.

“Oh gosh, you should know better, Sawyer! I’m just tired! And of course I’m pathetic. And horny! Just help me out already!”

Finally, Maggie took pity and quickly took off Alex’s boots, followed by her pants. She rolled Alex over and climbed on top of her, the DEO agent gloriously exposed in only her underwear. Maggie was wearing dark green boxers and a loose fit t-shirt that read, in white letters upon black: I’m not a lesbian. My girlfriend is.

“I love how by day you’re a killing machine but by night you become this cute uncoordinated mess.” Maggie began kissing the crook of Alex’s neck as she held her wrists in her hands.

“Shut up,” Alex groaned softly as Maggie’s lips sucked on her left earlobe. “Supergirl and I detained three Durlans today that were trying to invade Earth. They had a time-machine! Do you know how exhausting that can be? Fighting aliens with time-machines!? I deserve to be a little clumsy if I want to, after that…”

“Yes, you do. And you deserve a reward." Maggie inhaled Alex's perfume with her eyes closed and then whispered softly in her ear…

“Tonight, you’re mine. No aliens, no superheroes, no worries. Just you, me, our tongues and my fingers.”

Alex gasped in anticipation as Maggie's words sank in. She felt fingers marching confidently towards the center of her back and one second later her bra was skilfully unhooked with just one hand. Maggie’s other hand was mischievously circling her breasts, brushing against them with the slightest of touches while she placed little kisses around her belly button.

“Oh, Mags…” Alex struggled for air as she lifted her chin to try and look into Maggie’s eyes.

The detective rose her head and met Alex’s gaze with what could only be called pure devotion, her playful tone now completely gone from her voice. Only tenderness danced now above a delicate whisper that was indeed like music to Alex’s ears.

“Are you ready to forget the world outside these walls?”

Alex held her girlfriend’s gaze for as long as she could without melting down.

“I already have,” she answered nearly out of breath, just from mere anticipation.

Maggie poured all her appetite in a new kiss, silencing the moan that was beginning to form in Alex’s mouth. Her hands moved to the agent’s hips as tongues danced together and heartbeats began racing. They kissed for long minutes, hungrily, hands exploring each other’s bodies, out of breath and out of their minds, they only were aware of one another. All the stress, all the exhaustion from another week of running, shooting and worrying just disappeared. Maggie slipped her hand into Alex’s panties as she bit and sucked the skin around her shoulder. Alex trembled, knowing what was about to happen, and she let out a sigh of pure bliss. She was never a talker, but with Maggie everything was new.

“Maggie, plea–”

Knock, knock.

They both halted every action. They stopped even breathing. Like children caught red-handed, they stared at each other incredulously.

“Was that–” Maggie’s question hanged in the air as she was interrupted by another knock on the front door, louder this time.

Alex began to pout immediately.

“No. No. Nononono.”

Maggie sighed heavily and hanged her had down for a few seconds. Gathering strength she didn’t know she had, she stepped away from Alex’s warm body and tried to collect herself. Flush was spreading all over her face, her hair was a mess and her breathing was uneven. She really wouldn’t fool anyone.

“Might be someone from work.” Maggie said finally, in an attempt to sound like she was a reasonable adult that would not ever suggest her girlfriend to hide until whoever was at the door just left.

“No, no, I don’t believe this.” Alex buried her face in a pillow, two seconds later she threw it at the bedroom door. “I’m gonna kill them, whoever they are. I’m gonna kill them, I swear.”

Maggie sighed again. The moment was broken, Alex was pissed, and her momentum was now wasted. Her shoulders sank down a little, her body language showing they were defeated. She was about to open her mouth again to try and be the voice of reason, when an actual voice that wasn’t hers filled the air with anxiety.

“Alex? You there? I really need to talk to you!”

Maggie finally found a reason to smile.

“Well then, seems like you’re about to commit fratricide, babe.”

Alex’s expression changed instantly the moment she heard her sister’s voice. She had told her earlier that morning that Maggie was coming over, and Kara herself had a date with Mon-El, so if she was here, maybe something was wrong… Aliens attacking the city? Lillian Luthor finally coming out of hiding and creating chaos? J’onn in danger? Kryptonite? A clue about her father’s whereabouts? At this point in their lives, it could be literally anything.

“Kara? What the– She knows you’re here tonight.”

Maggie nodded, knowing what Alex was thinking.

“Then it must be important”, the detective kissed Alex quickly on the lips, finally finding resolution. “Put on your pj’s, I’ll let her in.” Maggie opened the bedroom door as Kara’s voice insisted with an increased pitch.

“Aaaalex? I’m so, so sorry, ok? But I really, really need to talk.”

“She does sound distressed,” Alex said, her voice filled with worry.

Maggie smiled to herself seeing the change in Alex, from pure rage for the interruption to unconditional love, now she realized it was her sister knocking at her door.

For most people, Alex and Kara’s strong devotion would be a source for conflict, that’s how intimidating it could be. For Maggie, it was one of the reasons she was drawn to Alex; they were a force of nature, seeing them interact was… refreshing, in a way. Like a cure. A love so powerful, a bond so strong, could only inspire you to be better, inspire you to be worth of both the Danvers sisters’ approval. Maggie craved to be a part of that, maybe because of her own family history… so different from the Danvers safe environment.

The bond between Alex and Kara reminded her of what she had missed as a teen, the exact opposite of her loneliness, and because of that, in a way, she had always understood. That’s why Alex hadn’t needed to tell her Kara was Supergirl. So while she knew better than to compete for Alex’s love with Kara (there was no doubt about who would win that fight, in case she was fool enough to start it), Maggie never doubted even for just one second that Alex could handle them both in her life, that she could find equilibrium.

Though she did struggle, at first, but don’t we all when we fall in love?

Maggie flinched. She thought it was better to find different phrasing for that, because love wasn’t a word in the vocabulary of their relationship, yet. Sure, there were the I care about you, I miss you, I want you… But neither of them had dropped the L bomb yet despite dating for quite some time now. And well, she was not going to open that door right now because it was simply terrifying.

“Maggie!”

Alex’s warning tone quickly pulled her out of her reverie. Maggie turned around and saw her girlfriend pointing at her legs with eyes wide open.

“Put your pants on!”, the DEO Agent finally said when Maggie didn’t seem to comprehend.

Maggie chuckled and reached for her yoga pants, ungracefully scattered on the bedroom floor.

“Aye, aye, Ma’am.”

And there was Kara, again, impatient as a whining child.

“Aaaalex? Pleaaase? Pretty pleeease?”

“We heard you, Little Danvers! Just a sec!”

As Maggie put her pants on she could hear a sigh of relief adorned with a Thank Rao! coming from the other side of the door.

Maggie always found Kara’s vocal range to be both creepy and fascinating. She could impersonate the most tiresome, whining little girl, mastering pouts and emotional blackmail through high-pitched whimpers and yet, somehow, she managed to be bearable. The detective called it “the Little Danvers routine”. Kara just did it because she loved being indulged by her big sis– she couldn’t blame her. Yet, when she changed into her Supergirl persona, this confident, proud being, managed to inspire citizens or scare villains with low tones, husky warnings and assertive statements.

It was… unsettling. And awfully sexy. That, she could admit to. And not that she didn’t see Kara as anything but the little sister she never had, but she did get why every lesbian bar in National City had dozens of Supergirl posters hanging in their walls…

She was chuckling to herself as she reached the front door and finally opened it. Kara Danvers, in full Super suit, stepped inside as if the hallway was filled with Kryptonite. Out of instinct, Maggie peeked out just to see if someone was chasing her or something. But no, no Super stalkers were in sight.

Right in time, Alex stepped out of the bedroom, dressed in her cute grey pijamas with bears and tiny hearts all over them. Maggie melted. And a second later she remembered Alex’s little sister was in the room and it was no time to be melting. Yet.

“Kara, what’s going on? Are you hurt? What happened?”, Alex asked while she approached her visibly upset sister.

Maggie just closed the door while Kara– well, Supergirl, finally let herself fall on the couch. Alex yelped a little in fear that Kara’s carelessness might break it in half, but luckily she only moved it a few inches.

“Mon-El!”, the superhero bursted out, with no further explanation.

Maggie and Alex exchanged confused glances as Kara hid her face between her hands.

“Ooookay”, Alex said while she approached her sister carefully.

Kara was still hiding her face and little sobs were muffled against her hands. Maggie and Alex could only make out a few words.

“It’s just… sometimes… everything… it’s too much…”

Alex hurried to her sister’s side, sat down beside her and took her hands in hers. Kara looked at her sheepishly and sobbed a little louder. Her big sister just embraced her and Kara accepted the warmth of arms she trusted with her own life.

“Hey, hey, Kara. It’s ok. You’re here. We’re here.”

Maggie had carefully approached them but now she realized this was a rather intimate moment, and Kara might feel uncomfortable with her presence, so she opened her mouth to excuse herself.

“You guys need some privacy, so I’m gonna tak–“

“No, Maggie, STAY!”

It sounded like an order and it didn’t come from Alex.

Supergirl just reached out, grabbed her by her long t-shirt and pulled her close so she stumbled on the couch. Kara patted her on the cheek as if she was some kind of puppy and then grabbed her arm, obviously looking for some sisterly comfort on Maggie’s part too. Alex just smiled, saying nothing. So now, Alex was holding Kara and kissing the top of her head, while Kara held Maggie’s arm and Maggie just sat there, frozen, caught in this tangled mess of Danvers love. It was quite a picture.

After a minute or two passed (it felt like a year to Maggie), Alex released Kara and handed her a tissue from the coffee table.

“Ok. Blow your nose. Then, explain.” Alex said in a gentle yet firm tone that reminded Kara of Eliza.

Kara complied and then she sighed heavily.

“Ah, it’s really stupid… Maybe it’s just all these months finally taking their toll on me, I don’t know…”

Alex could tell her sister was beating around the bush just to try and get out of telling her what the real problem was. She took her chin in her hand, gently, and forced her to look into her eyes.

“Kara. Please, tell us.”

Kara smiled, nervously, then shook her head.

“It’s very silly, guys, now I’m kind of embarrassed that I came all the way here for this. I ruined your night, I’m so sorry.”

Alex was not buying it, and she was not giving up.

“Kara.”

The superhero looked between Alex and Maggie and knew she was doomed. There was no turning back now. She raised her hands in surrender and rolled her eyes.

“Ok. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You’re my witness, Maggie.”

Maggie nodded.

“We’re listening, Little Danvers.”

Kara breathed in deeply and gathered some courage.

“Ok, so… so I had planned a romantic evening, you know, just us, at home, enjoying ourselves. I cooked dinner, I lit candles, I bought roses, a bottle of the best alien wine I could find… And everything was just fine. We talked, we laughed, we made out–”

Alex quickly raised her hand and Maggie stopped herself before muttering a Thank God.

“Sis, don’t go into details unless you really have to, please?”

Kara bit her lip and renewed tears appeared in her eyes. Maggie understood right then, but Alex wasn’t that quick to follow.

“But that’s the point, and that’s why I warned you…”

Sensing frustration and confusion could impair the interaction, Maggie intervened. She took Kara’s hand in hers, surprising everyone in the room, herself mostly. Then, a nod to Alex, letting her know she should trust her.

“It’s ok, Kara. It’s ok, really, we won’t judge. Keep going.” Maggie said with a soft smile.

The detective’s kindness worked like a charm on both the Danvers sisters. Alex relaxed a little against the couch, listening attentively, and Kara nodded, breathing in again and letting go of Maggie’s hand with a quick affective squeeze.

“Ok, to summarized the whole thing and to spare you the details you sure don’t wanna know, the thing is today was our eight-month anniversary. He forgot. As usual. And I’m not even mad because in a way I knew it would happen, I know him, that’s what he does, I was just happy to have a night just for us and just be… together.”

Kara hanged her head down and look at the floor for long seconds. Alex put a hand on her back, encouraging her to keep going.

“So, if that’s not what’s bothering you, what is it?” Her big sister asked, carefully.

Kara sighed heavily again and laughed. A hurt laugh.

“We were– Rao, Alex, I’m so sorry– we were making love, well, having sex, ugh, whatever you want to call it, and, uh…”

Kara kept laughing nervously as tears welled up in her eyes. It was obvious she was in pain. Alex was speechless after that last piece of information, so Maggie took over.

“It’s ok, sweetie. Just say it.”

The detective joined Alex’s hand as they both traced small circles on Kara's back, for encouragement. Alex found Maggie’s gaze above her sister's head and mouthed a silent thank you.

“Well, lately we always do the same stuff…” Kara began again, as if each word was a punch to the stomach. “It’s like watching the same movie over and over again and I kind of lost interest at some point, I guess. So he asked me what was wrong and I, I just told him. Uh… you know, I tried to use the right words. I tried to be gentle and not make a fuss.”

“Oh, God.” Maggie couldn’t help herself. She knew people, she knew men, despite never being involved with one. She knew what was coming.

“And then… I swear, guys, he just– he just went mad!”

Kara burst into tears she’d been holding on for the entire conversation. She just let them flow and Maggie and Alex could only listen and look at her in sympathy.

“He was like… so offended!” Kara shook her head as if reviving the moment. “He said he was trying to be generous with me, that he was being gentle and considerate and… and that he even did things he did not like just to please me!” Kara choked a little on the words, but she kept going, nevertheless. “That he never did those things with girls in Daxam because he didn’t have to. That I was being unfair. And selfish.”

The superhero covered her face with her hands again and her big sister embraced her in a bear hug. Kara just sobbed for a while and no one dared to speak.

Moments later, it was Maggie who broke the silence, slowly, her voice low, though she couldn’t hide her anger.

“He told you he does things in bed with you that he doesn’t like?”

Kara wiped her tears and looked at the detective, nodding, never leaving Alex’s arms. Her voice was still trembling, but she was calmer this time.

“He said he– he does not enjoy oral sex. He likes… receiving it, I mean, but not the other way around.” Kara closed her eyes for a second in a gesture of pure embarrassment. She was glad she was in her sister’s arms so she couldn’t see her face. Alex just remained still, but Kara could feel her heart had skipped a beat or two. She just kept going, she needed to take it out of her system. “He said he didn’t mind doing it– um… to… to me. But he said it was gross and I should be considerate enough to be grateful that he was doing it anyway. Because he loves me. That’s what he said, anyway.”

Maggie looked at Kara with a heartbreaking smile.

“Oh, Little Danvers, I’m so sorry. But that’s not love.” Maggie said, struggling with her cracking voice. “Love’s never an excuse.”

Alex was still holding Kara and she was refusing to meet Maggie’s eyes. The detective knew she had to be trying so hard to collect herself and not break down for the sake of her sister. Still, she said nothing.

“The thing is, now I think about it and the things he said… maybe they weren’t that bad, but in the moment I just–” Kara stopped herself to get rid of Alex’s arms so she could look her in the eye.

Alex’s eyes were red, but dry. Kara spoke again as if she was trying to apologize to her big sister, for no reason at all.

“I snapped, Alex, I told him to get out and I just put on the suit and just flew and flew and… And I couldn’t stop crying. I don’t know. I told you it was silly.”

Maggie held her breath, waiting for Alex’s reaction whose face was a little pale and in a shock-like expression. Finally, she found strength to speak, rather calmly, and Maggie felt so proud.

“No, no, it’s not silly, Kara. I’m glad you came. You had every right to react the way you did. And I’ll always be here for you, whatever happens. Always.”

Maggie watched as they melted in a hug, once more, and she smiled to herself: there it was, that unstoppable force, that blinding light of faith in one another. She was lost in those thoughts when a strong hand pulled her to the side and she found herself embracing both Kara and Alex. Her mouth ended up on top of Alex’s head, her arms around Kara’s back and Alex’s waist. It was totally uncomfortable and awkward, but it was also great to be part of this pile of beautiful chaos and unconditional love that were the Danvers sisters.

“You’re our fifth Beatle, Maggie.” Kara said, weak laughter breaking through her sadness despite herself.

“We’re all Ringo.” Alex pointed out, smiling through silent tears of her own.

Kara raised her head from the pile of love, frowning.

“Wouldn’t she be more like our Chandler? I mean, her jokes do suck.”

Alex shook her head, laughing. Maggie kept quiet, looking between them disapprovingly. These two are unbelievable, she thought to herself.

“I thought Winn was Chandler.” Alex stated matter-of-factly.

Maggie was about to protest and put an end to the nonsense when Alex spoke again, excited as if she just had won game night.

“I think it fits better if you’re Luke Skywalker, I’m Leia and she’s my Han Solo?”

Kara’s eyes went wide with enthusiasm. Maggie had to stop it, this could have literally no end…

“Ok, that’s it, guys!” The detective said while she jumped from the couch. She stood in front of the Danvers sisters, raising an accusative finger at Alex. “You want me to be Solo, seriously? You do remember what happened to him in The Force Awakens, right?”

Her girlfriend looked at her innocently and Maggie didn’t like it one bit.

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember, I was busy looking at Daisy Ridley’s perfect face.” Alex burst into laughter and Kara giggled and maniacally nodded with her head. “Did I say face? I meant ass, of course.” Alex added with a wink to her sister.

The Danvers joined in uncontrollable laughter and Maggie was so done with them.

“John Boyega! I mean, damn!” The youngest Danvers added enthusiastically and Maggie wondered how a perfectly planned night with her girlfriend had turned into a nightmare of babysitting these two dorks.

“Ok, that's enough, YOU LITTLE PERVS!”

Not even the commanding voice of Detective Maggie Sawyer could stop a silly moment of spontaneous laughter from the Danvers sisters. Maggie accepted defeat by ignoring them and going to the fridge to grab a beer. She waited the storm out sitting at the kitchen counter and drinking small sips. She kept an stoic look on her face for the sake of drama, but deep down she really was enjoying seeing Alex and Kara relax, finally.

The laughter subsided slowly until there were only sighs of relief.

“Rao, I needed that!” Kara gave her sister a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Anytime, Supergirl…” Alex smiled warmly.

The three of them shared comfortable silence for a while. Maggie enjoyed her beer while Alex grabbed a blanket and covered Kara and herself with it. After a few minutes Kara chuckled softly to herself, as if remembering something funny. She smiled, but the sadness, the faint regret was back in her tone.

“I was so upset I just flew with no direction.. The top of the Burj-Khalifa is a great place to think.” Kara looked at her sister searching for sympathy. Alex squeezed her hand and smiled softly back at her.

“That’s the tallest building in the world.” Maggie said, and Kara just nodded. The detective was about to take another sip of her beer when she stopped herself and frowned. “Wait a minute. It’s in Dubai. You ended up in Dubai?”

Kara blushed a little and just smiled innocently.

“When I’m upset I just fly. I think I might have circled the globe a couple of times.”

“Impressive.” Maggie raised her bottle towards Kara and smiled.

Alex cleared her throat in a clear sign she was about to get serious and break the moment for all of them. It was time.

“Kara…” The DEO Agent began, choosing her words carefully. “You need to talk things through with Mon-El, no matter how much it hurts. He said harmful things. You have to call him out on that.”

Kara shook her head again, frustration taking over her.

“But I’ve tried, Alex! And it’s always the same, we’re great together for a few weeks and then he goes back to his old ways and… I’m just tired!”

“I can tell.” Alex stroke the hero’s back, trying to soothe her.

Kara stared vacantly in front of her, voicing something that had been in her mind for quite some time.

“I don’t feel like I have a relationship with an adult, I feel like I’m the legal guardian of this, this…”

Kara couldn’t bring herself to voice some of the things she had been burying deep within her, even in moments like this, with pain overwhelming her. Maggie knew a lot of words that could help Kara define Mon-El (dudebro, fuckboy, dickhead, man-child, asshole…) but she remained silent. Alex searched for her gaze, as if looking for advice, but Maggie just shook her head when Kara wasn’t looking, as if telling Alex: let her talk, let her let it all out…

“I’d rather not finish that sentence, I don’t wanna be unfair.” Kara took a deep breath and tried to get herself together. Again. “Sometimes I think it’s my fault because I just can’t enjoy things the way I used to, I’m sad all the time…”

“Kara, that’s not–” The blonde didn’t let her sister finish.

“And lonely.” Kara added, admitting this to herself for the first time. “I have him and I have you guys and J’onn and… But still, I remember her and I just can’t help but feel so sad. It’s killing me, not knowing it’s… I failed her, Alex. I failed her.”

“Lena.” Alex whispered, knowingly.

Kara nodded and buried her head in the blanket around her legs.

“I miss her, Alex, I…” The softest of sobs interrupted Kara’s speech. She kept going despite the burning pain in her chest. “I just can’t bear the thought that she’s gone. That she could be– dead, because of me. And me trying to have a normal life, a relationship, even just enjoying myself… it makes me feel so guilty. I should be looking for her out there.”

Alex shook her head and took her sister’s face in her hands, so she could look her in the eye.

“You kind of literally swept the face of the Earth looking for her, Kara. Don’t you remember those first few weeks? You weren’t yourself. You weren’t getting any sleep, you became erratic… you put yourself in danger far too many times, mostly for leads that turned out to be hoaxes in the end. You almost got yourself killed trying to find her.”

Kara jerked from her sister’s touch and self-doubt and anxiety filled her voice, once again.

“Well, maybe I should do it again! Maybe I should’ve never stopped.”

Alex jumped from the couch and kneeled in front of Kara, so she couldn’t avoid her gaze. This was not the first time they had discussed this and she was not about to let her sister fall down again.

“No, no, Kara, we’ve been through this. You’re not to blame for what happened to Lena.” Alex swallowed hard and briefly looked at Maggie, who had a haunted look on her face. They were both thinking the same. “On the contrary, you were the only one that believed in her,” Alex said softly. “You proved she was innocent, you cleaned her name and you did everything, literally everything you could to find her. It’s not your fault, Kara.”

Kara finally raised her head and looked at her sister, her eyes lost in the midst of guilt and regret. Alex had never seen her like this. Not after the Red Kryptonite. Not even after Astra. The pain Kara was in right now didn't come from something that had happened to her. It was something surfacing from the inside, something buried deep in her soul that her sister could not quite figure out.

“Then, why does it hurt so much?” Kara asked in a thin voice, as if she had swallowed liquid Kryptonite, shutting down her vocal cords and burning her chest. 

Alex could only hold her.

Chapter Text

Maggie was folding out the couch seats when Alex came out of the bedroom, fatigue beginning to show in her sleepless face. Maggie smiled while she smoothed out the sheets.

“How is she?”

Alex sighed and pursed her lips.

“She’s sleeping. Though I doubt that she’s resting…”

Maggie nodded. She was unfolding a blanket now. Alex stopped her, grabbing her arm and turning her around.

“I’m sorry…” Alex smiled, weakly. “I know this is not how you’d planned our Saturday night–”

“Don’t mention it, Danvers. This is your sister we’re talking about. I get it. You were the one that taught me that Kryptonian thing, remember?”

Alex frowned, confused.

“Stronger together?” Maggie tucked a rebel lock of hair behind Alex’s ear.

Alex allowed herself to close her eyes and enjoy Maggie’s touch. When did she get so lucky? How could she deserve a woman so caring, so balanced despite everything she had been through? So beautiful, inside and out?

Alex couldn’t help herself. She kissed Maggie with all she had, letting the pain she felt for her sister leave her body for at least a few seconds. Maggie put her hands on her lover’s waist and tentatively grazed Alex’s tongue with hers, earning a moan from the DEO Agent. The detective pulled away despite herself before she could produce a moan of her own.

“Your sister is sleeping next door, babe.” Maggie whispered, her breathing uneven.

“I know.” Alex whined, closing her eyes. She hugged her girlfriend and together they fell on the couch, now spread as a bed that could fit them both.

Maggie found a comfortable position in Alex’s chest while the DEO Agent stared at the ceiling, her left arm gently tracing circles on her girlfriend’s back.

“She’s in a lot of pain.” Alex said after a minute or two just laying there.

Maggie nodded against her chest.

“Yes, she is. But her taking the weight of the world upon her shoulders and you taking the weight of her pain upon yours is not going to change anything, Alex.”

They felt silent again, just enjoying each other’s presence, while thoughts raged in their minds and none of them dared to be the first to speak.

Finally, it was Maggie who tried to be the voice of reason (and uncalled-for remarks).

“Your sister is an adorable creature, anyways, and man! So, so annoying.”

Alex chuckled softly.

“But it’s impossible to not like her.” Maggie continued. “That little crinkle when she lies?”

Alex nodded and smiled warmly.

“I know, she’s the cutest, always has been. But…”

Alex bit her lower lip and Maggie knew something was still bugging her.

“But?”

“It’s just… I wish… Ah, never mind.”

“Danvers. Spit it out.”

Maggie sat up to be able to see her girlfriend’s eyes. Alex stroked her hair, nervously, sighed deeply and just let it all out; quickly, painfully.
    
“It’s just– maybe things would be better if she could find someone better suited for her than Mon-El? I mean, we all are selfish sometimes, but that guy? I wanted to give him a chance and I’m sure deep down he’s not a bad person, but it seems like he lives in a bubble made exclusively of his immediate, narcissistic needs. After all this time, he still thinks that Kara should teach him how to behave all the time, and when he doesn’t like what she tells him, he just disregards her feelings, I don’t know if on purpose or not. And I don’t know which one would be worse!”

Maggie smirked and raised her eyebrows. She was about to scream “Alex, what the fuck?!” but then she remembered she had to keep her voice down. She tried the sarcastic approach instead, making sure her tone still remained playful so Alex would know she had her back.

“Well, excuse me, Agent Danvers, weren’t you the one who gave her the talk about facing her feelings for him?!”

Alex sat up and crossed her arms above her chest, though she had her “Oh, crap” look. Maggie loved it so much.

“Well, yeah! But that was because I thought she was holding back because of Supergirl! You know, being a hero is being alone and all that crap? I thought she wanted to be with him. I thought she just needed a little push… I thought I could help her, just like she helped me.”

Maggie let out a deep breath and smiled at her girlfriend sympathetically. She could keep on teasing her, but Alex was obviously in pain now, so it was out of the question. The detective softened her features, and she took one of Alex’s hands in hers.

 “Babe, while you meant well, Kara is more than capable of figuring out her feelings on her own. And she’s stronger than you think. You need to stop giving your little sister catastrophic romantic advice. I wouldn’t change a thing about you, don’t get me wrong, but it took you almost three decades to figure out you were gay. You’re not exactly the most qualified person to give advice to anyone at all, hon, especially if it is heterosexual advice.”

 Alex closed her eyes, mentally kicking herself.

 “Shit. You’re right. Again.”

 Maggie gave her a light kiss on the cheek and nodded.

“That I am. Besides, she rejected him the first time. Didn’t it occur to you that maybe she felt a bit forced to date him?”

Alex’s face panicked for a second and then she sat crossing her legs, now face to face with Maggie.

“What?!”

Alex realized the moment she spoke that she was being too loud and too jumpy. She anxiously looked at the bedroom door, but after a few seconds of silence there was no sign of a cranky Kara telling her to shut up. If her sister wanted to spy on them and listen to their conversation, a closed door was not going to be an obstacle, but she knew Kara: after flying around the world a couple of times to put her mind at ease, she’d sleep soundly for hours. So the real reason to remain as quiet as possible was simply to not wake her up. It would be a crime after the night she had.

So Alex lowered her voice, but couldn’t get rid of the high-pitched tone and appalled indignation.

“You mean she’s dating Mon-El just because I encouraged her? Don’t be ridiculous!”

Maggie shook her head and caressed Alex’s cheek with the back of her hand. Alex hated her (for like a split second), because she knew Maggie was about to speak the truth and nothing but the truth. And, of course, the truth always hurts, one way or another.

“Not because of you, babe. It’s the overall situation.” Maggie said in an awfully calm tone. Alex wondered sometimes how she could properly function as a human being when Maggie was around; her voice did unspeakable things to her body… Things she couldn’t focus on right now.

“See,” Maggie began, in her best Detective Sawyer tone, “Mon-El ends up in Earth to discover his planet is gone. Your sister takes him under her wing and vows to train him, to teach him Human values, in part because she didn’t get to do that with her cousin, in part because she wanted to spare him the pain of losing everything and not being able to find his place, a fact your sister knows a thing or two about. She failed miserably, not because she didn’t do it right, but because he wasn’t interested. And that would be totally fair if only he hadn’t agreed to it just because he wanted to get in her pants. Double disappointment, and so she feels both responsible AND guilty. When, of course, she shouldn’t, because none of this is her fault, but it’s the superhero inside her telling her she has to carry the weight of the world. So she cares about everybody, feels responsible for everybody. And that guy took advantage of that. Then, he tells her he has feelings for her, and she turns him down and THEN, her own personal hero, her big sister, tells her she should give him a chance.”

Alex stared at her girlfriend in horror.

“But I– That’s not what I–”

Paralyzed with a building sensation of nausea, Alex shook her head. Maggie patted her shoulder and looked into her eyes, comforting her.    

“I know, babe. But that’s what I’m trying to say: this is not your fault. See, there are more things to consider. For example, her best friends slipped away from her at the same time Mon-El arrived. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out Winn and James are doing some superheroing of their own and Kara does not approve…”

Alex snorted in disbelieve, but Maggie did not flinch.

“How do you– when did you–?”

Maggie smiled, a little too proud of herself.

“Hellooo, Guardian? I wasn’t sure, but you pretty much confirmed it to me when you told me to back off him, remember? Well, you confirmed it was someone you knew, and later on I did the math.” Maggie shrugged her shoulders innocently while Alex tried to hide her shock under a casual, not-surprised-at-all-by-my-girlfriend’s-unlimited-shrewdness look. “Then Kara and James grew apart and there were the little glances of disapproval… That’s all I needed. Oh, and the tech. It was obvious he had some kind of geeky sidekick helping him, duh.”

That was it.

“Now you’re just trying to be a smart-ass”, Alex sneered.

Maggie pretty much ignored her, wit reloaded at full throttle.

“Sooo… back to Kara. Now let’s take a look at her work life: she’s way out of her comfort zone trying to build a new career and her mentor and protector, the one and only Cat Grant, left last year to write her memoirs or drink a ton of piña coladas in her house beach, who cares.” Alex would have choke up if she were having a sip of anything. Maggie showed her trademark smile: no teeth, dimples showing off, mischievous eyes. “Don’t look at me like that, Danvers, I know I haven’t met you when Kara worked for her, but I’m a detective, the second I meet someone is the moment I order a full background check.”

“That’s not creepy at all.” Alex wasn’t very good using sarcasm, but judging looks? That, she always nailed. Of course that only encouraged Maggie even more.

“That’s why I’m the best.” Maggie smiled and Alex was pretty sure she could wipe that stupid grin off her face with a crushing kiss but, well, her detective girlfriend was keen on making a point and stealing her thunder like that would be cheating. Not that she would feel bad, but they were talking about her sister. This was far more important than her ability to leave Maggie speechless. There would be plenty of time for that. Later. “Let’s see, where was I?” Maggie struck back in an almost singing tone. “Oh, her sister doesn’t spend as much time with her as she used to, because she’s got a very hot, very smart girlfriend to take care of.”

Alex nodded, a bittersweet smile crossing her face.
    
“And finally, Lena Luthor! The only person in the city that had given her some kind of hope about changing the world for good, you know, the unsung hero, the hope of resistance against a clan of super-villains and all. But first, she is wrongly accused for a crime she didn’t commit, raise your hand if you’re kinda responsible for that one…” Maggie raised her hand immediately, a small hint of regret crossing her eyes, then continued. “And then kidnapped, gone. Alive, dead? Your sister doesn’t know and she feels responsible. She lost a friend and she might never get her back. She’s in pain, who wouldn’t?”

Both women remained silent for a few seconds. Alex thought there was little to add to what could only be called “A list of reasons why Kara Danvers is miserable and her sister feels like crap”. But Maggie had an ace under her sleeve.

“On top of that, I think Kara had a little crush on her.” The detective murmured, her eyes staring blankly at the bedroom’s door.

And that’s when the most horrified squeal ever was heard in the voice of one Alex Danvers.

“Kara? A crush on Lena Luthor?!”

Maggie gestured for Alex to keep her voice down. Alex immediately realized what she’d done and covered her mouth with both her hands, as if that would help turn back time or something. After that, waking up Kara would be the least of their problems… the neighbours were probably calling the police in that precise moment: Please send help, there’s a gay lady freaking out in my building. Maggie thought the teasing at the station would never stop if she had to open the door to a pair of rookies and explain this.

After a minute of unnerving tension, no NCPD officers knocked on the front door, nor did a sleepy Kara appear on the living room to ask what the hell they were doing. Alex, still a little crazed but remembering it was past 2 am, whispered her indignation out to her girlfriend.

“NowaymylittlesisterhasacrushonLenaLuthor, Maggie, Kara’sthestraightest!”

“Baby, breathe.”

“I am breathing, Sawyer, I am. It’s just that you’re not right about Kara, Karaissostraightc’monsheevenlikedN’Sync”

“You’re doing it again. And besides, you were sure you were not gay, remember? I liked the Backstreet Boys. Still do. Brian’s the cutest, you gotta admit that. But that doesn’t make me straight. Besides, sometimes you’re so blind it’s adorable. When Lena stopped those guys with the alien guns at her party, your sister was ecstatic. You told me she didn’t talk about anything else for two weeks, remember?”

Alex’s mouth formed the roundest of “ohs” but she still seemed pretty confused.

“But Kara was…. Kara was… kind of… Mon-El centric, even back then.”

“Which would explain why Lena, an experimented and intelligent lesbian woman, did not make her move and waited it out before things got really complicated with your self-deceit, straight-until-proven-otherwise little sister.” Maggie stated as if this was some obvious law of nature that was written in every textbook known to mankind.

“Lena Luthor is gay?!” Alex mouthed in an incredulous whisper.

Maggie did not blink for a second.

“Honey, does a bear shit in the woods?”

Alex mouth hanged open and she murmured a “whoa” that made Maggie chuckle and shake her head gently. The DEO Agent lied down and put a pillow behind her head, she touched her forehead and looked at the ceiling, processing a thousand thoughts crossing her mind to try and see if this was even a possibility.  

“But I heard she had… you know, boyfriends?” Alex asked looking like a six-year-old that is first introduced to the concept of relationships.

“Oh, and that makes her automatically not-gay?” Maggie lied down next to Alex and put her hand above her girlfriend’s chest, so she could lower her voice even more, her breath caressing Alex’s chin in an abdication of personal space none of them even noticed anymore. “Because, you know, heteronormativity is not something that affects every single woman on the planet and it’s not like sometimes really gay women have really non-gay relationships so they can fit in and/or escape abuse and homophobia. Who would do that, right, babe?”

The detective stared at Alex with fake severity and that rewarded her a quick kiss on the lips and a light poke in her ribs. Simultaneously. Maggie made a mental note to ask later where did she learn that trick.

“Ok, ok, stop being a jerk. I get it.” Alex protested while Maggie rolled on her back.

They were both staring at the ceiling now, lying down next to each other. Maggie entwined their hands and smirked.

“Sorry hon, it’s the cop in me, overuse of sarcasm is a job requirement.”

Alex didn’t care about the apology at all. She was a scientist. She needed facts. Data. Statistics. Proof. Pictures. Or something.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, how can you possibly deduce all this information?”

“I told you, sweetie, I detect. And I know people. And I know lesbians even better.”

“Bullshit, Sawyer.”

The aforementioned chuckled softly and confessed.

“Okay, if you oughta know, I’ll tell you my secret: Miss Luthor happens to be one of the most high-profile customers of the lesbian bar scene in National City. Well… she used to be, anyway. She didn’t write it in the sky, you know, but she didn’t hide it either. She was kind of a heartbreaker, actually. Or so I heard.”

Alex, for the umpteenth time in the night, could only stare at the ceiling, dumbfounded.

“Wow. I’m such a baby gay. There’s so many things I don’t know… Wait a minute. Did you– you and Le–”

Now it was Maggie’s turn to be a little too loud.

“NO, GOD, ALEX, NO!”

Luckily for Maggie’s health, Alex dropped the subject without further probing, as she went back to her own thoughts.

Maggie sat upright again, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. She could detect that, perhaps, bringing up all this things tonight wasn’t such a good idea and it might get Alex even more worried about her sister.

“Listen, I’m not saying it was something serious, it probably was the most innocent crush in the history of crushes, but it was there. You should’ve seen her when I went to L-Corp to arrest Lena, I swear those two went all Romeo and Juliet on me– Kara turned into this little aggressive puppy, so cute, she went into full protective girlfriend mode, and Lena was like: I want my puppy, my puppy stays, she’s mine!”

That was supposed to ease the tension, but then Maggie realized the anecdote was completely true, so she really wasn’t helping. Thankfully, Alex seemed to recover her sense of humour.

“Ok, ok, that’s enough, Sawyer, I’ve had it with mental pictures of my sister tonight, I’m already traumatized for life. So yes, Kara could have a girl crush, totally platonic. That doesn’t mean anything.”

Maggie saw a window of opportunity to make things a little lighter.

“Of course not. Babe, you know your sister, she… idealizes people, especially people she admires. She probably had a girl crush on Cat Grant, too.” Alex’s eyes went wide with panic again and Maggie’s brain sounded a shitshitshit alarm that made her stammer on her next words awkwardly. And Maggie Sawyer does not do awkward. Unless it’s for a girl. “Uh, well, you know… There’s a whole spectrum… I mean… She’s probably sexually straight but bi-romantic? I don’t know. It’s no big deal, really, and it’s not my place to say…”

“Yeah.”

That must had hit a nerve with Alex because suddenly she didn’t seem freaked out anymore, just dreamy.

Maggie cleared her throat.

“Yeah. So, um… Anyway, back to the point, if you put yourself in your sister’s shoes… can you blame her if she feels abandoned and alone after all she’s been through?”

Alex run her hands through her head, nervously.

“Shit. Mags, you’re right. Shit, shit, shit. I’m an asshole, shit!”

“Baby, don’t. Don’t blame yourself.” Maggie pulled her girlfriend close and embraced her, Alex resting her head against her chest and Maggie rocking her gently. “You were trying to help. You love her and you just want her to be happy.” Alex squeezed Maggie tighter and the detective placed a gentle kiss on her head, so she would know her next words were a joke. Kind of. “But the fact is your sister is lonely and you kinda threw her into the arms of a little shit. A good-looking little shit, if you’re into the white male cishet blandness and all, but a little shit all the same.”

Fortunately, Alex chuckled lightly against her chest and Maggie sighed with relief.

“How do you do this?” Alex asked, her voice reverberating against Maggie’s chest, sending shivers down her spine. “Are you made of magic? How are you able to see all this? Will I survive if I ever keep a secret from you?”

Maggie smiled and push Alex gently so she could look her in the eye.

“How do I do it? My grandma told me we had Shaman ancestors, so maybe I’m a superhero too. Am I made of magic? Yes, gay magic, it’s like the Force in Star Wars so not everyone gets it but the gayness is strong with you, I can feel it, you’ll get it someday. How am I able to see it? I’m a cop: quiet sneaky observation gets most of the jobs done. And you, keeping things from me? Danvers, get real, please.” And with that, Maggie kissed her. Alex gave into the kiss internally thanking all the Shamans that ever existed, the Gay Force,  physics, genetics, gravity and even dark matter for bringing this amazing human being to her doorstep.

Maggie sensed a change in Alex’s body, tension rising in her shoulders, and broke the kiss. Alex was now on the verge of tears.

“Oh, God, Mags, I feel so bad for her. How do I fix this now?”

Maggie caressed her cheek and smiled, her voice soft, low and comforting.

“Babe, as a functioning adult, the only thing you can do now (wait for it) is nothing! It’s fucked up, right?” Alex groaned and found her place back in Maggie’s chest. The detective rocked her again as she kept on talking. “But it is what it is. You suck it up like a big girl, swallow your guilt and give your little sis some credit. Be there for her, not to tell her what to do. Listen to her. Have her back, one hundred percent. No questions, no talks. Just pure sisterly support.”

“Ok.” Alex murmured.

“Ok.”

They remained like that for a long time. Minutes passed and not either one of them wanted to brake the embrace. No matter how complicated and strange the world out there could get, this was their safe place.

“Everything is gonna be alright. But you gotta let her fix her life this time, baby.” Maggie broke the silence, her cheek resting on Alex’s head. Then, she smirked. “Unless, of course, Mon-El continues to behave like a dickhead. Then, you just beat the shit out of him to Daxam and back.”

Alex suppressed a laugh. “Oh, if it does come to that, I’m sure Kara wouldn’t let me. She likes to do her own beating.”

Now it was Alex’s turn to pull away so she could look at Maggie.

“You really are the best, aren’t you?” She whispered, never losing sight of her girlfriend’s lips.

Maggie raised her eyebrows and looked intensely into Alex’s eyes.

“Your words, not mine.”

The kiss that was about to come was one of those Earth-shattering ones that are a promise to something even bigger. But since their night was already kind of ruined, Alex’s phone decided 2.30 am was a perfect time to start vibrating with a vengeance in her pocket.

“Ugh” That grunt could only be Alex’s. She took a look at the cellphone’s screen and her face went from annoyed to “oh-oh”. Maggie knew that face.

“It’s J’onn.”

And there was no need for further explanation as Alex answered the call.

                                                                                                                 ***

Winn loved working the nights.

If anyone had asked him a couple of years ago, he never would have said he’d love staying up late for anything else than playing World of Warcraft, but he still hadn’t found his dream job back then.
    
Most nights, the DEO was quiet, J’onn J'onzz always allowed him to dim out the lights and he felt like there was only him and his computers, the masterliness of his fingers against the keyboard, the rapid fire of his mind against the data. Supergirl might own the sky and Guardian might feel invincible behind the shield, but this was his territory. This was where he felt like a real hero; no one could do what he did, no one could swim in the stream of infinite chaos and come back to the surface with what was relevant to save lives and what was not. And if only he could go back to 1999 and shove his PhD in Computer Science up Dustin Masterson’s ignorant ass, all the teasing in school would have been worth it. Well, it was worth it anyway, but a little payback couldn’t hurt anyone (except for Dustin’s pride).

Winn was fantasizing about epic comebacks and retaliations that never happened, when one of his screens started to blink with a red notification.

He typed furiously on his keyboard (a command to open the system’s terminal, a command to decrypt the message, a command to run six different diagnostics) and then he froze. J’onn was making his way towards central command from the med room at that exact same moment.

“Sir, I just found something…” Winn called out, eyes still locked on his screen. “Oh, whoa, this can’t be.”
    
J’onn rushed to his side.    

“What is it, Mr. Schott?”

“Uh… someone’s in our secure network.” Winn really didn’t want to sound as freaked out as he did, but this was a first in the DEO seemingly impenetrable servers (at least, from the outside).

“What?” J’onn didn’t know all the tech details, but he knew that was rather impossible.

“Someone very smart and very, very careful is sending us a message through our secure network.” Winn’s tone evolved from a scared, high-pitched whine to geeky fascination.

J’onn rested his palms on his hips and sighed: just what he needed to liven up a Saturday night.

“How is than even possible?”
 

“Well, it’s genius, actually.” Winn looked at J’onn for the first time and began to emphasize everything he was saying with his enthusiastic hand gestures. J’onn rolled his eyes, but forced himself to listen. Almost patiently. “If anyone outside this facility tries to mess with our signals they get intercepted by our jamming antennas, rerouting them, covering our tracks and fooling them into thinking our servers are from a bank, eBay or Amazon, right? Because that way we hide the insane amount of data we handle.”

The Martian Manhunter was not impressed.

“Just cut to the chase, Mr. Schott, tell me what they’re trying to say.”

“But the how is as important as the what!” Winn persisted, a little too stubbornly.  “Instead of letting our jammers reroute them to any random website they’re rerouting OUR signal into one specific site and they’re doing it at specific intervals of time, in groups of threes…”

“Well, tell me.” J’onn demanded. Winn was muttering numbers under his breath, her attention completely focused on his keyboard. J’onn shook his head and raised his voice. Just a little. “The website, Mr. Schott!”

“Uh…” Winn turned around, startled by J’onn’s proximity. He typed something on the keyboard and a face they both knew appeared on the screen.

“Lena Luthor’s profile on L-Corp directory web, sir.” Winn said, as if what J’onn was seeing on the screen wasn’t obvious.

J’onn muttered something in a language Winn did not understand.

“And that… interval, what does it say?” J’onn inquired in a low tone, as if he already suspected something, but was afraid to ask.

“First, three quick pins. Then, three longer pins. And finally, three quick pins again. And it’s a looping sequence. It’s so subtle, so simple, yet so old school…” Winn was so fascinated about what he was explaining that he forgot to actually explain it.

 J’onn was about to kick something.

“So what is that?!”

Winn blinked and looked between his boss and the green, intense eyes of Lena Luthor, her picture still showing on the screen.

“Sir, it’s morse for SOS.” Winn finally stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

J’onn hissed under his breath.

“Great.”

Tonight kept getting better and better.

Another message appeared on Winn’s terminal and he frowned. J’onn did not like that.

“There’s more, sir. Coordinates… a location?”

“What?”

“It’s encrypted in the HTML of the website. 34.356737, -118.109156. It’s definitely a location, it’s gotta be, there’s no reason why those numbers should be there…”

Winn opened his military maps program (not like he hacked into the Pentagon to get them because that would be like treason or something) and he typed the coordinates.

“Where is it?”

“Ah… just outside the city, sir. It’s the Forest Highway.”

“The mountains. That’s very close to our facilities outside the city.”

“Yes, si– whoa, whoa!”

The computer beeped insistently. Winn looked at streams of code as J’onn grew even more impatient.  

“What now?”

Winn pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows, looking rather impressed.

“Ah, ok… they’re sending us a second stream of data. Same technique… Ah… let’s see… it’s looping the signal into a different website… oh…”

“Oh, Mr. Schott? What does oh mean?”

“Oh… crap?” Winn pressed the enter button and a new website popped on the screen. It was a small press note published in The Daily Planet fifteen years ago: Jeremiah Danvers, awarded scientist and phylantropist, officially missing on research trip.

“Sir…?”

J’onn J'onzz froze, all of his Martian blood running much colder than usual.

“This could be a hoax. Or a trap.” J’onn said quietly.

Suddenly, his body language shifted into fierce determination, making Winn’s stomach twitch, sensing the anticipation of danger.

“You know…” J’onn began, as serious as he could get. “I wouldn’t mind if your friend Guardian finds out about this and lends us a hand?”    

Winn swallowed hard and nodded.

“Uh, ok. But… you don’t want me to call Supergirl and Alex, sir?”

“NO!”

J’onn’s loud command reverberated through the building. If someone was casually asleep in their post, Winn was sure they had just been woken up in an unpleasant manner.

“I’m sorry,” J’onn apologized quickly. “Just… don’t call them, Mr. Schott. Not until I say so.”

“But sir, if this leads us to Lena Luthor or Jeremiah Danvers–”

Winn’s protest was halted by an unknown fury in J’onn’s eyes.

“What if it doesn’t?”
    
“Sir?”

J’onn sighed as he leaned on Winn’s table so he could lower his voice.

“You remember what happened after Lena Luthor’s disappearance, right? Kara was out of her mind for weeks.” Winn nodded, his expression gloomy. “Imagine adding her adoptive father to the problem. If this message is legit, both Kara and Alex are emotionally compromised, so I need a team that stays focused and that won’t be misguided by their feelings. Now imagine this turns out to be another false lead, how will Kara feel? How will Alex? Either way, we don’t call them until we know what we’re really dealing with and have the situation under control. Understood?”

Oh, Winn understood now. J’onn’s determination was not fury, not really. It was the unbreakable resolution of protecting his daughters. At all costs.

“Understood, sir.”

Winn mirrored his boss’s seriousness and turned to his computer again, trying to gather as much information as possible.
    
“Call Guardian for me, please, sent him the coordinates and tell him to meet us there. Inform everybody that’s available in the building, starting with Vasquez. I wanna be leaving with our best team in ten. With medical support. I have a bad feeling about this…”

Winn rapidly nodded and began his task inmediately.
 

“And Winn?”

He raised his head a little concerned, as that was the first time in a long time that J’onn had used his first name.

All he found in the Martian eyes was fondness, strenght, duty.    

“We do this for them this time. For Kara. For Alex. We owe it to them.”

“Yes, sir.”

                                                                                                                 ***

She was dreaming about flying.

That was not unusual.

She flew under the sea, dancing with whales and sea-horses, and she flew above the stars, touching comets with her bare hands.

In her dreams, there were always voices.

Astra. Mother. Father. Alex. Eliza. Jeremiah. Cat. Clark.

Mon-El, sometimes. James. Winn. J’onn.

Lena.

Sometimes the voices were gentle and they rocked her in a tide of tenderness.

Other times, the voices screamed at her. Terrible things. Awful things. The voices died, or they asked her to die. Those times she would wake up in tears, believing all they had said was actually true.

This time, the voice did not rock her, nor did it accuse her of anything.

Instead, the voice just asks her one simple thing.
    
“Kara, wake up, please.”

Alex.

“Kara. I’m sorry. But we need you.”

Her eyelids were the only thing she could perceive as heavy, only in times like this, when she was sleep-deprived and sad. Kara opened her eyes to find her sister looking at her, gently touching her arm so she would wake up.

“I’m sorry, sis. But we gotta go down to the DEO right now.”

Kara heard herself ask something, not really aware of her surroundings.
    
She was in Alex’s bed, she remembered. Maggie was there, standing next to Alex.

“What time is it?”

“Almost 3.”

“That was– that was a short nap. What happened?”

Kara’s voice was hoarse and Alex felt terrible, but she deserved to know. Immediately. Alex took her sister’s hand in hers, but then briefly looked at Maggie, as if gathering her courage, and Kara felt something change in the room, like the air suddenly filled her lungs with something worse than fear.

Alex finally let it out, never letting go of Kara’s hand.

“It’s Lena, Kara. They found her.”

Chapter Text

Supergirl landed in the middle of the DEO’s command centre, startling everyone at their posts and provoking a shift in the air that tossed all of J’onn’s papers to the floor.

Winn and Vasquez shared nervous looks. The DEO building was crowded now, top clearance agents all over the place working in all kinds of assignments regarding Cadmus. They all had strict orders from J’onn on how to handle the current situation (basically: don’t talk to Supergirl) and they sure would stick to the plan, but no one knew how everyone’s favourite hero would react to what they’d found in the mountains.

Hell, even J’onn J’onzz didn’t know how he would react if he was in Kara’s shoes.

He would probably punch the walls.

Everyone shifted their attention back to the screens after a vehement look from J’onn.

He turned to Kara.

“Supergirl, I’m glad you’re here. Your sister called twenty seconds ago warning me about your arrival… What took you so long?” J’onn asked impassively while he picked up the documents.

Kara was in no mood for passive-agressive humour.

“Where is she?” Supergirl stared at him, a dead-serious look on her face, her tone demanding, but her voice betrayed fluster and worry.

J’onn sighed and pursed his lips, knowingly. At least, they’d had a few hours to prepare for this. He didn’t need to read her mind to know exactly what she was going through. And what she was about to find out would turmoil her even more. He really needed to stick to the plan and handle this with the outmost care.

“Supergirl, your sister’s on her way with Maggie,” J’onn began, serenely. “They’ll be here any minute now. I’ve also called Mon-El, and our best agents are already working on all the information we gathered from the site. When they’re here, I’ll brief you all and you may proceed to–”

“I want to see Lena, J’onn. NOW”.

Kara took a step forward and J’onn could have sworn he saw little red sparks in her eyes.

Well, we all knew this was not going to be easy, the Martian thought to himself.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible right now.”

“J’onn…”

The Director of the DEO tried to ignore her tone, but it was quite unsettling; never had he been the object of one of Supergirl’s signature warning growls.

“All you need to know for now is that Miss Luthor is safe, she’s receiving medical attention from our best doctors, including Eliza–”

Yikes. Big mistake, boss. Winn’s ears went stiff the moment he heard the word medical out of J’onn’s mouth. He was pretending to be very intrigued by something on his screen, and he didn’t need to turn around to imagine the look of terror in Kara’s face.

“Medical attention? What happened to her? Is she… is she hurt?!”

And that was indeed Kara’s voice, not Supergirl’s. J’onn sighed and grabbed her by the elbow, pushing her aside so they could have an illusion of privacy.

“Kara… please. You need to trust me. Miss Luthor is in good hands. But there are things you need to know before you see her…”

Supergirl shook her head and jerked away from the Martian’s touch. She went back to her hero-like composure, as if she remembered this was not the time or place to show weakness.

“Damnit, J’onn, you know you can’t stop me. I’ll search every room in the building if I have to!”

J’onn let his Director-of-the-DEO mask fall. He felt her pain, her despair. His compassionate self took over, and he couldn’t help but take Kara’s hands in his and give in.

“Listen, I understand how you feel,” he began in his best fatherly tone. “We won’t wait for Alex, ok?” He looked her in the eye and hoped that she could feel how much he cared about her. After a few seconds, he sensed Kara relaxing a little under his sympathetic gaze.

“I’ll tell you everything we know, Kara, I promise. But there’s someone else you need to see before–”

NOOOO. STOP, MOTHER! PLEASE!!!

 

J’onn’s words were interrupted by haunted screams that almost made Kara’s ears bleed. He didn’t hear them, but Supergirl gasped, feeling the pain in that voice, knowing that voice.

J’onn stopped himself as he realized she had heard something, but before he could stop her or even warn her, Supergirl was gone in a flash of red and blue.

Kara followed the screams down the stairs, super speed at full throttle. She ran past her training room down the aisle and in the blink of an eye she found herself in front of James Olsen, arms crossed over his chest, wearing his Guardian suit, no helmet.

He didn’t even bother to greet her, not even flinched, as if he knew she was coming.

“Kara, please, you need to listen to Henshaw.”

As it turned out, the Guardian was actually guarding a door, with two DEO Agents with full weaponry right by his side. Behind that door, the screams had stopped but now Kara could hear her adoptive mother’s voice. Eliza was giving orders to someone.

“Just 1mg of Propofol, we don’t want to harm–”

Kara shook her head and focused her senses back to James. She didn’t even try to use her X-Ray vision, knowing the walls were reinforced with lead. But still, she was so close. She just needed to cross that door…

“Step aside, James, this has nothing to do with you.”

James Olsen shook his head and cracked a sad smile. He let his arms fall to his sides, trying to show Kara he was not the enemy.

“But it does. I’m here as your friend, Kara. We’re all here to help. Just listen to Henshaw, please.”

The honesty in James’ voice made Kara hesitate. She frowned, battling with herself, took a step backwards and breathed a sigh. James reached out a hand to try and soothe her but she took a few more steps back until she let her body rest against the wall. James looked away, trying to give her a moment, though he was actually a little relieved that Kara had listened to reason.

In that precise moment, J’onn arrived at the scene, flanked by Alex and Maggie.

“Kara!” Alex called out to her and ran to her side. She circled her sister’s shoulders protectively and though of course Supergirl did not need any kind of physical help, Alex squeezed her a bit to help her stand up straight, knowing she appreciated physical contact in moments like this. Luckily, she could do that because they were surrounded by family.

“Hey. Why don’t we head upstairs?” Alex rubbed her arms, Kara finally smiled weakly at her. “We’ll catch our breath and J’onn can explain everything, ok?”

A bewildered Kara nodded silently and let herself be guided by Alex, who hadn’t let go of her. The group headed back, James staying behind. J’onn looked back at him, a grateful look in his eyes. James just nodded, his shoulders relaxing a little as he watched them leave. Still, he remained where he was, right in front of the white door where no more screams were heard.

Out of instinct, just when they were about to turn the corner, and without effort or intention, Kara heard Eliza’s voice again, talking to someone.

“She didn’t even wake up. It was just a nightmare. No wonder after what the kid’s been through…”

Kara could hear her foster mother’s heartbeat now, steady and calm – she had a strong heart, in every meaning of the phrase. She could also hear that two other people where with her in the room, her assistants, probably.

There was a beeping sound coming from a machine that was controlling the heartbeat of the fourth person in the room, and Kara couldn’t help but smile.

But something was wrong.

There was another sound her super hearing was deciphering (two, actually) in the waves that expanded through air and space without anyone being able to see them.

Her body went completely still, her fists clinched.

“Kara? Are you alright?”

Alex’s voice was just a distant echo as she focused on those two faint sounds she couldn’t quite recognize. She closed her eyes, tried to take her mind off everything else, everything but those rapid beats, reaching her through the walls, like tiny drums reverberating with despair at the bottom of a vast sea…

She gasped, her eyes wide open now.

“Oh, Rao. It can’t be.”

J’onn, Alex and Maggie exchanged confused looks. J’onn looked at James, and he just frowned, just as lost.

“Kara?” Alex tried again, this time, far more preoccupied.

Eyes of blue pierced right through her and before Alex could even process what her sister was saying to her, she was already being pushed into Maggie’s arms, making them both stumble against the wall, surprisingly unharmed.

“I– I need to see her. I’m sorry.”

Those were Kara’s words. J’onn did understand, but not even The Martian Manhunter’s abilities  were a match to Kryptonian super speed. He did have time to register a disappointed thought: Well, that’s cheating.

If outside observers were to film the scene and then play it in slow motion, they could have appreciated how Kara just grabbed and pushed everyone with the precise amount of strength to get them out of her way, but not enough to really harm them, though that agent's back would hurt for a couple of days. James found himself with his ass seating on the floor, back against the wall, right in front of the door he was supposed to be protecting.

Well. There was no door now. It was on the floor, several feet away from him. He almost laughed.

Shit, Kara, you should’ve listened.

James wondered for a brief second if there was anyone on the face of the Earth as stubborn as Kara Danvers. Himself, maybe.

Inside the completely white room there was all sort of cutting-edge, very expensive medical equipment and a bed. Two very confused nurses stared at the door, where Supergirl herself was standing, not paying any bit of attention to them.

Eliza Danvers gasped in surprise as she watched her daughter enter the room after literally tearing the door out of its place.

“Kara?!”

Kara didn’t register her mother calling her name in a disapproving tone. She only had eyes for the woman on the bed, soundly asleep, the one friend she thought she had lost… She took a couple of tentative steps towards the bed as tears were threatening to drown her blue eyes. Even her vision got a little blurry and her heart jumped in her chest with the raging beat it reserved only for flights at maximum speed or exhausting fights with powerful beings from other worlds.

She wanted to laugh, too. Laugh, cry, fly to the sun and back just to celebrate that Lena Luthor was here: safe, alive, in this same room, with her.

Her features were so soft with her eyes closed, and Kara realized it was the first time she had seen her without make-up. There were a couple of bruises in her forehead and some defensive marks in her arms. Kara flinched, but couldn’t help taking another step. She wanted to touch her face. She wanted her to wake up and to look her in the eye, she wanted to see that impossible green staring back at her, so she could be completely sure this was real.

She looked so young. So like Lena, yet so different from the shadow of power she was doomed to cast upon the world just to protect herself. Her beautiful long hair was loose, and her lips were partially opened, and Kara let out a sigh of awe as she watched her chest go up and down, breathing calmly in her sleep.

Nobody dared to say a thing, though now even J’onn, Alex, Maggie and James had stepped in the room. Only Eliza took a step towards her adoptive daughter, waiting for the inevitable to happen.

Maybe because she was lost in thought, maybe because she was astounded by seeing Lena again, Kara took more than a few seconds to notice.

Her gaze went down Lena’s body and she finally fixed her eyes on her belly.

Kara couldn’t believe it.

“She’s… she…”

She tried to say the words, but couldn’t. The air around her went cold, and it was as if she was inhaling tiny knives with each breath. She felt a hand on her shoulder. Eliza.

“Yes. She’s pregnant, honey.”

Kara couldn’t help the scoff of disbelieve that came out of her mouth. Suddenly, she felt dizzy. And she never felt things like that unless she had three glasses of Aldebaran ale. Ok, two. One and a half.

Kara hated she couldn’t find words, both her mind and her body seemed to have been taken over by a force that she could only call panic.

Eliza spoke again, even gentler, still rubbing her daughter’s shoulder and pulling her close by the arm.

“34 weeks. Eight and a half months.”

Put as something so cold (numbers, just like that), Kara felt like a splash of water hit her face and she turned to her mother, completely dumbstruck.

Since Kara couldn’t find her voice, Alex stepped in.

“Mom… you’re completely sure, right?”

Eliza nodded, no doubt in her voice.

"Yes, sweetie.” Eliza looked around her and met J’onn’s gaze, a guilty look on his face. She shook her head and felt so much for him: always taking care of her girls, always trying to spare them pain that no parent, adoptive or not, could prevent. She hoped, for his own good, that someday he’d understand that, completely.

They both knew who should be the one revealing the truth to Kara, so they’d share only the necessary information, for now. Eliza spoke again, focusing mainly on her alien daughter.

“She’s resting now. She was talking when she was brought in, but she was exhausted, so we need to let her rest as much as possible. She’s completely out now because we gave her something to help her sleep, though the dose is very reduced given her state.” The scientist squeezed her adoptive daughter’s arm one last time, for reassurance, and she let go to register a few notes on her tablet. “She doesn’t seem to be psychologically compromised,” she continued. “Except for that sleep terror she just had… but we’ll know more about her state of mind when she wakes up. All we know is that she’s in apparently good condition, physically at least, and so are the babies.”

“Babies?!” Alex and Maggie yelped at the same time.

“That’s why I felt two heartbeats.” Kara whispered, her face between horror and awe. She closed her eyes, and Eliza could tell she was listening to their heartbeats, again.

“Twins.” Eliza confirmed. “A girl and a boy.” There was a hint of hope in her voice. Alex arched her eyebrows and felt J'onn shifting the weight of his body, as if he was eager to say something, though after that he remained quiet and very, very still. Alex looked suspiciously between them, knowing instantly she was missing some crucial insight about what was going on.

It was obvious this was not new information for J’onn and James. As for Maggie, she had found something very interesting in her shoes.

Suddenly, Kara opened her eyes and rested her palms on her knees, as if she was struggling for air. Alex knew instantly that wasn’t the case, so her sister must had been hit with the multiple implications this situation could have about what had happened to her friend.

“I feel like I’m gonna be sick…” Kara blurted out. She headed for the door, visibly shaken.

She took a final look at Lena, resting on the bed, and the hero just shook her head, an unreadable expression on her face. “I need to get out of here.” She stormed out of the room.

“Kara! Wait!” Eliza called behind her but Kara didn’t look back.

Both J’onn J’onzz and Dr. Danvers ran after her. Alex apologized to the nurses, still surprised and visibly uncomfortable, and, ever the scientist, went on to ask them all kinds of technical questions about Lena’s state.
Maggie and James just let them be and stepped outside the room, sharing the unarguably most awkward silence of their entire lives.

Meanwhile, Supergirl reached the upper floor of the DEO, looking ready to reduce a thousand blocks of concrete to mere ashes.

“Supergirl!” J’onn called behind her, not caring if the entire building heard him. “This is why you needed to be briefed before–”

Kara turned to face him, red sparks of fury dancing in her pupils.

“You should’ve told me everything the moment I landed in this room!”

J’onn was about to protest when Eliza stepped between the two of them.

“Sweetie, I know she’s your friend and that you’ve been looking for her for a very long time,” Eliza looked at her daughter right in the eye, but Kara immediately looked away. “I know this is not how you expected to find her but the important thing is she’s here now, she’s safe.” When Kara wouldn’t look back at her, Eliza took another step forward and took her daughter’s chin in her hand, forcing her gently to just look up. “We’ll take care of her, honey, I promise.”

Kara didn’t want to let go of her rage because doing that would open the door to painful questions and unbearable guilt. It would also give room to all the terrible truths that were hiding behind what had happened to Lena.

Eliza was trying hard to make her see reason, she could tell, and she needed to calm down… if not for her sake, for the sake of her family. They didn’t deserve to see her like this. They were not the ones responsible for this terrible mess.

Eliza was about to embrace her in a comforting hug, but Kara stopped her, grabbing her hands and squeezing them briefly before letting her go, just to let her know she was getting herself together now, and the last thing she needed was a mom hug that would probably make her tear up.

The Kryptonian cleared her throat and nodded to herself, finding her collected self, if only for a moment.

“She wasn’t pregnant when she was kidnapped.” Kara said in a low tone. “The timing just doesn’t add up. Cadmus must have done something to her…” She was really trying to remain firm, professional. But all the options that raced in her mind right now were terrible, unbearable, horrific… A sob died in her throat before she could let it out. Rage was better, she thought. Rage was easier.

“I… Rao. Those… those monsters.” Kara closed her eyes and took a step backwards. All she wanted to do was to take off and fly until she found Lillian Luthor. For a moment, she imagined herself with her strong hands around her neck, telling her to think about her sins, to say goodbye to a life she’d wasted hurting others, both human and alien, both strangers and family.

“I will find them,” Kara growled, her eyes searching for the night sky that was seen through the balcony of the command room. “I will find them and I will end them once and for all…”

This time, the hands that grabbed her shoulders didn’t let go. Eliza looked at her, intently, and suddenly she felt like a 13 year old again, lost and confused, her new mother’s eyes the only thing she could find comforting about this brave, new world.

“Sweetie, that’s not how you do things.” Eliza said in a whisper, only for Kara to hear. “Please, stay with us, ok? Let us help you.”

Again, the honesty and wisdom in Eliza’s words cut through Kara’s anger and she shook her head again, not knowing what was happening to her, how her pain for Lena just didn’t let her think clearly.

J’onn approached them and spoke with caution, slowly. He even sounded remorseful, almost guilty.

“If you won’t listen to me, please listen to your mother. There are things you don’t know… That’s why I didn’t want you to see her before you knew the rest. I’m sorry that didn’t work, I– I should’ve known I couldn’t keep you from seeing Lena the moment you landed.” Kara shook her head, how could she had reacted so badly? This wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was all Cadmus doing. It was Lillian.. “But… but I need to know you can take it.” J’onn continued, slowly going back to his Director of the DEO attitude. “I need to know you can handle this as Supergirl. Professionally, and above all, rationally.”

“I know, J’onn, I know… I’m sorry… I’m ok now. I’m– I’m fine, really.” Kara cracked an embarrased smile that seemed too forced, too soon to be genuine.

“No, you’re not.” J’onn quickly caressed one of her cheeks with his thumb, in a gesture he hardly ever allowed himself. Kara sighed, kind of relieved. “But I understand. We understand. But we need you to be strong now, stronger than ever… Just…” J’onn looked between both women and then nodded to Eliza. “You tell her, please.”

Kara turned to her adoptive mother, frowning, the scientist had a worried look in her face. She cracked a sad smile, and Kara knew. She didn’t know how, but she knew.

“Lena isn’t the only one we rescued.” Eliza swallowed hard and smiled weakly at her adoptive daughter. Then, she pointed with her gaze at the med-bay, just above their heads.  

“Jeremiah is here, with us. And he knows what happened to Lena. He’ll tell you himself.”

Kara looked up to the med-bay, her mouth slightly open, her heart beating fast in her chest. She couldn’t see inside, but she could feel warmth and hope building up within her.
She laughed, suddenly, love breaking through her pain like a summer rain dissipating a storm.

She could only hug her adoptive mother, who was now spilling the tears she had denied herself for fifteen years.

Right in that moment, Mon-El stepped into the command centre, dressed in casual jeans and a brown sweater. He clapped his hands once to announce himself.

“Hey everybody, sorry I’m late, busy night at the bar… what did I miss?!” He asked cheerfully.

He finally turned to meet J’onn’s annoyed, unimpressed gaze.

Kara and Eliza broke their embrace and just kind of ignored him, heading for the stairs, hand in hand.

J’onn just shook his head at Mon-El, that was now very aware of everybody looking at him as if he was– well, an alien.

Winn was looking between them from his post and for a couple of seconds there he feared for Mon-El’s life since J’onn was looking at him as if he was going to send him back to Daxam.

Nothing happened, thankfully, as J’onn turned around and followed Kara and Eliza upstairs.

The Daxamite looked around, pretty confused, and he finally found Winn’s gaze. He immediately walked over to him, raising his eyebrows in complete perplexity.

“Hey, pal, so, really, what the hell happened here?”

Winn just rolled his eyes and facepalmed himself in his own personal rendition of Captain Pickard’s most well known internet meme, wishing he could turn back time, skip the night shift and just stay home playing World of Warcraft. Or League of Legends. Or sleeping.

He sighed in defeat as he heard Mon-El sitting down beside him. He turned to the oblivious Daxamite.

“Patience you must have, my young Padawan,” he finally said in his best Yoda impression.

“Cause I’m about to blow your mind.”

Chapter Text

More than anything, she hated this artificial light. Blinding, cold, unforgiving.

She had been in and out of consciousness for so long, she didn’t even know what day it was.

She knew she was on a bed, again, her wrists and legs restrained. She knew they were performing some kind of surgery on her, or tests… She couldn’t tell, she didn’t feel a thing.

She knew her mother was around, she had heard her voice earlier, giving orders, saying her name.

But the rest was a blur, a burning pain between her eyes, the artificial light preventing her from being able to focus on anything.

When was the last time she had seen the light of day, anyway? The real light?

It had been weeks since Metallo and her mother had violently broke her out of prison. Her mother had revealed to her that Lionel Luthor was her biological father, just so she could manipulate her again. Against her will, they had forced her to open Lex’s vault for them. And now she didn’t know where she was, or how long ago had those events taken place. Was it months, now? She didn’t know, she couldn’t tell and she knew losing the grip on time was the first step to madness.

So she closed her eyes to escape this living nightmare, and tried to picture the yellow sun. The sweet, warm sunshine over National City’s skyline, sunset exploding into orange, pink, yellow, purple and red.

Sometimes, she allowed herself ten minutes, not even one second more, just ten minutes out of her busy schedule, letting Jess know she was not to be bothered during that brief amount of time. And she used to step outside around the same hour, let her hands rest on the edge of the balcony and let the sunset light bathe her to wash her guilt away, if only for a moment.

One day, when she was out there enjoying the gentle breeze and the golden hour, a flash of blue crossed the sky and from her perspective it was as if it came from the sun itself. Her mouth hanged open in awe. There was some kind of poetry to what she had just seen, there was a hidden meaning, and she couldn’t help but smile. The sun made her forget who she was, if only for a few minutes, but knowing she was out there, flying over the city, made her feel something entirely different— safe, somehow. It made National City home, for some reason. And she never felt safe under Superman’s sweep flights in Metropolis, maybe because she knew he would never trust her, he would never see past the burdens of her name.

That was one of the reasons she had chosen National City for a new start. And she already knew there was a Super flying over the city when she made plans to move. But she would be lying if she denied the fact that Supergirl had inspired her to finally pursue her dream– she had hoped she could get out of Lex’s shadow the same way Supergirl got away from Superman’s influence. They could both write their own story… Be their own hero.

And well, she had certainly hoped at first that she could be in good terms with Supergirl and would’ve had contented herself with the Kryptonian not seeing her as a threat. She wouldn’t have mind a cold relationship or the obvious tension and mistrust there should be between a Super and a Luthor, as long as she had her space and felt that her boundaries were respected.

But she never imagined they would become friends. She never dreamed a Super would look at her as a mutual. She never would have thought that anyone in the whole wide world, alien or not, could have so much kindness in their eyes.

But Supergirl was real, very real. And each time the hero smiled at her or said her name, Lena Luthor felt like they were breaking the law, defying some ancient curse, as if the Gods themselves were looking down at them with disapproving eyes, ready to cast a spell and tear the ground under their feet to keep them apart.

Like a star-crossed lovers story.

Lena, being the Shakespearian junkie she was, had read them all as a teenager, back in boarding school in Dublin, where she had been the most enthusiastic member of the Theatre Club (anything to take her mind off the fact that she was the only girl that didn’t receive visits or phone calls or letters from home).

Romeo and Juliet (of course), Troilus and Cressida, Anthony and Cleopatra, Hamlet and Ophelia, Lorenzo and Jessica…

Some of those characters were hideous pricks, she knew, but the message of those plays was the inevitability of destiny, the consequences of refusing to accept one’s fate. Shakespeare had also tried to state through them that hatred, bigotry and prejudice were plagues that needed to be wiped out from the face of the Earth. But, of course, when you’re a 14 year old girl hiding in the library after-hours, rooting for the Montague boy and the Capulet girl, you kind of forget that the real problem there is that their families are plain assholes.

Maybe teenager Lena couldn’t see that back then because she had internalized her Mother’s distance and mistrust as if she was at fault: not being good enough, not being a real Luthor, not meeting her expectations… If you crave someone’s love, if it is something your heart desires and your mind can’t really rationalize, you’ll always be at their mercy. You’ll keep on giving them second chances and brand new starts even if they keep hurting you. Because you can’t see, you’re blinded by this unforgiving light that you think you can reach before it burns you forever. But if you have no one around you to tell you that the light will kill you, as a moth is burned by the flame it can’t help to adore, you will keep on falling into the trap. And you will not be responsible for that, never, how could you? You’re just being manipulated, in the dark. You’re being kept hostage with the thing you need the most (their love, their trust, their approval). You’re a victim and an innocent. But how could you know the difference between love and abuse, when all they’ve shown you is hurt?

Only when you step out of their shadow and you feel the real sunshine in your skin for the first time, you understand love’s not a blinding light. It should be warm, cleansing, not unbearable and painful. It should make you feel powerful, not weak. It should be a card that grants you freedom, not something that keeps you bound to one person or one place because of a guilt trip.

This applies to family, lovers and friends.

So, Lena had no examples of real affection, except those that she found in books, though no matter how sensitive you are, you’re not going to learn love from fiction. Furthermore, it might distort the image, though the art of creating twisted mirrors of reality that people buy into, making their lives eventually miserable, is a piece of work only television has mastered.

She did have Lex, but Lex didn’t love her. She knew that, and she was fine with it, because she loved her brother the way he was, she wouldn’t dream of changing him, and she knew it was not like he didn’t want to love her back, he just couldn’t. Lex’s brain was not mapped like that… sure, he cared about her, he worried about her, he wanted her to be safe and happy… But to Lex, love was a waste of time just because it was not a science: he could not dissect it and control it, and above anything else, Lex needed to feel in control. Nobody knew what would happen if Lex lost control, and once he did, the whole world took notice, and once again Lena blamed herself for not seeing it coming, for letting him camouflage his psychopathic tendencies under a veil of disinterest.

Again, she was a victim. Again, she didn’t see it, blindfolded by pain.

Still, she had never felt with anyone, ever, a gravitational force as strong as Supergirl’s, and she didn’t know why the moment the superhero entered her life, she kept on thinking back on that time when she used to fall asleep with a book in her hands and had lunch on her own, every day, sitting alone on the corner of the dining-hall. She was never bullied, but no one dared to try and be her friend. The other girls were probably just afraid of her: she was a prodigy and was treated as such by all their teachers, and she was a Luthor. That name probably inspired some terror back in their homes, with rich parents that feared Lillian Luthor would knock on their door someday to tell them she had targeted their company for any reason, and that she would destroy them financially unless they agreed to whatever offer she had for them.

Lena couldn’t care less about what the other girls thought of her, but still, sometimes, an unstoppable sadness overwhelmed her and she allowed herself to cry in her favourite spot of the library, one that was never visited by other students and she had claimed as her safe place: the one corner dedicated exclusively to Arthurian literature, among books she cherished close to her heart such as Chrétien de Troyes’ medieval romances and T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. She allowed herself to cry freely there, and only there, guarded by Arthur and Excalibur and the entire court of Camelot.

So, why?, she wondered, why the moment Supergirl began to play a bigger role in her life she felt again like that scared teenager that used to hide herself in books and study?

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that around that time, she finally embraced loneliness. The first summer she came back from boarding school everything had changed: Lionel began to show symptoms of the illness that would end up taking his life a couple of years after diagnosis (actually, truth be told, he put a bullet in his head before cancer got its filthy hands on him), her mother was crueler than usual because of the stress of the whole situation, and Lex shielded himself in his work, became distant and began to make a habit of not returning her calls.

So she accepted her fate. Loneliness would be her queendom, emotions were just for the weak. She told herself it was better to be alone, that she was strong, sufficient and independent, that she needed no one (she was a Luthor, after all) and that she would wear her armor proudly.

She was better off that way.

She had learned to live like that.

She thought it was the only way to live, actually.

Yes. Loneliness. Work. Numbers. Statistics. Formulas. Power. Control.

That was all she needed.
No doubt.

It was clear as crystal.

But.

But then came the alien girl with the blonde hair and the sunshine smile.

And Lena wondered how a perfectly constructed notion of life through years of practice and self-deception could be shattered in one second by perfect teeth and the swing of a red cape.

It made absolutely no sense.

It defied all logic.

It wouldn’t let her sleep.

And it was the last thing she needed.

It pissed her off beyond reason that she couldn’t begin to crack that enigma, despite having being declared officially a genius at the age of six by The International IQ Society.

So, assuming she was screwed, she let Supergirl (and all other advantages that came with the package) walk into her life, and braced for the inevitable disappointment that would come someday, when the hero would doubt her or put her own interests before their friendship.

Lena was quite surprised as time kept going by and none of that happened. It all… evolved, between them. And it was going to be the end of her.

A friend. Who would’ve thought after all these years that’d be all she needed to feel the walls around her crumbling down. The worst part was that now she’d had a peek at what not being alone felt like, she couldn’t help but needing her more. Craved her, actually.

Desire, that irritating feeling.

When she thought about it, she felt like an idiot, no matter what three digits number was written in her IQ test.

How did she not see it coming, once again?

How could she allowed herself to fall that quickly, that deep and hard for someone that could never reciprocate?

If she ever said something, Supergirl would laugh on her face, so loud she’d be heard in whatever remained of Krypton’s lifeless rocks floating in deep space.

Lena Luthor, CEO of L-Corp. The L is for loser.

Usually, when her thoughts took that dark turn, she’d call it a day and go home and drown her mind in a bottle of Jameson 18-Year-Old limited reserve. And when insultingly expensive whiskey didn’t work, she browsed through her contacts list and called any number from that selected few that already knew (and accepted) her rules: 1) I’m the one who calls. 2) Yes, we can talk. But the moment you get personal, it’s over. 3) Yes, you can use the shower. Yes, I know, it’s amazing. 4) Don’t even try selling anything to the press. Whatever they offer you, I can double it. I can also destroy your work-life, your relationships and your reputation faster than you can say “you heartless bitch”. 5) No cuddling. 6) Don’t be here when I wake up. And that usually happens before dawn.

Lately, she’d been making too much use of that list, and it was going to run out of numbers very soon if she kept going that way. Getting twice with the same person was not an option, so either she created a profile in a dating app and endured the ridiculousness of it all or simply got herself together and over her dumb, ill fated crush on Supergirl.

Alcohol and meaningless sex. Not only am I pathetic, I’m a bloody cliché.

Self-pity and regret weren’t the things that would help her out of the current situation.

Her mouth was dry and her legs felt numb. She could feel something on her nose, and she guessed immediately they had connected her to a mechanical ventilation machine. Her heart skipped a beat and she tried not to think about the endless list of atrocities her mother could intend to put her through.

She could hear voices around her, but she wondered if she had gone mad and the voices were inside her head.

Someone, a man, was speaking her name. She didn’t recognize the voice but she thought she might as well be dreaming about her father, coming to take her away. Although she was a convinced atheist, she couldn’t help but hope that if some kind of after-life existed, it would grant her at least the right to forget about her whole existence. Oblivion would be mercy.

“Lena. Lena, look at me.”

The man disconnected the blinding light that had her narrowing her eyes painfully. She tried to focus on the figure above her, and the shadow in front of her slowly turned into a dark, handsome man in his early 50s. She had no idea who he was.

“Lena, my name’s Jeremiah Danvers.”

She felt like she couldn’t breath for a second, despite the ventilation machine and all. Danvers!

“I’m Kara and Alex’s father. You know them, right?”

Lena flinched. This had to be another of her cruel dreams. She was having a lot of those, lately, with Supergirl breaking the ceiling, landing and taking her in her arms, telling her she was safe now. Each night she woke up cold and alone, her tears the only thing that felt real.

She couldn’t speak. She formed the words, but no sound came out of her throat. She had so many questions… If she could have said something, she’d probably just repeated Kara’s name and begged him to tell her she was sorry, for everything…

“I’ve been your mother’s hostage for a very long time, but you and I, we’re gonna get out of here, kid. I need you to stay strong, ok?” There was something warm and comforting about the man’s voice, and Lena could see him expertly pouring liquids between recipients he had displayed on a metallic table beside her. He was a scientist, she understood. Of course he was. “And whatever your mother and I tell you… whatever she does to you, know that you’re not alone. Just go along with everything and you’ll be alright.” He was removing a syringe from its packaging and filling it with a blueish liquid.

“’This is something to help you sleep.” He said while injecting the liquid into Lena’s catheter, expertly placed in her left hand. When the liquid hit her vein, Lena felt a sharp pain extending from her wrist to her forearm. She didn’t say a thing. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to talk to you again. For now, just keep pretending you don’t know me and I’m a bad guy, ok? Just rest now.”

Pretending to be a bad guy? About that, Lena knew a thing or two. She wondered if he would accept constructive feedback.

Before Jeremiah Danvers went back to being a shadow and she slipped into unconsciousness, Lena had time to register one suppliant thought.

Please, don’t turn the light on again. I hate that artificial light. I hate it.

***

This was not how Alex had pictured getting her father back.

For instance, J’onn had made the unilateral, insulting call of leaving her and Kara out of the rescue mission. Sure, it was sweet of him to try to protect them, but it was also a patronizing attitude and she ought to have a conversation with him about all that, because it was beginning to feel like he just didn’t trust their judgment.

The fact that it was the Martian Manhunter and Guardian getting her father back to safety instead of Kara and her still felt wrong.

Also, Alex had always imagined that this would be a time of joy. Tears would be spilled and hugs would feel like coming home, sure, but her family would be together, at last, and nothing but happiness could take over the moment.

How wrong she was.

All of that had happened. There had been tears and long family hugs, moments were words fell short, but still, this was not how she pictured it.

In her multiple fantasies visualizing this moment, there was never Mon-El, arms crossed over his chest and narrowed eyes, scanning her father with an air of suspicion. There was never the pain that she felt when he heard her father explain how he was tortured, forced to do terrible things, kept hostage over the years with a hanging threat over his daughters’ lives. There was never a torn apart Kara, battling between the feeling of relief for having Jeremiah back and her concern for Lena.

And also, that: there was never a pregnant Lena Luthor in her imaginary reunions.

She was as eager as everybody else to find out what had happened to her, but given the uneasiness and tension she could smell in the air, she knew her mother and J’onn already knew, and she had a feeling it was going to be something like dropping a bomb over them.

Especially for Kara.

She focused her attention back to her father.

They were on the med-bay, her mother and her flanking Jeremiah while they made sure all of his wounds were tended to. Mon-El stood silently apart from them, his back against one of the crystal walls. J’onn was there too, and Kara, both of them keeping their distance to let Alex and Eliza work, though the Kryptonian girl couldn’t help but touch his dad’s leg sometimes, for reassurance, as if she couldn’t believe he was finally here.

Jeremiah went on to explain how Cadmus had recovered him and Hank Henshaw from the Amazon, saving him only to force him save Henshaw, enhancing him, physically turning him into the monster he was beneath. He told them how he had tried to escape again and again and how it all seemed useless in the end.

“Honey, don’t bother with the arm.” Jeremiah warned when Alex was about to clean the wounds in his right hand. “I don’t feel any pain there. Lillian enhanced it many years ago breaking it in half as punishment for one of my escape attempts…” He lamented. “But she gave me a robotic arm instead. It’s bulletproof.” He winked at Kara trying to ease the tension and smiled warmly at Alex. Both sisters looked at him with sadness clouding their features.

Eliza just sighed, but said nothing while she kept on stitching up a wound on his left shoulder.

“We’ll have Winn check it later then, if you’d like to, just to make sure everything is in its place.” J’onn offered.

Winn, Maggie and James had said they’d wait for all of them at the command centre, reasoning the reunion was a family moment and there would be time to introduce themselves to Jeremiah.

“How did you escape?” Mon-El took advantage of a moment of silence to bluntly ask the question that had been burning in the back of his mind for long minutes.

It was obvious J’onn was now part of the Danvers family, but Alex wondered who let Mon-El walk into the med-bay as if he owned the place. By the way Kara was avoiding all kind of eye contact with the Daxamite, she could tell they hadn't talked after last night's fiasco.

“Well, I didn’t.” Jeremiah leered back at Mon-El. “This was all a plan. Lillian’s plan. She wanted to send you guys a signal so you’d be lured to a convoy that would pass as transport for a weapon. Then, you would rescue me, I’d win your trust back again and hack into the DEO computer system.” He looked back at his daughters and smiled apologetically.

“To what purpose?” J’onn inquired.

“First, to prove to her that I’m committed to the cause, as she calls it, by betraying my own children.”

“Oh, God.” Alex gave voice to everyone’s horror.

“And then, to steal the alien national registry.” Jeremiah continued. “So she could have access to every alien on the country and prep her plans for massive genocide.”

J’onn let out a harsh breath. Kara clenched her jaw and anger found a home in the pit of her stomach. Alex noticed immediately and reached out to rub her back with one hand and pulled her little sister close for a quick kiss on the temple. As Alex kissed her, Kara closed her eyes taking a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes again it was as if Alex had wiped all the anger away, leaving only dignity and determination. The unstoppable force.

“How did you send the message, the one with the SOS?” J’onn was still intrigued about that part.

Jeremiah smiled, a hint of amusement on his face.

“It wasn’t me, it was Lena. All I gave her was a stolen smartphone and my old account and password for the DEO intranet. She did the rest." He shrugged. "I tell you, J’onn, that kid knows her science. You should hire her.”

Mon-El cleared his throat and took a couple of tentative steps towards the center of the room. He paced for a second and then he turned to the scientist, a sour expression in his eyes.

"But still... excuse me, Mr. Danvers, but I still don't get it. You said Lillian Luthor had planned for you to infiltrate the DEO–"

Jeremiah nodded and, sensing the distrust in the Daxamite's voice, he chimed in with a calm but firm tone.

"Yes, once you guys followed the convoy's signal and intercepted it you wouldn't find a weapon. You would find me." He shook his head, remembering his struggle. Then, he looked at Mon-El, intently. "When Lillian captured Lena, all I wanted to do was help her escape, just like I helped you and Kara when they captured you. The problem was that Lillian wouldn't set the plan in motion until she was absolutely sure that Lena– that what she had planned for her was... unavoidable." He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "So I had to prepare for months, study all the elements and have a shot at it only when the moment was right. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn't spare Lena what her mother had in store for her…"

Jeremiah looked up to Eliza and then back to his daughters.

"The plan was scheduled for tomorrow. So I had to take my chances, it was the only way. I had gained the trust of a few guards that used to be my watchdogs. After all, we kind of were working together for years…” He winced with embarrassment for a second. “So when the truck arrived in the middle of the night and they showed me around to know how the plan was gonna go, I did what I have to do.”

Everybody in the room held their breaths, and when Jeremiah didn’t continue, Alex touched his arm carefully and squeezed a little bit.

"Dad... what did y–“

"I killed them, Alex.” He blurted out. Alex felt him tremble. “I killed all three of them. Carl, Evan and Dimitri.” He put a great deal of effort trying to crack a smile, but it was useless . “Those guys were lousy drinkers and terrible storytellers... I wish there had been another way, kids, but it was me or them.”

Kara and Alex shared worried looks as Jeremiah closed his eyes, swallowing hard. Eliza took his hand on hers and nobody said a thing. As if he gathered his courage through his wife’s touch, he kept on recounting the story of how they got away from Cadmus.

"I set off a couple of explosives I stole from their equipment to create chaos, a distraction... and I only had a few minutes to get to Lena and take her to the truck. We made it, barely. I stole Dimitri's phone and while I drove like a madman, Lena hacked into your system and sent you the coordinates where I had planned to abandon the truck.”

J’onn understood.

"Near our old facilities. You did that on purpose.”

"Yes. I figured if something went wrong and you didn't show up, we could lay low there for a while. We got lucky you guys were there even before we arrived because Lillian's goons were on our tail…"

J’onn smiled proudly, showing all his admiration for the man in front of him. The man that had saved him many years ago, showing him humans were capable of mercy and a loyalty that had cost him almost 15 years of his life.

"And we took care of them. But it was you, Jeremiah, who accomplished the impossible. Not only did you save Miss Luthor, you found your way back home. I'm glad to have you back, my friend.”

Jeremiah smiled back at J’onn, without effort this time.

"And I'm glad to be looking at you and not see a trace of that Cyborg Superman abomination. And also, thank you, J'onn. You kept your promise. You looked after my girls.”

J’onn brightened up and looked proudly at Alex and Kara.

"Well, they've been looking after me, too.”

The aforementioned smiled back at J’onn and for a moment, things felt right. Jeremiah touched Eliza’s hand over his shoulder. Alex and Kara lit up at the scene.

“So, just to be clear, Mr. Danvers…” Mon-El interjected, slowly, trying to keep his voice down this time. “That weapon you mentioned as part of the plan? It’s not real, then, is it?”

Jeremiah pressed his lips together and shook his head.

"Oh, she does have a weapon. Or some sort of plan for a weapon. I heard her talking about something called 'Project Doomsday', but she wouldn't let me anywhere near those files.”

Kara felt a shiver down her spine.

"Doomsday, uh? Sounds like my kind of party.” The hero said in a playful tone, just so she could cover the uneasy feeling.

"I really don't know what it is, but it has something to do with– uh... Kryptonian genetics. Without my supervision, though, I'm afraid Lillian could be doing all kind of abominations. Cruel and brutal experiments, that's her style. That's how she lost her medical license in the first place.”

"Well, that's just great.” Alex rolled her eyes.

Kara forced a smile and looked proudly at her adoptive father.

"At least, with you here, we have some kind of advantage. We have your insight on Cadmus. We will defeat them, just as we have in the past.”

Jeremiah looked lovingly at her.

“Oh, sunshine, how I’ve missed your unbreakable optimism.”

Kara giggled like she was a 13 year old again, but after a few seconds her expression closed up.

Though she wished she could stay with her family in a bubble of comfort, she needed to stay focused and remember that she still had a lot to deal with.

She cleared her throat and looked at her hands, her voice came out a little shaky.

“We still need to talk about Lena… if you– if you’re not too tired–”

Jeremiah immediately nodded.

“Of course, Kara. You need to know what happened.”

Alex felt the air filling up with tension and uncertainty. Eliza put her tools aside and gave her husband a quick kiss on the forehead.

“Uh, Mon-El, could you please give me a moment with my family?” Jeremiah asked gently.

Mon-El was about to open his mouth when J’onn stepped in, sympathy shining in his eyes.

“We will join the others downstairs. Take all the time you need.”

With that, the Martian gestured for Mon-El to leave the room. The Daxamite’s body language showed he wasn’t very pleased with the subtle order, but he turned around and walked out, followed by the Director of the DEO.

Kara was about to protest. She wanted J’onn to stay. She needed his support and wisdom. Then again, she was positive J’onn already knew what had happened and he was probably just stepping down to make things easier with Mon-El. If she had asked J’onn to stay she wasn’t sure the Daxamite wouldn’t have caused a scene. They hadn’t talked since yesterday and she knew she was postponing a conversation that was going to be critical to their relationship. But right now, it was the last thing she wanted to do.

She sighed, there would be time to catch up with J’onn and ask him his take on everything that was going on.

Kara was distracted by her own thoughts when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Eliza was looking at her, offering a chair beside Jeremiah.

“Sweetie, have a seat.”

“Um… you guys want me to sit down? Should I be worried?” Kara let out a high-pitched titter and when no one followed, her breath quickened.

Oh, Golly…

She sat down beside her father without another word, Eliza and Alex flanking them, standing up. She really wished she was in her civilian clothes right now. The suit always gave her confidence and strength, but when she felt this vulnerable, only her glasses could do the trick for her. It was silly, she knew, but still…

“Kara,” Jeremiah began in a wary tone. “When Mon-El was captured by Cadmus, you remember they took your blood, right?”

Kara nodded, trying to control the quivering of her lower lip.

“Yeah. So Hank Henshaw could steal Medusa from the Fortress of Solitude.”

Jeremiah looked down at his right arm, the one they had modified, and took a deep breath.

“Well, sweetie, Medusa wasn’t the only thing they stole from the Fortress of Solitude. Nor was blood the only thing Cadmus took from you…”

“Uh… what… what do you mean?” Kara tried not to panic. It wasn’t easy.

“You know the Fortress has all kind of information about the Universe, it’s an archive of Kryptonian culture, so you and Clark can access anything you need and all the knowledge of your ancestors will be preserved…” Superman himself had disclosed some of the info from the Fortress with Jeremiah and Eliza, many years ago, so they could advance in their study of his powers. “Your father’s work on Kryptonian genetics is archived in the Fortress. Along with Medusa, he worked on multiple projects and everything he did as a scientist was outstanding, a masterpiece. Kryptonian medicine was centuries ahead of us. Krypton’s laws were very strict about genetic modification, but Zor-El created a formula to help same-sex couples conceive children together, for example, and he had also identified and mapped all the genes of the Kryptonian genome, in much more detail than the investigation of the Human Genome Project, here on Earth.”

Kara was trying hard not to jump out of the chair and pace the room at super speed. She took a quick glance at Alex, who was listening to their father with a haunted look in her face. Kara knew that Alex was already connecting dots in her scientific mind– being a giant nerd apparently had its perks.

Jeremiah’s voice brought her back to reality.

“So, Medusa was kind of a bonus that Lillian found while looking for other things in your father’s work. She took all that information, and with it, she’s working on that ‘Project Doomsday’ of hers. But she initially intended to crack the Kryptonian genetic code, so she could use it to her advantage.”

Alex cleared her throat and Kara looked between her and Jeremiah, puzzled.

“I always thought it seemed really weird that Lillian gained access to the Fortress and the only thing she took from it was Medusa… Should’ve seen it coming.” Alex lamented.

“You thought Cadmus just took your blood, but that's because you don't actually remember what they did to you.” Jeremiah went on, looking at Kara, a sad grimace in his face. “Lillian sedated you. She took more than your blood, Kara. She took your DNA.”

Kara frowned in confusion, still, she didn’t know where all of this was going…

“What? How?”

A heavy silence installed between them, and when Jeremiah opened his mouth he just couldn’t find the right words.

Eliza stepped in.

“Your egg cells, baby, your ova.” She said with simple directness.

Kara groaned with disgust.

“Ewww! You mean they… Oh sweet Father of Krypton!”

The hero put her hands on her forehead, her eyes wide open, looking nervously between her mother and her father, as if she was waiting for them to reveal this was all a joke, a bad dream…

“As I told you, you were sedated. I couldn’t help you, I’m so sorry, honey…” Jeremiah’s voice trailed off. He pressed his lips together and then continued. “And there was no way you could remember once you woke up. Only the blood extraction that was performed before that. Lillian was clever enough to expose you to some yellow sun radiation before waking you up so you couldn’t even feel the slightest discomfort from the procedure.”

Kara sneered and raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

“But why?! Why would they do that? What was Lillian planning on doing with my DNA?”

When no one answered, she became very aware of the dejected looks everyone had on their faces.

“Kara…” Alex said, but her mind failed to add anything else.

What could be said in a moment like this?

Fear crept within Kara’s chest, her jaw tightened.

“So tell me…” She whispered, very slowly. “What did they do?”

The scientist shook his head and hesitated, but he finally raised his eyes to meet Kara’s gaze.

“As Lillian explained it to me, she was convinced she was losing the war against aliens because she thought it could be done overnight, just like Lex. And when you revealed yourself to the world, she finally understood something: aliens would keep on coming, so she needed to fight fire with fire. And most importantly, she needed to develop a long-term plan. When the President passed the law on alien immigration, she came up with this plan. She told me she finally understood she just needed to be patient.”

Kara went pale as realization dawned on her face.

“She wanted her own superchildren.” Jeremiah added in a low tone. “So she could use them as weapons, use them for her cause.”

Nausea began a dance with Kara’s stomach as she finally understood.

“Mon-El was captured for that reason, actually. Lillian wanted to see if combining your DNA with his would do the trick. But Mon-El’s allergy to lead was a huge obstacle, because that would mean she would have to manipulate his DNA, and there wasn’t any information on Daxamite’s genetics on Zor-El’s work… So she quickly discarded the idea.” Jeremiah took a moment to let her shaken daughter take in all the information. “Then, she had some sort of epiphany. To make the superchildren her superchildren, she wanted them to have Luthor DNA. We’re lucky Lex Luthor is in maximum security, because her first idea was to fertilized your eggs with his sp–“

Kara raised her hand quickly to stop Jeremiah from finishing that sentence, her eyes burning with repulsion.

“Don’t even say it! Please! I just… I can’t, I just can’t…”

Jeremiah nodded, and he sighed again. Telling Kara was turning to be much painful than he had imagined.

“So that’s when she targeted Lena.”

Kara opened her mouth and her worried crinkle appeared as she shook her head.

“But Lena… Lena’s adopted.”

“No. That was another of Lillian’s belated lies to control her.” Jeremiah said gloomily. “Lena’s the biological daughter of Lionel Luthor, the result of an affair. Lillian told her when she was in jail, before framing her… Lillian said that she was content if her… um, grandchildren had Luthor’s DNA, even if she couldn’t have Lex’s.”

Kara’s heart sank in agony.

Oh, Rao, Lena… Oh, Lena.

“What was Lillian’s ultimate purpose for the children? Was she planning on raising them herself?” Alex asked. It was taking all her willpower not to run out of the DEO with her favorite alien gun to find and shoot the crap out of Lillian Luthor.

Kara was speechless. Jeremiah ran his good hand through his hair and nodded.

“Yes. They would become the Anti-Supers. She wanted to raise them to kill Kara and Clark…” He sighed, fatigue showing in his face. “So she kidnapped Lena, and the rest… Well. You know it now.”

Jeremiah felt silent. He looked like a man who had been beaten up almost to the death. And that had happened to him more than once, just not this time.

For a while, no one dared to say anything. Alex was regarding her sister with outmost concern. Tears shimmered in Kara’s eyes, but she fought them back with determination. Now was not the time. Kara took a deep breath and glanced at the ceiling, gathering her courage.

“So you’re saying that Lena’s babies… they…”

Jeremiah smiled weakly at her.

“They’re your babies too, honey.”

Kara let out a bitter laugh.

“So this is why you wanted me to sit down.”

The tears were unavoidable now, but they were silent. She wouldn’t allow herself to give them room, because Lena hadn’t, probably.

“We know it’s a lot to take in, sweetie.” Eliza approached her daughter and caressed the top of her head.

Kara laughed again. Louder and harsher.

“A lot? A lot?! Mom, that’s gotta be the understatement of the millennium!”

She was laughing, but there was no hint of humour in her voice. Eliza knew she was beyond pain; she only used the word ‘Mom’ in certain occasions, and they always had been moments of sadness, when she needed her most.

“It’s… it’s… babies!” Kara finally stood up and began pacing, her hands on the sides of her head as she was trying to contain her raging thoughts. “We’re talking about two people coming to the world! Two. Real. People. Alive. With little feet and little hands! And she’s carrying them… she’s… she’s been used for– Gosh, I just can’t!”

Kara looked like a caged animal looking for a way out.

“And they did this to her against her will and it was all her mother’s doing, for Rao’s sake! I… I just can’t imagine what she must’ve gone through… And when she wakes up… I…”

Eliza approached her daughter with firm steps and she took her face firmly between her hands. Eliza Danvers looked with determination into her daughter’s eyes, and Kara felt she could see right through her.

“Honey, we know this is too much. We know is sick, and Cadmus will pay for what they did to Lena, to your father… but we’ve got to use our heads, ok? You are Kara Zor-El, Kara Danvers, you are a member of the House of El, and you are my daughter, and you will never be alone. You have to get yourself together and not let emotion overwhelm you, because when Lena wakes up, she’s gonna need you. She’s gonna need you like no one has ever needed you before, sweetie. And you’re Supergirl, so go figure.”

Kara nodded very slowly, never taking her eyes from her mother. Eliza smiled warmly at her and released her face, placing a gentle kiss on Kara’s forehead.

The Kryptonian walked back to Jeremiah’s side.

“Alright, so…” Kara began, her voice trembling a little, enough for everyone to pretend like they didn’t notice. “Let me get this right. Technically put, I’m… I’m the father of Lena’s babies. I can’t believe I said that without passing out…”

“Yes. You’re both the biological parents of these children. They’re your blood as much as they’re hers. They’re the new children of Krypton, Kara.”

Kara shivered at Jeremiah’s words. She had so many questions… But Eliza was right, she had to apply logic to this situation so she wouldn’t lose her mind. So she nodded and put her fists on her hips, as if the gesture would give her some kind of sense of control. She really needed it, no matter how much of an illusion it was.

Alex looked at her with that knowing, furrowed look that was so Alex. Then, the older Danvers sister looked back at her dad, a thought sparking her curiosity.

“But… Dad, just… in order to fertilize Kara’s ova… then implant them on Lena… they would’ve needed a sperm donor, right?”

Jeremiah shook his head.

“No. Zor-El’s formula was so advanced they could create synthetic spermatozoa from any eggs, and vice-versa. The only thing they needed to do was an in-vitro fertilization, thus creating embryos that perfectly combined Kara and Lena’s genetics. Those embryos were then implanted on Lena’s uterus, and so we have the twins.”

Alex still wondered.

“But Dad… how can you be so sure about all of this? Were you there? Did Lillian tell you?”

Jeremiah looked up at Eliza. She just nodded.

“Well… that’s the other thing you need to know, girls.”

Kara and Alex shared a puzzled look and they waited for their father to continue.

“I know because I did it.” Jeremiah finally blurted out. “I was able to create the genetically combined embryos thanks to your father’s work, Kara. I helped Lillian decrypt it and test it. I’m the one responsible for this.”

Kara couldn’t believe her ears. Her whole body stiffened and confusion clouded her face.

“What? How– why?! Why would you agree to do something like this?! Something this… this sick!”

“I didn’t agree to do it, Kara, I didn’t have a choice.” Jeremiah held up his hands. “Listen, it was the only way to save Lena’s life. It was either this, or watch her die. Lillian would have tried to do this with or without me, and without me the chances of her killing her own daughter on the process were very high. She knew that, and she didn’t even care. So I asked myself, what would my girls do?” Jeremiah looked between her daughters, desperately trying to make them understand. “And I knew I had to save her. Because that’s what you’d have done in my place. Especially when I knew what Lillian was doing… Lena is an innocent that got caught in this absurd war, and I wish I could’ve spare her what they did to her, but I couldn’t find a way to escape any sooner. Only when the pregnancy was more than stable did Lillian agree to put the plan in motion… I… I had to save the babies, too. If they were going to come into this world, no matter what I did… I couldn’t leave them in Lillian’s hands.… I know the circumstances are horrible… but they are still your blood, Kara.”

Kara’s lower lip trembled at that last sentence. What could be out there any more innocent than children? The pain in Jeremiah’s voice was absolutely genuine and she felt selfish and heartless for assuming he would have agreed to Lillian’s cruel plan willingly.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Kara whispered, her voice breaking.

“Oh, sunshine… C’mere.”

Jeremiah reached out to her and Kara let herself go in his father’s embrace. She gestured for Alex and Eliza to join them, and together, the Danvers family let their sorrow and fear dissolve in the warmth of the hug. When they pulled apart, the four of them were sniffing and trying to regain some composure.

Alex let out weak laughter, breathing deeply and trying to not mess her eyeliner while she dried her tears with a tissue. Eliza and Kara mimicked her nervous laughter, and after a few seconds the whole Danvers family was sighing in relief.

“Oh, boy, I think we all need a break.” Alex rubbed her hands together. “Dad, you’re good to go. How about we have some coffee and join the others downstairs? Then, we can come up with a plan with J’onn. We need to be fast, Cadmus will come after Dad and Lena, that’s a sure thing.”

Everyone nodded and Kara was the first one to head for the door.

“Ok. I’m gonna change in the locker room, I need… I need to process all of this with my regular clothes on.”

Kara didn’t look back as she left the room, walking fast, her cape majestically swinging behind her.

“Kara! Kara, wait!”

It was Alex who was calling her name, running towards her. Kara turned around and waited for her sister to reach her, perhaps there was some other information she needed to–

“Umph!” Kara felt her lungs release too much air at a time when Alex just jumped her, embracing her in a hug that made the legs of the Girl of Steel feel like grilled cheese.

Her sister didn’t let go until she felt Kara relaxing a little bit inside her arms. Kara closed her eyes and put her arms around Alex, shutting everything that was not her sister’s breathing from her senses.

After a few minutes, they broke the hug and Alex tucked a few golden locks behind Kara’s ear.

“Go change. I’ll have a coffee ready for you.” She told her.

Kara’s mouth carved into a weak smile.

“Thanks.”

Before the superhero could turn again, her sister gave her one quick kiss on the cheek and whispered something, only for Kara to hear.

“I love you, Kara, and I’m here for you, always. You know that, right?”

Alex’s words broke through Kara’s concern, finding buried deep within her heart the hope that Kara always clung to, no matter what. She didn’t know how, and she didn’t know when, but Alex made her feel like everything was going to be alright.

“Yes. I love you too, Alex. El Mayarah.”

***

When she woke up, there was no blinding light. Instead, the blueish lights of the room left her almost in the dark, as they were dim out.

She heard the beeping sound of a machine that was singing her heartbeat out. For a moment, she thought she was back on her mother’s operating room, panic building up in her chest.

She looked around her and on the machine’s side there was a sticker: Property of the Department of Extranormal Operations. She remembered immediately the events of last night and she regained control of her breathing.

Lena thought it was funny that a governmental agency that supposedly didn’t exist marked their equipment, proving that internal theft existed everywhere.

She slowly began to get rid of all the electrodes and wires stuck to her body. Everything hurt, even the slightest movement. When she tried to get on her feet, nausea crept out of her stomach and she had to hold on to the bed for dear life.

She felt a kick inside her belly. Then another one. Then, two at the same time.

She patted her belly, and talked to it, a habit she had picked up in the long hours of her imprisonment when she was left alone in her room– or should she say cell?

“Shhhh. It’s going to be alright now, don’t be impatient.”

There were no more kicks and Lena felt a little proud of herself: after months of insisting, they finally listened to her from time to time.

She finally was able to stand up. She was barefoot, and the floor was cold, but she welcomed the sensation, it made her feel like this was real, and not one of her dreams. She couldn’t make much of what was surrounding her in the room, but she spotted a white coat hanging from the back of the door. A door that seemed new and the wall around it was recently painted.

Weird, she thought.

She walked carefully towards the door, took the coat and put it on, an embroidered patch of the DEO’s logo on the front pocket. At least she was wearing something over the hospital gown they’d changed her into.

When she opened the door (carefully, very, very slowly), she was expecting to see at least an agent or two. No one was there to be seen. She felt a little insulted– surely they knew Cadmus would be trying to get her back, the decent thing to do would have been putting some security at her door. Maybe they did, and the assigned agent had to go to the bathroom. Or maybe they were just plain incompetent.

She followed the lights down the aisle and she ended up walking up stairs that lead her to the main floor. The first thing she noticed was the light. Natural light.

“Here comes the sun, kids.”

She noticed the command room, busy with people processing data or studying feeds from all over the city. But she only had eyes for the break of dawn, so she walked up to the balcony and let the cold air of the morning make her shiver from head to toe. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world. She looked behind her and she hoped no one would notice her for at least a few minutes, so she could feel this. The light. The real light.

National City’s skyline had never seemed so beautiful in her eyes, not even in those sunsets where she could see Supergirl flying over her, drawing patterns on the clouds.

“We’re home,” she whispered, and she put a protective hand over her belly.

The orange light hit her face while the sun peeked from behind the mountains, and she couldn’t help the happy tears.

“We’re home”, she repeated while approaching the edge of the balcony and rested her hand against the concrete railing.

Yellow and blue colors danced in the sky as the sun rapidly picked up a pace and offered itself to the city. Lena closed her eyes and let the tears fall.

When she opened her eyes again, she leaned a little against the railing to look down. She had to stand on her tip toes to get a peek of the road. She never liked heights, she never liked flying. But now, everything had changed.

The best way to do it was just trying to sit, first. It wasn’t easy, after all she was almost nine months pregnant. Her whole body hurt and her mind was screaming for her to stop. But she did it, anyway. She used her arms to grasp the edge of the railing and with a quick jump, she passed one leg over it. Holding to the edge, and not very gracefully, she managed to do the same with the other leg.

So now Lena Luthor was sitting on the railing, her legs hanging in the air almost a thousand feet above National City’s streets. She wondered if she could stand up. It wasn’t very dignifying to do this sitting down. She crossed her legs, first, the railing was wide enough to allow her to do that. Then, she held on tightly and she crouched. Slowly, she stood up and with arms open wide, she smiled to the horizon. The sun was almost up. Orange gave room to bright daylight, and her skin felt warm where the rays hit her, calling to her, embracing her.

A memory came back to rise itself over the voices in her head that were begging her to stop.

Her mother’s voice, above all of them. Her mother’s voice, haunting her even after the escape.

“You’re fulfilling your destiny, my darling. You’re going to be the Mother of Peace. You’ll be Our Holy Mother, the one that will give birth to Humanity’s last hope and make Earth safe again.”

“Fuck you, mother! You’re insane! You– all those times you said you loved me, even if it wasn’t real, I thought that maybe, deep within you, there was some light… I was wrong, wasn’t I? You’re just pure evil.”

“Honey, I know you think I don’t love you. And I know you only see me as a clichéd comic-book villain. But someday, you’ll understand. Everything I do, I do for you, for the future of my children… And the moment you become a mother, you’ll understand, and I’ll be waiting for you.”

“Do you even hear yourself?! This is sick! Please, mother, you can still stop it. Please, don’t do this.”

“It’s too late, my darling. The tests came back positive. You will be giving me my Luthor grandchildren, and together, we’ll raise them to be the protectors of Earth.”

“I’ll never follow you, no matter what you do.”

“Oh, but you will, Lena. Once they’re born, you’ll see. Everything will change. You’ll love them despite yourself. And even if you won’t join me… Well. Don’t worry, we’ll see what you do, because a mother’s love knows no limits...”

Her face was warm now despite the height and the morning breeze. She was trying to convince herself this was the only way to save them. Save herself. She would always come back for them, she would always hunt them down, until she had what she needed. There was no stopping Lillian, or Lex, and there was no escape from the pain of how they had violated her trust, her mind, her spirit, her body… Even if she could love the children that were growing inside her, despite the reminders, despite all this pain, even if she could save them… How could she be sure that she would never turn into her? How could she know they wouldn’t go through what she’d been through?

There was no way to know, so this was the only safe way out. This was the only way to save them.

Still, her feet were anchored to the concrete and she couldn’t dare herself to step into the darkness.

But, what if I can prove her wrong?

The doubt became anger and the anger became strength and the strength made her realize what she was about to do. She felt another kick inside her belly. And another. And another. And they were telling her: don’t do it. Don’t. And she laughed, she laughed and hug herself in the wind and if anyone had looked up from the street she would have looked like an angel trying to earn her wings, all in white, pale, her long, dark hair waving as if the breeze was trying to dance with it.

“Lena!!!”

A familiar voice called her name behind her with an anxiety that startled her to the point that when she was about to turn, her bare feet failed her and she lost her balance in the most stupid, unflattering way.

Well, fuck me.

It was over.

She was falling.

The screams were useless now, but as the ground got nearer and her lungs ran out of air, she still fought it. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.

And suddenly, everything began again.

She stopped falling.

“I’ve got you.”

The first thought she registered was a panicky “You’ve got me, who’s got you?”

Strong arms carried her back up and she inhaled vanilla shampoo. A heat like no other irradiated from the body that was carrying her gently. She was flying. They were flying.

Supergirl.

She didn’t open her eyes. She just let herself feel her through the warm skin on the crook of her neck and the warmth of her body. This felt real. Even more real than the light of dawn, the sound of the streets.

When they landed in the balcony, the arms around her opened carefully and she stepped out of the embrace, forced to open her eyes.

But in front of her she didn’t find Supergirl.

Kara Danvers looked at her, suddenly terrified. She was wearing a blue blouse and red skinny pants. Lena blinked twice in front of her, not believing her eyes. She had saved her… like this. No supersuit. No S in her chest.

How did she not lose her glasses while flying?

Fascinated, Lena took a step forward as Kara’s lower lip began to tremble. Lena didn’t care that Kara looked so frightened that she couldn’t even move.

Lena reached out to her with one hand and Kara followed that hand with her gaze up until it rested on her chest, where the emblem of the House of El shined proudly in her suit. Kara couldn’t find the words she wanted to say, the apology, the long delayed confession… All of that was forgotten when Lena took another step towards her.

And then, Lena Luthor was unbuttoning her blouse.

Kara swallowed hard. Kryptonite had never left her mouth as dry as Lena’s closeness.

Lena could see the suit under the blouse now. She didn’t stop until the whole emblem was exposed. She could feel Kara’s gaze upon her, but all she wanted to do was feel the way the S that was not an S felt against her skin. So she touched it, barely, with the tip of her fingers, while Kara Danvers held her breath for long seconds. No human could’ve done that.

Finally, Lena’s hand went up and she touched Kara’s cheekbone, scrutinizing her as if she was some kind of new device Lena had never seen in her life. Again, just the tip of her fingers, just the slightest of touches, and when Kara was about to gasp, when Kara was about to yell for mercy and just let Lena’s wrath fall all over her, Lena smiled, and Kara could see stars shimmering in her eyes.

They began to speak at the same time, abruptly, one voice over the other.

“I didn’t mean to fall, not really, I’m so stupid, I… I just wanted to see the sun rising, and then, the memories…”

Lena stopped talking when she felt a sharp pain cutting her from the center of her legs up to her spine. Kara kept rambling on.

“I’m sorry, Lena, I’m so sorry… I just saw you and I didn’t think, I wanted to tell you for such a long time but–”

Lena grasped Kara’s forearm as the pain intensified.

“Kara, shut up!” Lena shouted as the pain made her bend over.

“What?” Kara didn’t realize what was happening until Lena almost collapsed.

Kara caught her in her arms again as she was about to fall.

Kara rushed inside with Lena in her arms, shouting her sister’s name at the top of her lungs.

She didn’t hear what Lena whispered weakly in her ear while she grimaced from the pain.

“Lena? Lena, did you say something?”

“Yes.”

As Kara run to the med-bay with Lena in her arms, she whispered it again, softly, but this time Kara heard her loud and clear.

“I’ve always known, you idiot.”

Chapter Text

“I’ve always known, you idiot.”

Kara wished that among all her powers there was the ability to freeze time.

That way, she would’ve had a moment to enjoy those words. They were tender, affectionate, not a trace of reproach in them. She had never felt so much warmth from being called ‘an idiot’.

Of course she was an idiot, of course she was.

She wished she could see Lena’s face, but she was buried in the crook of her neck, holding tightly to her, breathing rapidly and muffling her cries of pain against Kara’s golden locks. 

If the circumstances were different, Kara would’ve panicked. She never had been this physically close with Lena, and it did something to the balance of her legs and the rhythm of her heartbeat. 

Also, did she really know from the very beginning? She had so many questions. How did she know, when did she know, what did she think about her being Supergirl?

All that would have to wait. 

There was no time to think now, and panic did overtake her but for an entirely different reason.

She focused for a second in those tiny drums inside Lena’s belly and listened. They were there, and she sighed with relief, but she could tell something was wrong. Their rhythm was out of control, uneasy. Like a cry for help.

“Alex!! Alex, I need you!!”

Her sister and all the others heard her from the command centre. From the corner of her eye, while she crossed the upper platform, she could see Alex running towards her. 

They reached the med-bay at the same time, entering through opposed doors, and her sister looked at her with her mouth half-open. She knew what Alex was seeing: Kara’s blouse completely open exposing her suit, Lena in her arms, holding so tightly to her that if she were human, she would be bleeding now. She didn’t care.

Lena was moaning louder in her arms, and Kara could almost feel the reverberation of her pain in her skin.

“Something’s wrong– I– I think it’s the babies!”

Alex immediately snapped back to reality, at the same time Jeremiah, Eliza, J’onn, Maggie and Mon-El crossed the door. James and Winn stood out of the room, watching the scene through the crystal walls, unsure of what to do.

Eliza shouted for her team to rush back to the med-bay and the nurses that had tended to Lena’s wounds quickly ran to her side, waiting for orders. Jeremiah looked at her wife concernedly and she just nodded at him. 

Kara placed Lena gently on an articulated bed. Alex ran to her side and began examining Lena and her belly with a stethoscope. Alex’s face paled as she listened.

Lena just shut her eyes and grabbed the sheets trying to resist the urge to scream when another wave of convulsion hit her.

Kara wanted to reach out and take Lena’s hands in hers, to tell her that she could clasp as hard as she wanted to, but instead, the hero’s hands squeezed into fists in terror and frustration. She had never felt this powerless, not even in the occasions where she had actually lost her powers.

“What is it, Alex?”

“Mom!” Alex yelled, ignoring Kara’s question, “Mom, you gotta listen to this!” And Alex stepped away so her mother could take her place by Lena’s side, handing her the stethoscope.

Eliza and Alex exchanged concerned looks and the older woman nodded at her daughter and just said “Prep yourself.”

Alex ran to the cabinet and began pulling out all kind of supplies.

Lena cried out in pain once again. Cold sweat ran down her forehead, she opened her eyes and her pupils were dilated and dark. Kara couldn’t take it anymore, so she launched herself forward and took Lena’s hand in her own, touching her forehead gently with her other hand.

Lena just closed her eyes again, gritting her teeth. She squeezed Kara’s hand hard, and though Kara couldn’t feel any pain, she looked down at their entwined hands and wondered if Lena would’ve been stronger than her if she had been born a Kryptonian.

Eliza leaned on Lena’s side and cleaned her forehead with a wet cloth while Kara stroked her hair.

“Darling, you’re gonna be alright but we need to take them out right now, ok?” Eliza said gently to Lena. The brunette blinked twice and looked at her, nodding. Fear clouded Lena’s features despite Eliza’s calming tone. “They’re under some kind of stressful situation, could be anything. We need to perform a C-Section, but you won’t feel a thing. It’s going to be alright, just try to breath…”

“What?” Kara let go of Lena and rushed to her mother’s side, looking at her pleadingly. 

Eliza began preparing the equipment that Alex was handling her over.

“It’s perfectly safe, Kara, but we need to take the babies out right now, we don’t know what’s going on…”

Kara immediately raised her glasses over her eyebrows and scanned Lena’s body with her X-Ray vision. She gasped when she spotted two beautiful, tiny, precious little bodies, placed in position to come out to the world. But the moment she saw beyond that and realized what was going on, she grasped her mother’s arm.

“One of them has the umbilical cord around their neck!” Kara exclaimed.

Eliza understood, then.

“They’re choking. We need to take them out now, Alex!”

“But what about Lena, will she be alright?!”

Jeremiah stepped in and put a hand on Kara’s shoulder, urging her to calm down.

“Honey, you need to let your mom and sister work…”

The moment Alex moved to Lena’s side to check her heartbeat again, the brunette raised her head, grabbing the agent’s hand and pleading through gritted teeth.

“Whatever you’re going to do, please do it now!”

Alex nodded and Lena collapsed back on the bed. Kara wasn’t about to give them a break.

“But– She’s in pain! Do something, Alex, please!”

“I’m trying, Kara!”

Kara felt strong hands grabbing her shoulders, pushing her backwards. It was J’onn this time.

“Kara, it’s better if you wait outside–”

The Kryptonian jerked away from J’onn’s touch.

“What?!”

Eliza was prepping Lena for regional anaesthesia while Alex was putting on a white coat and gloves, eyeing intently her favourite scalpel. Kara’s heart was bouncing inside her chest as if she had been hit with a Kryptonite bullet.

Jeremiah tried again the careful and calming approach.

“Kara, honey, just let them work…”

“But I should be here, this is my resp–”

“Supergirl!” J’onn yelled. Everybody froze in place, except for Alex, Eliza, and the nurses, getting all the equipment ready around Lena’s bed. “Out, now!” J’onn’s tone was firm an unequivocal, still Kara tried to protest.

“You can’t be serious, I–”

J’onn stepped closer to her until they were eye to eye, only inches separating their faces. The Martian kept the firm, iron-handed tone, but he lowered his voice this time.

“I know what you’re feeling right now and why you’re feeling it, but if you don’t leave this room right now, Kara Zor-El, I will personally make you.”

Kara knew she was out of line, that if she had forced J’onn to transform into his menacing self, she needed to get a grip. It was so unlike her. She just couldn’t help it. She knew Alex and Eliza would take good care of Lena… still, fear took control of her as if some kind of substance similar to Red-K had infected her with uneasiness and despair.

Maggie approached Kara and whispered softly, careful not to step in her personal space.

“C’mon, Little Danvers, it’s okay. Let your sister do her thing.”

Staring at Lena on the bed, Alex ready to begin the procedure on her, flanked by the nurses and Eliza, Kara couldn't help but close her eyes in pain.

“But–”

“Actually, anyone who’s not a doctor or a medical assistant, out of this room, now. Miss Luthor deserves her privacy.” J’onn commanded.

“You can’t help her right now, Kara.” Maggie insisted again, softly.

Kara finally looked back at the cop as her hands began to tremble.

“Maggie. Maggie, I don’t know what I’ll do if something happens to…” Her voice just trailed off.

An understanding smile from Maggie was all Kara needed to be brought back from the impeding darkness.

But then, Mon-El’s voice cut through their connection and Kara felt him grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her close to him, trying to hug her in the most awkward of positions.

“Kara, c’mon, J’onn’s right. Come, we’ll wait outs–”

Kara’s first reaction was to punch Mon-El in the face just to get away from his touch. She stopped herself when her hand turned into a fist. She jerked away from him, violently, as she growled, a little too loud.

“Get your hands off me!”

Mon-El looked at her wide-eyed, very aware of everyone in the room regarding them, shock obvious in their faces. Maggie shook her head at him and sighed. Outside the crystal walls, Winn arched his eyebrows exaggeratedly and James watched the scene attentively, crossing his arms over his chest. 

Kara just raised her arms and sighed in frustration. She looked between J’onn and her father, and suddenly, she couldn’t breath. Again. She stormed out of the med-bay visibly upset, still hearing clearly in her ears the uneasy polyphony of Lena and the babies’ hearts. She tried to fight back the tears as she rushed past James and Winn. Everyone left behind her, but one particular person was eager to stop her.

“Kara?! Kara, wait!”

Mon-El’s was darting behind her while she crossed the platform in front of the med-bay. She didn’t know where she was going, but she needed to move, so she just ignored him.

“Kara, stop it, we need to talk.”

He finally reached her, grabbing her by the elbow, forcing her to turn around. If she couldn’t be by Lena’s side right now, all Kara wanted was to get away, disappear… She shook her head, not meeting his eyes.

“Not now, Mon-El, this is… this is not the right time to talk.”

Mon-El looked around him quickly. He could see the interior of the med-bay, where Alex was about to begin the procedure on Lena. Maggie was pacing outside the room, J’onn and Jeremiah stood at the door, ready to assist if anything was needed and Winn was running his hands nervously through his hair, looking away from the scene. But James was studying Kara and Mon-El, looking between them, arms still crossed over his chest, an unreadable expression on his face. Mon-El turned back to Kara and leaned a little over her, lowering his voice so nobody but Kara could hear.

“You’ve been avoiding me all morning. If not now, when?”

Kara couldn’t care less about anybody hearing them, though.

“Well, I’m sorry this seems to be an inconvenience for you, but I’m about to become a very unwilling, very unprepared mother of two, so this will have to wait!”

Mon-El twisted his lips and rested his hands on his hips, defyingly.

“But that’s why we need to talk, as in right now! You can’t seriously believe that insane story about those babies being yours…”

Kara’s voice reached one of her higher pitches, ever.

“What?”

Mon-El took a step forward and, again, lowered his voice, his lips inches from Kara’s.

“Winn– Winn told me. I’m just saying… your father lived with your enemy for years. They forced him to keep Henshaw alive, what makes you think they’re not forcing Jeremiah to do something now?”

Kara stared wide-eyed at him. 

“He’s my father and I know he’s telling the truth! Besides, what would Jeremiah gain from convincing me these are my children if they weren’t?”

Mon-El ran a nervous hand through his short hair.

“I don’t know! Maybe that way they could manipulate you into doing something or whatever! If you believe these children are yours, they know they can take advantage of your good heart, Kara, your kindness…”

Mon-El pointed at her chest. Kara remembered then the suit was still showing and she buttoned up her blouse.

“See, I know most of the time your suspicions and your very, very annoying remarks are meant to protect us–”

“But that’s it, Kara, I’m just trying to look out for you!” 

“This time, Mon-El, you’re wrong, ok? Just drop it.”

Kara turned around and resumed walking. Mon-El wasn’t about to let her have the final word. He kept on shouting behind her, maybe finally not giving a damn if anyone could hear them. That was more like his usual self.

“Who's gonna break your fall, Kara? When all of this turns out to be another Luthor master plan, who are you gonna turn to, huh?! Because it’s always me picking up your pieces. I swear, sometimes you just can’t see what’s right in front of you, and you’ve always had a soft spot for Lena, I know, and I get it, she’s your friend, but everything about this feels wrong…”

That was it. Kara turned around, a fury she reserved for the battlefield galloping wildly in her eyes.

“Wrong?! Really, Mon-El, buddy, please illuminate my path with your wise mansplaining! I didn’t even realize that the fact that one of my best friends was impregnated with MY children against her WILL by her own MOTHER in order to raise SUPERBABIES so they could grow up and KILL ME felt like something wrong, you know? Thank you, thank you so much for your eye-opening opinion!”

It took all of Mon-El’s will not to show how taken-aback he was by Kara’s reaction. She usually didn’t show this much… irritation. Not lately, at least.

“Ok, underneath all that uncalled for sarcasm you know what I mean, right?” Mon-El smiled sweetly, he was hoping he could get his way out of this mess the way he always did. He lowered his voice. Surely the charming approach would work better on Kara. “I’m just saying… I’m worried about you, babe. Just… don’t trust her, Kara, not yet, you don’t know if the Lena that Cadmus kidnapped is the same one that came back.”

Kara sighed and massaged her temples, tired as if she hadn’t slept in years.

“Well, that’s where you’re wrong, Mon-El, because I know her.” She raised her head, finally, looking at him right in the eye, a determined look in her face. “I know Lena and I’m gonna be here for her. No matter what.”

Mon-El scoffed and opened his mouth, but no sound came out. After a second, he shook his head and snapped back.

“Oh, so you’re going to take her word for everything? And then what? Will you play dollhouse with her and the babies? Raise them together as if you were a couple of fake, hipster lesbi–”

The slap in his cheek wouldn’t leave a mark. Nor was the strength of it enough to make him feel actual pain, but it was unexpected all the same.

A few meters behind them, James repressed the urge to clap and cheer Kara on. Winn just looked utterly uncomfortable. Maggie raised an eyebrow, but remained silent, and J’onn and Jeremiah were too busy going through contingency plans to notice.

“You leave her out of this, you leave those innocent babies out of this! Nobody asked for this situation. And nobody asked for your opinion, either. Do you understand?”

Kara’s tone was a full-on Supergirl warning.

Mon-El raised his hands and camouflaged his hurt pride under an attempt at a regretful smile.

“Ok, I deserved that. My bad, I’m so sorry, Kara.”

Mon-El’s words seemed to add fuel to Kara’s fury.

“No, you’re not.” Kara snickered bitterly. She swallowed and nodded to herself. “And you don’t get to I’m sorry me anymore. I’m sick of hearing you say those words again and again as if you were crooning a Bruno Mars song.” She approached him until they were eye to eye. “You know, Mon-El, the thing about those precious words is that you have to do everything you can in your power to never have to say them. And if you can’t avoid getting yourself on a situation where you have to do it, then you’ve gotta mean it. It’s not abracadabra, it’s not a magic word you just say so your girlfriend keeps on putting up with you.” Mon-El blinked nervously and opened his mouth but Kara kept on going. “It’s not a password that gets you into my pants the moment you pronounce it, and I’m sick of all… this! These arguments and these constant throwbacks!”

Mon-El frowned, confused, and his voice changed into a scared plea.

“But Kara… this is just a regular thing between couples. It’s great that we discuss things, that we disagree–”

“There’s nothing great about this…” Kara whispered.

Silence fell upon them, Kara staring at the floor, Mon-El searching for the words that would make this right, something like fear burning in his chest.

Kara finally sighed.

“I don’t know, I just don’t know. But I know that I can’t look at you right now.”

Mon-El was about to protest when Eliza came out of the med-bay, her white coat stained with blood.

“Kara!” She called, gently. “Lena wants you to come in.”

Kara ran back towards her mother.

“Oh Rao, is she alright? Are they alright?”

Eliza just dedicated her a half-smile and handed her a green surgical gown, gloves and a headgear.

“Put this on, sweetie, and see for yourself.”

Kara’s mouth fell open. She accepted the clothes and changed instantly with her super speed. She really didn’t care about everybody around her. Eliza was left at the door, her daughter’s civilian clothes scattered in front of her. Kara was already inside the med-bay. Eliza picked up the clothes and murmured “Kids…”  

Mon-El approached the med-bay door, unsure of what to do. His fear was beginning to make room for a disturbing rage as the stupidity of this whole situation hit him. James sensed his tension and walked over to him with resolute attitude.

James put himself between Mon-El and the med-bay’s door that the Daxamite was studying as if he was a trapped animal and that was the opening of his cell.

“Back off, buddy.” James said, slowly. Carefully. Firm. “She made herself very clear, and the distance will help you think.”

Mon-El scoffed. Truth is, he could use a drink. Or three. He looked at James and gnashed his teeth. Olsen, human or not, was not the best option to pick up a fight.

“Yeah, right. Keep an eye on her for me, will ya?” 

Mon-El’s words came out a little too proud, and he immediately regretted it and felt a little tired of playing this game. There would be time to talk to Kara alone, later, and make her see reason.

James was relieved when Mon-El turned around and left. One problem at a time.

That’s when he realized someone was tugging at his shirt.

“Dude. Dude, look at that.”

James turned to see Winn, mouth hanging open, pointing at the med-bay with one hand, tugging and puling nervously Jame’s shirt, as if he was a child eagerly needing his parent to see what he was seeing.

“Oh, my fuck, fuck me in the fuck, sweet shit in a bucket, fuck…” 

James and Winn slowly turned their heads towards one Maggie Sawyer that was as surprised as them, amazed by the scene, only she was so much better at expressing it.

J’onn and Jeremiah were smiling like maniacs and hugging each other in a bizarre, yet somehow comforting image.

A cry was heard from inside the med-bay. It resonated through the building, and those who were able to hear it stopped everything they were doing to look up to the source of the sound. Even some members of the team began to tentatively approach the stairs. J’onn motioned for them to come up if they wanted to, only slowly, and in silence.

Another cry, this time louder. And now there was no doubt that two newborn babies were in the room, screaming their confusion out to the world, filling their little lungs with air as they sang away their disagreement from being taken away from the warmth of their mother’s belly.

It was Kara Danvers who had one of those babies in her arms. She had a smile so bright in her face that she could’ve eclipsed the sun if she had wanted to. She looked out at the crystal walls, and found her friends looking at her in awe.  

“The girl came in first place!” Kara shouted for them to hear while she rocked the little girl in her arms, blood in her gloves and gown as she put the little baby closer to her chest.

Kara couldn't stop grinning.

Maggie covered her mouth with her hands. Winn blinked and swallowed hard, trying to remember things that pissed him off, so he wouldn’t cry. Because he really wanted to cry. For no reason.

James grabbed his friend by the shoulders and pulled him close. Winn silently cursed and sniffed a little.

Inside the med-bay, Alex was holding the little boy that had the umbilical cord around his neck, now safely freed from that menace and breathing normally again. Actually, he was crying at the top of his lungs. And that was a good thing. Eliza examined him while Alex also checked his limbs and his face. 

On the bed, Lena Luthor was sweating (and swearing), pale, her hair a mess, her heartbeat uneasy. Kara leaned over her with the baby girl in her arms and whispered something, only for Lena to hear.

“Mom says that when they are born by Cesarean, the physical contact is very important. Do you want to hold her?”

Lena was speechless. Scared. Lost. Terrified. She nodded to Kara, but she didn’t know what she was doing. This was not a dream. Nor a nightmare. But it somehow felt like something in between.

Kara slowly placed the baby on top of Lena’s chest, carefully minding her head and tiny legs. Lena grabbed her by the tiny belly and the baby cooed against her jaw. She noticed the way she smelled. This was… life. If life had a smell, it definitely would be this salty essence in a mixture of blood, tears and flustered skin.

She didn’t know why, but just that essence was enough to make her cry. So she cried. And when the baby girl grabbed her finger with that little, minuscule hand, she just let herself go.

Alex approached them with the boy in her arms. She passed him on to Kara, carefully, while she explained the situation to both Lena and Kara.

“They seem to be perfectly fine despite coming out a little early. The boy was being strangled by the cord, but everything’s fine now, it happens sometimes. We’re gonna give you guys two minutes alone to catch your breath, and then we’ll clean them and prep them, ok? Just as a precaution I would like them to spend a few days in the incubator. Your stitches are done but I wanna check again, when you're a little more rested. You won't feel a thing for now, but it's going to hurt eventually. Nothing you can't take, and my mother and I will give you some amazing legal drugs, anyway. Then I’ll run some tests on them, if that's okay with you.”

Lena opened her eyes reluctantly, she was now beyond tired. 

“Thank you, Alex.” Lena whispered, hoarse, cracking, not even an echo of her real voice.

“You’re welcome, Lena, my pleasure.”

Alex smiled warmly at her and left the room with her mother and the nurses, stroking gently Kara’s shoulder as she passed by her sister. Kara just looked at her with the most infinite of gratitudes.

The baby boy cried in Kara’s arms, reaching out with his hands, red and swollen from the effort of hanging on to life.

“Wanna hug the baby boy, too?” Kara whispered to Lena, no matter that they were alone in the room now.

Lena just nodded. So Kara repeated the process of placing the baby above Lena’s chest, on the side that the baby girl was not occupying. The boy grabbed Kara’s finger with his tiny hand before she could let go, so she had to sit down on the side of Lena’s bed and smiled apologetically at her, Kara’s arm crossed over the babies and above Lena’s chest. Lena just closed her eyes and breathed.

After a few seconds, Kara cleared her throat.

“Lena… Lena… do you want me to go and give you some time alone with them?“

There was no answer. Just the now steadier rhythm of Lena’s breath, and the babies’ sporadic coos, now enjoying the comfort of their mother’s chest.

“Lena?”

Lena moved her head to look at Kara. She waited a few seconds to open her eyes, slowly. She didn’t say a thing. She just raised her hand a put it above Kara’s, where the superhero’s index finger was still trapped inside tiny hands. Lena closed her eyes again and sighed. Kara wouldn’t dare to move even one inch, in fact, she almost stopped breathing.

“Stay, Kara. Just stay.”

***

That one time James suggested that they could investigate in the Fortress of Solitude, and Kara said she’d never been there because she was afraid of the memories, she had lied. A little lie, yes, but a lie all the same.

She had been in the Fortress before. Once. But she had done all she could to forget it.

Eliza and Alex had been teasing her for the whole week, never revealing what they had in mind now she was about to turn 18 (at least, from Earth’s standards). They had told her she needed to pack winter clothes, that she was going to experience something unique and that they hoped she would keep a place for them in her heart once she came back. That they always would have her back. She even joked that it sounded almost like they were going to send her to another planet, and she got a little nervous when all she received for an answer were weird looks from both her mother and sister.

But it all came together when she saw him. The morning of the day she turned 18 years old, almost at dawn, she was already dressed and had her backpack with her. 

Superman floated above her window and just stared at her with the most transparent of smiles.

“Hey, cuz, are you ready to fly with me?” He asked her.

“YES!”

Kara jumped out of the window to throw herself at her cousin’s arms. Clark caught her and laugh. She was wearing a tracksuit: red jacket, blue pants. 

“Nice colors”, Clark said. 

“Thanks!” 

Alex and Eliza appeared in Kara’s windows to wave them goodbye. 

“We’ll be back at sunset!” Clark nodded to Eliza, and he began ascending, Kara still in his arms.

“Where are we going?” The teenager asked excitedly.

Clark chuckled softly.

“North.”

They flew for more than an hour. From time to time, Kara would ask him to let her fly solo and he would let her, always giving her feedback on the technique and helping when she struggled with turns or altitude control.

The first time Kara saw it, she had to repress the urge to cry. It looked so much like any old building from Krypton. It was just like a dream. Clark opened the door with that gigantic gold key, and when they stepped in, it was even more beautiful.

“That’s Aunt Lara and Uncle Jor-El!”

Kara ran towards the huge statue of Kal-El’s parents, holding a globe of planet Krypton on their hands.

“Yeah.” Clark said proudly.

A floating robot approached them carefully.

“Welcome, Master Kal. Oh, I can see you’ve brought family. Welcome to the Fortress of Solitude, Kara Zor-El. My name is Kelex, loyal servant of the House of El.”

Kara couldn’t help but approach the machine and touch it everywhere, curiosity and wonder filling her up with excitement.

“Whoa! We had one just like you back home. We used to play together all the time!”

“I’m aware that other servants like me existed in Krypton.” Kelex said looking as dignified as possible while Kara poked between his wires.

“Come, Kara, let me show you the reason I brought you here.”

Clark guided her through the Fortress until they were in front of some kind of panel. Kara could read Kryptonian symbols on it, and she felt super excited.

Clark typed a few lines on the panel. In front of them, lights formed figures and images, until they could see pictures of Krypton, videos of the throbbing heart of its cities, vehicles, inventions, landscapes… In the end, the House of El emblem appeared, and above it, multiple faces and names. It was their family tree.

Non and Astra In-Ze: no heirs. 

Zor-El and Alura In-Ze: one daughter, Kara Zor-El. 

Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van: one son, Kal-El.

“I came here when I was 18, just like you are now.” Clark began. Kara was simply blown away. “I spent many years here, studying, trying to learn everything I could from the Universe and our origins. Through all that, my Father’s voice guided me, always. See… this is the last message he recorded for me… I want you to listen to it, Kara.”

Jor-El’s face appeared in front of them. The handsome features Kara remembered were exactly the same, and the deep voice of her uncle carried her to the past…

“Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you… my only son.”

As the image of his uncle dissipated in front of her, Kara felt hot tears running down her cheeks.

“This message is also for you, Kara.” Clark put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. “Whoever you want to be in this planet, don’t forget where you come from and always strive for the best in you, in everybody. It’s our mission here, as we are the last children of Krypton…”

“You shouldn’t have brought me here, Clark. I know you meant well, but…” Kara said abruptly, looking back to her cousin. Clark looked at her absolutely surprised.

“For you, Krypton is a dream. You call Smallville your home and dream about Krypton.” Kara continued, her voice trembling, her face strong. “For me, this is home. And all that's left is my memory of it. This is all too painful, Clark, because you can’t, but I do remember your father’s face, and his voice. I remember my mother, my father, our family… The buildings in our city and the warmth of our house. This all… I can understand that this keeps that dream alive for you, Clark. But for me… I’m standing on a graveyard.”

Kara bit her upper lip and just closed her eyes. She breathed deeply, retrieved her backpack from the floor and began to make her way for the door.

“Kara, I didn’t mean to–” Clark called behind her.

“I know. I’m so sorry, Clark. We’ll just forget that you ever brought me here, ok? I can’t do this. I’m sorry… I… don’t worry about me. I can fly back home. I’ll call you when I get there.”

Clark did not try to stop her, and Kara was thankful for his sensitivity. At least, she could try to process what she was feeling on the flight back home.

Kal-El had accepted long ago that solitude was his way. Jonathan Kent had infected his mind with that idea. That he was a lone wolf, that he alone needed to carry the weight of the world upon his shoulders, just like Atlas, and that to share his powers and his gift would be a mistake. Like a distant god, he could help, but he could not let the mortals touch him. He accepted his fate as the last son of Krypton willingly, never able to miss a world he couldn’t remember.

But to Kara, it was completely different. Her legacy couldn’t be loneliness. Her journey couldn’t be done alone. She had Alex, and Eliza, and Jeremiah, even if he was gone, she missed him everyday… 

She understood she should honor the past and remember the fallen, she would always feel a hole in her chest nobody could fill. That hole left by her parents and her world. But she needed to believe the future could bring hope, she needed to know there would be brighter days and that she could create a new history for her name. The House of El wouldn’t die with her and Clark. And she really didn’t know how she could ever create a new legacy, maybe she could become a hero too, someday? Maybe she could find others like her? 

Whatever the future would bring her way, she would be ready, she would live in the present.

She was Kara Danvers, she was Kara Zor-El, and she wouldn’t be the last of anything.

Chapter Text

Alex needed a moment.

And a vacation.

But most of all, she needed a bottle of Maggie’s favorite tequila.

She had been ignoring the trembling of her legs and the increasing need of catching her breath all morning. The twins had been born shortly after dawn, and now it was way past 2 pm.

She was exhausted. And scared. 

Not scared in the way of “There’s a three-ton monstrous alien coming towards me and I have to put all my training as a black-ops agent to use so I don’t die”. She was used to that. But no, this new way of shitting her pants felt more like “My sister is a mother now. Wait. Does she want to be one? Does this mean I’m an aunt now? What the fuck is happening? What in the fucking hell is happening and how come a few hours ago I was happy and ignorant and ready to bang my girlfriend and NOW I’m covered in blood and fluids and running DNA tests on newborns, tests, by the way, that undoubtedly confirm these two babies are a genetic marvel and have two mothers and are half-Human, half-Kryptonian!!??”.

That sounded accurate in her mind.

And then, there was her father, acting calm and nonchalantly, as if almost fifteen years of their lives weren't taken away by an evil organization that had tortured him and forced him to do terrible things. Alex feared Jeremiah was damaged in ways that ran too deep for her to understand. Yet.

Alex hated when she couldn't fix things. The kind of rage it made her feel couldn't be compared to anything else. For someone accustomed to punch her way through problems, this was a new level of frustration.

As she contemplated National City’s skyline from the DEO’s balcony, the city roaring with its hell-bent pace even on a Sunday, she was glad she was out of her medical coat. It felt too heavy, it reminded her of unhappier times… a simple piece of clothing took her back to her internship at the hospital, when she was bitter and angry and fought her way through the world, only without a reason… besides loneliness, maybe. 

The moment Kara became an adult, Alex was reminded that she had her own life to live. And that was never the plan… the plan was protecting Kara, at all costs. But her sister came out of her wing ready to fly (quite literally, though it would take her some years to wear the cape), and Alex watched as the bubble she had built to protect her from the rest of the world ran too small for the eagerness and curiosity of one Kara Danvers. So she let her go, and she lost herself.

Her rebel without a cause years seemed so far away now, like it was another life. Now she had a cause, she had purpose, and she had Kara back, both finally accepting who they were. Truly, fearlessly, and most importantly, together.

But now, she wondered if the latest events could take all that away. Not only was Kara the unwilling mother of two newborns, but she shared that responsibility with a Luthor now, of all people. And Alex knew her sister: no matter how sick and twisted this all was, she wouldn’t walk away from the defenseless, the innocent… and that little girl and that little boy, still nameless, sleeping peacefully inside of an incubator, clueless about the terrible circumstances that led to their unexpected arrival to the world, were the actual definition of innocent.

Alex wished she could feel optimistic about the future, but she could feel in her bones someone was bound to get hurt, and that her sister had all the winning tickets.

A warm, husky voice took her out of her reverie. 

“So… is it weird if I tell you that seeing you delivering babies is such a turn on?”

Alex didn’t need to turn around to picture her girlfriend smirking at her.

She chuckled softly, smiling naturally for the first time in hours. 

“Uh… eh, I wouldn’t call it weird. Sick, maybe. But that’s just the way you are… you.”

Alex turned around to see Maggie smiling warmly at her. When she saw what Maggie had in her hands, she couldn’t help but squee. 

“Oooh, you’re the best, Sawyer!” 

“I get that a lot.”

Maggie had driven down to Noonan’s to get Alex’s favorite sandwich and the largest coffee she could find. Maggie had grabbed a bite earlier with James and Winn (so they could freak out collectively in a safe environment), but she knew Alex hadn’t eaten anything yet. She was glad when her girlfriend practically teared the bag to get to the sandwich. That was phase one of her plan: make her eat, check. Now, make her talk… that was going to be another story.

Maggie just watched Alex eat, wondering how something as simple as that could make her feel so happy. They spent long minutes in silence, enjoying the cold breeze and the sounds of the city, just content in each other’s presence. Alex rested her elbows against the railing while she enjoyed her sandwich, making little sounds of pleasure. Maggie just smiled and shook her head; the Danvers sisters and food, a love story, she thought to herself.

“Mmmm, oh my God. Thank, you, thank you. I needed that.” Alex proclaimed while she sucked blue cheese sauce from her fingers.

Maggie nodded and just watched in unapologetic awe.

“I’m here to serve and protect, sweetheart.” 

Alex gave her girlfriend a quick peck on the lips but she couldn’t help to linger a little and whisper something in Maggie’s ear.

“I love it when you protect me, even more when you serve me…”

Before Maggie could blush and react to Alex’s closeness, the unmistakable sound of a sonic boom sounded high above the city, loud as thunder.

They both raised their heads to look up to the sky. 

It wasn’t a bird, obviously. And of course, it wasn’t a plane, either.

A blur of blue and red crossed the sky as sirens wailed across the city.

“Oh oh. She never breaks the sound barrier unless it’s a national emergency or something…” Alex frowned, a flash of worry crossing her face.

Maggie reassured her.

“I think she’s just pissed, she couldn’t talk to Lena after the babies were born because there was a fire in a mall. Then, she had to stop a couple of thugs trying to rob Brian.”

Alex raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

“Brian?”

Maggie just gave a half-smile and pursed her lips.

“Apparently he came out of a bookie waving two grand in his hands and yelling he was the king of the world.”

Alex scoffed.

“Ah, good old Brian.”

“Aaand after that, your sister had to convinced some yuppie guy not to jump from the top of the Wayne Building at WTC.” 

Alex raised her eyebrows in amazement. 

“Wow, she’s having a busy day, huh?”

Suddenly, Alex felt a shift in the air and turned to the sky again to see the Girl of Steel floating right in front of them, almost magically.

“Hey guys, you talking about me?” 

Supergirl dedicated them a fake smile that quickly turned into a sigh, filled with annoyance. The crinkle in the middle of Kara’s forehead could be seen from where they were standing. Alex grimaced.

“By the way, do you think this is just chance or do the criminals of this city know this is the worst time ever to pester me beyond end? Because they’ve been at it all morning…” 

Maggie and Alex had no time to respond as the loud screech of a skidding car was heard in the street below them. 

“For the love of Rao, it’s a Sunday, people! Gimme a break!”

Kara knew they couldn’t hear her, but she was going to make sure they did in a few moments.

“Murphy’s law, Little Danvers.”

Maggie hadn’t finished the sentence when two police cars followed right behind the reckless runaway.

Kara growled.

“Unbelievable!”

Supergirl looked back at her sister with pleading eyes, her forehead puckering. 

“Tell Lena I’ll be back in ten, please? And I mean it this time. I don’t care if a Nuclear Power Plant explodes, I need– I need to talk to her..."

Alex smiled warmly at her, sensing the stress in Kara’s voice. 

“Don’t worry about Lena, sis. She knows, she’s fine. Go get ‘em, tiger.”

And with a nod of her head, Kara flew down towards the action where Supergirl was needed for the umpteenth time.

Alex sighed and turned back to Maggie. The detective was looking at her with a mixture of tenderness and worry. Alex, after all this time, still wasn’t used to the soft warmth in her chest that burst whenever she caught Maggie looking at her like that.

She hoped she’d never get used to it. 

“So… how are you holding up?”

Maggie’s sweet voice sounded like music in her ears, but there was something inside her that still made her clench to her Agent Danvers facade. 

“Fine… fine.” Alex sighed and Maggie could see her shoulders loading up with tension, exactly the opposite of fine. “Lena is resting now,” Alex continued, thoughtfully. “I think I did a great work with her stitches, we’ll have her move around in a wheel chair for a couple of days though she’ll be able to stand and walk by herself in no time. The babies seem to be fine, too fine actually to be preterm, but I guess that’s their Kryptonian side at work. We still don’t know anything about what powers they’ll have… Lena told Mom that Lillian kept her for months in a chamber with red sun lamps. How did she get her hands on such technology we’ll never know, but she’s a clever bitch, I’ll giver her that; she made sure their Kryptonian genes boosted during pregnancy. So, we’re positive they will have powers, but all we can hope for is that they’ll develop them slowly. J’onn is worried sick about Lena, about the babies, about Kara… Winn said we should call him Space Grandpa from now. If we do that, he’ll probably freak out.”

“Uh huh… Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“Though I appreciate you sharing information regarding your very confidential work with me, I didn’t ask for a full status report on your patients or the emotional state of your boss. I asked how YOU are holding up.”

For a moment, only the wind dared to break the now unexpectedly uncomfortable silence.

Alex blushed a little.

“Oh.”

Maggie finally chuckled and raised an eyebrow.

“Well?”

Alex rested her forearms on the balcony’s railing and looked sheepishly at Maggie. She pursed her lips and shrugged.   

“My father just came back from the dead and my straight, alien sister has two kids now. With a woman. With a Luthor. I’m just… Is this the real life, Sawyer?”

Alex smiled weakly and Maggie was glad that at least she could find some room for humor. 

“Yep, it seems it is, babe.”

Maggie opened her arms without another word, and Alex stepped into an embrace that had her whimpering with pleasure as she closed her eyes and inhaled Maggie’s essence. The warmth of Maggie’s arms and the sound of her breathing close to her ears seemed to take away all her worries, all her fears, if only for a moment. There was no place like her safe place.

They broke the hug reluctantly. Maggie turned around and looked back to the med-bay, where Lena and the babies were supposed to be resting as they spoke.

“So, there’s no doubt now that the babies are Kara’s?” The Detective asked.

Alex nodded and rested her back and elbows against the rail, looking in the same direction as Maggie.

“Pretty much confirmed by every DNA test known on this side of the galaxy.”

“Please show those test results to Mon-El, he’s been trying to convince everyone that the babies can’t be Kara’s, that your father is hiding something, that Lena might be helping her mother…”, Maggie raised her eyebrows and shook her head slightly. “James and I tried to talk some sense into him, but he’s just not listening…”

Alex looked down to the ground.

“I guess it’s understandable that he’s– maybe– a little shaken by this whole situation? I’ve thought about being in his shoes and, well, it can’t be easy.”

Maggie looked back at her girlfriend and frowned.

“Excuse me? Who are you, ma’am? The Prince of Daxam defense squad?” 

Alex poked Maggie playfully but sighed, a little frustrated.

“I’m not defending him, Maggie! I’m just saying… I get it, you know? I get why he might be on edge. We all need time to process this, you know?”

The puzzled look on Maggie’s face encouraged Alex to try and explain herself. The agent was visibly conflicted.

“Imagine… imagine if it was me pregnant with… I don’t know… James’ children! After being kidnapped for ten months? How would that make you feel?”

Maggie bit her lower lip and pretended to think about it for a few seconds.

“Well. That’s a fucked up scenario, I’ll give you that. But James is such a hunk, plus he’s kind, and smart, so I’d say he’s the perfect sperm donor and I’d look at it on the bright side.”

Alex shook her head and looked back to the med-bay, then back to her girlfriend. Maggie tried to hide her surprise the moment she saw the look of real fear on Alex’s face. 

“I’m serious, Maggie. You can’t tell me this isn’t a terrible situation. This… this is a mess. This is something I never would have imagine.” 

Maggie contemplated Alex breathing in and out as if her chest was hurting. She discarded the playful tone and mentally kicked herself for not realizing any sooner that Alex was truly upset. Not that everyone else wasn’t worried and intrigued about how they were going to handle this whole situation, but Maggie had to quote herself in her mind: The only person you get that turn up over is Kara. Of course her girlfriend was worried sick about her sister. 

The detective couldn’t help but feel a familiar warmth in her chest.

“Babe, this is fucked up, no one is denying that…” Maggie began in the softest of tones. “But, don’t you think your sister and Lena already know that? I don’t think they need to be reminded. And I think Kara is going to need us to be as supportive and understanding as ever, whatever decision she makes…”

“I… I just… God, Mags, this will change her life forever. And her and Lena… it’s not like they can raise those children together and just forget about the rest of their lives, right?” 

Alex immediately hunch her shoulders and grit her teeth, as if she had spoken too much. 

Looking at her, realization suddenly hit Maggie and she felt a wave of guilty washing over her. Could she have been the one that planted all these seeds of doubt in Alex? 

“Wait a minute. Is this because of what I said last night?” Maggie asked eagerly.

Alex didn’t look at her. She just stuttered. 

“Last night? I don’t… God, Mags. I don’t know. I’m just tired.”

Last night… it seemed so far away right now. 

“You know that what I said about your sister and Lena… it was just… I shouldn’t have said anything, Alex, I’m so sorry. I was just gossiping, you know? And… well… they’re friends. They’ll get through this, somehow.” Maggie felt so stupid for not seeing this coming. “Is that why you’re worried about Mon-El, too?”

Alex shrugged as tears of frustration and confusion began to water in her eyes.

“I just… I don’t want her to get hurt.”

Maggie stepped closer and wrapped her arms around Alex’s waist, resting her head on her shoulder.

“I know, babe, but this is your sister we’re talking about.” Maggie whispered softly, as they both looked up to the sky. “She’s the strongest woman I know, and not just because they call her the Girl of Steel.”

Alex rested her hand on top of Maggie’s, and let herself melt a little into the embrace. She closed her eyes and breathed in. Then, she turned around in Maggie’s arms until she was facing her, she cupped her cheeks with her hands and look intently into her girlfriend’s eyes.

“And you, Maggie Sawyer…” Alex began, unable to repress an adoring smile, “…you’re the most beautiful woman I know, and not just because of how good you look…”

They kissed. Slowly, tenderly. Lips collapsed and tongues found a home in each other’s mouth. When they broke the kiss, they rested their foreheads against one another’s, soothing smiles on their faces.

“So… Have you ever thought about having children?” Maggie said casually, resting her arms on Alex’s waist, as they began a slow-paced music-less dance.

“Can I be completely honest with you?” Alex bit her lip.

“Always, babe.”

“I have thought about it. And every time… I felt like it was something that’s not for me.” Alex said, a simple conviction in her tone. “I love my life as it is. I have this job where I feel useful, where I am complete. I have friends and family. And now I’ve got you. So… I don’t know how a child could fit into all of this.” Alex felt reassured when she didn’t feel Maggie tense or look at her disapprovingly; oddly enough, this was a topic that had never come up before. “Don’t get me wrong, I like children, I’m not one of those people that can’t stand them but… It would change everything. So every time I think about it… I just…”

Maggie smiled. They were still dancing. They were still holding each other’s waists. 

“It’s ok, babe. I get it.”

Alex kind of panicked for a second… maybe Maggie was putting a brave face and she had unconsciously shattered her hopes for the future. 

“Are you– is this… is this a problem?” Alex questioned stepping back from their embrace. Maggie held on to her tightly.

“No. I appreciate you being honest with me.” The detective was smiling now, but still, Alex worried she had said something wrong.

“Maggie? Seriously, we’ve never talked about this… Do you want to have them?” Alex insisted.

It was Maggie’s turn to shrug now, as she just shook her head.

“I don’t know. Honestly? I’ve never thought about it. I always thought I’d end up– you know.”

“No, I don’t know. Please, explain.” Alex frowned.

“Alex… I don’t know, I guess I thought I’d never have them because I’d end up alone… Or killed in action or something.” This time, the DEO agent did feel how her detective girlfriend tensed up in her arms. “It’s not like my family sat a great example of a loving environment for a child, so if I was to bring a little person to the world… I’d had to make sure they were going to be most beloved child ever.” Maggie looked down at her feet. Alex did not let her go. “That they’d feel wanted, you know?” Maggie looked up to meet Alex’s eyes once again. All she found was understanding. “That they’d feel accepted, no matter what. I don’t know if I’d be capable of providing that.”

Alex kissed her forehead and Maggie let out a content sigh.

“Oh, Mags, of course you would.”

Maggie chuckled softly, grateful for Alex’s sometimes unsettling and stubborn faith in her, no matter what.

“Shut up, Danvers. It’s not like this is an issue or anything because I’m more inclined towards your point of view…”

Alex raised her eyebrows, pulling Maggie closer to her. Their hips moved together now.

“Uh huh. So no kids?” Alex said in a bizarrely playful tone.

Maggie chuckled.

“I don’t think so, no…”

“So we can have sex forever at any time we want?” Alex had a goofy smile on her face.

“Absolutely.” Maggie answered with solemnity. 

“Good.”

“Good.”

Maggie rested her head on Alex’s shoulder, and they kept on dancing silently for long minutes, as if they could stop the rest of the world.

“We’re going to be the coolest aunties ever, anyway.” Maggie stated not even attempting to lift her head.

“Oh, yes.”

“We’re going to spoil those little brats so much that Kara is going to ban us from her house.” Maggie’s muffled remark made Alex grin. 

“She’ll probably establish a perimeter.” Alex agreed.

“Yep.” 

Silence settled between them once again. The slow dance never stopped.

“God, it’s still so unreal.” Alex sighed, and Maggie could feel her heartbeat through her shirt. “I don’t think I’m ready to be an aunt. And Kara… God. This is… this is just so fucking weird.”

“It is, babe. But, correct me if I’m wrong… didn’t our lives have all this weirdness way before your sister had lab babies with Lena Luthor?”

Alex’s eyes went wide with horror for a second.

“God, it sounds even weirder when you put it that way.”

“I guess we all will have to get used to it." 

“Do we?” 

And the dance stopped. Because Maggie could hear the uneasiness back in Alex’s voice. She stepped away and looked into once again concerned eyes.

“What you mean, Danvers?”

Alex hated to feel like this. She wanted to rest for a bit, she wanted to enjoy Maggie’s presence, she wanted to be in the now and don’t let what ifs and dark clouds take over her mind, but when it came to Kara… she couldn’t help it.  

“This is all… this is all Lillian’s fault. I just wanna find her and– God! And they haven’t talk yet… maybe… maybe Lena doesn’t want them? I mean, after what she’s been through, if I was in her shoes I wouldn’t know if… You know? It’s only human, right? Maybe she… she can’t do it. Or… or maybe Kara won’t know what to do? And Cadmus… they’re still out there.” 

Kara had travelled millions of light-years to escape a dying planet, leaving her family behind. And Alex knew there was no one stronger on Earth. But when her sister hugged her with strong arms that could crash her bones in a second, Alex was the only one that could feel the fragility of her heart and the immense sea of love that pumped in her veins. 

Kara’s destiny was to protect Earth, but Alex’s was to protect the protector.

She would always feel the responsibility. 

It wasn’t a burden. It was a blessing.

“Hon, it’s just natural to be worried, but you’re a woman of action.” Maggie took Alex’s hands in hers and shook them a little bit, as if making a point. Action. Always. “We’ll be ready to face them. And so will be your sister…” Alex nodded and squeezed Maggie’s hands, gently. But then Maggie said something that was intended to sound casual, but added new fuel to Alex’s mind. “Besides, I have a feeling that this is going to be much harder to grasp for all of us than for Kara.”

“What do you mean?” The DEO agent frowned.

Maggie sighed, realizing once again that her girlfriend’s intrepid mind wasn’t about to give her a break. Maggie resolved the only valid approach was honesty. Always.

“Well, you didn’t see it because you were saving those little pumpkins' lives…” Maggie sighed with defeated reluctance, knowing very well what effect the words she was about to say would have on Alex, “…but the look on your sister’s face when she held the baby girl for the first time… it was… she was glowing, Alex.”

Alex nodded and her body inevitably became stiff. She raised her index finger to make her point.

“See… that…” Alex began, cut short by a Kryptonian thunder of red and blue and gold flying inside the DEO, straight into the med-bay.

Alex looked back at Maggie. Her eyes said everything, but she finished her sentence anyway.

“That’s what scares me.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

It was just another frightening, stressful Monday for Jess, the secretary, as some friends of hers called her in a futile attempt to mock her (actually, her job title was Senior Administrative Assistant, but go and try to explain that to those nitwits).

The same old ritual she had been performing for the last ten months started at 7 am sharp, opening Lena Luthor’s office with her personal security code and making sure everything was in order, though order meant in this case that the office remained exactly the same as L-Corp’s CEO had left it that dreadful night when NCPD came to arrest her.

She took pictures of the office with her phone, everyday, and kept files with the dates organised in her computer just to make sure everything remained exactly in its place. She had a perfect photographic memory, but she needed to use all the resources she had at hand to avoid mistakes. Intrusions and espionage were the last thing L-Corp needed right now.

Once she was done making sure everything was in its right place, she would close the office and sit at her desk. At around 7.30, the phone would start ringing and it wouldn’t stop for the rest of the day.

Right after Lena’s imprisonment, the company’s stock plummeted in every market around the world, unleashing chaos. The board didn’t know what to do, the employees were freaking out, investors lost millions and the subsidiary companies began pulling their assets out.

Jess really thought it was going to be the end of Lena’s dream, and it broke her heart.

It didn’t matter that they had prepared for this: Lena had given her clear instructions on what to do if something happened to her. They had gone through every possible scenario, and Jess knew exactly who to call, what to do and what to say in order to protect the company without Lena, as long as possible. Still, she knew she was failing. As head of the personal assistants team, she never got much sleep… but it only got worse with Lena gone. Hector was the only one that could keep up with her, and the others just followed out of fear of losing their jobs.

And there was Alana… that lying, traitorous bitch.

Jess knew for quite some time that someone in her team was leaking information to rival companies, so she shared false documents with every member of her team, feeding them specific details so every story was unique. It was Alana’s fake intel that ended up in the hands of the wrong people.

Jess had never enjoyed sending someone’s file to Legal, but that time it gave her absolute pleasure. Alana didn’t even bother to come by the office to pick up her stuff, surely the court citation as a suspect of industrial espionage had prevented her from retrieving her boyfriend’s picture and her cactus.

Jess just gave everything to the janitor telling him that “the trash belongs with the trash”.

That was the only victory she had.

Three days after Lena’s arrest and posterior escape, Jess felt like ten years had gone by.

She was almost ready to give in to despair and fatigue, surrender to all those voices that yelled at her that her boss was, indeed, a villain.

But then, Kara Danvers happened, because not all heroes wear capes.

Jess put the reporter on an imaginary pedestal when she saved the company single-handedly with a 12-page special on CatCo Magazine under the title “Where on Earth is Lena Luthor? The truth about the unsung hero of National City, wrongly accused of working for Cadmus.”

Jess really thought Ms. Danvers deserved the Pulitzer, the Nobel Prize and unlimited supplies of plumerias for the rest of her life. Stocks rose back, investors stopped losing their minds, and the board finally released a statement backing up their CEO and vowing to put all the company’s resources at the disposal of the authorities so they could bring her home unharmed.

The Senior VP of the company was handling things from Metropolis in Lena’s absence, keeping the board at bay. Luckily, part of Lena’s numerous contingency plans involved clear instructions on how to prevent anyone from taking over the CEO position in her absence (she would have to be declared legally dead by three different forensic experts, and that was the easy part).

Things went slowly back to the tense calm that was L-Corp’s natural atmosphere since Lex Luthor was imprisoned. The staff was happier with Lena, there was no doubt about that, but no one dared to speak out loud the alarming question that was on everyone’s minds: what will happen if Lena Luthor never comes back? What will L-Corp become, then?

And so Jess sat at her desk on another idle Monday, worrying too much about things she had no control over. Summer was knocking at the city’s door and the warm rays of the early morning always filled Jess’s mind with optimism, but lately it was becoming harder to believe that everything was going to be alright, that Lena would have a happy ending… Jess hadn’t pray since her datuk died and she really didn’t think that Allah would care much for what she had to say after all that time, but sometimes she felt the need to close her eyes and just pray, pray that Lena wasn’t de–

RING, RING.

A phone.

Ringing.

A phone that was not supposed to ring.

Hector looked up from his desk, a puzzled, almost comic expression on his face.

Jess froze and looked to the closed door of the office of their absent CEO.

Again… RING, RING.

That… that’s not possible, Jess thought. No one has that number. No one can access it without being redirected from the switchboard on my desk.

Hector began making wild gesticulations, almost maniacally, as if he was trying to signal a plane for landing while on drugs. Jess hissed at him and silently wondered why they were acting like fools if they were alone in the office.

The phone kept screaming from the surface of Lena’s desk.

It was impossible, yes, but it was happening.

Jess opened the door to Lena’s office and stepped in, her hands shaking.

She took tentative steps towards the phone, speeding up the pace as her heart pumped faster.

A trembling hand reached out to grab the handset.

“This is… mmm…” She closed her eyes in embarrassment as she heard her own voice cracking. She got herself together with a deep breath. “L-Corp building, my name is Jessica, how may I help you?”

There was a pause, and then only one word.

“Hello.”

A familiar female voice, deep and warm, a subtle trace of a familiar accent…

“This is Tess Mercer.”

The assistant’s mind raged in confusion for a second. Then, as Hector appeared on the door to find out what was going on, Jess brought a hand to her chest and a gasp escaped her mouth.

“What– OHMYGO–“

Before a betraying sob escaped her, she moved her free hand to her mouth, trying to contain herself from screaming.

The impossible had happened.

Jess fought back the tears, but it was useless. Remaining as professional as possible, she just stared at Hector, wide-eyed, and clang with both hands to the phone.

“Oh, oh… Ms. Mercer…” There was a little sob there, but she wouldn’t give in to emotion. Not now. She wouldn’t fail. She wouldn’t fail her. “It’s been a long time. It’s… it’s so good to hear your voice.”

“Ah, likewise, Jess.”

There was silence again on the other side of the line. Then, just remarkable serenity. Jess wondered how her voice could be so calm… that had to be a good sign, right?

“I was just calling to tell you I’m gonna be in town for a couple of days, so I’d like to have my usual arrangements?”

Jess understood immediately. The plan. The contingency. A couple of days. She remembered what it meant. She tried to contain her growing anxiety.

“Yes, yes, of course, Ms. Mercer, anything you need.”

There was another pause, and Jess listened intently to the steady breathing of her interlocutor. And suddenly, she heard something, in the distance, could it be… a baby, crying?

“Also, I need you to contact Epsilon and Nu for me. Could you that, Jess?”

There was no hint of hesitation in that voice. It breathed the determination Jess was so familiar with.

“Yes, consider it done, Ms. Mercer.”

“Thank you, Jess. I’ll see you soon.”

Jess smiled now at a very confused Hector that stood still looking at her.

“I– We hope to see you soon too, Ms. Mercer.”

“Take care, Jess. Bye.”

She could hear the soft smile in the farewell. It was true. She was alive.

Jess, the secretary, hung up the phone and began crying and laughing and whispering terima kashis to Allah.

“Who was it?” Hector asked, but Jess just wiped her tears, smiled, and sighed with determination.

“We need to make some calls. Let’s get back to work.”

Jess jogged back to her desk, a puzzled Hector following behind.

She perfectly remembered the list of names Lena made her memorize. Twenty-four names, each one associated to one letter of the greek alphabet, in case they needed to speak in code, in case someone was listening. She could recite each and every one of them. And she never asked questions.

Though some names on that list were certainly… intriguing, she didn’t know the connection those selected few had with Lena. She wouldn’t dare to ask.

There was K, Kappa, Kara Danvers, of course.

There was Beta, Bruce Wayne.

There was Delta, Diana Prince.

There was Sigma, Barry Allen (who was that guy anyway, it was the only one she couldn’t trace back to any living person).

There was Omega… Clark Kent.

But none of those names mattered now. She had to contact Epsilon and Nu.

Epsilon. Jonathan Essen.

Nu. Natasha Terranova.

On their particular language, there was also the matter of Tess Mercer declaring she was going to be in town for a couple of days. That only meant she was safe, and that she would come back soon.

Of course, Tess Mercer didn’t exist. Like Lena Thorul and so many other aliases.

Jess couldn’t help but smile.

Tess Mercer was the one and only Lena Luthor, CEO of L-Corp, born Lena Kieran Jenkins, daughter of Pamela Jenkins and of unknown father, later legally adopted by Lionel and Lillian Luthor, immediately becoming Lena Kieran Luthor.

And she was coming home.

Chapter Text

The approaching sound of thunder growled over the buildings of Metropolis.

Once a proud Babylon, now only ashes and dust. 

Once the home of a God, now the kingdom of despair.

The screams had become extinct days ago. There was no one to cry out for a hero now. 

Those who still had a voice, only used it to weep, or to tell others to run, to go away, to escape while they had the chance. 

Among the chaos of the night, flying through the red sky and the smoke, there was the Archangel that fell from grace.

Her name was not Lucifer. 

But many years ago, just like the Prince of Darkness before his downfall, she used to be associated with sunshine and hope.

This powerful being that searched the city with red eyes and fire in her chest was not the Supergirl the world had known and loved.

“Murderer! Murderer, where are you?” 

Her words raged through the heavens. 

“You cannot hide from me, Kal!” 

An unspeakable pain was hidden in the distorted notes of her voice. 

“I followed you through the Galaxy, remember? I WILL FIND YOU, MURDERER!”

No, this was not the hero of National City that saved millions with a speech and a symbol of hope.

You could tell just by looking at her. If you dared to look.

Her suit was different. The familiar colors she wore proudly years ago were gone. 

So was the skirt that used to disguise her invulnerability in cliched femininity. 

No, this suit was very different.

No red, no blue. Only black. Obsidian black.

The black cape followed the lines that her curvy blonde hair traced while dodging buildings and debris. Her hair straightened under the rain and turned the color of ashes. The only sign of ageing was a single white lock that had appeared in the left side of her head, exactly like the one her aunt Astra used to have. 

She prayed now that she could be more like Astra, or at least as strong and brave as she was, especially when she needed to do the unimaginable. 

She landed hard on the ground, in the middle of what used to be called Krypton Square. 

Oh, isn’t it ironic?

The emblem of the House of El could only be identified when the black metallic contours above her chest shined under thunder and lightning.

“Murderer! Come out, come out!” She shouted again, and this time, the heavens answered.

A familiar figure landed a few meters in front of her. It was too dark to make out the face of her opponent, but the red cape and the muscular form in blue was unmistakable. 

Without a word, Kara Zor-El launched herself forward with all her strength, burying her fists in her cousin’s ribs and pushing him towards a building. Debris fell upon them, but Kara did not let go. 

She needed to see his face, the face of Kal-El, Clark Kent, the betrayer, the murderer…

When Kal raised his head, Kara gasped and realized her mistake.

Instead of big blue eyes, she found a familiar green. A green that used to be enough to make her heart dance in her chest and her knees go weak. A green that filled her with the warmth of a home, a place where she belonged, and just like her home planet, no longer existed.

She regarded the man (the young man, actually) in front of her, completely in shock. 

The impecable lines of his jawline were a carbon copy of his mother’s. His dark hair with a hint of brown sparkles wherever light touched it, so like his mother’s.

And the green of his gentle eyes, so unmistakable.

It was like looking at her, again. And be reminded of everything she had lost.

"Li… Liam?”

Her son’s name fell from her tongue hard, just as if she had been hit by a Kryptonite bullet. She took a step backwards and realized that he wasn’t wearing just any super suit.

He was wearing the suit that her mother had designed for him: red, blue and gold, just like Supergirl's, yes, but on his chest, a replica of the House of El coat of arms half the size of the one in Kara’s original suit shined on the left side, above his heart. And on the right side, Liam wore proudly the symbol that had become L-Corp’s company logo many years ago, before he was born. Just a beautiful, stylish “L”, embroidered in lapis lazuli and gold.

Liam Jeremiah Danvers-Luthor, known to the world as Superboy, fell to his knees in front of her Kryptonian mother and coughed, trying to regain the rhythm of his breath.

“Liam? My son… what- What are you doing?”

Kara reached out and helped him stand, caressing his face and searching his organs with X-Ray vision, afraid she might had injured him.

“We had to stop you, Ieiu. You can’t do this.”

Another figure landed in front of them. And this time, Kara knew exactly who it was.

Her daughter, dressed in the classical Supergirl suit that used to be Kara’s, stared at her with unequivocal intentions. Seeing Luna dressed like that was like looking in a mirror of her younger self, and it made her ache inside even more.

“You shouldn’t be here, kids,” Kara growled, her voice betraying hesitation. “You shouldn’t be seeing this. Go home now, before it’s too late.”

Luna took a step forward and put her hands on her hips, defiantly. Kara had to close her eyes, the image was so familiar and powerful that she was losing focus. And she had a mission, she could not forget that, even if she had to make her children understand… Even if she had to make terrible choices.

“Everything we know, you taught us.” Luna spoke proudly, not a hint of fear in her voice. “If someone can stop you on this Earth, it’s us, Ieiu.”

Kara was afraid now. Her legs trembled as her son tried to take her hand in his.

"It doesn’t have to be like this,” Liam whispered, gently. His voice sounded like a beautiful melody in the middle of confusion, in the middle of all this chaos and thunder. “She would have never allowed this. You know this is not what Mama wanted-“

Kara almost gave in, almost faltered. 

“Stop!”

She jerked away from her son’s touch and looked to the heavens, the unforgiving rain reminding her of what she had to do.

“We can’t know now, can we? She’s not here!” Kara turned around and faced her children, her rage taking over like a stream in a flood. “My cousin made sure of that. My cousin, Lex, the Justice League, Brainiac, Doomsday… They all murdered her. And she’s not here anymore, no, she’s not here to watch as I avenge her.”

“And what will you gain?” Luna stepped closer, her face determined as her brother fell in line behind her. “Do you think this will bring her back? Do you think you’ll feel less empty? Do you think it’ll make us feel better?”

Kara Zor-El sighed and asked herself if she could do this… if she could be strong enough.

“It’s not about feelings. I need to do this. They took everything from me, now I’ll take everything from them. I will kill them all.” Kara’s knuckles went white at the thought of revenge. “I will make sure they don’t hurt anyone else, ever again…”

“You know Mom wouldn’t want you to kill for her.”

Liam’s warm, soothing voice, just made her rage boil this time.

“They took EVERYTHING from me!!”

Kara’s voice echoed through the plaza, but her daughter didn’t even flinch. 

"That’s not true, Ieiu. You’ve got us. Ukiem kryp rrip. Mom lives in me and in Liam and we need you.”

Kara hesitated, looking for an answer, and Luna seize the moment to take another step forward, searching to connect her eyes with those of her mother, the same blue in both women, the same shade of blonde in their hair.

"We need the one parent we have left to mourn with us. This pain, this loss… we can only overcome it as a family. And we are still a family.” Kara was sobbing now, resisting the urge to fall on her knees and just give up. Give up, and let her rest. Let her go.

Kara died a bit inside at the thought.

Luna crouched in front of her and spoke again, her voice cracking with emotion. 

“We need you, Ieiu, we need you by our side, as our mother. Mama would never want you to do this. Stronger together, remember?” 

Kara tried to wipe away her tears but her daughter took her hands in hers and squeezed them enough to make her listen. Enough to reach through and break her heart, again.

“They only lack the light to show the way.” 

Kara Zor-El raised her head as her daughter said the words of a message that had travelled millions of light years to reach them, to guide her family in times of need. Her tears seemed to dry instantly, and the rapid beating of her heart turned suddenly steadier, calmer. 

Her daughter, on the contrary, was crying freely now, begging her, trying to break through the wall of pain Kara had built around her the moment she had felt Lena’s heartbeat stop.

"You made us memorize uncle Jor-El’s words when we were kids, and we’ll never forget. Please be our light again, Ieiu. Just think about Mama. Just think about how much she loved you. Just think about how much WE love you. Please, please, Ieiu, come home. Please.”

Kara crouched mimicking her daughter’s position. She caressed her cheek, wiping one lonely tear away.

“I’m sorry, Loo…” The familiar nickname felt like the lyrics of an adored song in Kara’s tongue. But it was deceiving. It made her daughter missunderstand her real intentions.

Luna reacted with a sad yet hopeful smile.

“Ieiu, it’s alright, we–“

Kara had to stop it. Stop everything. For good.

“No. I’m sorry. I can’t do this, baby girl. I can’t walk away. Not without her.”

Her voice didn’t show any emotion anymore. A little bit of regret for the disappointment her kids were about to feel. A little bit of surrender. But nothing else. Not anymore.

She had to haunt them. The murderers. She had to kill them. 

Kara stood on her feet and began walking away from her children, praying to Rao that they would do the same.

She felt them taking off quickly just to land in front of her to stand in her way.

Kara smiled despite herself. Of course, her children were a reflection of Lena’s moral rightness and committed ethics. They wouldn’t walk away. 

Even from this.

From the hardest choice of their lives.

Kara felt so proud.

And so, so sad.

“We can’t let you do this either. Please forgive us, Ieiu.”

Kara closed her eyes. Her son’s voice reminded her so much of that of her Kryptonian father. Always so collected. Always so caring. It always grounded her, even when he was a baby. His laughter would always relax her, instantly, the way the sweetest of melodies would do.

This time, it broke her heart.

She opened her eyes, and she just nodded at them.

Kara could tell they were afraid. Confronting one’s parents was one thing. Trying to stop them when they are the most powerful being on Earth… well, that’s something else.

So Kara felt like the one thing she could do right was making sure they would face their duty with strength. 

“It’s ok, kids. I understand.”

She smiled. No anger. Just acceptance for what was coming.

And that’s when they launched themselves forward.

It all happened too quickly. It was so strange. The heavens changed color. The reds turned green and the blood in her mouth tasted like metal.

She fought her own children, and a voice, deep within her, cried for her to stop. 

But madness was the faithful companion of a broken heart, and she did not refrain.

Not even when the rain stopped and she felt something sharp in her hand. A weapon.

How?

She had not bring a weapon to this fight.

She would never wield a weapon against her own children…

And yet, when the storm was through, she felt blood in her hands. And it wasn’t hers.

“Mama?”

Her son was calling someone, but not her. Her other mother. Her son, bleeding in her arms.

No. No. How?

Liam laid trembling. Dying. 

A Kryptonite dagger was buried in his chest. 

“Te unah, te unah…”

No. No, no, no. 

Kara’s mind drowned in confusion. She hadn’t brought a Kryptonite weapon with her. She would never used it against her own child.

Unless… was this madness? 

Was this pain finally taking over and revealing the monster she really was?

“Mama? I’m- I’m cold…” 

Liam was shivering in her arms. His voice sounded faint and weak. And in agonizing pain. 

He was disoriented and confused. But he finally focused on her.

“Oh, Ieiu. I’m so sorry. I love you, Ieiu. Just… Nzhalish khahp, Ieiu, nzhalish khahp, sokao…”

He was asking forgiveness? For what? Had she done this? How could this be happening…

No. This couldn’t be happening. 

She touched his face just to see if it was real. The light faded from his eyes. His skin turned white as snow. His cheek felt cold.

No. No. No.

“Liam? Liam, baby?” Kara smiled in disbelieve. She stroke his cheek, his lips, he touched his frozen eyelids. This was her son. It wasn’t true. It coudn’t be. “Liam, get up, baby boy. Get up.” She tried to fly with him in her arms but she felt so heavy. The Kryptonite… could this be real?

No.

NO. 

“It’s just a scratch, baby boy.” And now her voice was breaking and hot tears were dancing in her eyes even if she still tried to smile. “Let’s take you to… to aunt Alex. Let’s give you a sun bath and…” She tried to lift his body again. She felt tired, tired as she hadn’t been in her whole life. Still she ignored it. This couldn’t be true. 

“C’mon, baby boy.” The words were painful. Still, her mind did not surrender. “C’mon, son, it’s nothing. C’mon. Look at me, sweetie. Look at your Ieiu. I’m here, baby, I’m here, your Ieiu is here…”

His head fell from side to side like he was a rag doll.

Her heart stopped.

Did I–? Could I–? Have I killed my son?

“Get away from him!” 

“Luna, honey, don’t…”

Her daughter pushed her and took his brother’s body in her arms. She just stepped backwards, unable to understand what had happened…

Luna was shaking Liam’s cold body, just like she had done.

“Li? Li…? Wake up, Li?” 

He was gone. 

Luna emitted a long, heartbreaking cry.

Kara Zor-El trembled with pain and confusion. This was not possible. This was a cruel joke. She had to be dreaming, she had to be trapped inside a nightmare.

Her daughter turned to her, red dots of rage shining in her eyes.

“What have you done?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”

And Kara just surrendered.

Luna threw punches and kicks at her body and she just let her do it harder and harder without even raising her hands in self-defense.

If this was real, she deserved it. 

No.

She deserved something else.

“Tae!?” Luna yelled at her in Kryptonian, red eyes ready to hit her with heat vision any minute now. “Why won’t you fight?! Look at what you did!! SKULIR! That is your son! Nan zhod ue!”

Yes, she could see it. She could see what she’d done to her own son. 

Her son, and Lena’s.

Luna was lost in her anger now. 

And Kara was beyond lost.

She watched as her daughter flew back to her brother’s body to take out of his chest the weapon that had killed him.

The weapon Kara Zor-El had no memory of.

Luna looked at her one last time, the dagger burning in her hands, but no sign of weakness in her voice.

“You’re not my mother, you’re not my Ieiu!! You’re a monster!!”

And Kara Zor-El just looked at her daughter straight in the eye, with the most outpouring understanding, opening her arms and welcoming in her chest the Kryptonite dagger that had been buried in her son moments ago.

***

Oświęcim, Poland. January 1974.

Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

“Liliana, come.”

 Her father’s voice did not break through the girl’s mind. Not at first, at least. 

 The silence was what struck her the most. The silence, as she stared at the long railroad. White and grey clouds hovered over them, and the 13 year-old girl with red hair and a crimson coat was daunted by the view though she couldn’t quite understand what it all meant, not just yet.

 “Liliana, now.”

 Her father’s voice was deeper, this time, but not louder. Never louder.

 Liliana ran quickly to the tall man’s side and took his hand to let herself be guided into the camp, going through a gate that read Arbeit Macht Frei, carved in iron. Liliana, already fluent in 8 languages by the age of 10, knew what the words meant. 

 Work sets you free.

 As they walked hand in hand, Liliana regarded her father with ingenuous fascination. His grey coat and hat made him look utterly elegant in her eyes; he looked like a movie star, though Liliana knew her father was no actor. He was a scientist, and so she would become one like him, someday. 

 “Do you know where we are, my darling?”

 Liliana just nodded as they kept on walking.

 “A lot of people died here.” The young girl said with genuine maturity, looking straight forward.

 Her father sighed.

 “No, they didn’t die. They were murdered.”

 The sound of their footsteps was heavy on Liliana’s ears. Birds chipped in the distance. A plane was passing by, thousands of feet above their heads.

 “Murdered by the millions.” Her father specified.

 As a reaction, Liliana squeezed quickly her father’s hand.

 “Why, Papa? What did they do?”

 Her father made a slight nod touching the brim of his hat as they passed a couple of elders that just nodded back without a word.

 “Most of them, just exist.” Liliana’s father began explaining, his tone warm, but steady. “The vast majority of the people that died here believed in God in a different way than their executioners. Others didn’t believe in God at all. They were intellectuals, artists, politicians. Others just had a different way of life. They were all innocent. That’s all that matters.” 

 They walked for a few more meters until they reached the metal door to a decayed-looking building.

 “But what’s important now,” Liliana’s father said, as they stopped in front of the door, “what’s important is that they all were killed because of hatred and ignorance.”

 He looked down at his daughter, and took her chin in between his index finger and his thumb to make her look him in the eye.

 “Come, my darling, I want to show you something.”

 He knocked at the metal door. After five seconds, the door opened. An old man allowed them inside. He didn’t say a word.

 Liliana noticed her was a wearing glasses, and his shirt and pants looked dirty, as if he’d been looking for things in the dirt for a long time.

 Father and daughter walked silently, hand in hand, down a long corridor with dim green lights hanging in its ceiling.

 Liliana thought it looked like one of her nightmares. But she didn’t say a thing.

 They turned left and finally reached a large grey room, with dozens of people working silently, each sitting in an individual post. All of them wore gloves and white robes.

 They walked among them, not one of them paying any attention to their presence.

 Liliana noticed they were carefully inspecting items: rings, watches, glasses, bracelets…

 Liliana didn’t know how to call what they were doing, and if it was a profession, she certainly didn’t know the word.

 When they reached the end of the room, her father let go of her hand. 

 “Liliana, look.”

 The little girl complied and focused her attention back to his father.

 He just pointed towards the pile of things in front of them.

 She gasped.

 It was big as a mountain. 

 Just shoes, tiny, little baby shoes.

 Liliana looked back to the men and women inspecting items and writing notes under the light of the lamps.

 She turned back to the mountain. She knew. Instantly, she knew.

 Her father didn’t even let her ask first.

 “You understand, my darling, that this is a crime against Humanity?”

 The girl nodded, and she mimicked her father’s dryness in her response.

 “Yes, Papa.”

 Father and daughter were looking at the mountain of shame now. There was no need for eye contact between them. Liliana knew what her father was telling her, even without saying a word.

 “What would you say if I told you that your Papa could have prevented all of this?” 

 This time, Liliana hesitated.

 “What would you say if I told you your Papa had a way to stop all of this, but he was too weak to do it?”

 Her father was looking at her now, his eyes red, his face hard as stone.

 “Papa?”

 He looked back at the mountain. His rage was gone. It had been just a second, but he just wouldn’t let it take control.

 “I build a weapon, my darling. A weapon that could wipe out entire cities in an instant and leave buildings unharmed, standing proud and tall. And although my weapon could spare inanimate objects, it could not tell the difference from an innocent and a villain.”

 Liliana wanted to leave now. Something in his voice had changed. She wanted to take her father’s hand and go back to the car, tell him she wanted to go home. But home… “home is just a word, Liliana”, he always told her.

 “So when the time came that I could put an end to this, that I could kill the villains behind this atrocity, I was weak.”

 Through clenched teeth, Liliana’s father swallowed endless pain that would eventually kill him, though neither of them knew, back then.

 “I could’ve saved millions. But in the end, I couldn’t bring myself to sacrifice the few for the many. Your father was a coward, Liliana. And this–“ he pointed at the pile, his finger trembling in the air, “this is what happens when men surrender to cowardice!”

 And for the first time in her life, Liliana watched as her father cried.

 She didn’t say anything. She just let him weep.

 Liliana regarded him in silence, both scared and fascinated as her father, a man that had all the answers to all the questions she could think of, sat down on the floor, not minding his expensive suit, and broke down like a child.

 She just stood there, and waited, unsure of what to do, confused by not knowing what was expected of her in a moment like this.

 Not one of the workers in the facility approached them, or asked them to leave. They just kept to themselves, completely focused on their task.

 Liliana finally sat down on the floor, next to her father, within arm’s reach but not touching him.

 After a few minutes, he finally spoke.

 “Will you promise, my darling, that if you find yourself in your father’s place, someday, whatever the reason, you won’t hesitate?” 

 It was hardly a whisper.

 It began quietly, but with remaking strength, her father’s voice changed from piano to allegretto to regain all the power that she knew he could summon. 

 It reminded her of her favourite piece: Beethoven’s Symphony Number 7, op. 92, second movement… It began quietly and almost broken, just to rejoice in the wonders of a full orchestra that showed her how powerful pain and sadness could be.

 “Will you do what I could not, my dear? Will you be strong enough?”

 In her mind, Liliana heard the change of pace and the unmistakable entrance of the timbals. 

 Liliana Olszak, the only daughter of Professor Tomáš Olszak, would never allow something like this.

 And she would think about this conversation every day for the rest of her life. 

 Even after becoming a doctor. Even after embracing a different nationality from the one she was born in. Even after getting married, and changing her name.

 Even after her father died, her husband committed suicide and her son was imprisoned. 

 She would not fail. 

 She would not surrender to the cowardice of men. 

 She would not break her promise.

 “I will, Papa. I will be strong.” 

***

Kara felt the increasing heartbeat and heard the overwhelming cry even before she could identify the source.

But the fact that she had focused in those two things out of the million sounds of the city without even trying clearly foreshadowed it was Lena.

It took her approximately 3.2 seconds to reach the DEO’s medbay from where she was while doing her last recon flight of the night.

The babies were crying, probably upset due to Lena’s cries in her sleep.

A mortified nurse looked at Kara, apologising in silence. The hero didn’t have the time to even acknowledge the poor woman's presence.

Lena was tossing and turning in her sleep, her heartbeat off the charts, sweat all over her face. She was crying, saying words Kara couldn’t comprehend. 

“Lena. Lena… please wake up. It’s just a dream.”

With a sudden gasp and her fingers holding tight to Kara’s arm, Lena finally opened her eyes and looked at Kara, absolutely confused and disoriented.

Kara was panicking inside, but channeling her Supergirl persona, she spoked as calmed as possible, never taking her eyes away from Lena’s.

“Lena, it’s me. You’re safe. You’re at the DEO. The babies are safe. Whatever you were dreaming, it was just that, a dream.”

Lena looked between Kara and the babies, as if her mind was trying to determine whether or not this was reality. 

“I… Kara…” She stuttered. 

Kara smiled warmly at her and sat on the edge of Lena’s bed. She caressed her cheek and wiped away a tear with her thumb. 

For some reason, that made Lena shiver. And she instantly and hopelessly began crying. Softly this time. Completely awake.

“Hey… no, no, it’s ok– don’t cry…”

A knot of pain formed in Kara’s stomach and she immediately opened her arms to Lena, wrapping her in the red cape, not giving her a second to hesitate.

Lena surrendered to the warmth of Kara’s embrace, and just wept and wept. 

The nurse was able to calm down the babies and left the room silently, comically trying to keep the sound of her footsteps to the minimum as she walked away in her tiptoes.

Kara made a mental note to buy Ruth (the nurse) the best cupcakes she could find in town and bring them to her next morning.

Lena was still trembling in her arms when Kara found the courage to push her away, gently, in order to look in her eyes.

“Hey. It’s ok. You’re here. I’m here.”

Lena looked at her with big, wet puppy eyes. Kara almost emitted a cry of pure emotional meltdown seeing that face. Almost.

“Is there something I can do? Do you want me to bring you anything?”

Lena shook her head. Kara kissed her forehead, impulsively, and she immediately regretted the gesture as maybe Lena could interpret that as… condescending?

“Just…” Lena whispered, then shyly, “can you please hold me again? For… for a little while?”

Kara smiled warmly, and nodded.

“Yes, sweetheart. I can do that.”

The affectionate term was new, but it slipped Kara’s mouth innocently and easily, as if she had called her that a million times before. Lena didn’t protest, she just buried her face in the crook of Kara’s neck and sighed deeply, one hand tightly wrapped around Kara’s nape, the other holding on to the neckline of her suit, letting Kara rock her and ground her and bring her back to the present, where no mother was killing her son and where no daughter was killing her mother.

Kara’s plan was to hold Lena until she calmed down, and either be ready to encourage her if she wanted to talk about it or just dismiss any concerns and be supportive if she wasn’t. 

Kara’s plan was not to lose track of time and spend the night in Lena’s bed. 

And Kara’s plan was not to fall asleep in her supersuit, with Lena Luthor wrapped around her body.

But you can’t always get what you want. Sometimes, you get what you need.

***

Beethoven’s Symphony Number 7, op. 92, second movement, blasted through the speakers and resonated through the warehouse, engulfing her in the long kiss of music.

Her father’s old gramophone put to shame any modern technology, and she wouldn’t have her favorite piece any other way. She enjoyed the cracks and the twists of vinyl. It reminded her of life’s little imperfections. It reminded her of the struggle.

She could see clearly when she rewarded herself with moments like this. 

She emerged stronger, wiser.

“Doctor.”

Of course she had heard him approaching, but she did not open her eyes to look at him. She could hear the hum of the contained radiation within his chest even above the passacaglia of the violas and cellos.

“Yes, John?”

“Our source in the DEO just sent word.”

Ah, Beethoven, a light in the darkness. She sighed with gusto as the orchestra approached the final fugato.

“I’m listening, John.”

Metallo cleared his throat and tried to raise his voice just the necessary amount to match the volume of the music.

“The twins were born by Cesarean. Yesterday, at dawn. Apparently they’re perfectly healthy.”

“And my daughter?” Eyes still closed, a hand raised to follow the imaginary notes of the music in the air.

“She’s fine. But it seems the Kryptonian refuses to leave her side.”

“That’s not a problem. On the contrary…”

Percussion came in with a vengeance. Ah, the fireworks. She loved that part.

“Go get Henshaw. We’re going out.”

She finally opened her eyes and stood up to smile at Metallo’s confused look.

She was feeling especially cheerful now.

“I’m a grandmother now. It’s time for a family reunion, don’t you think?”

Cover by Orion7

And Lillian’s favorite Beethoven piece as directed by the genius of Gustavo Dudamel: https://youtu.be/a3tHl6grYGM

Chapter Text

It was Eliza who woke them up, at around 5 am, only because she didn’t have any other choice. The babies were hungry, and only one person in the building could take care of that.

Dr. Danvers had actually been up all night.

After the premature birth of the twins, she had begged J’onn to let her stay around to take care of Lena and the babies, just for a few days, just in case there were any anomalies in their physical state. Eliza made her case telling J’onn he wouldn’t be able to find a physician with a better background on human and Kryptonian biology willing to take care of mixed-race newborns. The Martian tried to undermine her for his own reasons, saying they had Alex, but Eliza reminded him that the special circumstances of the whole situation were reason enough to let Alex out of the matter, and just rely on her if she needed help.  

J’onn didn’t buy it for a second.

He asked her how she was feeling after finding out her long lost husband was alive and well – mostly well.

She smiled, that Danvers sad but I’m-tough-and-I’ll-be-alright-stop-digging-in-my-emotions-because-I-might-break-down smile he had seen in both Alex and Kara so many times before. And J’onn didn’t push the matter anymore.

Then, he told her that if the special circumstances of the babies were reason enough to pull Alex out of the equation, she shouldn’t get involved either. She was the grandmother, after all.

Eliza had scoffed and said something like nonsense, J’onn, stop worrying and put me to work.

J’onn read the determination in her eyes and something else in her mind (literally) and just complied, inviting her to make herself at home in one of the quarters reserved for staff, just a floor above the sick-bay.

Jeremiah was staying at the DEO too, but on a different floor. Although he could roam free around the building, he was kind of isolated, for now, while government officials had him tangled up in passive-aggressive interrogations and all sorts of psychological tests.

Eliza was kind of grateful for that. They hadn’t talk. A real talk, that is. And she was glad she had Kara, Lena and the twins to focus on. For now, at least.

So at around 1 am, Eliza was trying to refresh her mind by reading one of her old confidential files on Superman’s physiology. And that was when her computer started beeping. It was warning her about Lena’s heart-rate, going up like a rocket. Without second thought, Eliza dropped everything and ran to the med-bay, as fast as she could.

When she was running down the stairs, she heard something very familiar: the sweeping noise of someone flying into the building. The sounds that followed were unequivocal: the swinging of her adoptive daughter’s cape, her boots landing on the floor. 

When she finally turned the corner and the med-bay appeared in her sight, they were already wrapped in an embrace that seemed unbreakable even from afar. Kara, in her super-suit, was rocking Lena in her arms. And the twins were crying, just like their human mother, but for different reasons, obviously. The nurse covering the night shift, Ruth, always ready and capable, was already taking care of them while Kara held Lena.

Eliza had to cover her mouth with her hands to stop the unexpected sob that was threatening her otherwise perpetual composure. She couldn’t help the silent tears, though.

The image was so powerful, even in the dim lights of the med-bay and through the crystal walls that allowed her to be witness to it. Seeing them like that, it finally hit her: this was real. The pain, the torture, the unspeakable horrors they all had endured were real, and they couldn’t be wiped out by simply ignoring them.

Some people just didn’t understand how love works, or they simply refused to face the truth. But Eliza knew better, she had learned it a long time ago; love is simply an elaborate disguise that pain uses to reach us easily, when our guard is down and we are at our most vulnerable. If you are attached to someone because of love, sure, it can be good, it can last. Maybe not forever, but of course it will make an impact on you. For a few years, at least… 

Oh, but the moment you are bind to someone by pain –pain, not hate; pain because they hurt you, or just because you share equal pain, or maybe because something happened that broke you–, that moment, it lasts forever.

Eliza didn’t know if what bind her to Jeremiah was love anymore. She needed time to figure it out. But she sure knew that the pain between them would be the most unbreakable bond of all, whether she found the strength to let him back into her heart or not. The years lost would cloud their embraces and their shared laughs, even if they didn’t notice. Maybe they could be happy again, maybe they could grow old together and forget about the pain. But, still, at any given moment, a color in the sky, a familiar smell or a mundane phrase would take them back to that second of infinite affliction, echoing through their lives, reverberating through their memories like the faint radio-waves of the Big-Bang that have reached us, here on Earth, even billions of years after the explosion. The fact that you need a tool to see them does not mean they are not there.

Eliza knew this as a scientist, as a wife, as a mother. 

Some people just weren’t ready to accept this. Some people want to make love easy, a one-way street in which you mark your own pace. A chimera that is fed to us each and every day through cheesy rom-coms and lame advertisements of perfume. The happily ever-afters that had been shoved down our throats for centuries of patriarchal control, close-minded expressions of religion or simply by utter ignorance.

It’s not that Eliza Danvers didn’t believe in love. And yes, love can be a wonderful adventure and she wouldn’t have it any other way… But.

But still, the cost was too high. Most of the time, it was worth it, but she could see so many people launching themselves blindly into the arms of love with no intention of accepting the consequences of their acts. 

This went far beyond romantic love. For example, she was bind to her daughters by her unconditional affection for them, but also by the pain of not being able to reach through the walls they had built over the years. Alex closed her heart to her for a very long time, after her father’s disappearance. Not that she blamed her. But she hand’t get her back up until she joined the DEO and regained a sense of purpose in her life. And Eliza did blame herself for not being able to help her own daughter. 

And Kara… She had told her something, that luminous day she arrived in their Midvale home, all confusion and nerves, grasping tightly her cousin’s hand. 

I know I’m not your Mom, sweetheart. But you’re safe here.

Safe? Of all the things she could have told her, she chose to say a blatant lie. It didn’t matter that she had believed it in the moment. It didn’t matter that despite not being her birth mother, she would have given her life willingly in order to protect Kara forever. 

She had escaped the destruction of her planet, but no child that survives a tragedy of a magnitude like that can be save from their memories. Kal-El had had the easy journey to heroism, despite his struggle with his identity and his heritage. He had no memory of Krypton. In his head, it was all a dream – moving pictures in Kryptonian crystals, words of grandeur and idealism in the confident voice of his dead father resonating through the Fortress of Solitude…

But Kara. Kara remembered everything, every cry for help, every scream, every life that was no more, and through the long nights that Eliza held her after a nightmare, they formed a bond sculpted in sorrow as much as in mutual affection. 

Kara, because the damage was too great to bear. Eliza, because she couldn’t take that pain away.

That’s why this made sense.

The Kryptonian hero that saw her planet die, that had memories of the place where millions perished in an instant, millions of light years away from her past, but always reviving the explosions inside her mind. And the heiress to a kingdom of lies, death and destruction, constantly struggling to do what’s right, carrying upon her shoulders a guilt that wasn’t supposed to be hers.

Together, because of pain.

Someone had made an unforgivable act and from that, an infrangible connection had been welded.

It was horrible. It was perfect. It was madness. And it was a fact.

She could see it clearly now, and she wondered if Lillian Luthor had seen it too and used it to her advantage… 

Kara Zor-El and Lena Luthor. A perfect match.

Eliza couldn’t tell how far it would go, what implications laid buried under the layers of pain and affection that would tie them together. But she knew the bond between them was real. And yes, it made sense. All the sense there could be in the whole wide world. 

And that was why Eliza sobbed. They were all connected, all of them – Jeremiah, Alex, Kara, Lena, J’onn, herself… even Lillian. And no matter what happens, the connection would be there, forever.

After long minutes in which she couldn’t even move, afraid of being noticed by her adoptive daughter’s enhance senses, she headed back upstairs and stayed up all night, drowning her mind in bittersweet memories and long forgotten fears.

When she appeared in the med-bay again, after a few hours, she didn’t let any of this shine through her smile and her caffeine inflated mind. She relieved Ruth from duty, thanking her for her professionalism and discretion.

Lena and Kara were still asleep despite the anxious little sounds the twins were making. Eliza took little Luna from the incubator before the whining became a war cry. Out of the two, she had proved to be the most demanding and vocal. Liam, for now, seemed to be an unconcerned little guy that simply followed his sister’s lead whenever it was time to eat, poop or demand attention.

Eliza approached Lena’s bed carefully with Luna in her arms, wrapped in a white blanket, with a cute little cotton hat covering her head. Lena was sleeping with her back flat against the mattress, her beautiful long hair loose and a little messy, her arms above her head, resting in the pillow in a comfortable position. She was still wearing a hospital gown but Kara had promised to get her a DEO tracksuit or something because, in Lena’s own words, she needed to feel like a person again. Eliza had advised them against regular clothes since the stitches from the C-section would heal better under light materials, but Lena was determined to get back on track as quickly as possible and Eliza knew better than to go against a patient with outstanding willpower.

Beside Lena, there was a tangled mess of golden locks and a red cape covering them both. Kara had kicked her boots off at some point in the night, since they were scattered on the floor a few meters from the bed. Her face was buried in the crook of Lena’s neck and covered by her own hair. And an arm was tightly secured around Lena’s waist. 

Eliza smiled silently but quickly shifted back into her Dr. Danvers professional persona. It would be better to do it that way and simply ignore the situation, she certainly didn’t want to make them uncomfortable… 

“Rise and shine, girls,” she said softly, trying to wake them up as gently as possible, “I’m afraid there’s some people here demanding your attention and they can get pretty cranky if they don’t get what they want…”

Luna made a point by emitting a high pitched cry.

That seemed to wake Lena up. She was the first one to open her eyes. Kara, on the other hand, just groaned and shifted a little, but didn’t make any further sign revealing intention to wake up. Lena covered her momentarily photophobic eyes with one hand and frowned. Then she rubbed her forehead as if trying to convince her mind to leave the comfortable embrace of sleep… and she finally focused on Eliza and the baby. Seeing the confused look on her face, Eliza smiled apologetically at her while she rocked Luna in her arms, trying to appease the increasingly grumpy newborn.

“I’m sorry, Lena, I wouldn’t wake you up if I didn’t have any other choice. You should rest as much as you can, but… I’m afraid we run out of your milk. They need you now.”

Dr. Danvers’ voice was sweet and calm, but Luna’s cries were now on full throttle and Liam decided it was time to join her sister and create a polyphony from hell.

Lena heard Kara groaning louder by her side. She realized then that Kara’s arm was wrapped around her waist, that they had shared the tiny bed all night, and that Eliza was standing right there. She felt her cheeks burning from the awkwardness of it all, but she didn’t had the time to torture herself with embarrassment. She shook it off by gently removing Kara’s arm, as if it was no big deal, and trying to sat up on the bed.

“It’s fine, Dr. Danvers,” she murmured, voice still hoarse from sleep. “And no more breast pumps, please. I need to do this by myself.”

Lena got in position to receive baby Luna in her arms. Eliza helped by activating the mechanism that made the adjustable base of the bed go up, making Lena sit in a comfortable position for nursing.

Kara groaned louder, but didn’t move. They ignored her. The movement of the bed made her forehead rest against Lena’s shoulder. Her eyes were still closed, apparently.

“As you wish,” Eliza said while Lena finally took Luna in her arms. Eliza recovered another pillow from the other bed inside the med-bay and helped Lena get the baby in a comfortable position. “But remember that from time to time breast pumping can be a good idea, that way you won’t have to be 24/7 available for them and Kara here can take some of the hard work off your back…”

Maybe it was hearing her name, maybe the fact that Luna’s cries came to an abrupt stop, maybe it was the contented silence that replaced them…

“Wha–?”

Kara woke up, finally. She opened her eyes and looked up, only seeing Lena’s perfect jawline from her angle. Kara was the image of confusion, her eyes half-closed, her lips forming the beginning of a protest. She tried to sit on the bed, just to finally focus on Eliza, then Lena… and finally, her eyes went wider than a full moon.

Lena was breastfeeding a baby. Their baby. 

And Kara was… well, on the floor.

Apparently, the Girl of Steel could do some very human things like falling unceremoniously from a bed, given the proper mix of drowsiness and shock.

“I’M OK, I’M OK!” Kara cried anxiously from the floor.

She instantly jumped back to her feet, comically bouncing up and down.

“See? The floor is fine. I didn’t break it.”

Eliza frowned and dedicated Kara a sympathetic smile, taking pity on her daughter, but Lena laughed out loud uncontrollably. Luna lost her grip on her mother’s nipple, so of course she protested. Loudly.

“Oh, I’m sorry, baby girl, I’m sorry…” Lena said trying to reposition her left nipple on her daughter’s mouth. 

Kara didn’t say a thing. It was awfully comical to see Supergirl standing barefoot, two feet away from the bed, biting her lower lip, nervously playing with the edges of her cape, and staring… at the ceiling.

Eliza and Lena shared knowing looks, but this time, Lena was able to repress her laughter.

“Kara, I’m sorry. Maybe we should’ve warned you about the baby in the room…” 

The fact that Lena was cutting Kara some slack didn’t mean she shouldn’t use a teasing tone…

Kara scoffed, trying to show some confidence. She accomplished exactly the opposite. 

“Warn me? Don’t be ridiculous. You’re just doing a natural thing. The most natural thing of all things that are natural. I’m ok with natural things. I mean, I love them. The things. The natural things, I mean. I love them. IT! I love it. Nature! I love nature. Haha. Warn me, you say. Nah. It’s just, you know, I’m giving you guys space. Three is a crowd especially in that tiny bed. I mean, what is that? A toy?!”

Lena sighed and Eliza just watched in awe as the magic happened… 

“Kara, come here, please?” 

Lena’s voice was soft and firm at the same time. It was a command and a plea. It made Kara melt right before Eliza’s eyes.

Kara took a few steps towards the bed, still looking at the floor.

The same warmth on Lena’s tone made her look up.

“Look at me.”

A reluctant, shy smile appeared on Kara’s face, and Lena reciprocated with a shy smile of her own.

“It’s ok. You can watch, if you want to. It’s not the first time I do this, you know.”

Lena turned her attention to the baby and caressed her tiny cheekbone with her index finger.

Kara was suddenly very aware of the way Luna was sucking on Lena’s breast and the happy sounds she was making.

“Well, it is the first time I’m watching you do it!”

Lena didn’t even bother to turn away from her daughter. 

“Sshhh. Just look at her.”

And at last, Kara kind of calmed down and was able to appreciate the sheer beauty of the moment. No one dared to say a word for a few seconds, all three women far too fascinated by little Luna.

For a moment, Eliza thought that if they could hang on to this moment, they could be – they should be alright. If they could only hang on to this preciousness, despite the fact that it was born from something terrible...

“Oh, Rao. She’s so beautiful.” Kara finally whispered. “So um… huh… how… what…”

It was obvious what Kara wanted to ask, so Lena just cut to the chase.

“It’s weird, yes. And I still get very anxious… I was lucky I had Dr. Danvers with me the first time I did it. I was a nervous wreck.”

Kara could only contain her curiosity for a couple of seconds. 

“Does it hurt?”

Lena smiled, still mesmerized by Luna. “No, not really.”

“For now.” Eliza said with a smirk.

Kara shoot her a disapproving look and Lena raised her eyebrow looking incredulously at Dr. Danvers.

Eliza raised her hands in a matter-of-fact defensive mechanism.

“Well, I’m just saying, darling, you need to take good care of your nipples, ok? You’re just beginning but I’m gonna write you a prescription for this wonderful ointment that’s gonna keep your breasts nice and soft.”

A very uncomfortable Kryptonian groan echoed through the med-bay. A playful smile began to appear in the corner of Eliza’s mouth and Lena understood immediately. Dr. Danvers ignored her daughter and proceed on with her explicit advise. 

“You don’t want any nipple cracks or abrasions while you’re breastfeeding, those are painful, let me tell ya. Also, I can recommend an oil that’s going to help you wipe out any stretch marks from the pregnancy.”

Lena nodded.

“That sounds wonderful, Dr. Danvers. Thank you. I do have some questions about diet and exercise, if you don’t mind? I know my hips won’t ever be the same, but still… I’d like to get back in shape as soon as possible.”

Kara found something very interesting on the floor, once again. If only there was an emergency on the city or something...

“Oh, don’t call me Dr. Danvers, darling, you’re not one of my students. Just Eliza, please. And consider me your personal physician, from now on, if you’d like that. You can ask me anything.”

“So, about milk leakage–”

“OH, FOR THE LOVE OF RAO!”

Lena and Eliza exchanged perplexed looks as Kara was suddenly very aware of how loud she could be sometimes.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, guys, seriously, I am, it’s just–” 

Kara stopped herself the moment she saw her adoptive mother and the biological mother of her children biting their mouths, trying to suppress amused grins.

“You two are doing this on purpose, right? You want to torture me.” Kara complained with an accusatory index finger pointing at them.

Eliza just shook her head and grabbed some of her equipment, knowing it was time to give the girls some space.

“I know you’re not as scrupulous as you want to appear, Kara. Lena is going to need your full involvement now, so deal with it, honey. Perhaps you could start by helping out with your son.” Eliza turned to Lena. “Ready for Liam, sweetie?”

“Yes.”

Kara gasped.

“Can you – can you breastfeed them both – I mean – at the same time?”

Lena chuckled. 

“I do have two breasts, Kara.”

Eliza smiled and touched her daughter’s arm gently. 

“Can you get Liam for her, sweetie?” There was no hint of teasing in Dr. Danvers’ tone, this time.

Kara just nodded.

“l’ll leave you girls to it. I’ll be downstairs if you need anything.”

Lena nodded and smiled warmly at Eliza, with sincere gratitude.

“Thank you, Dr. Dan- I mean... Eliza.”

Eliza left the room as a hint of hope for the future put a dreamy smile in her face.

Perhaps they could do this. Perhaps there was a more powerful bond than pain. Yes. Hope. She could feel it. Perhaps.

J’onn intercepted Eliza as she walked towards the command room. Her smile disappeared the moment she met the Martian’s eyes.

“We have a problem.” Eliza would have known even if he hadn’t said a word.

“What is it, J’onn?”

“Lillian Luthor. She’s here.”

And that’s when Dr. Danvers knew that her theory about hope was about to be tested.

Chapter Text

Eliza had just left the med-bay. 

Kara held little Liam tightly in her arms as she approached Lena, sitting on the bed, still nursing Luna. 

Without even thinking, Kara had used her red cape to wrap him, even though Liam had a soft white blanket around him and a little cotton hat that matched the one his sister was wearing.

For a second, the image struck Kara, and a painful memory took her back in time and across space: baby Kal-El being introduced in a space-ship by her uncle Jor-El. Baby Kal, confused and alone, escaping his world, leaving behind fire, blood and death.

Chills ran down her spine and she felt dizzy.

She remembered her own journey. Darkness. The terrifying silence. The desperation of knowing no one she knew or loved would come to her rescue. The thought of dying out there in the cold, empty space. His baby cousin would be alone, forever. Her people, her civilization, her family… all extinct. 

No, Kara yelled internally, in the vast loneliness of her mind. This baby in her arms was not Kal-El. It was Liam.

Liam, my son.

A child that would be surrounded by love and warmth as long as she, Kara Danvers, Kara Zor-El, existed.

Luna and Liam Zor-El, a hopeful little voice whispered inside her, grandchildren of Zor-El and Alura, heirs to the legacy of the House of El. She felt dizzy with those uncalled for thoughts crossing her mind.

It didn’t matter that she hadn’t asked for them. It didn’t matter that Lillian Luthor had intended for them to have a very different destiny.

“My children”, Kara allowed herself to say that phrase aloud. It was a weak, incredulous whisper. 

Lena didn’t hear. Or pretended she didn’t.

Kara was too lost in her own mind to care, anyway. The phrase resonated again inside her head, with invigorating power this time, filling her chest with pride and making her heart beat loud, as if she had shouted it to the sky: my children.

Is this what all mothers talk about? Unconditional love? 

Kara looked back to Lena and Luna. Lena had closed her eyes and let her head fall back. She looked exhausted. Her hair was loose and messy. Her skin was paler than ever. Little drops of sweat appeared below her hairline. And yet, somehow, Kara felt a wave of peacefulness washing through her. She couldn’t help but smile as little Luna protested when she lost her grip on her mother’s breast. Lena opened her eyes and held her daughter tighter, her mouth emitting the most lovely soothing sounds.

Kara focused on Liam, again. Sweet little Liam, who despite being second in line to have his breakfast, looked at Kara quietly, with half-opened eyelids, then proceeding to show her the cutest yawn she’d ever seen in her whole life. His eyes appeared grey in the morning light, but Kara noticed that there was a spark of dark blue in his irides. It was too soon to tell how they’d eventually turn out, but Kara couldn’t repress a smile, relishing the moment. Would Liam’s eyes look like hers, or Lena’s? Would Luna’s fair hair stay like that or would it turn darker with time? How will their voices sound when they say their first words? Will they be able to fly with her, by her side? Will she be able to teach them and care for them and be there when they jump to the sky? Will she get to see their faces when they fly high to watch the sun rise over the city for the first time?

A tiny voice inside of her still couldn’t believe this, though.

How can I love them so much… so quickly, so irrationally?

Then it hit her. How absurd and lame and domestic this was: Supergirl, alien refugee and superhero, barefoot, holding her newborn son. 

Lena Luthor, powerful CEO and one of the greatest minds on Earth, breastfeeding their daughter.

A reality that didn’t exist 48 hours ago was now more plausible than the sun she could feel energizing her skin when she flew up and away, high in the sky.

It should be utterly terrifying. But, somehow, it was not. And that was what ultimately upset Kara. 

How can I be so calm about this now? 

Luckily, she could ignore all these worries and insecurities and let herself be hypnotized by the cute little sounds of babies and the softness of their skins. 

For now.  

“Hi, Liam,” Kara whispered as she approached the bed. “This is Lena. She’s your mommy.”

Lena’s eyes grew wide involuntarily. So did Kara’s, a second of realization after.

“Oh, too soon? I’m so–“

“No, Kara. It’s alright. They will have to call me something.”

“Ok. One step at a time,” Kara pursed her lips and smiled down at Liam, “how about I just tell you, baby boy, that she’s a scientist?”

Lena raised one of her inquisitive eyebrows towards Kara, but a half-smile gave her away.

“And a badass businesswoman.” 

“And a badass businesswoman–” Kara repeated with a smirk.

“Oh, and MIT alma mater.” Lena readjusted Luna on the soft pillow in her lap so she could hold Liam too. “You could also tell him I graduated summa cum laude. And I have two Ph.Ds. And I’m the youngest CEO on the Forbes 400 list–”

Kara chuckled softly.

“Aaaand she’s obviously very modest. Yes, see, she’s awesome.” Kara poked Liam’s little nose as she carefully placed him in Lena’s arms. They were both so tiny, apparently so fragile, that it was easy for Lena to adjust them above the flat pillow resting in her lap.

Luna protested, loudly, as she was moved from the source of her happiness. 

“In a minute, love,” Lena whispered to her.

Lena’s voice, charged with affection, did something to Kara’s heart, suddenly beating faster. She let a disconcerted sigh escape her, and as Lena readjusted the babies in her arms, she quickly stole a glance at her. Kara gave thanks to Rao for her Kryptonian skin density that didn’t allow her to physically blush. Her body language, however, was another story. 

Kara quickly looked back to Liam so she could focus on something other than Lena. 

“So, Liam. I’m your other parent, you know? I’m an alien. You’re part alien too, no big deal. I’m just going to teach you how to catch bullets with your bare hands–”

“Kara!”

“Sorry.”

A pause. After three, four, five seconds…

“It’s true, though.”

A sigh, not amused.

“Kara, please.”

Lena was finally able to align both Liam and Luna, the front of her gown untied and open. After a lot of crying and repositioning, each baby began feeding enthusiastically. For long seconds she just focused on them, watching as this out-of-body experience happened before her. Her nipples ached a little bit, and she was partially grateful that feeding the babies seemed to give her some strange kind of relief, though she was positive that breastfeeding twins ten times a day for approximately the next twelve months wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

Lena was taken out of her reverie by Kara’s nervous pacing.

“Well I… uh… I should leave you alone…”

“Again with the unnecessary politeness, Kara? Does this make you uncomfortable? Don’t tell me that you’re one of those terrible people that have a problem with public breastfe–”

“No! It’s not that… It’s just –“

“Well?”

“I told you before, you know? It’s just… I feel so silly. It’s kinda weird seeing you do it. And I can’t… I feel useless because I just can’t help with anything.”

Lena regarded Kara with incredulity as the superhero once again tried to avoid eye contact by fidgeting with her red cape.

“Oh. It is weird, isn’t it? Imagine doing it. I’m breastfeeding your bioengineered children, Supergirl. Who I carried. You wanna know weird? That’s the epitome of weird.” Lena’s voice sounded a little too harsh, but there was a hint of mischief that Kara didn’t quite catch. “So no, you don’t get to walk away on me while I’m doing this. You stay here and suffer through the awkwardness with me,” Lena couldn’t repress a playful smirk, “that’s what friends are for,” she added.

Kara was mortified. Again.

“That’s not what I meant, I’m more than happy to–”

“Oh God, would you please relax, Kara? I’m just messing with you…” 

“Oh.”

“Oh, indeed. Sit with us, please?”

Lena pointed with her head towards the middle of the bed. Her hands were full with happy tiny babies attached to her breasts. Kara smiled shyly and moved her cape out of the way so she could sit within a safety distance from Lena. The CEO had no intention in letting the matter drop.

“Full disclosure, though, and it’s so fitting that I say this with two tiny people suckling from my titties…” Lena raised one of her utterly expressive eyebrows, she was getting used to the absurdness of her new normal. It was kind of satisfying to make Supergirl’s jaw drop, anyway. “If we’re gonna do this, we’re going to see a lot of dirty diapers and some other stuff I don’t even want to think about, so I’m way pass the luxury of embarrassment. I mean, you saw me giving birth to them, with my guts spilled open. So I just… Do you know what I mean?”

Kara smiled empathetically and for the first time, she let herself look at Lena in awe of the resilience of this amazing woman who had been through the unthinkable and still regarded the future with hope. And wit, lots of it.

“Yes, Lena, I know what you mean.” 

They smiled at each other, once again enjoying the silence. Lost for a moment in each other’s gaze, both women had the feeling that despite the awkwardness and the insecurities, they could do this, together.

After a few moments, Kara cleared her throat and looked down at the babies. She said something then, out of the blue.  

"If I could, I’d do this for you, you know? Anything. I’d take your place in all of this without second thought.”

And Lena looked at her, speechless. Kara tried to lessen the solemnity of her words by shrugging her shoulders, a pained smile in her face.

Lena finally found her voice after a few seconds.

“Well… thank you. But… things are the way they are. I know you’re used to do the heavy lifting for everyone, but…” Lena shook her head as if discarding thoughts she couldn’t fathom in that moment. “This is not a job for Supergirl, anyway. But… I do appreciate you being here, I’m serious. I can’t do this alone, Kara.”

The Kryptonian nodded, repressing with all her inner strength the desire to reach out a put a hand on Lena’s knee.

“And I’m here. And I’ll be here as long as you want me to be. But, please,” Kara closed her eyes with an overdramatic gesture, “just please don’t make me help you with the breast pumping thingy.”

Lena’s gentle laugh echoed through the med-bay.

“Fair enough, Supergirl.”

All seemed right and at peace for a few moments. They shared a comfortable silence while the babies had the time of their lives, as if they were throwing a feast.

“Look at this one,” Lena muttered, amused by Liam’s eagerness. 

“Oh, he’s so cute. Are you hungry, little one?” Kara asked, unconsciously high-pitching her voice.

As if he felt called out, Liam’s rhythm peaked for a second, making some very enthusiastic noises.

“Oh my, he’s hungry, he’s definitely hungry!” Kara was more than impressed, “How can something so tiny have so much room inside?”

Lena gave her a look of you tell me!, the eyebrow higher than ever.

“They’re going to have your appetite, it’s a fact. I’m totally fucked.” The young CEO shook her head and Kara scoffed, falsely offended.

“Well, Eliza told me that the good news is the more you give them, the more you produce. You’ll be all right.”

Lena rolled her eyes.

“Easy for you to say. It’s not like I can feed them potstickers and pizza.”

Kara giggled picturing the babies trying to devour her favorite food.

“Not for a while, no. Those are mine and mine only.”

“For now,” Lena added teasingly.

They both felt silent, regarding the babies. None of the two women could help but feel an enveloping peace by looking at them. Pain dissolved in the air, if only for a few minutes. An oasis. No evil, no right, no wrong. Just Liam and Luna. And Kara and Lena.

Supergirl remembered then that her red boots were scattered on the floor, and she quietly stood up to pick them up.

The casualness of the gesture gave her a window to bring up something that was bugging her, but was afraid to ask.

“So… last night,” Kara said while she finished putting her boots on. “You wanna talk about it?”

Lena didn’t turn her gaze from the babies, still mesmerized by them.

“Talk about what?”

Kara approached the bed again, carefully, but didn’t sit on it this time. She just stood closely, her hands on her hips, her back straight. Not in Supergirl mode exactly, more like best friend Kara Danvers trying to be open and receiving.

“You… you had a dream? More like a nightmare? You were screaming in your sleep, Lena. You woke up crying and–“

“I remember, Kara.”

“Sorry.”

Lena cracked a sad smile and pursed her lips.

“No. Don’t be. It’s just… my mind is fucked up. Can you blame me?”

And there it is again, Kara thought to herself. That fine veil that turns into a smile to hide the pain. If only I could take it all away, Lena. If only I could lift that weight off your shoulders.

“You know I’m here. You can talk to me. No matter how dark your thoughts become, no matter how scary… I’m not going anywhere.”

Kara took a step towards the bed and had to stop herself, once again, for reaching out and touching Lena’s leg, tucked under the sheets.

“I know.”

Lena didn’t look at Kara, instead focusing on some undetermined point in front of her. Her eyes narrowed in confusion, trying to make sense of her dream.

“It was just… a stupid nightmare. When I was captured I had them almost everyday, and they only got worse with the pregnancy,” Lena hung her head, then, her voice trailing off. “I can’t remember much. You were there. And so were these two, but they were all grown up and… well. It didn’t end well, I think.” Liam lost his grip on her nipple in that moment, immediately emitting an anxious cry. Lena repositioned his little head quickly, trying different angles until little Liam’s cries gave way to tiny noises of contentment.

Kara unconsciously derived her gaze, but still spoke, softly, her voice filled with determination and compassion. “You don’t need to tell me everything, Lena, but just know that you can talk to me. Besides, I know a thing or two about trauma, so, I believe I can help.”

“Thank you, Kara. I really appreciate it. But I guess my therapist is going to appreciate it even more once I can let her know I’m back in the city. She’s gonna become a rich bitch at my expense.”

They both smiled, Kara’s heart aching for her, but at the same time, hopeful. Lena’s sense of humor was intact, that was a really good sign.

“Thank you for convincing J’onn to let me make that call to Jess, by the way,” Lena tilted her head in that gesture that had become a language in itself, only reserved for her devotion to Kara. “It felt good to let her know I’m alive… I guess by now she’s installing a new security system in the penthouse and designing a new safety training for the staff.”

“No problem. I know I’m going to be around, but you know Alex will be happy to help with your new security detail, and J’onn said he’s going to assign you two of his best agents, indefinitely.”

“That won’t be necessary. I’m dying to get out of here. With Natasha and Jonathan coming back to lead the team, everything should be fine.”

Seeing Kara’s puzzled look, Lena proceeded  to explain herself. “They’re old friends. Nat has known me since forever. And Jon and I met when I was an intern at Wayne Industries. I’m pretty sure you’ll like them. Jon doesn’t talk much, but Nat… She used to be an astronaut.”

“Wow. And she’s going to be you’re new chief of security?”

“That’s Jon’s role. Nat’s going to be the nanny,” Lena added.

It was turn for Kara’s eyebrows to go ballistic.
“The nanny,” the Kryptonian repeated flatly. “A former astronaut is going to be the nanny.”

Lena smiled softly and nodded, “she used to be my nanny. She was also a colonel in the Red Army. Wait until she shows you her Order of Lenin medal. You’ll never hear the end of it.”

Kara scoffed in disbelieve.

“What – I mean – ok – just… You know what? I should know by now you just don’t do things as we mere peasants do. Of course Lena Luthor’s nanny is an astronaut.”

“Very funny, Danvers.” 

“I’ll just wait to meet them. Everything I make up in my mind is probably going to be less cooler than reality.”

“You bet.”

Baby Luna jerked away from her mother’s nipple and started making little sounds of distress.

“Look’s like someone’s done,” Lena tried to latch her with one arm but it was quite difficult with Liam still nursing on her other breast.

“Here, let me,” Kara said, taking Luna in her arms.

“Careful with her head.”

“I know.”

As Lena tried to focus on Liam and cover herself with the fabric of her gown, she nervously glanced at Kara. 

“I think she needs to be burped. Careful. Pick up a cloth from the table. You have to put her head in your shoulder and–”

“Relax, Lena, I’ve done this before. When Kal was born I used to help with this all the time. It was so funny. And it is so rewarding to remind my cousin from time to time.”

Kara put Luna’s little head against her shoulder and tapped the baby’s back gently. 

“I think it’s just gas,” Kara enveloped Luna in her cape, as she’d done with Liam before, “let me try something”, she added when the baby was comfortably wrapped against her.

And Lena watched as Supergirl began floating around the room, ever so gently, rocking little Luna in her arms and humming unintelligible Kryptonian rhymes. Lena was speechless. Kara traced gentle circles in the air, making her body swing like a giant comfy cradle for Luna. After a few seconds, Kara laughed gently, and Lena raised her eyebrows at her in confusion.

“There you go, I just felt her fart like a big girl,” Kara smiled, oddly proud.

“Flying is cheating. You know I can’t do that,” Lena said, shaking her head in disapproval, but despite herself she couldn’t help but reciprocate Kara’s smile.

“Oh, you have other skills, Lena.”

Kara kept on rocking her body in the air. She cradled Luna in her arms now the baby had overcome her discomfort, and watched in awe as the little girl drifted peacefully to sleep.

Kara landed on the ground beside the incubator, ever so lightly, and after the softest of kisses to Luna’s forehead, she placed her daughter inside, making sure she was resting on her back.

She turned back to Lena and tried to ignore the look of wonder her friend was giving her now. 

“How’s Liam doing?” Kara asked taking a few steps closer to the bed.

Lena smiled warmly and caressed Liam’s little face with the back of her hand. He was still deeply focused in perfecting his rhythm.

“He’s good. He’s so easygoing, for now.”

Kara cracked a half-smile, a sweet memory engulfing her.

“Kal used to be so incredibly calm as a baby. My grandpa Seg-El told me stories about how my father was the quietest kid ever, so perhaps the El boys are just extra chill.”

“What about the El girls?” 

Kara’s nose crinkled comically and she pressed her teeth together, in a gesture that was so Kara Danvers and not so Supergirl.

“Well, my mother was an El by marriage, obviously, but she and my aunt were identical twins...” she began, cautiously. “Apparently, my grandpa In-Ze used to call them little n-dok-hash.”

Lena was afraid to even ask.

“Meaning...?”

“That’s Kryptonian for ‘demon’.” Kara shrugged and Lena could swear that if she had her glasses on she would’ve used them to emphasize her pout.

“Well, that’s reassuring,” Lena shook her head and sighed.

“Hey, I wasn’t that bad as a kid! Perhaps Luna will take after me.”

“With my luck? Yeah, sure,” Lena scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“She has your genes too, you know.”

“Oh, don’t remind me!”

“Lena!”

Kara’s naive indignation seemed so genuine that Lena couldn’t hold a burst of laughter she immediately regretted when she felt the C-section stitches burning in her belly.

“Hey, hey, are you all right?” Kara asked, visibly concerned when she saw Lena grimacing from the pain.

“Yeah, I’m ok, though laughing feels like someone’s cutting me in half. Worth it, though.”

“Well don’t give in so much to the temptation, you really need to rest, Lena.”

“I know, I know,” Lena sighed and suddenly she frowned and peered up at Kara. “You should go home at some point, you know? You need to rest too and we don’t need you here 24/7. You’ve got an apartment, a boyfriend, a job – a job, Kara! Oh my God, shouldn’t you be working?”

Kara grinned, shrugging it off.

“Relax, CatCo owes me like a thousand days off.”

Lena narrowed her eyes, still not convinced. 

“But won’t Snapper – you know, snap?”

Kara crossed her arms above her chest, smiling, picturing her boss losing it for the umpteenth time. “Oh yes, he will yell at me on the phone a few times and tell me that I’m not committed enough to the true calling of journalism, but as long as HR approves my request, it’ll be all right.”

Lena looked down to Liam, she could feel him slowing down, so she followed Dr. Danvers advice and tapped him gently on the back, in case he needed burping. Then, she carefully moved her breast out of his reach, changing his position to her other nipple, just in case he still wasn’t sated.

Kara couldn’t help but look at the ceiling. She really needed to work on being a little more… breezy, about this. 

“If we need more time I can always ask for a maternity leave, but that one will be hard to explain–” Kara said in an attempt to stay on the current subject, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible until Lena’s nipple was out of sight below Liam’s little mouth. 

“Or I could call my lawyers, and they could do all the explaining for you, save you all the paperwork.”

Kara froze immediately.  

“Ah… I guess… we could do that. But–“

Lena misunderstood Kara’s discomfort and felt a disgusting feeling of shame crawling down her spine.

“I’m sorry, Kara. I overstepped. I… wasn’t thinking.”

Kara shook her head, finally turning to look Lena in the eye. The hero took a deep breath and smiled reassuringly. 

“No. It’s actually a good idea. It’s just… I gotta get used to thinking like a mother now. I didn’t realize…” Kara let her arms fall to her sides and then she rubbed her forehead, agitation shining through, “of course there’s going to be paperwork and all that. How are we even going to – explain, you know?”

Lena scoffed softly, a compassionate look on her face, glad to see Kara shared some of her concerns.

“When you figure that out, please tell me.”

Silence installed between them, but this one was everything but comfortable. Kara could feel Lena’s tension. So she just tried to comfort her with what, at least, to her, was a certain truth.

“You’re gonna be great at this, Lena,” Kara blurted out, almost unconsciously.

Lena shook her head and held Liam a little tighter. 

“Kara, please. I gotta be one of the most horrendous examples of mommy issues in history, coming in second place to Norman Bates.”

Supergirl raised her eyebrows in disbelief and curved her lips in that innocently looking way that, to Lena, was oh so Kara Danvers.

“I really do hope you don’t cosplay as Lillian and kill people while they’re showering.”

Lena smiled, there was no way she couldn’t at Kara’s unprecedented attempt at dark humor.

“You know what I mean,” she whispered.

And when Kara felt the shadow of doubt looming over Lena’s head, she couldn’t have any of it, so she sat down on the edge of the bed again, not minding to ask for permission, and shook her head with a smile to let Lena know this was another thing they had in common. 

“Well… regarding parental issues you’ll have to get in line. My parents sent me to outer space, remember? After making very bad choices that led to the destruction of my home planet,” Kara closed her eyes briefly, and then opened them with an impossible combination of amusement and sadness, “and if we move on from parents and take a look at the rest of my family history it doesn’t get any better,” she paused, then sighed. “My sister killed my aunt, I killed my uncle with heat vision… J’onn tells me he is in a coma but he won’t allow me to visit him so, well, I know better – it was self-defence in both cases, and I haven’t thought about it in ages but, well– oh and my adoptive father kinda betrayed me to allegedly protect me from your mother who, by the way, wants to kill me and my cousin… Plus, she made us have twins without our consent, remember?”

Kara felt mad at herself the second she fixed her eyes on Lena after her uncontrolled rambling and realized her words were having the exact opposite effect she was going for.

Lena’s eyes were wet with the menace of tears, but she was resisting by biting her bottom lip and looking anywhere in the room, but Kara.

That’s when the Kryptonian refugee realized she was on the verge of tears too, and she mentally kicked herself for choosing this moment to reminiscence the greatest hits of both their dysfunctional families.

Perhaps she could make it better with the pout that she had perfected only for Lena.

“Hey. So… so what I’m trying to say is we don’t have the best of experiences regarding family…” Kara rolled her eyes at her own words, she clapped her hands together and just focused on Lena’s gaze, taking the honesty approach. “And yes, maybe we’ll both suck at this! But we’ll suck together. We’ll be the best worst parents these little pumpkins could have. You and I… we’re just not going to give up, ok? And we’ll love them. And they’ll love us. You’ll see.”

Relief washed through Kara as she saw Lena mirroring her expression of pain and hope and excitement, all mixed up together.

“Kara… thank you. You seem awfully calm about this,” Lena sniffed, not sure if she wanted to cry or laugh, or both at the same time. Kara had a way of making her feel all that at once: excited, confused, invincible… powerless.

“Oh no. No, no. No,” Kara’s eyes went wide with dramatic exaggeration, even if what she was saying was the hard truth. “Nooo, no. NO. I’m not calm. This is me trying not to panic. But you know, I guess I always rely on hope. That was what my house stood for in Krypton. Hope. I’m freaking out, Lena, believe me, but I know, deep down, that we’ll be all right… because… this is – it’s you and me, you know? We make a pretty good team.”

Perhaps it was the meaning behind her words, perhaps it was the emotion of the moment, but Kara finally reached out and put her hands over Lena’s knee in a gesture that was meant for reassurance. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized what she was doing, but started beating again the second Lena seemed to relax under her touch and just smiled brightly at her, even when she still could see tears reflecting in her watery eyes.

“Well, in moments like this I’m grateful for your sunshine attitude balancing my gloomy Luthor approach, Kara,” Lena shook her head in disbelief. Ah, Kara, ever the purest of us all. 

Kara felt empowered by Lena giving in to her contagious enthusiasm, so her smile grew wider.

“Ah, c’mon… we can be heroes. A Super–“

“–and a Luthor, I know, I know. God, it’s like the catchphrase of a lame buddy movie…” Lena lamented.

“Well, you came up with it and I like it so you’re stuck with it, missy!”

And laughter echoed again through the room, then followed by swearing as Lena felt the stitches in her belly burning with each gentle shake of her body. She couldn’t help herself, though, and the silent tears dancing around in her eyes turned into the collateral effect of mirth.

“Could you be more of a dork, Kara?” Lena finally breathed when the discomfort passed and there was nothing but a strange notion of warmth in her chest.

“Nope, even if I tried,” Kara smirked. She pointed at Lena, then, “see that? I made you laugh. I’m sorry about the stitches though, but – you know we totally got this.”

Lena just nodded and sighed as she tried to wipe her eyes with the back of her hand, firmly holding Liam with the other.

Kara’s crinkled nose appeared once again and her voice sounded on a higher note as she looked down at baby Liam. “What do you think, baby boy?”, Kara babbled at her son happily, “we’re gonna be just fine, yes, eh us-kah. We’re gonna be fine.”

Lena frowned.

“What did you just say?”

Kara waved her hands apologetically, suddenly aware that she had spoken Kryptonian without even realizing it.
“Ah, something my mother used to call me… My Kryptonian mother, I mean. Her name was Alura. Eh us-kah. Roughly translated it means my little one.”

“That’s nice.”

Both women shared knowing smiles and for a few precious seconds none of them dared to say anything else. Nothing could be heard in the room but the beeping of the monitors and the comforting sounds of happy baby Liam. 

Then Lena, spoke, enigmatically, not taking her eyes away from Kara.

“I love this. Finally.”

“What?” Kara narrowed her eyes in confusion and that little concerned crinkle right beside her eyebrow scar made an appearance.

“Being able to see you as Supergirl and Kara,” Lena replied. “You’re not just one or the other, you’re a wonderful combination of the two.”

Kara diverted her eyes from her friend and opened her mouth trying to find something to say that could compensate for the sudden warmth she felt hearing those words. She failed. She sighed, she ran a hand through her long hair and then, she tried again.

“You know, for a long time… I knew I had to tell you but I was selfish,” Kara mumbled, trying not to hesitate. Lena knew her secret now, but Kara still felt guilt and regret consumed her whenever she thought about all those times she almost told her, but didn’t. “I kept fooling myself thinking I was doing it to protect you,” she continued, a little more confident thanks to Lena’s encouraging look. “Everybody told me your life would be in danger once you knew, but… now I know I liked being just Kara with you. I liked you seeing me as your friend, just Kara Danvers, CatCo reporter–“

“Ace reporter.” Lena corrected with a bright smile. “Besides, there’s at least a weekly attempt on my life on a regular basis, so nothing would’ve changed.”

Kara ignored Lena’s sarcasm, still trying to find the right way to translate her conflicted emotions into words.

“I just – I thought that if I told you I was Supergirl we would lose all that. That you would see me differently and everything would change between us. When people know me as Supergirl, even people I love, after all these years… Alex, James… they expect things from me. I have to be the hero for them, like, all the time. Even if they don’t intend to make me feel like that.”

Lena sighed and nodded.

“I can see why you’d be afraid of our friendship changing. I was afraid, too. I could’ve told you I knew before my mother took me, but I was being kind of selfish as well. Still, part of me thought you had to know. I mean, Kara, you don’t even change your earrings! And that little scar beside your eyebrow, that’s a hard one to miss…”

“I know, I know… but it’s not like I can wear a mask or anything.”

“Why not?”

“I’d look stupid. Duh.”

It took all Lena’s strength to repress her inquisitive eyebrows from ricocheting and point out that was a weird reasoning for someone who proudly wore tights and a cape on a regular basis. Lena chose to go in another direction.

“How did the Girl of Steel get a scar in the first place?”

Kara bit her lower lip, her face a mixture of guilt and mischief.

“It happened on Krypton… by human standards I was five years old. I was playing around in my father’s lab and a I fell while running. I ended up bumping my head against the edge of a table.”

“Ouch. How did they even let you play around in a lab? Mother always threatened me and Lex with  grounding us for a year if she ever caught us within a ten yard perimeter of her office.”

“Oh, they didn’t. I tricked Kelex into letting me in… He was the – uh, robot, that used to take care of me. Kal keeps one of the same model in the Fortress.” Kara smiled, remembering her mother’s speech on responsibility and precaution when she was tending to her wound. “The scar was so cool that I didn’t want my father to remove it, so he didn’t. My mother said perhaps it was a good idea to keep it, to remind me of the lesson. Of course I could’ve had it fixed at any given moment but… Krypton exploded and now it’s a reminder of a time when I wasn’t invincible.”

Lena was smiling, an unreadable expression on her beaming face.

“The most intriguing part of that story is how a five-year-old tricked an advanced AI. And you tell me you were a well behaved child?”

“I was! Most of the time.”

Lena shoot a look of disbelief in Kara’s direction and then tilted her head, as if realizing something for the first time.

“You know what? I think I lied to myself too, about going along with your Supergirl act, I mean. I value our friendship so much that I liked having you just for me, as Kara,” Lena continued. “I don’t know… I guess it made me feel special or I had some sort of delusion that since you didn’t have to be the superhero with me, I could just make the weight of the world get off your shoulders or something. Even if it was just for a few moments.”

“You did. You really helped me…” Kara hung her head down and swallowed hard. “I was devastated when I couldn’t find you, I –“ Kara paused herself from whatever she was about to say. Then she looked up and put on her brave face, Lena was the one that suffered through the unthinkable, she didn’t need to know about the agony she endured for those long ten months while she was gone. “I’m just glad you’re here now,” Kara murmured, finally.

Lena knew something had changed in the air, but couldn’t quite guess what Kara was picturing in her mind. It was foolish of her to think Kara would open her heart to her again right away. Very soon, Kara would have to go back to her job at CatCo and her Supergirl duties and those who were her loved ones, and Lena would probably be left behind, with the memory of torture and darkness, plus none other than two babies with Kryptonian genes. But it was better not to go down that path… If she could have Kara now, for a few moments, she should make the most of it.

And the truth seemed to be the most fitting thing to say.

“Well. One thing I can say for sure…” Lena’s eyes shined with devotion, and she tried to downplay the meaning behind her words with an overconfident smile. “Supergirl may be the one that gets credit out there, but in here, Kara Danvers, you are my hero.”

Kara laughed, but she was visibly moved. She really wished she could hug her friend to thank her, but that was obviously out of the question.

“Can I ask you something? That has to do with Krypton?” Lena’s voice unsure, a little hopeful.

“Yes, of course. Anything.”

“What’s the word for ‘mother’ in Kryptonian? I’m just curious.”

Kara wasn’t expecting that kind of question but her eyes illuminated immediately. 

“Oh. Well. Since family was so important in our culture, there’s a lot of respectful terms and special ways to refer to family. So when you say, for example, ‘my mother’, you say it with what’s called an honorific, a term that could work as a possessive, but it’s reserved only for family.”

It had never been natural for Kara to talk about Krypton. Jeremiah insisted that she should conceal her identity, and it wasn’t until her relationship with Alex solidified that she could bring herself to recount memories of her culture. Kal, or should she say – Clark, was never around. And on the rare occasions he was, he would respond to Krypton stories like they were a fairytale, which only made Kara feel more alienated…

“That’s fascinating. How the social constructs of your society translated into the way you articulate your language, I mean. Amazing.”

But something in the way Lena listened to her, something in the way she asked the question… it just made her dive into the memories, no time to wonder if she would regret it. With Lena, there was no salt in the wound, and Kara just embraced it and rambled on, powered by the way Lena’s eyes filled with awe and wonder.

“Yes. I guess Kryptonian society was very advanced in that regard. If we wanted to live accordingly to our values, we just tried to apply them to every statement of life, including language. So the term for Mom is Éú, which I used to pronounce a little more open, as in Ieiu,”

“Jeju?” Lena’s attempt was not bad, but the vocals fell everywhere.

“Close, yes. You have to let the first vocal clear and open… Ee-eh-ee-ooh,” Kara gently corrected. “So, repeat after me. Ieiu.”

Lena, being a polyglot since childhood, tried to memorize the positions of her tongue within her mouth and listened intently to Kara’s voice.

“Eeh-eh-ee-u.”

“Better. You’re getting there.”

Lena repeated the word a few times to herself, trying to find the perfect way for her lips to mimic Kara’s pronunciation. 

“So, if I want to say ‘my mom’,” Kara continued enthusiastically, “I would add the honorific possessive, besides the regular possessive, resulting in we Ieiu te. You use it when you’re referring to them when not on their presence, but in the end I just called my mom Ieiu, simply as that.”

Lena nodded and, unthinking and lost in the beauty of the moment, she asked something that made Kara’s smile disappear.

“Would you like Luna and Liam to call you that?”

Lena regretted the question immediately.

“I… I hadn’t thought about that.” 

Kara tried to smile, but her lips trembled and her eyes looked lost.

“I’m so sorry, Kara, I wasn’t thinking what I was saying…”
Kara completely ignored Lena’s reaction and after a second she stared at her friend.

“The thought is both pleasant and terrifying.”

Lena wasn’t listening.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t–“

Kara raised her hand in the air.

“You really need to stop that.”

Lena paused, confused.

“What?”

Kara shook her head, frustrated with the situation. Still, her tone towards Lena showed nothing but understanding. 

“Saying you’re sorry, all the time. You need to stop, Lena. None of this is your fault.”

“Oh, ok,” Lena considered what she was about to say for a moment, but she shook her head and just went for it. “Can I confess something? I’ve got so many questions about Krypton.”

“You do?”

Lena stared at Kara wide-eyed, trying to repress her excitement. She failed.

“Are you kidding me? Knowing about a distant civilization sensibly more technologically advanced than us? Yes! I starve for knowledge, you know that! During all those months of our friendship, sometimes I just wanted to tell you I knew about Supergirl so I could torment you with all kinds of questions.”

Kara would’ve been a little overwhelmed if all this came from somebody else, but with Lena, she just had no restraint.

“Oh. Well, what would you like to know about?”

“Everything! Tell me everything.”

Kara was beyond amused at her friend’s enthusiasm.

“Uh, well… we need to start with something,” Kara giggled.

Lena took a deep breath, and Kara was kind of scared, for the first time, seeing that perhaps Lena had given this a lot of thought.

“All right…” Lena began, “so I’ve got a request.”

“Mmm-hmm?” Kara just waited.

“If you’re going to speak Kryptonian to them I demand you teach me the language, Zor-El, I don’t want you plotting things with these two behind my back.” Lena finally blurted out.

Kara was in shock for a second, and for multiple reasons.

“What– I would never– I–“

“Kara, the more they know about Krypton and their heritage, the safer they’ll be from my mother and her xenophobia,” Lena explained in all seriousness. “Your culture has to be their culture. And I’d love to learn and share that part of your life with you. So… teach me, please?”

Kara didn’t need any more convincing. 

“Ok, ok, I’ll teach you. Ok.”

“Thank you.”

And there they were, again, both women silent, the room charging up with inexplicable electricity.

“You’re welcome,” Kara smiled and felt the need to look down, eagerly trying to find some inconsequential follow-up, so she could avoid getting lost in Lena’s eyes. She had never felt uncomfortable in Lena’s presence, but this feeling was different. Both pleasant and unnerving. Perhaps it was just the weight of the past few days finally taking its toll on them. “Well”, Kara spoke, “you already know the word for mother–“ 

“And demon.”

“Ha. Yes. How about we start your first lesson with something quite different?”

Lena looked like a child about to enter a fairground ride.

“Ok.”

Kara smiled at her, unblinking.

“Aos. Repeat after me, ah-oss.”

Lena didn’t waste time.

“Aos.”

“Very good. Aos means baby.”

Kara looked down at Liam, now slowly drifting to sleep in her mother’s arms. Lena repeated the word, softly, looking at him.

“Now… Shahrrenhth.”

“Shar – renth?”

Kara nodded and pointed at her family’s coat of arms, proudly embroidered in her chest.

“Yes. Hope.”

Lena stared at her, fixated. Kara kept on with the lesson.

“Nzrhueiao. Repeat, shru-eeh-ah-oh.”

“Nzrhueiao.”

The Kryptonian’s smile couldn’t be wider.

“That was perfect, you’re a natural, Lena!”

“So what does it mean?”

Kara was unaware that she had leaned on the bed. She was unaware that she had reached out to Liam when she taught Lena how to say ‘baby’. She hadn’t noticed that her fingers were barely touching her son’s tiny arm, and that protecting that tiny body, there was Lena’s hand, making little circles on the baby’s back. If Kara moved her hand forward, just an inch, she could touch Liam and Lena at the same time.

“It means…” Kara swallowed, unable to look away from the gorgeous combination of green, grey and blue in Lena’s eyes. “It means beautiful,” she whispered. 

She could see Lena was holding her breath, she could hear her heartbeat spiking up, she wanted more than anything to bring her hand forward and take Lena’s and feel their son’s breathing flowing through them–

“Um, uh – sorry to interrupt…”

Someone cleared their throat at the door, and Kara jerked away from Lena and the baby to see her sister giving her a puzzled look and showing her best down-to-business body language, hands behind her back, straightened back. 

“Supergirl, we need you downstairs.”

Kara, knowing that the best thing to do when dealing with an uncomfortable Alex was to just ignore the situation, smiled at her sister and remained as cheerful as possible. Kara didn’t want to leave Lena’s side abruptly, especially considering the intensity of the moment they had shared. If anything, running away would only make it… weirder.

“Morning, Alex. I’ll be right there.”

Alex looked behind her, nervously, and Kara knew something was wrong.

“Now, Kara. It’s… an emergency,” Alex pleaded.

Lena frowned and looked between the Danvers sisters, intrigued. 

“Is everything all right?”

Alex nodded and relaxed her posture a bit. 

“Yes, Lena, don’t worry. Just DEO business, nothing Supergirl can’t handle. Ruth and the other nurses are on their way to help you with everything. They will be bringing you breakfast, and please eat everything this time, don’t make me call my mom…”

Alex was a master when it came to diverting someone’s attention by trying to be the coolest player in the room. Lena took the bait, apparently. 

“Don’t play the Dr. Danvers card too soon, Agent, you know you guys serve me five meals a day.”

“Noted. See you later, Lena.”

As Kara stood up and directed an apologetic smile at Lena, Alex waved at the CEO and made way for her sister, putting a hand on her shoulders.

“So, what’s going on?” Kara asked when they were out of the med-bay.

Alex directed her toward the stairs, her voice hushed, but firm.

“Ok, listen, I need you to remain calm, be in your best Supergirl behavior and please just let me explain…”

Alex noticed Kara had seen it. Her eyes grew wide with horror, and sparks of red began to appear in the irides of her eyes, as she clutched her teeth and her hands balled into fists.

Alex panicked.

“Fuck, no! Kara, you dumbass, listen to me!”

“Lillian!” Kara hissed.

There she was, in the middle of the room, walking around as if she owned the building. And no one was stopping her. Lillian Luthor had that unnerving smirk on her face that Kara had come to hate. Metallo and Hank Henshaw walked by her side, and J’onn just stood there, allowing them to walk around the command center as if they were privileged guests.

“Kara, NO!” 

Alex’s plea was useless.

Hell hath no fury like Kara Zor-El charging towards one Lillian Luthor.

***

It was the night before Lillian Luthor’s surprising visit to the DEO. 

The twins had been born at dawn. 

In the evening, when everyone was exhausted and still trying to process one of the weirdest days of their lives, Kara had gathered all her family and friends that were at the building. She told them she wanted to take care of the babies, that Lena was keeping them, and that they had decided to move in together, just for a while, at least until they knew more about their powers, if they had any.

The general shock was evident, but Kara’s enthusiasm was baffling, to say the least… Friends raising babies, it’s going to be so much fun!

Alex was speechless for the first time in ages. James was visibly surprised, but he just said he trusted Kara’s judgement. Eliza hugged her daughter and told her she would be there for her, no matter what. J’onn just nodded and accepted her decision, but his concerned look seemed to be perpetual. Winn hugged Kara and endlessly rambled about always wanting to be an uncle but being still slightly hurt because they had passed on the Skywalker twins opportunity.

And Mon-El… let’s just say, Mon-El didn’t take it very well.

And so James Olsen wondered to himself why on Earth was he playing babysitter to the Daxamite for the umpteenth time.

He sighed as he recalled he wasn’t really doing it for Mon-El’s sake, but Kara’s.

James and Mon-El weren’t friends – not exactly. Kara was the one thing they had in common, but they had learned to tolerate each other and in some twisted, incomprehensible way, Mon-El tended to behave around him. 

Which should have been weird, since this was his ex’s boyfriend. 

But to James, Kara was much more than that title. He always had trouble referring to her as his ex. She was one of her best friends, his hero and his inspiration for Guardian. So whenever Kara was upset with Mon-El and he just wouldn’t listen to reason, James became accustomed to step in and knock some sense into the Daxamite. 

It had happened a lot of times. More than James would be willing to admit. And yes, he knew it was wrong. He knew that the only reason why Mon-El listened to him and not Kara was because he was a man. Because it was obvious that Mon-El was still a sexist dumbass, and although he had changed his ways over time, it just wasn’t enough. Perhaps the damage was too deep – perhaps it was impossible to completely change someone’s mind when they were raised to think that women are just recipients of the male gaze and desire. James had had lots of uncomfortable conversations with Mon-El regarding this and other topics (the one about the history of slavery on Earth was particularly mortifying). Mon-El had apologized multiple times for his behavior and the ways of his people, and James had been content with that. But still, from time to time, there was the occasional inappropriate comment trying to pass down as a joke that turned heads and made eyes roll.

Still, they all tried to educate him. They all tried to be patient and understanding to the point of exhaustion, sometimes. All for Kara’s sake. 

Because Kara loved this guy, inexplicably, and well, everybody knows love can be irrational sometimes. 

And we all do crazy shit for love. 

For Kara’s friends, the craziness was putting up with her fickle boyfriend.

But James, caught in the middle of the storm, had seen the spark between them slowly fading away over the past months. Well, if he was true to himself, he had never seen that spark on Kara’s face in the first place. Not with Mon-El. 

When they had their thing, Kara and James, it was different. She used to smile at him like he rocked her world and her eyes would shine with the light of a million suns. Their untimely break-up had hurt a lot, but he reminded himself that Kara would be there for him as a friend, guiding him with her everlasting light. He took comfort in remembering that Kara was a miracle and he had the privilege of witnessing it firsthand. 

Things had changed, though.

Now, there was a warmth to Kara that just seemed to go away whenever she was in the same room with Mon-El, as if he was vampirizing her. It was a harsh truth, but James couldn’t lie to himself anymore, that’s how he saw it: Mon-El fed on Kara’s happiness, isolating her, humiliating her in the work-place and in front of family and friends, taking pride on letting the world know she belonged to him, trying to make sure in each and every moment that she never forgot that. 

Their relationship was based on his needs and the projection of Mon-El’s untruthful self-image on Kara. He wanted to be a hero because she was one, but instead of rising to greatness, he pushed Kara to lower herself down to his mediocrity, and he always found a way to convince her that she was the one to blame for that. Because she asked too much and he tried so hard. Because she was unfair, because each time he messed up, he guilt-tripped her with I love yous and shed crocodile tears and promised to change. And when he just fucked up all over again, he made up excuses about how he was raised in a bubble in Daxam, how he felt like a victim because his parents had lied to him about reality. He would say he felt like a 16-year-old, emotionally, despite being a well grown-ass man when his stolen Kryptonian pod landed on Earth. That Kara had to teach him everything, and that he made mistakes because that made him feel vulnerable, uncertain, confused.

Poor precious Mon-El, Prince of Daxam, growing up assuming the entire galaxy was the playground for his privilege, incapable of empathy, sleeping with enslaved girls that he left to die on a planet that was his to save. Mon-El, the heir that never was, the man that when the opportunity came to save his people, refused the role because he’d rather make pancakes for Kara. Occasionally.

It was all just a pile of bullshit. 

Mon-El was, irrefutably, a lying jackass. James knew it now, he couldn’t ignore it.

Kara was the sun. And Mon-El was a black hole slowly devouring the light from it. 

But how can you tell all this to a friend, when you promised you would support them no matter what?

James was conflicted beyond belief.

When Mon-El was threaten by his parents and almost brought back to Daxam, Kara had been determined to stay with him. Theirs was the most short-lived break up in history. Despite all the lying, the hurt, the obvious manipulation. And she was really broken when it seemed like he might leave. She made her choice, and she chose him. And perhaps Mon-El was incapable of respecting her desires, but her friends could.

So James stayed silent. And so did Alex. And J’onn… he just patted him on the back, which was extremely incongruous of him but, then again, he had been complaisant with Mon-El from the very beginning (James would always wonder why he just didn’t read his mind to confirm his identity or why he accepted him into the DEO when he never represented an asset whatsoever). Perhaps Space Dad was blinded by his love for Kara? James should ask him, sometime, but J’onn would never admit he was wrong. Not without seizing the moral high-ground and diverting the question.

He sadly wondered if it was too late to save Kara from the gloom Mon-El had imposed on her. Perhaps, now that Lena was back, things could change. Although the circumstances were pretty dreadful. 

He hated to admit that when Kara and Lena were together, he could see in her eyes a glimpse of the same sparkle she used to graced him with. They had that rare connection some best friends have that no one else gets. He used to have that with Kara. And he was a little bit jealous. That, he could admit.

But what Lena had been through, the unfairness of her fate, the uncertainty of the future they faced… that was more than enough to forget his feelings and try to help everyone, as best as he could. Guardian or no Guardian, he couldn’t resist the urge to try to make things better.

And so here he was, once again, approaching a slightly drunk Mon-El sitting at a bar counter.

“Hey, buddy.”

“Hey.”

“I was looking for ya.”

“Yeah?”

“Yep.”

“Well, here I am.”

Mon-El didn’t bother to look at him, he just took a sip of the brown liquor in his glass. James sighed and sat on the stool next to him.

“Is it safe to assume that’s not club soda?”

The Daxamite finished off his glass and gestured for the bartender to bring another round. Still no response.

“Let me guess. Zakarian ale always takes the edge off.”

Mon-El finally turned to James, visibly pissed.

“Did she send you? Because I swear, if she sent you–“

“What?” James shrugged and frowned, his voice a little too loud, fueled by Mon-El’s hostility, “It would just mean that she worries about you. That she cares.”

Seeing that Mon-El returned his attention to his glass, James lowered his voice, trying to remember he was actually the diplomatic one. 

“But no. She did not send me.”

Mon-El smiled bitterly.

“So does that mean she doesn’t care?” 

“That’s not what I–“

Mon-El laughed. A drunken, sarcastic, short laugh.

“You just don’t know, right? Let me tell you what I think.” The Daxamite’s voice turned low and filled with resentment. “I think she’s back at the DEO playing house with the Luthor.”

“C’mon, man, that’s not fair–”

“I’m sorry, you’re right, dude, it’s not fair,” Mon-El raised his arms and shrugged, his tone turning even more charged with bitterness, "who am I to say what’s fair? Right? I’m just the guy whose girlfriend just had twins with the sister of one of her archenemies.”

He drank the entire content of his glass in one sip, not even bothering to savor the liquor. He left the glass over the bar with a loud, angry thump.

“Oh… and… something else happened, right? Didn’t she tell me a few hours ago that she’s moving in with the Luthor to raise the babies? Oh, I recon she did. So you’re right, Jim, I’m sorry, what do I know about fair?” Mon-El gesticulated to the bartender again, who just shook his head in disapproval. Still, he poured another drink.

“Storming out of the room didn’t help…” James stated simply, no accusation in his voice.

Mon-El didn’t say a word this time, he just stared at his glass. His jaw tightened, and in the half-light of the bar James could swear he was fighting back tears.

James looked down at his shoes, unable to stop a wave of sympathy. If he was in his place, perhaps… Perhaps he would react like this, too.

“Listen, you know how I feel about the Luthors. And I wasn’t particularly fond of Lena,” James pointed out, as amicable as possible, “but Kara was right about her. We didn’t believe her until she could find proof and you know how much that hurt her.”

Mon-El scoffed.

“That was your problem, not mine. I never had any problem with Lena, I didn’t know her! And Kara gives everybody a chance – look at me!” 

James nodded, waiting.

Mon-El shifted in his stool, uncomfortably, passing a nervous hand through his hair and closing his eyes in frustration.

“But – but this – this is insane!”

James watched as the Daxamite stared at his Zakarian ale furiously, and unaware for a moment of his strength, he held the glass too tightly, smashing it to pieces in his hand.

Thankfully, the music and the voices around him covered the sound of shattering glass.

James reached out and grabbed his elbow, gently, simply trying to snap him back to reality.

“Hey, man, I feel ya. This situation is weird and uncomfortable for everybody.”

James let go and Mon-El swallowed hard, covering his eyes with his hands and rubbing them for a few seconds, then resting his forehead on the bar counter, disregarding the shattered glass.

“Perhaps you should trust Kara,” James went on, trying to sound as comforting as possible. Even if Mon-El had never been a friend to him, he could tell he needed one right now. He was willing to be that person, because Mon-El was a flawed guy, sure, but he hadn’t ask for this. None of them had. “Perhaps you can both find middle ground if you just listen to her and see things from her point of view–”

“See, the thing about Kara is that…” Mon-El raised his head, quickly interrupting, with rapid-fire words, “she’s not just Kara. She’s got all this layers to her… She’s human, she’s Kryptonian, she’s Kara Danvers but she’s also Kara Zor-El. Sometimes I think she doesn’t know how to balance them, or even if she wants to do that.”

James was about to say something else but he just waited, sensing the anxiety in the Daxamite’s voice.

“I’m… just me. I don’t wanna be Mike or the Prince of Daxam. I’m just Mon-El, I serve drinks at a bar and I’m great at playing video-games. And I love my girlfriend. And that’s it!” Mon-El kicked his head against the counter and finally looked back at James. A hint of shame shimmered in his eyes, but he didn’t try to wipe the silent tears that ran across his cheeks. “And of course I know I’m not the best boyfriend in the world but, fuck, do I want to be! For Kara! Shit! I’d do anything for Kara.” He sniffed and rapidly wiped his nose against the sleeve of his shirt. James just patiently waited for him to go on. 

“I know I’m an asshole sometimes! Shit!” Mon-El cursed as more tears watered in his eyes. He suddenly burst out laughing. James knew it was just out of pure despair. “And perhaps that seems selfish because I have these powers I didn’t ask for. And everybody thinks I should be doing something great with them,” Mon-El shrugged and smile weakly. James certainly never had seen him like this, “everybody seems to have an opinion on what I should do with my life. And I know what you’re thinking, and I know you think I’m a jerk and a waste! But I just wanna live my life. I just wanna be… me. Is that so hard to understand? I mean – am I such a horrible person?”

Mon-El finally let out a deep sigh, his lower lip quivering. He closed his eyes and just breathed. 

“No, man,” James simply said after a few seconds of silence, his deep voice pouring out understanding, “that’s only… well, human.”

Mon-El opened his eyes and shook his head, once again. Calmer, this time. Sadder.

“But I don’t get why I am not enough, you know? She’s enough for me. Having her… is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I just wanna be with her. And I don’t care what we’re doing. If it’s being heroes then ok, fine by me! If she wants to live in Saturn, hey, I’ll do it. I don’t care what we do or where we are, I just wanna be with her all the time. If she’s everything for me, why am I not everything for her?”

James raised his eyebrows and couldn’t mask a disgruntled look.

“Because… man, that’s just not healthy.”

Mon-El didn’t blink, like a deer blinded by headlights, and James sighed, trying to find the right words that could awaken Mon-El from his self-imposed spell.

“Most of us, we…” James smiled briefly and shook his head, trying to find a different approach. He looked Mon-El right in the eyes and tried to sound as collected as possible. 

“Ok, listen. You can’t be defined just by the person you love. You have to find yourself, you have to know who you are, find yourself out there. This is a shit crazy world, and you cannot love someone if you just don’t appreciate yourself enough to find out who you really are.”

Mon-El just protested.

“I told you, I don’t need an epic hero journey, I’m happy being a fucking nobody!”

And that’s when James kind of snapped.

“Then admit it to her.”

For a few seconds, both men just held each other’s gaze. After a while, Mon-El’s voice high-pitched. He really didn’t have a clue.

“What?

James bit his lip, and just went in for the kill.

“Just say all that to Kara’s face. All you’ve been doing since you arrived on Earth is following her around like a lost puppy and trying to be what she wanted you to be so you could get laid.”

“Hey, that’s not tru–“

“Oh, c’mon, man, the cat’s out of the bag, we can be honest with each other.”

Perhaps it was the way James’ deep voice turned darker at the use of unprecedented sarcasm, but Mon-El didn’t protest again. 

“Kara has never heard you say how you really feel,” James continued, firmly, “what you just told me about wanting a regular life? And I think you haven’t told her because you fear she might walk away when you tell her the truth. Because you think she wants to be with you because you want to save the world, like her. And yes, Kara cares. And yes, she wants people to care.” A wave of pure affection passed through James as he recalled all the times his friend had saved his life. All the times he wanted to be like her. Mon-El mistook the pause as an opportunity to defend himself. James didn’t let him. He raised one hand, and gave no respite. “But if you are pretending to be someone you’re not, you’re never really going to find out if she can love you for who you are, Mon-El. And you owe it to her, you owe her the chance of knowing you and loving all of you, flaws and all. That’s love, man. That’s what love is about. And if you keep pretending, if you don’t give her the chance to know how you feel, eventually, it will break you guys apart. There’s no way you can have a future with her without being honest. You know that. Perhaps you didn’t know when you first arrived on Earth… but you know that now, man. She taught you. She didn’t have to, but she did it anyway.”

Mon-El looked appalled, pale. He swallowed hard and James could see him slightly embarrassed, for the first time ever. His mouth formed up words, but it was clear he didn’t know what to say. 

“Listen, I appreciate you playing the part of the shoulder to cry on but – don’t take this the wrong way – but why do you care, anyway?” The Daxamite scoffed, trying to sound nonchalant. 

James sighed.

“I care because I see myself in you. As someone who’s lost Kara…”

The Daxamite’s eyes went wide and he raised his hands, cutting James off.

“Whoa, whoa, I’m not going to lose Kara!”

James just ignored his reaction and kept on.

“Our circumstances were different, but one day Kara woke up and just didn’t feel the same way I felt about her. It happens, sometimes. It’s nobody’s fault.”

“Again, pal, I appreciate your sympathy but – I’m not gonna lose her.”

It was really something to make the Prince of Daxam uncomfortable, but James could see that something – somehow was getting through to him. Perhaps the uneasiness was the symptom of reason finally kicking in.

James shot a completely honest look at Mon-El.

“Hey, buddy, I’m just saying – you gotta come clean or you gotta let go. For me, it was the latter. And sometimes love is letting go. It doesn’t have to be like that for you. You still have time. Just don’t sleep on it.”

Mon-El nodded, at last, and they shared an uneasy silence for a few seconds. Around them, the voices were fewer and the music was going softer. Closing time was near. 

“Now, just… go home,” Olsen stood up from his seat, “take a shower, get a good night sleep. You’re gonna be fine.”

Mon-El lowered his gaze, still not a word. James looked down at the watch on his wrist and thought that, though it was late, it was going to be a long night for him.

“Gotta go, man. Gimme a call if you need anything, alright?”

When he was almost at the door, a voice called back from behind him. The bar was almost empty now. 

“Hey, Olsen?”

The photographer turned around. Mon-El looked insecure and hesitant for a second, but then he nodded his head and looked James sincerely in the eye.

“Thank you. I – just… thank you.”

James nodded back. He could see right through him, his struggle, the glimpse of barriers falling. A lost boy turned into a man who didn’t know how to be one. Not that all that justified his actions but… a thank you was a novelty. It was a start.

“You’re welcome.”

James Olsen walked out of the bar into the chilling air of the night, feeling uncertain about what the future might bring.

Mon-El had the chance he didn’t have with Kara, and perhaps he would go back to his old ways, but he somehow sensed that at least he would try to be honest to himself. And with her. For once.

He still couldn’t and wouldn’t justify the Daxamite’s ways, but he hoped he had given him reason enough to change. To be brave enough to look for the truth within him, so he could find his place in the world. Something told him that Mon-El wasn’t as happy with his life as he said he was, that he had blinded himself with his obsession with Kara, ending up more lost than found.

With a cry for help coming from a back alley, James was brought back to reality and his combat instincts kicked in. A robbery. He raised his left arm immediately, deploying his Guardian shield and marching towards the disturbing sounds. It didn’t matter that he didn’t have his helmet on or that he might be outnumbered. This was his calling.

And as he shouted for the victim to get to safety and deflected punching blows with his shield, James Olsen knew he was exactly where he was supposed to be.

***

The moment the security team informed J’onn that an unarmed Lillian Luthor was in the building, asking to see him, he knew she hadn’t come to the DEO without leverage. 

Luthor, Metallo and Henkshaw had no weapons on them, no apparent back-up team, and accepted to be meticulously searched. Even Metallo’s kryptonite heart was nowhere to be seen. Lillian made a remark about him being more stable running on Nth metal. That did not reassure anybody. 

They were escorted by a DEO team with heavy weapons pointed at them. They didn’t seem to care.

So it was very clear that Lillian Luthor wasn’t there to start a fight. 

But she hadn’t come without an ace up her sleeve, either.

Her terms were clear and precise: she wanted to talk to Supergirl, J’onzz and Lena. And if the DEO refused her request or incarcerated her, there would be consequences. But she would only reveal them to J’onn J’onzz or Agent Danvers.

And so the most wanted anti-alien terrorist in the world ended up face to face with the director of the DEO, smirking proudly and taking in her surroundings, like a predator would in their’s prey territory.

J’onn wanted to tear her apart with his own hands, especially after unleashing Medusa and what she’d done to Lena. She knew this, so it made her enjoy every word revealing her bargaining chip, knowing he wouldn’t even dare to touch a hair of her head.

It went like this: Cadmus had planted bombs all over the city. Some were in innocuous places. Some were in schools, work centers, train stations or even hospitals. They were all connected to a complex bioengineered system linked to Lillian’s body. Only she could deactivated it. If her heart stopped beating, they would all go off at the same time. If she made certain gestures, it could activate them, and she would be able to choose which ones to set off, but she wouldn’t reveal how. So, long story short: if anything happened to her, or Metallo, or Henshaw, innocents would die. She told J’onn that she really hoped she wouldn’t have to use that last resort, but that she knew after what she’d done to Lena, Supergirl would need some kind of motivation to have a nice chat with her. 

Knowing she couldn’t have anyone’s trust, Lillian explained, she’d show them truth.

And after a few moments of tense silence, with J’onn considering his options, Lillian’s face changed into a gesture of concentration and her eyes went blank for a second. Then, her permanent smirk appeared back in her face. Winn shouted as his monitors peaked with activity. 

There had been an explosion on the docks. An abandoned warehouse.

J’onn furiously accused Lillian of being out of her mind, but the Luthor matriarch reassured the Martian telling him it was a calculated detonation, since Cadmus knew no one was there. She was just trying to show him how serious she was.

And, as a goodwill gesture, she added something.

“Go ahead, read my mind.”

J’onn’s blood ran cold. The determination in her voice probably proved that she was telling the truth. He complied, anyway. He wasn’t surprised when he couldn’t see into parts of Lillian’s mind, of course she’d use some kind of technology to block him telepathically. But there were things he could see. And, unequivocally, those things showed him she was telling the truth. They couldn’t risk it, so he ordered the agents to stand down, but watch her every move.

Lillian’s expression grew even more triumphant.

“Told you, I just came to talk,” she looked around and added chirpily, “now, where is the alien and my dear darling daughter?”

And that’s when Supergirl appeared, flying at super speed towards her to put her hand around her neck, lifted her in the air effortlessly, and ready to see the life get choked out of her eyes.

Alex Danvers jumped over the handrail, swearing and shouting behind her sister.

“So much for kryptonian self-control!”

J’onn took a step forward at the same time he raised a hand so his agents wouldn’t take action.

“Supergirl, stand down!”

But Kara wasn’t listening.

“You monster!” Supergirl yelled, her teeth pressed together in anger, her eyes flashing red cracks as her heat vision fired up. Lillian had her hands around Kara’s, gasping for air, but even like that, possibly about to be ended by her archenemy, she only smiled. 

“Takes one to know one,” Lillian snapped. “Do what your kryptonian nature dictates you, Kara Zor-El. Come on, prove me right!”

Kara tightened her grip around Lillian’s neck just a little bit, too lost in her own anger. 

J’onn’s eyes flashed red.

“Supergirl, stop! She has a mechanism inside her body that could detonate several bombs placed around the city! Put her down, now, or innocents will die!”

Kara turned to J’onn, hesitating for a second, but then a voice behind her made her release her hold on Lillian immediately. 

“Supergirl, don’t!”

When she looked for the source of that desperate scream, Kara saw Lena holding on to the stairs’ handrail, barely able to stand on her feet.

Lillian’s body made a loud noise as she fell to the ground, Kara just let go of her as if she was a rag doll. Metallo and Henshaw helped Lillian to her feet as she coughed and caught her breath. Despite that, her sardonic smile only grew wider when she saw her daughter calling out to the Kryptonian hero.

Kara rushed to Lena’s side, barely making it in time to keep her from falling. 

“Lena!"

Lena instinctively threw her arms around Kara’s neck, and before she knew it, she was being carried in strong arms.

“You must be in pain, you shouldn’t be walking yet! I’ll take you back to bed, I got this.”

Kara stopped the moment she felt Lena’s hands cupping her cheeks, forcing her to meet her eyes.

“Get me down there,” Lena whispered only for Kara to hear.

Kara’s entire body tensed up, both from the touch and the plea. 

“But–“

“Please.”

Lena’s voice sounded so tired that Kara knew, in that precise moment, it was the right thing to do. She nodded, and gently flew down back to the command center, Lena safely protected by her arms. 

The moment she saw them flying back, Alex motioned for Vasquez to quickly get the wheelchair they had been reserving for Lena. Vasquez ran to get it, while everyone watched silently as Supergirl touched the ground minding her every move, Lena Luthor in her arms, bride style. Supergirl patiently waited making sure Lena was as comfortable as possible. Long, awkward seconds passed while no one dared to speak seeing the looks Lena Luthor was shooting in her mother’s direction. She could easily make hell freeze over. 

Lillian, now back on her feet, showed her usual arrogance and made a poor attempt at a compliment. 

“My darling girl. Motherhood suits you. You look stunning.”

Agent Vasquez arrived just in time. Supergirl carefully placed Lena on the wheelchair and took a step backwards, checking silently if she needed anything. Lena only had eyes for her defiant mother.
“I look like crap and you’re still are a lousy liar. Just answer me, Mother, what do you want?”

Supergirl stood next to Lena, fists on her hips, jaw tightened. Lillian would’ve made an acid remark about the Kryptonian acting as Lena’s lap dog, but her main focus was her daughter.

“A chance to explain myself, that’s all. And of course I was hoping I could meet my grandchildren.”

“You’re not going anywhere near them,” Supergirl growled taking a step forward.

“Supergirl…” Alex called softly from behind her.

“Oh… already protective, Kara? So you liked my present, then? Now you’re not the last of your kind, I was expecting at least a thank you for saving your race and rescuing the lineage of the House of El from extinction.”

Kara was ready to punch Lillian through a wall, but Alex stepped forward and grabbed her by the arm, gently enough to calm her down, firm enough to stop what she was thinking.

“How did you know that Lena had given birth?” Alex asked, suspicious.

“I’m a very resourceful woman, Agent Danvers.” Lillian sighed and directed all her attention to Alex. “Tell me, how’s Jeremiah? Are you planning on doing any father-daughter activities so you can erase all those years without your daddy?”

Alex scoffed. She clapped her hands together and smiled at Kara. “Ok. Ok. That’s it.” Then, her face turned into pure rage and Supergirl had to grab her by the waist and spin her around so she wouldn’t tear Lillian’s face off with her own hands. “I’m gonna skin you alive, you sick bitch!”

“Alex! Alex, calm down! Calm down. She’s taunting us, don’t you see?” Kara cried while she tried to keep Alex in place. Of course her Kryptonian strength was absolutely superior, but Alex always had been freakishly strong. For a human.

Lillian’s laughter echoed through the room.

“You people are even weaker than I thought. This is going to be so much fun. C’mon, let’s gather all together. There’s a lot of catching up to do.”

Lillian made her way towards the round table, inviting everyone to join her. Every agent in the room looked at J’onn, and the director of the DEO just nodded, given in to the fact that, for now, Lillian Luthor had the upper hand.

J’onn had asked Eliza Danvers to inform her husband of Lillian’s presence, and in that precise moment, the Danvers made their way to the room to be greeted by an over enthusiastic Lillian Luthor.

“Jeremiah! It’s so good to see you, old friend. Please join us.” The Luthor matriarch smiled, turning her gaze to Eliza Danvers. “Glad to finally meet Supergirl’s human mother, Dr. Danvers. I never had a chance to meet Martha Kent, but then again you and I are family now, so this encounter is far more important.”

Disgust and confusion were clear on Eliza’s face.

“What is the meaning of this, Lillian?” Jeremiah rebuked.

“Oh, it’s just a family reunion, you know? We’re just talking.”

“If you’re here for the alien registry–“

Lillian raised her hand, shaking index finger.

“I’m afraid that information has become completely irrelevant in light of recent events. You always liked a good story, Lena, so allow me to take you all through a little briefing of my recent findings.”

Nervous looks were exchanged around the room. Then, J’onn sighed and rested the palm of his hands against the table, never taking his gaze from Lillian.

“You could’ve send a letter. But go on, then. We’re listening,” he said, calmly, finally showing everyone that they could try at least to handle the situation.

Lillian clapped her hands together triumphantly.

“C’mon, don’t look so down, people. Let’s begin!” She gestured for Metallo to hand her something he was holding in a paper bag. “So, Kara, I brought you a present–“ The agents were triggered the moment they saw Metallo going for whatever he had in the bag. Even Alex reached for her gun.

Lillian waved her hands in the air.

“It’s just a book,” she declared.

Metallo gave her a copy of Red Son, with Superman depicted in its cover, wearing a red and grey suit, standing tall above a reinterpretation of the House of El coat of arms that showed a hammer and sickle. Lillian threw the copy on the table in Kara’s direction.

"Since I know you are a fan of Earth's pop culture, I believe you should know what that is, Supergirl.”

“It’s a friggin’ comic book.” Kara retorted, her infuriation sounding almost childlike.

Lillian smirked.
“Not just any comic book. Mr. Schott, care to do the honors? I’m pretty sure you know what this is.”

Winn felt every gaze in the room directed at him.

“Uh… Sure… Um…” he stuttered. “Uh… it’s a graphic novel in which the authors fantasized with the idea of Superman landing on the URSS and becoming Stalin’s favorite weapon of mass destruction.” He looked nervously at Kara. “It’s actually… very good. It has won awards and everything.”

Supergirl scoffed and crossed her arms on her chest.

“I’ve heard of it. My cousin hates it.”

“And he has reason to,” Lillian grinned, nodding her head. “It’s not just a comic book. It tells a crude reality about him –  that he’s unstable, dangerous, pliable. That, with certain stimuli, he could become the tyrant we all fear he could be.”

“So is this what you came for, Lillian? You want to open a book club at the DEO?” Alex spat angrily.

“Oh, no, no. I just want to help you understand my point of view. I’m getting there, please, be patient.”

Metallo handed Lillian another object. It was an old newspaper.

“Let’s see… another souvenir. Your cousin’s first front page interview on the Daily Planet. ‘I spent the night with Superman’. They say that was the one that really got Lane the Pulitzer but I don’t know, I always found it too corny.”

“Ok, what are you getting at, Mother? This is far too eccentric even for you,” Lena asked, impatiently. 

“I know, sweetheart, but it’s important to give context to what I’m about to say.” Lillian left the paper on the table and turned to Kara, her voice tinged with contempt. “When your cousin did that interview with Lois Lane many years ago, what side of the American way of life was he referring to?” Kara opened her mouth but Lillian didn’t give ground. “What was he really trying to say? Was he trying to defend the American way that put a white supremacist in the White House? Was he talking about the American way that sponsors a law enforcement that kills black people everyday without consequences? Was he alining himself with those who claim we are a force for peace in Washington and then sell weapons in the Middle East to those who are supposed to be our enemies? So, tell me: truth, justice and the American way… does it sound any different from a quote that says: I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice? You know who said that, Supergirl?”

Kara remained silent.

“I thought as much. But my brilliant girl knows, don’t you, Lena?”

“Comparing Superman to Hitler is quite a ridiculous reach, Mother,” Lena shook her head and sighed, still trying to figure out what her mother was playing at.

“Oh, is it?” Lillian narrowed her eyes looking at her daughter, then turned to Kara once again. “Supergirl, what happened when you were exposed to red kryptonite? I seem to remember you had so much fun.”

“You’re taking out of context something that I couldn’t control.” Kara blurted out through clenched teeth.

Lillian pointed an accusing finger at her.

“Exactly! All it took was a mediocre man creating a mediocre experiment to turn you into your true self. That’s what Lex and I always feared. It is not xenophobia, it is not hate. It’s preparing for the inevitable. I can even recognize that your heart is in the right place most of the time, Supergirl, but if someone as untrustworthy as Max Lord could affect you by accident… well, you said it yourself, you couldn’t control it. And we both know you and your cousin are the definitive weapons of mass destruction.”

Kara pressed her lips together and laughed, bitterly.

“You’re a hypocrite, Lillian. You’re justifying your actions because you think my cousin and I might turn into tyrants? You’re even more delusional than I thought. After what you’ve done to Lena–“

Lillian raised her voice for the first time since she set foot in the building.

“What I’ve done to Lena is the ultimate sacrifice, Kara Zor-El, and you don’t get to call me a hypocrite when you live your life above us, deciding what’s right and what’s wrong!”

“You have to be kidding me…” Lena murmured as tears of frustration and anger watered in her eyes. She fought them back with everything she had.

Lillian just went on, her fury towards Kara unleashing without constraints.

“You Kryptonians weren’t even here when this world almost collapsed. Those who rose to power had the same arrogance your cousin showed when he proclaimed himself the defender of ideals that don’t even belong to him. No alien refugee stepped up when millions were obliterated, when Humanity had to fight back for its own survival,” Lillian furiously spatted. She looked to J’onn then, her words cutting the air like knives. “Where were you hiding, J’onn J’onnz, when what happened to your people repeated itself on this same planet, uh? The 20th century had plenty of tyrants to choose from, but you didn’t fight against any of them.” She turned to Kara again, not even catching her breath. “And you and Kal-El were thousand of light years away or not even born yet, and still you think you can be better at being humans than us? If that’s not delusions of grandeur, then what is it? If that’s not an insult to our intelligence, tell me, Supergirl, what’s that supposed to mean? What do we humans do when a saviour appears out of nowhere telling us that they know what’s best for all of us? Some follow blindly, some fight back.”

“You’re mad, Lillian. You’re beyond redemption, just like your son,” J’onn snapped.

“DO NOT SPEAK OF MY SON!”

The room went completely silent. The agents and employees of the DEO ceased all activity. Everyone stared at Lillian. Her face was red, a vein popping out of her neck, her eyes burning with fire. And, as if nothing, she cleared her throat, shook her head momentarily, and came back to her arrogant self. It was the creepiest thing any of them had ever seen, and that was a huge statement given that they worked at a place called Department of Extranormal Operations.

“Lex… Lex was brilliant. Lex was a beacon of hope,” Lillian sighed. Then she looked her daughter in the eye, and maybe for the first time since she set foot in the building, she seemed totally honest. “You know it Lena. Remember? Remember him before Superman, before all this? He was your light, as much as he was mine. You know it in your heart… he could’ve been everything.” Lena looked away, unable to give in. She had mourned her brother for so long… Lex was not dead, but the Lex she knew and loved was long gone. Lillian looked back to J’onn, Alex and Supergirl. “You tell me I’m mad. You were the ones that drove the brightest mind on the planet to madness. He could’ve helped millions. He could’ve been our savior. I saw it. I saw him being everything I had dreamed… in another worlds. Another realities. But you people just stripped him away of everything, and then, he had nothing to lose.” She paused, and then shot Kara a cold look. “My son just wanted to find the truth about the nature of Kryptonians, and it is what has kept me going after your cousin sent my darling boy to max and you bewitched my beautiful girl.”

For a moment, Kara could see Lillian as a mother. Not a villain, not a mad scientist, not a xenophobe. A mother who had lost her son to madness and despair. A mother that perhaps saw no other choice but to give in to those things, too, as if they were the only thing biding her to her son.

“Lex made his own choices, Lillian,” Kara spoke, softly. Not a hint of animosity in her voice. “You can fool yourself all you want, but what he did is unforgivable.”

“Unforgivable, you say?” Lillian bit the inside of her cheek and smiled, bitterly. “Unforgivable, funny you say that. Each and everyone of you has done terrible things, and yet you still think you are the good guys,” she turned to Jeremiah and pointed a finger at him. “You. You only escaped because I allowed you to. I knew you would. I was going to let you run away with my daughter, Jeremiah, it was all part of my plan. There was no need to kill my men. Carl, Evan, Dimitri.” Jeremiah took a step back and shook his head, in denial. “You worked with them for years,” Lillian continued, “that must have been very hard for you, but don’t worry, I’ll make sure their families are properly compensated.”

“You’re lying,” Jeremiah snapped, his eyes red with anger, “that doesn’t make sense. Why would you let Lena go?”

“Because I knew she would be safe with you, that you’d bring her here. I didn’t have the luxury of time. When Lena was on the final stages of her pregnancy I made an unsettling discovery… I’ll get to that, don’t worry. The point is, I had to go on a little trip and I didn’t know if I was going to make it back…” Lillian narrowed her eyes, seeing the sincere look of disgust Jeremiah had in his face. She was enjoying it far too much, letting him know he had killed for nothing. “Did you think I was always completely honest with you? Did you think I didn’t feed you false intel? Did you think I didn’t know that eventually you’d try to betray me, again?”

Eliza put a trembling hand over her husband’s shoulder as he looked undoubtedly devastated.

Lillian tilted her head, satisfied.

“You all have blood in your hands, and you know it.”

J’onn rubbed his chin, exasperated. “My patience is wearing thin, Lillian. I still don’t see the point of this non-sensical monologue.”

"Oh, don't get me started on you, J'onn J'onnz, you are the most pathetic and immoral of all of us,” Lillian jabbed, and when J’onn didn’t flinch, she continued, harsher than ever. "You flew a holocaust in your own planet, you're the last survivor of a species that will certainly die with you and yet, you rallied behind Supergirl to fight the Daxamites so their lazy bones prince could stay on Earth to keep playing Ken with her Kryptonian Barbie. You of all people should've done the right thing, you of all people should have convinced Mon-El to go back and fix his planet! Instead, you let Rhea go and you chose to condemn the people of Daxam to perpetual tyranny.” 

“You’re twisting the facts,” J’onn clenched his jaw.

“Am I? The facts are just that: facts. I could go on for hours,” Lillian took a long look around her, and then projected her voice, for everyone in the room to hear, “it all evinces a harsh truth about all of you. You don’t put the greater good above everything else. You just wrap yourselves around great words and good intentions and tag everyone that does not share your point of view as ‘evil’. But when it comes to the hard choices, when it comes to self-sacrifice and moral ambiguities and dealing with the consequences of the toughest of decisions, you just can’t cope.” She finally focused on Kara. “And you always decide what’s best for your own interests, you always take the selfish path, the one that benefits your loved ones and makes you survive at the expense of innocent lives. But of course, you always find a way to call your option the right one just because you declared yourselves the good guys.”

Kara held Lillian’s gaze, not backing up a bit.

“It’s clear what you think about us and what we do. But it will never justify what you’ve done.”

Lillian laughed, bitterly, and Kara was taken aback but made sure not to show it.

“I know it doesn’t. But that’s the difference between you and me, Supergirl.” The Luthor matriarch stole a quick glance in her daughter’s direction, and then focused once again on Kara. Her determination was deadlier than ever. “I know there is no rest for the wicked. I know I’ll have no forgiveness, no love. No one will call me a hero even if I save them all. And I will do what needs to be done to preserve us. But you… you could never live with that. That’s why you’re the weakest of all of us. I’ve seen it, Supergirl. The moment you lose the ones you love… you become a god turned monster.”

Lena didn’t know what it was, but something within her told her that her mother was different, somehow. Of course she was the same cruel creature that had done to her the unthinkable, but something had changed. Something had turned even darker.

“What do you mean, you’ve seen it, Mother?” Lena asked. “That’s the second time you say some stupid thing like that.” 

Lillian looked at her daughter. Lena could swear she saw hesitation in her eyes. Her adoptive mother had never shown emotions, at least not in her presence. But right now, for the first time in her life, Lena could see something else besides despise burning inside Lillian. And she couldn’t quite place what it was.

“I wasn’t born American. My father was a scientist, he was from Poland,” Lillian began explaining, looking at her hands. “A man of faith and science, as contradictory as it can sound. He created a weapon that could’ve changed history.”

Kara, Alex and J’onn exchanged baffled looks. J’onn raised his fingers, ever so slightly, as if to let them know they should let Lillian finish.

“But he was too afraid to use it, because he couldn’t bear the thought of killing innocents,” Lillian said with a strange mix of sadness and despise. “He would’ve saved millions. He would’ve changed everything. But he couldn’t live with the fact that his weapon would kill the Nazis, yes, but also millions of innocents.”

They all watched silently as Lillian put her hands on the table, her knuckles going white. “So when he had to press the button and just let Berlin burn, he couldn’t do it. And on my 13th birthday he took me to Auschwitz and showed me the consequences of his weakness. And he made me promise something. He made me promise that I wouldn’t hesitate. That I would be strong, if the time came.”

Lillian closed her eyes, then inhaled deeply. When she opened them again, they were cold as ice. “So yes, call me villain, drag my family name, tell me I won’t have peace,” she spatted. “I do know, you idiots. But I’ll do whatever I have to. Just like my son…. Nero, Genghis Khan, Vlad the III, Nicholas the II, Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, Pol Pot, Mao, Brainiac, Superman, the White Martians, Darkseid, Steppenwolf, Thaal Sinestro, Mongul, Vandal Savage, General Zod, Reign, the Dominators, Rhea... the names don't matter anymore, just the means to stop them.”

“You haven’t answered my question, Mother.”

Lillian turned to her daughter, Lena showing no sign of compassion, holding her gaze without fear or empathy.

“You were my ultimate sacrifice, Lena. I knew you’d never forgive me for what I did to you…” Lillian took a deep breath and crossed her hands, as if accepting what was coming. “But every weapon in my power mattered. Every resource I could gather to gain an advantage was necessary, because the enemies of Humanity are always lurking in the shadows, and not just the Supers… I knew I’d lost you forever. That’s how things are meant to be. And I can’t fight it, because I did what I had to.”

Lena shook her head slowly and closed her eyes, anger building up in her chest. If she could stand up, she would have slap her mother’s face a thousand times.

“You are unbelievable, Mother. You are much worse than Lex, at least he didn’t justify his deeds with all this bullshit.” Lena regretted that her words sounded choked up and charged with fury. She just didn’t want to feel any emotion towards Lillian, not anymore.

“So that’s why you came all the way here? To tell us your villain origin story? Very sad, Lillian, yeah, right.” Alex’s sarcasm somehow broke a little of the tension, it was Alex just being Alex even in the most dangerous of situations. “You know, there’s millions of people out there who suffered through war without becoming mass murderers. This bullshit you’re telling us serves you for nothing.”

Lillian grinned at her and shook her head.

“I couldn’t care less about what you or anyone else thinks about me, Agent Danvers. I came here to tell you all this because the game has changed not just for me, but for everyone on this planet. The menaces of all menaces is upon us. And it won’t care if we call ourselves good or bad guys. It’s coming for all of us.”

Everyone waited for a conclusion, Lillian sighed.

“Lena’s right… I’ve seen things. This is my last gift, Kara.”

Metallo handed Lillian what looked like a pen-drive. Lillian threw at Winn, sliding it using the table’s surface. Winn caught it and looked unsure of what to do. 

Lillian turned to Kara.

“Our visit to the Fortress of Solitude thanks to your unselfish blood donation proved to be very rewarding. I knew there was technology there that could help me win the war against you, so we salvaged pretty much anything. Information on Kryptonian genetics that your adoptive father so gladly used to help me create your children, Zor-El’s life’s work, Medusa, Kelex, Kryptonian software and technology… That place is like a new library of Alexandria, and it’s been underused.”

“That place belongs to my family and you had no right to set foot on it.” Kara growled.

“See, Kara, despite what you may think, I’m a sentient monster. If a bigger menace came up, of course I could be able to put aside our differences. And that’s exactly what happened. Mr. Schott, would you be so kind as to open the first video file you’ll find on the storage unit I just gave you?”

Winn nervously glanced at J’onn for guidance. The Martian nodded and Winn walked to his computer to plug the device in. He did as Lillian told him, and within seconds, they all were staring at the screens that showed Lillian working at a clandestine lab.

“When we came back from the Fortress, I began working on a parallel project. I knew that the theory of alternate universes was real, and I knew that you had technology that one Barry Allen gave you to walk between Earths. I set up myself to recreate such technology using the data we found on the Fortress, but with a slight improvement.”

The video showed Lillian building something that Kara recognized immediately. 

“That’s… a phantom zone projector.”

“Repurposed, yes. The phantom zone wasn’t exactly my main destination. When Lena was on her first trimester, I finally figured out how to visit any dimension emulating the projector.”

“You stole that tech. You’re using Kryptonian devices for your twisted goals!”

“C’mon, Kara, don’t be so naive. It never ceases to amaze me how I’m the villain from your point of view, yet you act surprised each time I use any resources I can to achieve my goals. Don’t you people ever get tired of being so short-minded? Mr. Schott, can you please move on to the next video?”

Winn complied, his hands trembling a little as he navigated through the data.

“And so my journey through alternative realities began. Oh, I went to some weird places. It started out initially as a way to find a weapon that could kill you, tech from other dimensions that I could use against you and others like you. But it became so much more. I found out a lot of things about your people, Kara, about you. But more importantly, I found out a lot of things about the people you surround yourself with.”

The video showed Lillian using the projector at different times, the dates and time-prints on the screen changing constantly. Sometimes she went in alone, sometimes Henshaw or Metallo were with her.

“I visited Earth-1, for starters. It was pretty boring overall but I learned a thing or two from S.T.A.R. Labs… then I went to more interesting places. I discovered multiple realities where your cousin didn’t even exist, and you could understand my surprise when I also found out that my son was the wonderful man I always thought he could be in those worlds. In some of them he was even married to one Lois Lane. Poetic justice, I guess.” Lillian chuckled to herself. “In one specific reality, your cousin was dead. A creature of Kryptonian nature called Doomsday had killed him. I thought it would be a good idea to bring it here, so I started something obviously called Project Doomsday. It wasn’t genetics, Jeremiah. I was trying to recreate the creature here, in our dimension. In order to do that, and to have as much information as possible, I kept on visiting worlds, just short observational trips, while tending to Lena and overseeing Cadmus operations.”

Images from other parallel realities appeared on screen. A multitude of people wearing black, mourning Superman. Newspapers, news shows showing headlines like Superman is dead!, Superman gives his life for Earth…

Kara frowned at the images, not believing what she was seeing. 

“Oh, Kara, the tales I could tell. In one of those Earths you were a Nazi overlord, married to a Führer version of Oliver Queen.”

“You’re lying.”

“I wish I was. Look.” 

Lillian pointed at the screens where images of Nazi propaganda showed someone called Overgirl, looking very much like Kara, standing beside Oliver Queen. In her chest, the symbol of the Nazi SS instead of the coat of arms of the House of El. Disgust crept up Kara’s spine. The scene cut to both Overgirl and Queen executing prisoners on cold blood taken from a news broadcast that claimed the justice of the Reich had been served. It ended with the anchor making the Nazi salute and yelling Sieg Heil!

“Nazis,” Alex hissed, “I fucking hate Nazis.”

Upon seeing the look of horror on Kara’s face, Lillian continued.

“It took all the strength I had not to nuclear bomb that reality. But it wasn’t my fight. And besides, it just proved that I was right about you. Just like that Red Son comic-book depicting Superman as someone who could become a tyrant, given the proper stimuli, that world showed me a lot of things about you.”

“That has nothing to do with me,” Kara protested.

“You’re right. Other versions of us don’t have to mean anything. But, the more I traveled through dimensions, the more I realized some patterns. Some – let’s say, interferences in between realities. Your loathsome boyfriend, for example… there was a world where he had been discovered by your cousin, not you. And his name wasn’t Mon-El. He was amnesic when he arrived on Earth, so your cousin thought he was Kryptonian because of his powers, so he gave him your house’s name, and add the Mon first because he landed on a Monday! Can you believe that? How idiotic could that be?”

“That doesn’t make any sense…” Winn murmured.

“As much sense as the fact that that is his real name in this reality?” Lillian pointed out. “Anyway, I started to look for those patterns, repetitions, aberrations or echos from other worlds. And in Lena’s last trimester of her pregnancy, I found this. Mr. Schott?”

Winn clicked on the next video.

It showed a busy street from Lillian’s point of view. She made her way through the crowd, then, she turned to a showcase. Her face reflected on it. Magazines and books were on display. She focused in what appeared to be the latest number of CatCo. In its cover, Lena and Kara, brimming with happiness. They were smiling at each other, holding hands. And the headline read: National City’s power couple welcomes baby twins Luna and Liam! Exclusive scoop on the happy event for the L-Corp CEO and our very own Editor-in-Chief.

The whole room at the DEO held their breath.

“You have to be fucking kidding me in the fuckity fuck,” Alex gasped.

Winn was covering his mouth. J’onn let out a sigh of apprehension. Kara wasn’t blinking at all. And Lena looked at her mother with nothing but rage in her eyes.

“You’ve manipulated these videos, you have the resources to do it. You’re fucking with our minds, Mother, I just know. This proves nothing,” Lena reproached.

“I bought a couple of the CatCo magazines, if you want to check them out”, Lillian responded with a tight-lipped smile. Then, she ignored Lena’s wrath, and kept on talking, smooth and conceited as ever. “You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that Earth. Things were quite different there. And it wasn’t just that world. I realized I was just a pawn in the multi-verse when I discovered the twins existed in other timelines.”

Lillian took a moment to look around, satisfied with the shock she encountered on everyone’s face.

“So, I kept going back and forward, studying, learning. Until I couldn’t reach some of the worlds I had visited before,” she added. “Earth-X, the one with the Nazis? It was gone. I couldn’t find its frequency anymore. Not that I’d missed it. But that kept happening with other Earths too. And I’d still be in the dark, if I hand’t encountered the answer by chance. As I suspected, the realities weren’t moving. They were disappearing. And soon, our Earth will suffer the same fate, if we don’t do something about it.”

The tension in the air shifted to awkwardness when Lena’s laughter echoed through the room. She put a hand on her belly, but completely ignored the pain. Kara wanted to reach out to her, but she stopped herself. Lena finally calmed down, and there were tears of frustration in her eyes.

"After all the lies, after all the… terrible things that you've done to me, you think I'm going to believe you?”

Lillian held her daughter’s gaze as she answered, no shadow of doubt in her voice.

“Yes, dear. Because out of all the outcomes, out of all the timelines splitting up and turning heroes into villains and vice versa, one thing remained the same, my darling. You. In every reality. Not good. Not bad. Always just. Always balanced, always impartial. You, Lena, you are the key. You are the constant.”

“The constant of what?” It was Kara who asked the question, now somehow her pose a little more confident, her arms crossed over her chest.

Lillian smiled at Supergirl.

“The constant that could make us win.”

Kara didn’t even blink.

“You’re a murderer. A liar and a psychopath. Why come to us now, after all this time?”

“Haven’t you heard a word I said, Kara Zor-El? I found out about all this two weeks ago. This is way bigger than you and me, this is the beginning of the end, Humanity is facing its extinction.”

“And yet, everything you’ve told us or show us has been just a load of crap,” Alex chirped in.

Lillian breathed in, infuriated. J’onn cut whatever words she was going to say.

“Get to the point, Lillian. Now.”

Lillian pressed her lips together and gave in. She looked J’onn directly in the eye.

“Have you ever heard the name Mobius? Or should I say, the Monitor? Some worlds refer to him as the Anti-Monitor…”

Alex could swear she saw J’onn shiver. That couldn’t mean anything good.

“That’s…” J’onn stuttered, frowning. “That’s just a legend.”

“Oh, no. It’s not,” Lillian retorted.

Upon seeing J’onn’s distress, Kara put a hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing it.

“J’onn?,” Alex asked.

The Martian seemed lost in thought. Then, he cleared his throat.

“Back on Mars, nobody believed it, it was just a tale to scare kids. The rumors said some Green Martians that had travelled across the continuum space-time came back damaged. Mentally unstable. They told stories about it but – no one really believed them. We blamed radiation and other side effects of jumping through realities.”

“I assure you, J’onn J’onnz, the Anti-Monitor is not a legend,” Lillian said flatly.

“They said that it’s a being obsessed with absorbing energy,” J’onn added. “All energy, that is. It hungers for matter across time and space, and apparently it wouldn’t stop until it consumed all energy in all existing Multiverses.”

Lillian nodded.

“He was created by an alien race in a planet called Oa. The guardians of the universe, they called themselves in an unprecedented gesture of humbleness. That was sarcasm, in case you can’t tell.”

“But the Green Lanterns,” J’onn said, “they take the oath to protect all universes. If something like this creature exists, they would stop it.”

“Unless they no longer exist,” Lillian explained. “The Lanterns are dead. All of them. This being is the answer to the real Monitor, a sort of protector of all matter in the universe. The problem is, when the guardians of the universe created it, they accidentally gave life to our little problem, who they called the Anti-Monitor. The guardians and the Lanterns built a jail for him, as big as a planet. But he broke free. And the first world he took was Oa, home of the guardians. He absorbs everything in his path, and then he turns everything into darkness, anti-matter. When the Lanterns appeared to help, they were obliterated, leaving our reality and countless more completely unaware of his existence.”

“How do you know this?” Alex asked, ever the suspicious one.

“I couldn’t explore the entire Multiverse by myself, so of course I sent my men out there. Let’s just say not all of them made it back home. Their beacons did, fortunately. I’ve got spies literally everywhere, Agent Danvers, you should know that by now.” Alex didn’t like one bit the vain smile Lillian dedicated her, but said nothing.

“He’s been successful with a few parallel universes now. And that’s generating disruptions all across time and space and different realities. Those were the echoes or interferences I detected in multiple Earths. Apparently, when he travels between dimensions or annihilates a reality, the radiation of its predatory actions affect people and things all over the Multiverse. Have you started having nightmares, any of you?” Lillian waved her hands in the air, waiting for an answer. When no one said a thing, she sighed. “If they are anything like mine, they will start getting worse, probably. He doesn’t do it quickly though, in order to consume all energy in a reality he drags himself across time, and when he’s ready he provokes a mass-scale catastrophe. It’s been happening for centuries, the signs are there, all scattered across history, but no one was paying attention.”

Alex touched her sister’s shoulder and whispered something.

“If this were true, we would have picked something up. Kara… Your friends in other realities… Oliver, Barry, the Legends – someone would have known something.”

“You don’t get it, Agent Danvers,” Lillian yelled firmly. "We’ve been all busy fighting our own petty demons, too invested in saving the world from the monster of the week to notice a bigger menace lurking in the shadows. The Monitor is like a black wolf hunting in a moonless winter night. The moment it shows itself, it’s the end. No other realities, no other Universes were able to even send a distress call before being engulfed by its darkness. That’s the way he wins. He plays with us like a cat with an agonizing mouse. He changes time and space, he gambles with our reality and shows us terrible possibilities until he chooses to attack and devours us. Quite literally.”

Supergirl uncrossed her arms and put her hands on the table, leaning on.

“If anything of what you’re saying is true… how can we stop him, Lillian?”

Lillian Luthor tilted her head. 

“There was an exception. One reality faced him and lived to tell it, or at least to send a message out.”

Lena scoffed, skeptically. 

“Do you have proof of that, Mother? Real proof, not this cheap hoax you’ve been selling us.”

A strange smile appeared on the Luthor matriarch’s face, an unsettling mixture of pride and mischief.

“Oh my darling girl, I thought you’d never ask.”

***

National City. Earth-Y.

CatCo Studios,

June 10th, 2042.

“Welcome back, National City! As promised before the commercial break, let me dive right back into it and introduce you to our next guest, none-other than fellow citizen, best-selling author and journalist, Luna Danvers!”

A round of measured applause sounded in the studio as a young woman approached the stage, dressed in a black fitted blazer, white shirt and jeans. She had long, dark blonde hair and piercing blue eyes that under more muted lights could change to green and even grey, sometimes. She wore brown semi-rimless framed glasses. She smiled at the cameras, but there was a shyness to her gestures. 

The host, a beautiful, tall black woman in a red dress, invited her to take a seat.

“Hi, Luna, it is so great to have you back on the show and thank you for making time for us. I know you don’t like TV interviews at all but you always make an exception for us and we feel honored.”

“Well uh – thank you for having me, Sandra, I just like it here because you actually ask me questions about my work, not my personal life.”

“So, Luna, yeah… about that, and please forgive me, but your latest novel is very personal, so I gotta ask. Where did Darkest Before Dawn come from? I mean – it’s been number one on the Daily Planet best sellers list for weeks, critics are loving it, readers are crazy about it… but everyone is wondering, is it all fiction? Because the family on the novel, the protagonists–“

“The Mullens, yes.”

“Yes, the Mullens… uh…  you tell this incredibly moving story about this family and others that intertwine with their story, across time – escaping the Nazis, living in Ireland, then migrating to America, how they build their empire, how they are incredibly flawed and how they fall, how some of them turn evil, how some of them become a force for good… I know that I don’t even have to tell you but people say that what you’re actually telling here is the story of the Luthors, the story of your family. Is that correct?”

“You know, Sandra, all fiction is based on some kind of truth. No writer can detach themselves from reality and build a story just at the snap of their fingers. And if someone tells you they can do that, trust me, they’re lying.”

“Oh, I know what you mean.”

“The thing is that, with this novel, I believe some of it poured out of me unconsciously, and I’m not going to deny that there’s a lot in it that’s inspired by stories I heard while growing up. And of course I did some digging and I got in touch with my past a lot, especially while traveling across Europe for research and following in my ancestors steps. But this book is not just about one family. My grandmother’s ancestors were from Poland. Then again, my parents were both adopted, as you know, they never shied away from that, so they had the history of their adoptive families and the biological ones. I just let myself get lost into all that and came up with this microcosmos of clustered clans that populate the novel. So, to answer your question, of course it is inspired by all that. But it’s just not my Luthor side. I hope that readers approach the book with an open mind and enjoy the epic journey I have prepared for them instead of seeing it just as idle gossip.”

“Oh God, no, of course not! The novel is fantastic, and the love stories – they’re engaging, they’re flawed, but beautiful… You’re very, very young, Luna, and critics are praising it as the novel that’s establishing you as the voice of this generation. How do you feel about that?”

“Well, that’s a bit overwhelming. I don’t think I’ve earned that title yet.”

“Has this novel changed you in any way? Has it changed the way you approach life in any aspect? I mean, writing about family sure has to make you reflect a lot, and again, please forgive me for walking into personal territory here, but the material just raises these questions by itself.”

“Oh I don’t mind at all, it’s a good question, and you’re absolutely right, this is, after all, my most personal book yet. It was an emotional journey. But, as you know, my family has always been very private, and it was a struggle because we were always in the public spotlight… but if anything, the process of writing all this has made me appreciate my parents even more and the loving environment I grew up in.”

“And I know I should’t tell you this but damn it, I can’t help it! National City loooves your parents! I’m sorry, I’m a fangirl.”

“Well, I’m a fangirl of theirs too, there’s nothing to apologize for.”

“And of course, journalism and writing is in your blood. I bet they ought to be proud.”

“Uh, well, I guess? They’re my most fearless critics but at the same time they still embarrass me in front of other people telling them about my books and my travels so…”

“Then they are proud, I’m telling you. There’s a lot of sibling stories in the novel, too. And you have a twin brother, right?”

“Yes. A twin and a little sister. I’m another person when I’m with them, I turn into this total goof, even the way I talk changes, it’s like we have a world of our own, and… I wanted to talk about those relationships, because when you read a book or see a movie, usually everything is centered around romantic plots and that just bores me most of the time. For me, my brother and my sister, but my brother especially because we’re twins… they bring out a side of me I just can’t show anyone else. Anyway, my brother, he’s – he’s very private. He might be the only one in the family that has a normal life, actually. By choice, I mean.”

“Ok, we’re gonna respect that but just tell me one thing, did he like the novel?”

“Oh I don’t know, I guess he’ll tell me when I meet him for lunch.”

“I’m sure he’ll like it. And let me know if he doesn’t because I’ll call him and change his mind, ok? Thank you for being with us this morning, Luna, it was a pleasure as always.”

“Again, thanks for having me.”

“That’s author Luna Danvers, National City! Her new epic novel Darkest Before Dawn is available world-wide and I’m telling you, it’s one for the ages, you don’t wanna miss it. We’ll be back in a minute, stay tuned!”

The illusion came to halt as the red light on the cameras turned off.

“Shit, that was so bad!” Luna exclaimed the moment she was positive they were out of the air. 

“What are you saying, darling? You were exquisite.”

“Thank you, Sandra, I mean it, but… this is why I don’t do TV. I get so awkward and – fucking nervous.”

The host took the younger woman’s hands in hers.

“Luna, I’ve been on this business for a very long time. You did absolutely fine, trust me. So relax, honey, there’s champagne in the guests area. Suit yourself.”

“Thank you. Again.”

“You’re welcome.”

As Luna stood up to just get the hell away from there, an anxious looking production assistant approached the stage. Luna kept walking to the backstage, but she couldn’t help but eavesdrop the conversation with her super hearing.

“Uh… Sandra?”

“Yes, Ralph?”

“The news just took over. We… we are not going back in the air.”

“What the hell? What happened?”

“I don’t know, they’re going live, there’s like some giant, scary looking sand storm coming to the city. Or something like that.”

“What?”

“They’re evacuating the building, apparently.”

Luna sighed and took her cell out of her pocket, speed-dialling her brother’s number.

“It just never fucking ends,” she muttered to herself.

National City. Earth-Y.

Alan Scott Medical Clinic,

June 10th, 2042.

“Good morning, Mrs. Thompson?”

A young doctor entered the examining room, looking at a report in his hands. Mrs. Thompson was sitting on the exam table. Her two teenage daughters were standing up against the wall, both looking at their smartphones.

Mrs. Thompson took a long look at the young doctor, up and down, taking advantage of the fact that he wasn’t looking up from his papers. Then, she adjusted her cleavage, trying to make it show even more of her generous attributes.

The doctor was in his early twenties. His dark, short length hair was slicked back, and wherever light touched it, it showed sparkles of a dark blonde tone. He was definitely tall and his shoulders were broad and strong, Mrs. Thompson could tell even under his white coat. His eyelashes were thick, perfectly highlighting his big, green eyes, and his jawline was sharp and symmetrical. He was wearing a pair of Ray Ban vintage nerd glasses, but Mrs. Thompson thought that only made him more attractive. He was just a kid, of course, but she could just rejoice in looking at him. Something is better than nothing.

“Oh it’s just miss now, I’m divorced. I mean, it sounds better if I say I’m single again. These are my girls, Laura and Christine. You see, I had them very young, that’s why sometimes people think we’re sisters.” 

Liam finally looked up from his papers in time to see Mrs. Thompson’s daughters rolling their eyes and one of them murmuring “Unbelievable.” He smiled at them and sat on a chair right in front of the now blushing Mrs. Thompson.

“They’re here with me for moral support, I hope you don’t mind.”

“That’s fine, Mrs. Thompson–“ 

“Cynthia, please.”

Liam smiled sympathetically.

“Ok, Cynthia… I’m Dr. Danvers, I’m going to take a look at your right hand – that’s where the pain is, right?”

“Yes. Oh my, if I’d known such a handsome doctor was going to look at my hands I would’ve got a manicure this morning. How come in all the years I’ve been attending this clinic I’ve never seen you before, Dr. Danvers? You look so young. I bet you’re new.” 

Laura and Christine were mortified.

“God, kill me now.”

“Dude, this is so embarrassing.”

They were whispering, but Liam could hear them perfectly without any super hearing. He focused his attention in his patient.

“Uh… no, I’ve been consulting here for a couple of years now but I only take appointments in this clinic once a month. I work at the Luthor Family Children Hospital.” 

“Oh… so are you really a pediatrician, Dr. Danvers? I know I look young, but not that young.”

Liam showed a polite little smile at the joke.

“Actually, I’m a neurosurgeon. All doctors from the LF are required to do clinic hours in order to compensate for donations since the Children Hospital is a non-profit organization, even though the Luthor Foundation covers almost everything, we need all the help we can get.”

Cynthia squealed enthusiastically.

“Oh, oh. Neurosurgeon. You hear that, girls? But you’re so young!”

Liam nodded and concentrated on the examination of Mrs. Thompson’s hand.

“So they tell me. Please bend your thumb across your palm. That’s it. Now make a fist. And now I’m going to take your hand and make a stretching motion, just a litt–“

“Aw!”
“That hurts, right?”

“A lot!”

“You’ve got De Quervain’s tenosynovitis, Mrs. Thompson.”

Mrs. Thompson looked at her hand as if Liam had suggested that they had to chop it off.

“Cynthia… and is that bad? Is it contagious?”

Liam stood up and began to write his report.

“No. There’s nothing to worry about. It’s rather painful, yes, but you’ll be fine. Do you text a lot? Play games in your smartphone?”

It was time for two suffering teenagers to step in.
“All the time.”

“Mostly to stalks us and ask us where we are like aaall the time.”

“She’s like an addict, actually.”

“And don’t get me started on the dating apps–“

Cynthia laughed it off.

“Aw, these two! They crack me up all the time… Everybody’s a little addicted to their devices nowadays, right?”

“Yes, Mrs. – I mean, Miss Thompson – Cynthia, sorry.” Liam pointed at an anatomic painting of the hand, hanging on the wall. “See, in your wrist and lower thumb, there’s two tendons that normally glide smoothly through the small tunnel that connects them to the base of the thumb. We need that to grip and pinch things in our hands. Actually, thanks to this little guy we actually evolved as an intelligent species above others because we could grab things and create tools. That’s how valuable our opposable thumb is. So, when we do all those things day after day in repeated motions we may irritate the sheath around the two tendons, causing thickening and swelling.”

Laura and Christine were now beyond embarrassed.  

“Oh my God, look at Mom. She’s drooling.”

“He could be talking about poop and she’d still make that face. Gross.”

“I don’t blame her, though. He’s a hunk.”

“Keep dreaming, sis.”

“Hey, did you notice his tag? It says Dr. Danvers-Luthor, right? Do you think he–“

“God, if he’s got a rich family besides being a doctor we’ll never hear the end of it.”

“He really seems too young to be a doctor, though.”

“Yeah, but those Luthor freaks were like a family of geniuses or something, so…”

“He’s too hot to be straight, anyway, bet he’s gay.”

One of the sisters scoffed. “Aren’t they always?”

There was a knock on the door and another doctor came in, he looked older than Liam, but strangely less confident in his body language.

“Dr. Danvers! Your sister’s calling.”

“I’m in the middle of something here, Sully. Please tell her I will call her back when I’m done with this appointment.”

“Sorry, but… uh. Since you wouldn’t answer your phone she’s called everyone on your staff. She says it’s urgent.”

Liam sighed and shook his head, giving up.

“Excuse me, Miss. Thompson, I should take this.” he apologized. “My sister has never had any respect for boundaries, so why should she start now?”

Cynthia showed him all of her teeth and nodded.

“Hear that, girls? Dr. Danvers here has a sister. We don’t mind if you take the call, Dr. Danvers, that’s so sweet, isn’t that sweet, girls? I bet you and your sister are close.”

Liam scoffed gently and smiled back at his admirer as he left the room.

“We shared a womb, you have no idea.”

He entered his office and answered the phone on his desk, with Luna waiting on the other side of the line.

“Loo, you just saved me from a very mortifying patient but I really need to be done with it, so this better be good–”

“Are you seeing this?”

“What?”

“Turn the TV on, dude!”

Liam complied grabbing the remote on his desk. The little TV he kept on his office lit up with breaking news. A live feed from a CatCo helicopter showed a strange, gigantic white wave coming towards the city. It didn’t look like water, it was more like a blinding light mixed with dust. No one was really sure of what it was, or so the news were saying.

“Oh, what the–“

“Finally!”

“What the hell is that, Loo?”

“I don’t know but it doesn’t look friendly.”

“No shit.”

“Mom will know. She’s waiting for us in the lab so get your ass there ASAP.”

“Where’s Ieiu?,” Liam asked.

“Where do you think, genius?”

As Luna said those words, the TV showed how the veteran hero now known to the city as Superwoman, sped up through the sky directly to the wave. Her suit showed the same classic red and blue, but instead of a skirt, she wore pants, and the look was modernized, with enhanced protections in her arms and an armor-looking renovated style.

Liam couldn’t help but smile every time he saw his Ieiu plowing through the skies.

“Oh. I’ll see you there.”

As he hung up, Sully opened the door.

Liam was already taking his coat off and grabbing his motorcycle helmet. He didn’t even let poor Sully open his mouth.

“Hey man, I need a favor, gotta fly home, family stuff has come up. Can you please write a prescription for Mrs. – God, I mean, Miss Thompson? Dexketoprofen, 25 mg every eight hours. Oh and tell her to apply ice to her wrist every four to six hours, and tell their daughters to confiscate her smartphone if they can? And also, can you call upstairs and tell them the city is under attack? Superwoman is out there but we might be going into red alert in a little while, stay sharp. Ok, thanks, Sully, I owe you one. See ya!”

And just like that, he was out of there, leaving Sully alone in his office, wondering what the hell Liam meant by saying he had to fly home. He was a weird guy. Charming. But weird. Very weird.

He sighed as he walked back to the examining room where Mrs. Thompson was about to be very disappointed. 

National City. Earth-Y.

L-Corp Building Research Lab,

June 10th, 2042.

It could seem from an outsider’s perspective that she was talking to herself. The screens on her lab burned with data and analysis, and her mind was thinking too fast to even put into words all the variables she was contemplating. She ran from one computer to the other, gazing from the corner of her eye to the TV screens that showed her the inexplicable event advancing toward the city. She was wearing a lab coat, for a change, not minding that her Armani would get wrinkled. She was supposed to be having lunch with her family, but of course some freak supernatural event had to ruin the Luthor-Danvers clan’s plans. 

“T, calculate mass and heat,” she said aloud. 

“Gathering requested data, Mrs. Danvers,” a female voice resonated through the room, calm and collected, in contrast with Lena’s.

Many years ago, Lena had created an advanced AI using code from the Fortress of Solitude, based on the technology Jor-El and Alura had used to create virtual copies of themselves and some of the protocols for Kelex’s software. It was Kara’s idea, actually. Now it helped her with everything: Kara’s new suit, combat strategy, security, both at home and at L-Corp… and of course her own Battlesuits, perfected with each new version. Kara hated those, but there was nothing she could do about it. They named it Telle, after the Kryptonian god of wisdom. Kara thought that was a nice touch, and she insisted that it should have Cat Grant’s voice, since Lena would never make it into a commercial product, it was too advanced and too complex to let it out in the world. Lena commented that it looked like Kara’s crush on Cat Grant really never faded, and Kara laughed it off saying something like “that was years ago, and you know it. You had a crush on her too”. Lena complied, because she really couldn’t deny Kara anything. She just hoped Cat never found out, because that was going to be a hard one to explain, especially since she was the Godmother of their youngest. Lena could imagine what she’d say, quite perfectly: “So you’re telling me, Luthor, that an AI who works with you almost 24/7 has my voice because Kiera asked you to. That’s both flattering and creepy. Anyhoo, you know my everything is copyrighted. So where are my royalties? I’ll sue you, you know I will.”

When Telle showed her the results of its calculations, Lena gasped in horror.

“That’s – fucking impossible.”

“I ran 3.1 million additional tests and a 7.4 million diagnostics on my systems 1.2 seconds ago to check if the readings are wrong, Mrs. Danvers.”

“And?”

“They’re not.”

“You’re saying that thing is basically a black hole.”

“That assumption would be incorrect given that, in order to be a black hole, it would have to have all its characteristics, including that of being in space. It is not a black hole, since it’s not in a black hole’s nature to be within a planet and have the dimensions the phenomenon is showing, advancing towards a city; but, it acts like one, since it’s absorbing all matter and energy in its way, including light.”

Lena didn’t have time to process the implications or call out Telle on its obviousness, as her children entered the room. 

Luna threw her arms around her and she held her tight. It had been weeks since they’ve seen each other, with Luna promoting her new book around the country.

“Oh, thank goodness you made it, honey,” Lena said as she kissed her daughter’s cheek.

Liam waited for his turn, opening his arms and smiling at her, ignoring the circumstances for a second.

“Hey Mom… so, lunch is cancelled, huh?” Liam joked. “Where’s the little ndokhash?”

Lena sighed.

“At school, fortunately. I called Alex so she’s gonna pick her up and make sure she’s fine.”

Luna was taking a look around the lab when something in the screens caught her attention.

“Hey, uh, Mom?” She said nervously.

Liam and Lena looked to the screens as the TV showed something extraordinary. Among the light and dust, a shadowy figure appeared, flanked by what appeared to be two gigantic towers floating in the mist. The towers interchanged rays of electricity between them, and the figure in the middle seemed to be huge, at least three times the size of a regular man. Smaller figures appeared around it, all of them marching forward.

A familiar voice sounded through the comms.

“Lena, are you seeing this?”

Lena sat down in front of one of her computers as Liam and Luna kept looking at the screens.

“Yes. We all are.”

“The kids with you?” Kara asked.

“We’re here, Ieiu,” Luna responded.

“Hey, sweeties,” Lena could sense the smile in Kara’s voice. “I don’t know what that is, but it’s becoming bigger by the minute. You might wanna suit up and gimme a hand, if Mama can spare you.”

“On it.” Liam was already pushing the button that opened the vault where they kept their suits.

“Danvers-Luthor, Liam Jeremiah. Access granted.” Telle’s voice announced as the sensor in the door read Liam’s fingerprints.

In display, they had multiple versions: classic suits, armored suits, anti-kryptonite suits, sun-suits to boost solar absorption… Both Liam and Luna opted for the armored ones, just like their Ieiu had done.

They changed with super speed, and after a couple of seconds, they stepped out of the vault, looking tall, strong, and truly spectacular. The House of El coat of arms shined proudly in their chests. 

It wasn’t the first time Lena saw her kids like that, but it always took her breath away.

“Superboy and Supergirl… I’ll never get tired of seeing you in those.”

Lena’s chest filled with pride and love, and Luna and Liam just smiled at her and nodded.

“Telle, open the dome,” Lena commanded.

She had installed that after years of Kara destroying property whenever there was an emergency. She was tired of paying for new lifts at CatCo and repairs on the roof of L-Corp.

Liam and Luna got ready to take off, not before their mother anxiously reminded them of the rules.

“Be careful. Keep your comms open. Don’t do anything stupid. Follow your Ieiu’s lead.” 

“Yes, ma’am.” Luna sneered.

“Don’t mock me.”

Lena was serious, but her eyes shined with affection.

“And kids?” 

They looked back at her.

“Yes, Mom?” Liam waited, knowing what was coming.

“El Mayarah.”

They repeated the words back at her and Lena smiled and waved for them to go. Liam and Luna exchanged looks, nodded at each other and took off rapidly, up, up and away.

Lena went back to her computer and opened her comms again.

“Kara, the kids are on their way, they’ll be there in seven seconds.”

It took a few seconds for Kara to respond, but when she did, her voice was faltering and out of breath.

“Tell them to go back!”

Lena looked at the screen to see what was going on. The feed from Kara’s suit only showed blurred images. She was fighting someone. Or something.

“What?”

“Go back!” Kara cried again.

On the TV, the news anchor was narrating now how their helicopter on the scene had been attacked by what appeared to be “shadowy figures, super beings of unknown nature”. Superwoman was apparently trying to battle them off, but they outnumbered her and the channel changed their feed to a shot from the roof of a building that captured how Superwoman seemed to be surrounded and their helicopter was going down in flames.

“Loo, you take the helicopter, I’ll help Ieiu!”

Lena heard Liam’s voice through the comms, and not even a second had passed when she saw Luna on the screen, catching the helicopter before it hit the ground, blowing the flames away with her freeze breath and bringing it down safely to the ground.

Lena had to cover her mouth with her hand as the feed changed to a Super falling from the sky.

“Oh my God, ladies and gentlemen, Superwoman is falling!” The voice coming from the TV narrated anxiously.

Liam was fighting with the shadow figures, he used his heat vision to get two of them off his back.

“Liam, Ieiu is falling, sector 15, right above Wayne tower!” Lena shouted.

“I see her!” Liam stopped mid-air and speeded with his fists forward to catch Kara in the middle of her free-fall. Lena looked at the screen that showed the camera equipped on Liam’s suit to watch as Kara opened her eyes.

“Ieiu, are you all right?” Lena heard Liam’s voice shaking a little bit.

“For the love of Rao, what the hell are those things? There’s like a million of them.” Kara’s voice sounded more pissed-off than anything, and Lena let out a breath of relief.

“You’re just getting old, Ieiu,” Liam joked.

“Mom? Can you see what I see?”

It was Luna’s voice. Lena focused her gaze on the screen that showed the feed from Luna’s suit.

“Luna. Luna, don’t engage!”

“It’s… it’s huge.”

“I see it, honey, stay away from it!”

Lena pressed a button that allowed her to open a private line with Kara.

“Kara, you need to get out of there, now.”

But Kara didn’t answer back.

The central figure in the mist finally appeared clear to the eye. It was obviously an alien. For eyes, it had blinding lights. His entire face was covered, as was his body, in a massive blue armor. Around it, black energy floated as if it was smoke. He spoke, and his inhuman voice resonated through the entire sky.

“Zor-El. I find you again, at last. You almost destroyed me the last time, but now I am stronger.”

Supergirl and Superboy flanked their mother in the air, the three of them clenching their fists, ready for whatever came.

“I don’t know who you are,” Kara shouted at the massive creature, “but I am the protector of Earth, and you should go back to wherever you came from. We do not wish to harm you, but we will defend ourselves if you try to harm this city or anyone on this planet.”

The creature laughed. It sounded more like a storm than a regular, human laugh. Kara could feel the anger in its voice.

“This is not the first time we meet, Zor-El. You’ll understand, soon. You’ve already met my legion of Shadow Demons. Today, your world will be mine, turned into anti-matter to feed me.” 

“Mrs. Danvers?” Telle spoke through its private channel with Lena, but she was far too shocked by the creature’s words. Telle tried again.

“Lena, probability of survival seems to be at 22.3 per cent right now.”

Lena shook her head and looked at the data.

“For them?”

Telle never paused as a human would do when they have to say something dramatic, but this time, it did.

“For the entire planet.”

Lena closed her eyes and began to remove her lab coat.

“What would change those odds? C’mon, T, give me something.”

“You need to join the fight. That would alter the possibility of winning up to 26.2 percent.”

“Not good enough, T.”

Lena took off her heels and began to undress until she was only in lingerie.

“I think the powering source behind the event are those two energy towers. There’s a 89.8 percent chance it could cripple the device if we hit it with the prototype, but the probability of massive failure and catastrophic damage in the city is also at 91.3 percent.”

Lena began climbing up the stairs that would lead her to the opening in the dome.

“Send a message to Alex. Tell her to get away from the city. As far as possible. Tell her she needs to protect my daughter at all costs. Evacuate the building and when everyone’s out put it on lock down. Prepare the cannon for remote firing.”

Telle complied with every order.

“The accelerator will be ready to fire in five minutes, thirty one seconds.”

“We need help, we can’t do this alone…” Lena was murmuring to herself, but Telle responded.

“It’s too late to ask for help, Lena, not even the Justice League would make i–“

“No, not like that,” Lena said, a desperate idea forming in her head. “Take all our back-up files from the prototype and broadcast them, in every direction, in every possible way. Are you recording everything right now?” She paused, she was almost there, she could feel the chilling air and the sunlight on her skin.

“Yes, since the incident began,” Telle answered.

“Encrypt all media files and add them to the research. Send all energy readings, all TV feeds. And suit me up, on the fly!”

“As you wish, Mrs. Danvers.”

Lena reached the top of the floor and climbed up the dome. She was freezing, but it didn’t matter. She always enjoyed the view from the top of the L-Corp building, but now she realized this could be the last time she would look at the city. So she had no choice. 

“L-Corp Battlesuit XXII, ready. Prepare for emergency deployment. In 3, 2, 1…” Telle’s voice resonated through the room. 

Lena took a deep breath and opened her arms widely. She launched herself forward, falling from the building. Not a sound left her mouth as her body shifted in the air and she felt the whooshing sound of metal chasing after her. Mid-air, the suit caught up with her, quickly attaching itself to her arms, legs, upper body and face, until she was completely covered by the green and purple colors of the battlesuit. 

“Merging complete.” Telle informed her through the speakers in her helmet. 

“Let’s kick some ass, shall we?”

Lena propelled herself forward and up, the suit firing up as she corrected her inclination and flew high towards Liam, Kara and Luna.

“Add the feed from my suit to the files and broadcast everything,” Lena ordered when her trajectory was stable.

“What should my main goal be?” Telle asked.

“Our allies. Other cities. Include interplanetary authorities. The Green Lantern Corps, the Amazons in Themyscira, Atlantis, even the fucking Phantom Zone. Everyone. And alternative realities, too. Use radio waves, the darknet, electromagnetic pulses, gravity anomalies, morse code, I don’t care… just push with everything we’ve got.” 

“Understood.”

Lena saw it before she could hear it. The massive wave of matter, light, dust, hovering over the city, now closer than ever, eating up entire buildings. She had seen terrible things throughout the years, but this was on another level.

She joined her family in the sky, taking her place besides Kara as the four of them floated in the air, looking at the creature that was slowly coming towards them. The front piece of her helmet moved back to show her face, and she smiled at Kara, despite the circumstances, she just couldn’t help it.

Kara immediately took her hand and quickly squeezed it, and though Lena couldn’t feel her through the battlesuit, the gesture reassured her more than anything.

“Did I miss something?”, she asked.

“Just this weird guy here TALKING US TO DEATH!” Luna shouted at the creature.

“We need to buy some time”, Lena said while she checked data in the smart screen on her left arm. “Telle, how long before the accelerator is ready?”

“Two minutes, fifteen seconds.”

“Uh, Mom… will that work? We haven’t perfected it yet, it’s a prototype…” Liam frowned.

“Telle thinks there’s no other option with possibilities of us winning against that thing.”

“May I remind you, Mrs. Danvers, that firing the cannon could potentially destroy the entire city?”

“And if we don’t fire it?” Kara’s voice didn’t show the fear she was feeling for her family, her home, her entire world. She needed to be Superwoman now, she needed to lead without fear.

“Then this being before us will probably obliterate National City, and beyond,” Tell answered.

“There’s another option,” Luna chimed in. “If we’re going to target those energy towers, we can try with our powers first. Liam and I can try to cross our heat visions and blow them up. It’s worked before with huge stuff like that. But Ieiu, you and Mom need to distract the boring dude.”

“What about the army?” Liam asked.

“What army?” Lena looked between all three of them.

“The shadows. He calls them demons.” Kara said shrugging her shoulders as this was only… Tuesday.

“Oh, wonderful.” Lena rolled her eyes and pressed some buttons on the screen. “T, can you deploy all of the L-Corp battlesuits and control them from there?”

“My CPU is currently running at 85 percent capacity. I could do it even if I only had 3 percent to spare.”

“There’s no need to brag. Just do it and help us out with those things.”

Kara grabbed her by the arm and pulled Lena closer to her to whisper something. Their children could hear them anyway, but Kara felt she needed the closeness.

“Lena… are you sure? The suits, you worked on them for 20 years. And the accelerator… you’re putting you life’s work on the line.”

“Everything’s on the line now, Kara.” Lena held her gaze and Kara nodded, slowly.

“I know,” Kara said. And then she looked at the advancing menace and back at her family. It wasn’t the first time they worked together, like this, but something within Kara told her that if someone could win this, it was them.

“All right, people, let’s do this, as a team. El Mayarah.”

Luna, Liam and Lena repeated after her.

“El Mayarah.”

Lena’s helmet closed and Kara and her charged towards the creature.

Liam and Luna flew in circles advancing towards the floating towers and punching every Shadow Demon they could.

“Your efforts are useless, Zor-El.”

The creature clenched his fists and pointed them at Kara and Lena. From his arms, purple masses of energy converged in a destructive ray directed at them.

“Magic murder hands, look out!” Luna shouted.

Lena and Kara flew in opposite directions to avoid the ray, but it kept going on a straight line, landing on the top floor of a skyscraper and setting it on fire.

“I see you, Zor-El. All you were, all you could ever be.” The creature kept on taunting.

“Telle, where the hell is our backup?!” Lena yelled inside her helmet.

“Incoming!” Telle shouted on their comms as all the 21 L-Corp Battlesuits that Lena had designed over the years flew in with a vengeance, shooting rockets at the Shadow Demons and giving them some cover.

“Yes! Give ‘em hell, T!” Liam’s voice shouted through the comms.

The twins finally were in range of the energy towers. They concentrated on one, crossing their heat vision as they finally created one big, blinding blue ray of destruction. 

“Is this your offspring? Oh, you foolish Zor-El.” The creature charged up one of his fists to fire at the twins, but when he was about to shoot, Kara deliberately crashed against his arm at full speed, deviating the ray and making him accidentally hit the tower that both Liam and Luna were attacking. It went up in flames.

The creature let out an animal cry of pain that resonated through the sky.

Lena took the opportunity to fire at him with the heavy weapons on her suit. She hit him on the head. It seemed like with only one tower to back him up, he had become weaker. Part of his helmet cracked, and Lena could see that under it there was nothing but light. Unconfined energy: there was no body. No flesh.

“The anti-matter cannon is ready if you wish to make use of it, Mrs. Danvers,” Telle announced through the comms.

Lena looked above her to see her children targeting the other tower.

“Mom, don’t! We can save the city! We can win without the cannon!” Luna anxiously pleaded.

“I am the Monitor! I am all that exists!” The creature yelled as he grabbed Kara’s cape, who was momentarily stunned by the force of her own attack. The so-called Monitor put his hand around Kara’s neck. Kara choked but could still breath. He wasn’t trying to kill her, but he did want to see her suffer. 

“You think you can win because you have a family here? Because you trained them?” The creature breathed. “Look, look what you could do to them in other realities.” The Monitor touched Kara’s forehead, sending visions of dark realities he fabricated for her. To torture her. To bring her to her knees. Kara cried out in agony, and then, her mind was far away, crossing realities, wrapping space and time.

Kara holding a newborn Liam to her chest. The first time Luna called her Ieiu. Kara heartbroken, in an alternate world where Lena didn’t love her, where she became her evil nemesis, no more Super and a Luthor. Pain. Pleasure. Life, laughter, love-making – her tongue in Lena’s mouth, her fingers inside of her. Kara riding a shattering orgasm over Lena’s thighs. The promises, the sensations of body against body, the incredible softness of porcelain skin. Her tongue in Lena’s center, Kara’s life in her hands. Feeling human like it was natural to her, but no weaknesses, only power, because she was in love, in love like never before. Kara collapsing on bed, with Lena still inside her. Happiness. Infinite happiness. The proposal. The birth of the twins. Why was this cruel creature showing her these things? Only to shatter her. Then, infinite loss. Her daughter, looking at her with unspeakable hatred in her bright blue eyes. The agonizing feeling of burying a kryptonite dagger in her son’s chest in a vision where she went mad. Where she had known a sorrow like no other. The overwhelming pain of losing Lena. Holding her lifeless body in her arms. Burying her. Going insane. Kara cried out in pain, an inhuman scream, feeling the effect of a thousand tortures simultaneously. Madness. Despair. “I came to this time to meet your descendants.” Kara heard the voice of the Monitor enveloping her, draining the life out of her. “To see how low you could fall. I encountered your other selves before. Some were strong, they were on their own, they were Kryptonian. You hurt me, you almost killed me, but I’ve killed you before, dozens of times, Zor-El. In this reality, giving up to your human side has made you even more pathetic. Love. So predictable. So easy to bent down. So vulnerable to my infinite power.”

In the distance, reaching her across darkness, Kara heard Lena’s voice crying out her name.

“Kara!”

“In another life you lost her, Zor-El, and you became a monster. So weak.”

The Monitor was feeding on her. He was taking away her powers, her mind, her soul.

“In other worlds, I took her from you, even before you knew you loved her.”

She could feel herself slipping away.

“I always enjoy killing you, Zor-El, because you almost ended me once… but taking her away from you, that’s even better.”

Kara felt cold. She felt sorry and ashamed. She wanted to ask Lena for forgiveness. For not being strong enough. For failing her. For dying. 

“Now, I will end your offspring, and I will keep on hunting you down, in every reality.”

She couldn’t breath. This was it. The bitter end.

“Ieiu, fight back!”

Her daughter’s voice forced her to find the last remaining drop of strength she had within her, and Kara opened her eyes and shoot a ray of heat vision to the Monitor’s face, as Liam, Lena and Luna launched simultaneous attacks on him.

The Monitor cried in pain and released his hold on Kara. Being almost completely drained of energy, she had solar-flared with that last effort.

Superwoman began to fall to the ground, again, like a fallen angel. 

Lena launched herself down, chasing after Kara’s apparently lifeless body. She caught her when the ground was closer than the battle in the sky. Blood came out of Kara’s mouth, and Lena feared the worst.

She landed on the ground with Kara in her arms, everything was ash and desperate cries around her. She gently put Kara on the ground and took her head in her hands, desperately trying to wake her up.

“She’s alive. Barely. But she’s solar-flared,” Lena heard Telle’s voice inside her helmet, but still, she couldn’t help the tears.

“Kara… Kara, please, talk to me.”

Kara didn’t open her eyes, but her voice responded in the faintest of whispers.

“Lena?”

“I’m right here, love. Please, stay with me. Nun vot khap." 

“I’m sorry, my love, I’m sorry…”

“No, no, no, Kara, stay with me. Stay. 

“This is what we feared. Your readings… you were – right.”  

“Love, don’t talk. We hit him. We hurt him pretty bad. You and the kids did it. It’ll give us time. We can learn how to defeat him. I have data now. Knowledge is power. We can do it, darling, you and me, as we always do.”

“I’m sorry, love… I… zhao khap rrip, Lena te.”

“No, no, no, Kara! Kara!”

Kara fell unconscious in Lena’s arms, and though Telle was showing her the rate of her heartbeat on the screen of her helmet, Lena couldn’t take how weak it sounded.

“Lena, with Superwoman down, and even though you’ve taken out one of the towers, our chances of winning have fallen down to 5.4 percent, and there’s a high possibility of Superboy and Supergirl perishing in battle.” Telle said, and Lena could tell there was a hint of sadness in the AI’s voice.

“What if we fire the cannon?”

“With one tower down, there’s a 99.6 percent probability of stopping the Monitor. It will give the planet an overall chance of survival of 87.3.”

“And the chances of the city?”

“The energy unleashed by the explosion will generate a rate of 95.6 percent of casualties, including you.”

Lena opened her helmet. She breathed in the smell of blood and loss. She looked up, and saw her children throwing punches at the Monitor as the Shadow Demons began to surround them. Half of her battlesuits had already fallen from the sky and those remaining in battle were being taken out by the Monitor’s energy rays.

“Will Liam and Luna survive?” Lena asked, her voice the thinnest of threads.

Telle responded immediately.

“It seems like they have a 90.5 percent chance of survival.”

Lena closed her eyes, tears falling down her cheeks.

“What about Kara?”

Telle paused, even though the AI didn’t have the luxury of time.

“She’s very weak. She won’t make it. Neither will I. My main servers will be destroyed by the electromagnetic pulse after the collision.”

Lena nodded to herself and put Kara’s body closer to hers. 

“Have you sent out the data, all of it?”

“Yes,” Telle responded, “and I’m attaching the feed from your suit as we speak.”

“Keep doing that, until the very end. Send out everything you can.”

“Should I alert Liam and Luna?”

“NO!” Lena shouted. “No,” she repeated softly. “They will try to stop us.”

“Noted. You will have to give me the order, Lena. I can’t put in motion a task that will destroy me. You wrote that in my code. Asimov’s three laws of robotics, remember? I can’t self-destruct.”

Lena could swear that if Telle had a face, it would be smiling.

“I know.”

“It’s been a pleasure, Lena Kieran Luthor-Danvers. For a human, you weren’t all bad.”

“The pleasure’s been all mine, goddess of wisdom.”

Lena wiped away her tears and removed the armor from her hands. She touched Kara’s face with her fingers, caressed her cheek, bent down and kissed her forehead, then the tip of her nose, then her lips.

“Zhao khap rrip, Kara. Uldif,” Lena whispered over Kara’s mouth. She looked up to her kids, fighting in the sky. “Please survive for us, my loves. You’re our only hope.” She closed her eyes and held Kara as close as she could. “Do it, T. Target the remaining energy tower and fire the cannon. Send that bastard to hell.”

“Of course, Mrs. Danvers.”

The brightest of lights enveloped the entire city, and Lena felt the warmth of Kara’s body engulfing her, as if nothing else existed, as if nothing but Kara’s heartbeat mattered.

And then, the light was all that was, and when it burned out, there was nothing but silence.

***

The screens at the DEO showed nothing but static.

Lillian Luthor had asked Winn to play the last video on her files.

They all saw the recordings from Lena’s battlesuit. They saw Liam, Luna, Kara and Lena from Earth-Y fighting the Monitor, and failing.

There never was such dead silence in the building.

It was Winn the first one to spoke. He wasn’t exactly tasteful.

“Uh… that’s definitely the stuff of nightmares.”

Alex shot the most murderous of looks at him. He suddenly wanted to crawl into his chair.

After a few seconds, the screens began to show streams of data.

“Whoa, whoa! Look at that!” Winn cried, very grateful that something had come up.

“What is it?” J’onn asked.

“Uh… apparently… uh… I don’t know, it’s too much…” Winn was overwhelmed. 

“Blueprints.” Lena explained. “For whatever they used to bring down the source of his power.” She moved herself forward on the wheelchair, focusing on the data. “An anti-matter ray. That’s what she used,” she whispered, finally.

“An anti-matter ray,” Winn stated flatly, flabbergasted. “You’re saying that your… doppelgänger from another Earth, in the future, will invent a particle accelerator capable of acting as a cannon that shoots concentrated anti-matter rays strong enough to weaken an inter-dimensional all-mighty, all-powered hungry-for-energy being. Ok. Ok.” He took and deep breath and held Lena’s hand. “Lena – I… God. Will you marry me?”

Lena jerked away from him and Kara growled from behind them.

“Winn!”

“I’m sorry, I’m… it’s all too much.” He went back to his computer really, really hoping he could become invisible. It was high-school all over again.

“So…” J’onn, began, slowly. “I don’t think this is a hoax.”

“Why, thank you, J’onn J’onnz,” Lillian retorted.

“He’s practically invincible,” Alex sighed, trying to calm down her speeding heart.

“Once he’s charged, yes.” It was Hank Henshaw’s metallic voice, speaking for the first time. It was strange to hear him without all the… hate. “But he needs time to gather energy. He’s like an enormous mass of concentrated energy, his armor is the only thing keeping him together. He’s a like a walking Big-Bang, ready to happen. But once he gets to a world, the journey leaves him so depleted that he needs time to harvest new energy to be able to devour realities. That’s why he brings those machines, those towers with him. And he’s vulnerable when he’s doing that. Unstable. That’s our chance. Destroy the machines, then destroy his armor.”

“Everything’s in the data the Lena from that world sent us. Readings, formulas, algorithms, even the designs for her battlesuits and new suits for you, Zor-El…” Lillian held Kara’s gaze, intentionally, “…and your children,” she added.

Kara cleared her throat and tried to ignore the look Lillian was giving her.

“So… when?” She said, simply.

“We don’t know,” Lillian replied. “The Anti-Monitor could show up tomorrow. Or it could take him fifty years. We don’t know. No one knows. So you’ll have to be ready. All of you. Including those who will be here once we are gone.”

Kara shivered at Lillian’s words. It was perfectly clear who she was referring to.

“That thing…” Kara thought aloud. “It will target Lena now.”

“Well. Not just Lena,” Lillian smiled, despite herself. “The blueprints for the cannon include your children’s signatures. Lena will materialize it, but it will be Liam and Luna, even you, Zor-El, who will help her design it with their knowledge of Kryptonian technology.”

“It’s all here,” they heard Lena whispering, fascinated, still focused on the data stream. “You’re right, Mother. The blueprints, the tests, the readings… it’s all here.”

“How did you even get all this info, Lillian?” It was Jeremiah who asked the question, somehow still suspicious, Eliza holding his hand for comfort after what they’ve seen.

“NASA has antennas pointing at the sky simultaneously listening to 8.4 million different channels. Lex had a secret facility in Nicaragua listening to 12.3 million channels, currently operated by a Cadmus cell. Our computers culled out the noise and picked the signal up a couple of months ago.” If Lillian Luthor liked something besides being the most intelligent person in the room, it was bragging about her resources.

“It’s a radio transmission!” Winn yelled suddenly, startling everybody. “So simple yet so sophisticated. You did, this, Lena… well, the other you. But marry me, seriously. We would have the most intelligent babies.”

“Winslow!” Kara was about to kick him into the sun.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize… yes… that joke was highly inappropriate, given the circumstances… well - anyway, uh…” Winn swallowed hard and tried to find his professional voice. Sort of. “So, the Multiverse shares the same space and we vibrate at different frequencies but if you can find the right frequency you can send a message across dimensions because we all share–“

“The same spectrum.” Lena finished for him.

“Can we send a message back?” J’onn asked. “To know if they’re alive, to know where the Anti-Monitor is now?”

“Well, in order to do that we’d have to know their frequency, and there’s no way we can do that. And for all we know, the events that we’re seeing in the transmission could’ve happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago,” Lillian explained. “The Multiverse shares the same space, but not the same time. It bounces back and forward. There’s no way to know. We could send a message out to everyone, like the one the Lena from Earth-Y sent, but the Anti-Monitor could probably hear it too.”

“Boy, and I thought ‘Interstellar’ was a mind-fuck.” Alex mumbled to herself, but everyone heard her loud and clear.

“Then how did the Lena from that Earth know the frequency of our reality?” Jeremiah insisted.

“She didn’t.” Lena spoke loudly. Then, she lowered her voice. “I mean – I didn’t. She, me. Whatever. I’m positive she must’ve broadcast it to millions of frequencies simultaneously, hoping to reach someone, anyone.”

“So that means that it might have reached other Earths?” Alex ventured.

“Other worlds, even. Other realities,” Lena answered. “If they have the technology to listen, yes.”

Kara took a deep breath.

“So Barry and the others must’ve been warned.”

Lillian nodded and pursed her lips. “That’s plausible. But what’s important now is that we have to be ready. We know he can be hurt. We know a way to attack him. But he knows Lena will be the one to do it. So he’ll come after you, darling.” Lillian looked down at her daughter. “You and the children. In every reality.”

“To keep you from building the cannon,” J’onn added.

“Not just that,” Lillian corrected. “He will target Kara and the babies. We saw it in the feed. The canon is the key, but your strength combined with that of your children’s will make him vulnerable to the shot in the first place. Besides, he’s got a personal grudge with Kara, but I don’t blame him for that one.”

Kara narrowed her eyes at Lillian, not believing the nerve on that woman… 

The Luthor matriarch turned once again to her daughter.

“That’s why I’m saying goodbye, Lena. The children are yours to raise.”

“What?” Lena couldn’t believe what she had heard.

“It’s only logical,” Lillian smiled. Sadly, for the first time. “I will go back to my research. I will try to find him, before he finds us. You don’t need me. I trust you’ll do what’s right, for all of us.”

“What – you don’t want your superbabies so you can poison them with your xenophobia and hatred?” Kara was losing it. She was yelling at the top of her lungs. “You don’t want them to be Antisupers? You tortured Lena for nothing? You lied, and you violated and you killed only to walk away from your masterplan?”

Lillian looked at the hero, she didn’t even flinch.

“Yes, Kara Zor-El. I’m walking away. That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

“You’re something else, Mother. Your madness knows no equal,” Lena said calmly.

“But I… I would like to meet my grandchildren, before I go. It’s possible I never get to see them again.”

Kara had never heard Lillian Luthor begging. Kara could have never imagined it. But there was that hint in her voice, that never before seen insecurity that sounded like… love? No. Lillian Luthor wasn’t capable of that. Monsters don’t love. Monsters only destruct, and devour.

“No.”

It was Lena’s voice. Flat. Toneless. Cold. 

“I never realized…” Lillian began, “that my daughter would be the key to our salvation. I never really acknowledged your potential, Lena, I was blindfolded, I was so desperate to make Lex successful that I didn’t even look at you. And you were there, all the time, waiting to come out of your cocoon and shine. And now I know it. That my love for you was the ultimate sacrifice, because you’ll never forgive me. That’s how things are meant to be. And I can’t fight it, because I did what I had to.”

Lena just stared at her from her wheelchair, blankly. She tried to stand, slowly. Kara ran to her side to help her, but Lena raised her hand to stop her, and she just let her do it on her own. With certain difficulty, Lena was finally on standing on her feet. She then raised her gown to show her pale skin, and pointed at the stitches across her belly. Everyone looked away. Kara didn’t. She felt like Lena needed her to watch. Lena needed her to be brave enough to stay.

“Look, Mother. Look at what you did to me,” Lena asked calmly. When Lillian failed to comply, Lena tried again. Yelling, this time. Crying. “Look at what you did, you monster! You violated my body! You took away my choice! You destroyed my will to live and you didn’t stop when you broke me, time and time again!”

Lillian said something then, something no one could have expected.

“I love you, Lena. It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me. I just need to say it, in case it is the last time. I love you.” 

Lena walked towards Lillian, slowly, in pain. When she reached her, she almost faltered, and Lillian reached out to help her. Lena grabbed her arm and pulled her mother eye to eye.

“Get out,” Lena whispered. “And if you really mean what you say, if even just one of the poisonous words you spill out of your mouth is true, then never come back. Stay away from us, until your last breath. And the moment your soul leaves your body, if you have anything inside you that remotely resembles a soul, may it never rest in peace, for all eternity, as far from me as you can.”

And just like that, against all odds, without even blinking, Lillian Luthor turned around. Nobody stopped her as she left the building. No one moved until she was out of sight.

Lena almost collapsed to the ground. Kara caught her just in time. She hid her face on the crook of Kara’s neck. She wept, silently, while Kara held her tightly.

No one said anything as Supergirl carried Lena back to the med-bay.

Winn ran to Alex’s side and began to talk as nervous as ever.

“Wow. That was intense family drama there. Though I gotta say, it was quite awesome to watch Lena channeling Lady MacBeth…”

“Winn…”

“Are we really going to ignore the fact that Lena and Kara were together in that reality? Like – together, together! That’s wiiiiiild!”

Alex took a deep breath and turned to him. She raised her index finger and grabbed him by the collar with her other hand.

“Winslow…”

“Uh-huh?”

“If you tell Mon-El about this, if you even tell James… my finger will find you and I will kill you with it. Slowly, painfully. Do you understand?”

Winn swallowed hard.

“Yesss?”

“So keep whatever is going through your weird mind to yourself, and don’t even dare to look in Lena or Kara’s direction. Stay out of my sight, too, got it?”

“Yes, boss… uh…” Winn stuttered.

Alex ruffled his hair and pecked his cheek.

“Good boy. Now go, do your thing.”

Winn ran for his life. Alex just stood there, silently watching her sister carry Lena to the upper floor. J’onn appeared by her side. Alex just raised her hand and shook her head. 

“Don’t say it. Don’t even say it.”

And J’onn didn’t. 

Kara and Lena finally reached the med-bay, where Ruth was guarding the twins, peacefully asleep. They would probably wake up in a little while, hungry again.
Kara was about to gently put Lena down on her bed, but she stopped when she felt trembling hands holding on tighter around her neck.

“Lena… Lena, please. Tell me what to do,” Kara whispered in her ear.

Lena wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. She looked up, their faces almost touching, Kara’s warm breath reaching the tip of her nose. And so Lena spoke what she needed.

“Please, Kara. Take me home.”

Chapter Text

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Jessica Chin-Rogers 

[email protected]

L-Corp Tower

1077 West Cordova Street, National City CA

L-CORP CELEBRATES THE RESCUE OF OUR CEO MS. LENA LUTHOR

AND REAFFIRMS ITS COMMITMENT TO THE GREATER GOOD 

NATIONAL CITY, CA – It is with the upmost relief that we are pleased to announce that our CEO Ms. Lena Luthor has been successfully rescued after a 10-month abduction by xenophobic terrorist group Cadmus.

The mission was carried out three weeks ago by the combined forces of National City Police, the Army and Intelligence Services. For security reasons, this information could not be shared with the public until now.

First, we’d like to thank the hardworking men and women that have bravely brought Ms. Luthor back, we couldn’t be more proud of the courage and determination of our law enforcers and we’ll continue to cooperate and offer our resources to help any way we can in the fight against terror.

Secondly, we’d like to acknowledge Ms. Luthor is in good condition, but she’s been advised time away in order to recover from this atrocious experience. 

Ms. Luthor will eventually reclaim her role as L-Corp’s indisputable leader. 

For the time being, long-time COO Ms. Samantha Arias will become acting executive director, an unanimous decision by Ms. Luthor herself and our board of directors that guarantees the stability and prosperity of all L-Corp endeavors. 

We’d also like to thank our investors, the public and the media in advance: there’s no doubt that this despicable act has shaken all of society, not only the lives of L-Corp employees but everyone who opposes intolerance, violence, fear and hatred.

Under Ms. Luthor’s wing, our company has made a stand for the greater good, and long gone are the times when our name was regarded with suspicion. 

When we became L-Corp, we didn’t just change our name: we made a statement to the world, we promised to bring you a brighter and better future. 

As a result, we’ve been threatened and attacked, and our very own CEO has had her life on the line, far too many times.

But together we shall prevail. 

Ms. Luthor was always deserving of our support and trust, now more than ever, and we’re sure all of society understands the importance of respecting her privacy in this difficult time. 

Because, nevertheless, she persisted, and we all will stand with her.

***

When Snapper Carr finished reading L-Corp’s press statement, he sighed. More like sneered. 

It was biased, of course, and it not so subtlety tried to paint Luthor as a Joan of Arc of sorts when the facts were nowhere to be seen. It was just shameless marketing.

Who had done it, exactly? When was she rescued? What was Cadmus trying to achieve by kidnapping her? Where was she now? What about Lillian Luthor, Metallo, all those terrorists still on the loose? Questions, lots of questions, and no one around to find an answer. 

He raised his glasses to his temple, rubbed his eyes vigorously, and then proceeded to get up from his seat, apparently calm. Needless to say, he was, obviously, on the verge of a heart attack. The news of the century, the story of the year, and his freakishly talented but proportionally annoying mentee was nowhere to be seen… not to mention that she had to disappear the moment her shady friendship with the Luthor could get them the scoop of the year. So typical of Danvers, so convenient of her to be late on a day where the world exploded.

He inhaled and took a second to feel the air filling his lungs. Then, he did the only thing that felt right for a man his age in order to face the current circumstances (meaning he yelled, of course.)

“MISS TESCHMACHEEEER!”

Not five seconds had passed when the permanently sunny assistant appeared on the door, heeding Carr’s call the same way an innocent goose is lured by a heartless hunter. 

“Yes, Mr. Carr?”

Hands on his hips, Snapper regarded her with surprisingly restrained impatience.

“Where the hell is Danvers?”

As always, Miss Teschmacher was smart enough to point out her superiors’ incompetence by the power of friendly reminders.

“Uh… oh… She’s not coming in. I thought you checked your e-mail every morning, sir?”

“Yes, Miss Teschmacher, I do, because the news never sleep, but I didn’t see anything regarding Ponytail because, is she news?” Eve blinked impassively in the face of the umpteenth performance of unsolicited sarcasm. "No, she isn’t, she works the news and if she had any intention of keeping her job she’d be here right now because the scoop of the year is sliding from our fingers right now, Luthor is back and our only chance at an exclusive interview is probably distracted chasing a puppy or researching a fluff piece about a community theatre being torn down… So… where… the Hell… is she?”

Teschmacher shook her head, sighing as she took pity on the editor-in-chief, walking past him to take a look at his inbox in his personal computer.

“You should remember to check the spam, sir. It’s probably there because it’s from HR, and you don’t pay attention to anything that’s not newsworthy.”

Carr was about to have an aneurysm watching Teschmacher closing and minimizing the windows in his desktop when she clapped triumphantly and turned the screen for him to see.

“See? Here it is. It’s just an automatic forwarded message from the system to let you know Mr. Olsen approved Kara’s maternity leave…“

“WHAT?”

“Oh, and she had accrued two weeks of sick time and three weeks of vacation, so she’s going to be away seventeen weeks in total! Mmm, I should consult with Mr. Olsen, we could probably ask Finance to approve hiring a temp in her absence…”

Snapper pressed the palms of his hands against his temples and tried to count to ten, mentally. He only got to three.

“Miss Teschmacher, I repeat, WHAT? Ponytail wasn’t pregnant last week, how could she apply for a maternity leave?”

Eve’s eyes went incredibly wide, but she shrugged her shoulders. Then frowned. Then smiled.

“Perhaps she adopted a kid? It’s personal business, boss, and if HR and Mr. Olsen approved it, that’s all we need to know. I gotta tell you I’m dying to know what’s happened because well, Kara and I are friends. Well, we had lunch together a lot. I mean she’s nice, and though Mike and I didn’t work out I really want them to be happy so if they’ve made a decision– oh, oh, oh my God, do you think we should send them something? Flowers? Sweets? Balloons? Though we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl or… Oh, God. And they don’t know I know because I only know because I manage Mr. Olsen’s inbox so if I send something perhaps they’ll tell HR because I shouldn’t know… but then again, perhaps Kara hasn’t told me because she knows I’d know through Mr. Olsen so maybe she IS expecting a gift from me or something and now I don’t know if she knows I know or hopes that I do know and so this is making me anxious, Mr. Carr, do you think I should send something? Are you going to send Kara something?”

It’s not like Carr wasn’t listening. He was, he really was. He was a journalist. Mastering his job had meant being a great listener to look into the cracks of the things that people say. But right now he wondered, really wondered what had happened to his life, and if accepting this fucking job at CatCo hadn’t been the worst decision he had made in his whole life, ever. 

You will mentor a new generation of journalists, Cat Grant had said to him to lure him into the trap, don’t let the public service we’ve done through the years fall into the grassy hands of unprepared millenials, Lucas, be their guide, be their Edward Roscoe Murrow in this era of McCarthys, though they won’t get that reference unless they do a Wikipedia search or ask Siri, so just tell them you’re going to be their Yoga or whatever (she had meant Yoda, but whatever, indeed.)

“Fuck this,” Carr murmured, loud enough for Ms. Teschmacher to halt her rambling.

Snapper walked to his desk and picked up the phone, “This is nonsense! I’m calling Ponytail right now–“

“Don’t!” Eve yelled, her eyes wide and anxious. That certainly got Snapper’s attention, “if you do that, you might get in trouble, Mr. Carr…”

“What do you mean?” Snapper stared at her, frozen with the phone on his ear.

“Well, she’s on approved leave, contacting employees during such periods goes against CatCo policy and business conduct…”

Carr slowly put the phone back on his desk. He sighed – no, he sneered. He really was going to have to do this without Ponytail. Oh, how he was going to make her pay for it when she came back.

“Nia Nal,” Snapper said, rubbing his eyes, his glasses on his forehead once again… his now shiny, sweaty, stressed out forehead.

“Uh… beg your pardon, sir?”

“Nia Nal. She’s an intern at the Daily Planet. Call Lois Lane’s office, tell her I’m calling that favor she owes me, and that she needs to put Nia in the first plane to National City. She’ll be our backup for Ponytail, no one else will do…”

“But shouldn’t Mr. Olsen approve your request before–“

“Let me handle Olsen. You call the Planet now, Ms. Teschmacher,” and then, he added the most unsettling word one could hear from Snapper Carr’s lips: “Please.”

Eve was able to refrain herself from scoffing at the fact that Carr actually knew that word. Ever efficient, she just turned around and did as was told.

When he was finally alone in his office, Carr sat down in front of his computer, ready to get to the bottom of this Luthor/Cadmus soap opera. 

But first, he needed to take care of a pressing matter.

He opened his e-mail, he searched for Cat Grant’s contact, he tapped the phrase “I fucking hate you” and pressed send. He smiled. Briefly.

And only then did he begin to work.

Chapter Text

Kara fulfilled Lena’s wish and brought her home, exactly six days, four hours and eleven minutes after Lillian’s life-altering visit to the DEO.

Alex and Eliza gave them the all-clear after endless warnings and all sorts of tests to make sure it was safe for Lena and the babies to leave. Eliza would visit every two days to check on them and Lena had made a few phone calls to make sure Jess, Natasha, and Jonathan made her penthouse baby-friendly before their arrival, including stocking one of the rooms with state-of-the-art medical equipment to care for the children at home. Of course Jess had lots of questions, but, ever the professional, she just did as was told and kept her bewilderment to herself.

It was a strange experience for everybody. They should have been used to strange by then, but apparently, there was always something new.

For example, Lena’s place was not what Kara had imagined.

And of course she felt beyond guilty when she set foot on the penthouse and saw that all the misconceptions she had created in her mind were terrible clichés.

For a long time, Kara had kept her curiosity at bay when their friendship was still a pleasant surprise and they were both taking baby steps towards trust and familiarity in each other’s presence. Lillian’s despicable plans had cut short all that, and although Kara knew Lena’s address by heart, she never dared to break in, even when the guilt, the loneliness and the desperation of all those months without her were taking its toll on her sanity, craving any sign of Lena, any tiny, minuscule hope that she was still alive, any reminder that she was not gone.

In Lena’s absence, she used to fly by the penthouse, listening, foolishly hoping to hear the heartbeat she had memorized from their first meeting, only to be welcomed by emptiness and silence.

All those feelings came back flooding when the doors of the private elevator led them into Lena’s hall, an open concept of white walls that lead directly into the penthouse’s living room, twice the size of Kara’s entire apartment.

Then again, Kara didn’t have much time to brood over the past, because Lena’s personal entourage was ready to give them a warm welcome.

A tall, elegant blonde woman in her late 60s approached Lena rambling things in Russian. Behind her, Jess and Jonathan remained professional and collected, but Kara could see Jess’ eyes watering when she caught a glimpse of the twins in their portable bassinets. Luckily, it was Kara holding them while Colonel Natasha Terranova tackled Lena Luthor with a crushing hug.

Meanwhile, Kara had a moment to take in her surroundings. Lena’s apartment was predominately white, yes: white walls, white furniture, very Feng shui, spacious, well-lighted by wide picture windows that lead to a front terrace three times bigger than the one at L-Corp, two white couches forming an L (why, of course!) in front of the fireplace and TV… It reminded Kara of Lena’s office, actually, and the fresh bouquet of plumerias on the kitchen isle made her smile to herself. So it wasn’t Lena’s own Fortress of Solitude as she had thought it would be, and Kara would’ve been tougher on herself if she hadn’t been so awestruck by the way the light of day showered every corner thanks to the big balcony (Kara was beginning to wonder if Lena had a thing for balconies, and some part of her hoped it was a Supergirl-influenced feature). One could argue that it still had the same energy as an impersonal CEO office, but Kara could see there were boxes tugged on a corner, labeled with words like “Vinyls” and “Classic Books, IV” and she couldn’t help to feel intrigued. Sadness hit her as Kara realized that Lena must’ve been in the middle of unpacking when Lillian took her.

Jess approached her slowly while Lena was still trapped in Natasha’s over affectionate arms, and a shy smile appeared on the corner of the assistant’s mouth.

“Hi, Miss Danvers. It’s so good to see you.”

“Oh my God, Jess! It’s been such a long time.”

Kara gently placed the babies’ bassinets on the floor to take a step forward and reach out to give Jess a sincere hug, but the assistant already had her hand out to go for a polite shake.

Kara shook her head, she was having none of that.

“Oh, no, gimme a hug! And please stop calling me Miss Danvers, I’m Kara from now on.”

Jess blushed like a teenage girl and awkwardly held out her arms to receive Kara’s body.

Kara whispered “Much better” and Jess couldn’t help but smile. When they broke apart, Lena was waiting for her turn.

“Hello, Jessica,” the young Luthor greeted her assistant, a closed-lip smile on her face. Kara wondered if Lena’s impenetrable professionalism knew any limits because it was amazing to watch her metamorphose into Lena the CEO, as she tried to contain her emotions in front of her assistant. Jess, however, had shimmering eyes, trembling hands, and the only way she refrained from bursting into tears was by avoiding eye contact with Lena, even though they hugged and Lena even gave her a quick, affectionate peck on the cheek.

Jess stepped back and everyone in the room politely ignored her sniffles. Lena went on to greet the tall, imposing man in his late thirties wearing a black Armani suit.

“Jonathan Andrew Essen.” She said with a smug smile on her face.

He mirrored her in every way.

“Lena Kieran Luthor.”

They looked at each other for a brief moment as if they shared a secret no one else in the room knew, and Kara found herself strangely uncomfortable by the way they shook hands knowingly, not letting go while they spoke.

“It’s been such a long time,” Lena sighed, lifting her free hand to amicably touch his elbow. Kara gulped.

“Last time we saw each other I told you that if you ever needed anything, I’d be here. I’m surprised it took you this long,” Jon said empathically.

“Well, I knew how much you keep old Bruce in balance so I really didn’t want to steal you away from him. The circumstances have changed, as you can see.”

“I’m here as long as you need me, Lena. Besides, no one tames Bruce like Alfred, and luckily, he’s still around…”

“I’m glad to hear that. Oh, Jon, Natasha… please let me introduce you to my friend Kara Danvers… Kara, meet the dream team.”

Finally!, Kara’s brain cried and she immediately cringed internally. Where was all this coming from? She was nervous like a teenager who’s introducing themselves to the most popular gang at high-school. Get a grip, Danvers.

And she did.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you and I’m so grateful for your presence…” Kara began politely. “Lena told me you were the only people she trusted right now and – well, given the circumstances we really appreciate your support.”

Colonel Terranova wasn’t paying attention, as she was bent down over the babies’ bassinets, cooing and gasping and covering her mouth in an attempt to stop herself from waking them up. Kara excused the gesture as she knew the twins were charmers even in their sleep.

Jon nodded respectfully at her and they shook hands solemnly. The reporter forced a smile while guilt sat on the pit of her stomach – Jonathan seemed genuinely pleased to see Lena, they were long-time friends and he had dropped everything to assemble a new security detail for her… Kara shouldn’t feel this… uneasiness. It was obviously unfounded.

She was about to ask a polite question about Jon’s life in Gotham when Lena chimed in, her tone spiked with the haste and anticipation of someone who hasn’t talked to an old friend in a long time.

“Did Bruce give you a hard time about leaving him for a while?”

Jon shook his head and smiled fondly.

“Oh, no. In fact, I think he was kind of proud that you would think of the Wayne Industries security detail as the best in the world. Also, he said something about you owing him an all-you-can-eat dinner at Eleven Madison Park?”

“Ah, we’ll make sure to send him some Pizza Hut, then.”

They laughed and it all was lost on Kara. Rich people, right?

That was the moment Natasha Terranova chose to acknowledge her despite the irresistible presence of the twins.

Apparently, the Colonel was very tactile… She hugged Kara without a warning and gave her not one, but two kisses in each cheek. Kara let herself be moved around like a rag doll, thankful for years of learning how to relax her Kryptonian muscles so she could pass for a human being, and finally, she couldn’t help but smile at the woman’s impetuosity.

Terranova murmured something in Russian to her, and Kara just stood there, puzzled. She looked back at Lena, asking for help, but only saw her friend frowning and shaking her head at Natasha.

“Um, Tasha? Remember what we talked about?” Lena cleared her throat, trying to gain Terranova’s attention. When it seemed like that wasn’t happening, she turned her gaze to Kara.

“I’m sorry, Kara, the Colonel can be quite affectionate sometimes…” Lena uttered between slightly clenched teeth.

“Now, that’s a phrase I never thought I’d hear,” Kara chuckled.

But Terranova clearly had her own agenda. She looked in between the two women and clapped her hands once. She finally settled her eyes on Lena, looking rather… irritated?

“Oh, Lena, you, her, deti: beautiful sem’ya!”

Kara made a mental note to download Duolingo or some other app to learn Russian. She could tell it might be useful in her immediate future.

When Lena remained silent and blinked at Terranova, the Colonel only seemed to grow more exasperated.

She went full Mother Russia on Lena, not even a tiny vocal in English. What followed was a rapid exchange between her and Lena that Kara, Jess, and Jon witnessed with a rather polite level of incredulity.

“Она говорит по-русски?” (Ona govorit po-russki?)

“Я думаю, что не” (Ya dumayu, chto ne)

“Но ты идиот, она очень красивая!” (No ty idiot, ona ochen' krasivaya)

“Не делай этого, это грубо” (Ne delay etogo, eto grubo)

“Ты глуп, она идеально подходит!” (Ty idiot, ona ideal'no podkhodit)

Idiot!, Kara thought kind of triumphantly, there was the word idiot in Natasha’s mouth, no doubt about it. But all the rest just sounded to her as unintelligible as Old Krypto-Daxamiam.

“Стоп, мы будем говорить позже. На английском языке!” (Podozhdite, my pogovorim chut' pozzhe. Na angliyskom yazyke!) It was clear that Lena was annoyed now, but she forced a smile as the exchange seemed to be coming to an end.

But the Colonel, of course, had the last word.

“Вы можете быть уверены, что мы будем говорить позже, мисси!” (Vy mozhete byt' uvereny, chto my budem govorit' pozzhe, missi!)

Kara was sure the end of Natasha’s phrase had sounded like a reproaching “missy!”. Anyway, she was pretty sure the Colonel had used “idiot” several times and she really hoped they hadn't started off with the wrong foot because she couldn’t think of a damn good reason why Natasha would be insulting Lena. The Colonel stormed out of the room muttering to herself, but Lena seemed unworried so Kara just raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips at her friend.

“This is you getting back at me for speaking – uh… my mother tongue to the babies, right?” Kara tried to ease the tension, although she seemed to be the only one uncomfortable because Jess was staring blankly at the walls and Jon… he just stood there. As if he was the wall. Perhaps Kara wasn’t trained as they were in the subtle art of discretion. She was a journalist and had super-hearing, after all, hard to develop that skill by now. “Uh, what just happened? Did I do something wrong?” Kara said to Lena with a shy smile. “And how many languages do you speak?”

Lena just smiled back, reassuringly.

“A few. I’m sorry, Kara. It’s just it’s been a long time and Tasha here was just telling me about –”

“My family!” Natasha appeared literally out of nowhere to put an arm around Kara’s shoulder. Few people could sneak up on a Kryptonian, and Kara was beginning to understand why Lena thought an ex-KGB agent would be the best nanny ever. “I was explaining how my son is an IDIOT…” Natasha shot a glance in Lena’s direction to then look back at Kara with a smile that showed a few golden teeth, "…because he lets all the good girls go and keeps only the bad ones.”

“Oh.” Kara could only mutter that word. From the corner of her eye, she could see Lena rolling her eyes. Living in this house was surely going to be interesting.

“Let’s go, Miss Danvers.”

“Kara, please.”

“Miss Kara, da.”

“No, I meant–“

There was no arguing. Kara looked back for a second while Natasha pushed her in front of her in the direction of the hallway. The Colonel took the babies’ bassinets, one in each arm, and refused Kara’s help, vigorously shaking her head.

“Let’s go settle the deti, da? You’ll see, they have a beautiful room. We have everything, everything.” When Kara glanced back at Lena again, unsure of what to do, Natasha wasn’t having it. “You can chit chat later, yes…You, me, deti, diapers!! Come, come, Miss Kara!”

And so Miss Kara complied, but not before narrowing her eyes at Lena, who waved happily at them. Too happy.

Yes, their new life was going to be definitely interesting.

***

National City. Earth-Y.

L-Corp Building Research Lab

(Ground 0)

August 8th, 2042.

The firing of the cannon had created a temporary quantum singularity so it couldn’t be called an explosion, per se. Most buildings were intact, and the only sign of the death and destruction that had struck the city by surprise two months ago was just… silence. The unbearable silence of a city once brimming with life, now condemned to be a memory inhabited by ghosts.

Authorities had cleared the downtown district for survivors and their families to come back and collect their belongings only a few days ago. There were no nuclear residuals, no radiation, no significant structural damage to the buildings, not even any physical proof of the Anti-Monitor’s attack since his equipment and his minions had burned out in the sky. There were only empty cars and silent streets.

It was unclear what had happened to the Anti-Monitor himself, but most hoped that he had been sent straight to hell. Due to the nature of the singularity, there were no bodies to bury, no remains for the families to mourn, so accepting they were gone was hard for many people, stuck in denial, lost in their pain.

Alex Danvers knew this, but that was exactly why she had agreed to drive her nieces and nephew back to the place where the memories would hit them all, unforgivingly. For Alex knew Kara and Lena would have wanted their children to say goodbye, to understand the impossible choice they had faced: sacrifice National City and in doing so, their lives, so Earth could have a shot at survival… or hold on to naive hope and probably doom Humanity to extinction. Had she been in their place, Alex would have made exactly the same choice. Still, she could understand why Luna, Liam, and Addie were having trouble coming to terms with the fact that their parents had sacrificed everything in order to save them, and Alex had to be the voice of reason now they were gone. That’s why she had agreed to take them back to ground zero, she really needed to make them understand Kara and Lena had not abandoned them: they had died protecting them because they loved them above anything else.

The lab was a shadow of what it once was. The dome was open, as Lena had left it before joining the battle, and the sounds of chilling air made the place look even more battered. Luna and Liam stepped in quickly, trying to turn on Lena’s computers and equipment, looking for – what? Alex didn’t know. Answers, perhaps. But she knew they wouldn’t find them there. The answer was that a parent’s love knows no limits, and if they hadn’t understood that by now, they wouldn’t understand it by raking up their mother’s files.

“Auntie? It’s so cold.”

A tiny whisper drew Alex back to reality, and she quickly turned to her younger niece, who was shivering and hugging herself over the sleeves of her National City Lakehawks sports-sweater.

“Oh sweetie, I’m sorry. Here, take my jacket.”

Alex kneeled in front of her niece and put her leather jacket over the shoulders of the eleven-year-old. That’s when she noticed she was sniffing.

“I miss them.”

Alex’s heart broke in a million pieces.

“I know, sweetie. Me too,” she said, failing to conceal the lump in her throat.

Alex took Addie in her arms and hugged her closing her own eyes, trying to keep herself from crying. She put her hand around the girl’s head, caressing her beautiful, short dark curls and fighting her own breakdown. It was the last thing they needed now, and she had to be strong, for them, for what was left of her family. Lost in her own thoughts, the former black-ops agent didn’t notice how her niece’s body went still and the cold air of the morning shifted with electricity.

“And I hate them,” Addie whispered, her voice absent and colder like Alex had never heard it before.

The now grey-haired woman stepped back and looked her niece in the eye, frowning.

“Adele Lucille Danvers-Luthor, what did you just say?”

Addie’s eyes began to glow with a purple tint, so did the Phorian birth-marks in her temples.

“They should be here,” the little girl yelled while the papers and machinery around them began to make circles in the air. “Why did they leave us?,” Addie cried, “I want them to come back!”

Before Alex could blink, Liam and Luna appeared by their side. While Liam flew his aunt away from harm’s way, Luna tried to calm her little sister, though she had to raise her voice above the shifting air and flying papers.

“Addie, I know you’re hurting, we all are! But Mom and Ieiu wouldn’t want you to hold on to this hurt. They loved us, little sis, and that love won’t die, no matter what.”

The ground beneath their feet began to shake as Addie’s body levitated. Her big sister’s words only seemed to fuel the girl’s grief.

“How can you say that? They’re dead! They can’t love us if they’re dead!”

The air around them increased its speed and, had she not been a super, Luna would have been blown away by its force. Supergirl kneeled in from of her Phorian sister, trying to keep her balance.

“They did it to save us–“ Luna yelled, trying to break through her little sister’s pain, but Addie was not listening.

“No, they abandoned us!”

Tears ran down the girl’s cheeks, and Luna grew anxious.

“Addie, stop! You’re gonna get hurt! You’re gonna hurt Aunt Alex!”

“I want them back! I want my Mom and my Ieiu!”

Luna looked behind her to see Liam protecting Alex with his body, his eyes concerned and shocked. Alex was holding tight to Liam’s waist, trying to stay on her feet.

“Sing to her!” Alex yelled, suddenly.

Both Liam and Luna frowned and exchanged confused looks.

Alex shook her head, now grabbing on to Liam’s shirt for her life.

“Sing to her, like Kara used to do with you both when you were little!” Alex explained to Liam, then she patted him on the back and pushed him away, “Go!”

Liam nodded and flew to Luna’s side, Alex already on the ground holding on to the heaviest table around.

“Loo!” Liam shouted, “remember that tune Ieiu used to sing when we were upset?!”

Luna scoffed at her brother.

“You mean the motherfucker Danvers classic of all classics?!”

Liam pointed at Addie and nodded.

“She used to sing it to her too, to calm her down!”

Luna’s eyes went wide with realization, and she nodded back at her brother.

Liam and Luna gently floated around Addie and flanked her. They locked eyes and Liam gave the signal…

“Ok, you go high, I go low… on one, two, three!”

And the Danvers-Luthor twins began to sing in a beautiful harmony that missed the voice of their Ieiu, with whom they shared a love for music and classic movies.

As they circled around Addie in the air, approaching her carefully to rock her back to reality with their voices, Alex watched, mesmerized, feeling her sister’s presence in the room with them, in every note that came out of Liam and Luna’s throats. Kara might be gone now, but every part of her lived on in her kids.

“Moon River, wider than a mile

I'm crossing you in style someday

Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker

Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way…

Two drifters, off to see the world

There's such a lot of world to see

We're after the same rainbow's end,

waitin' 'round the bend

My huckleberry friend,

Moon River, and me.”

The song worked.

It touched something sacred deep within Addie’s brain, the place where she stored memories of tenderness, the warmth of their home, the love her mothers had shown her since they had taken her in – the happiest days of their lives. The girl collapsed on the ground, exhausted and finally out of her trance. She looked disoriented and scared for long seconds. Her brother and sister reached out to her and tried to calm her down, Luna kissing her temple, Liam holding her hand. Alex finally came to their side, and the girl started crying, ashamed as she realized what had happened.

“I’m sorry…” Addie murmured in between sobs.

Alex took her in her arms and held her tight.

“No, no, no, you listen to me, Adele. This is not your fault. This is not your fault, sweetie, never, just… just let it go, baby. Let it go.”

Luna and Liam looked devastated as their little sister wept freely in their aunt’s arms. With everything that had happened… none of them had had the time to grieve. They had been so focused on helping survivors, standing tall as Supergirl and Superboy in such a catastrophe, becoming the beacon of hope everybody needed to hold on to… that they had neglected their own family’s affliction. Their own pain. They were all hurting, but their little sister didn’t have the responsibility of playing superhero for the rest of the world, and they had forgotten that.

Alex shot a quick look in the twins’ direction. Guessing their thoughts by the look in their eyes, she just nodded at them, implying they would talk later, once Addie had calmed down. With a sympathetic look, Luna touched Liam’s shoulder, and they both went back to examining the lab as Alex rocked Addie, whose sobs were slowly decreasing and becoming long, deep breaths.

Alex held her tighter and whispered reassuring words.

“You’re grieving, we all are, and sometimes we snap and we cope in ways we can’t control. You didn’t hurt anyone. All this – it was the pain, not you. We get it. We love you. None of this is your fault.” Alex planted a kiss to the top of her niece’s head and sighed.

The girl turned her head to look up. Puffy, red eyes greeted Alex and God, she just wanted them to be safe. She wanted to be able to say some magic words and make it all better.

What would Kara do? What would Lena do? Alex didn’t know how they would survive this. But they had to.

“I love you, Auntie.”

“I love you too, honey.”

Alex’s heart broke a little and filled with hope, all at the same time, no matter how contradictory it could be. Love can make you overcome everything, even if it was unthinkable for Alex to keep on living in a world without her sister…

“Um… Alex?”

Luna’s hesitant voice called her attention, and Alex just hoped it wasn’t more bad news.

She looked up as some monitor screens came alive, and Luna and Liam watched trying to decipher what they were showing.

“Seems like we triggered something… because of the song, maybe?” Luna murmured looking puzzled.

Liam typed some code into the consoles as the lights turned on around them.

“Backup power supply is turning up on its own…” Liam said. Then, he saw something in the computer logs. ”Wait a minute, there’s like trillions of hidden data here, what the –”

A low, metallic hum startled the four of them, and a panel on the floor opened up to show what was unmistakably Kryptonian technology: a white data crystal vertically placed on a steel pedestal. Suddenly, the crystal lit up, and from it, Kara Zor-El appeared in hologram form, dressed in a blue ceremonial dress and a golden belt, looking so much like her mother, Alura, with the House of El symbol beautifully embroidered in her chest.

The hologram stood silently, a gentle smile on Kara’s face, as if it was awaiting instructions, or as if it knew its presence would shock everyone on the room and it was giving them time to let the situation sink in.

“Ieiu?”

It was Addie’s sweet little voice, trembling, hopeful.

“Hello, Adele.” The hologram smiled back at her.

It looked so real, it looked so much like Kara. But Alex knew it wasn’t.

Alex stood up and took Addie’s hand on hers. Memories came back flooding to her as she relived the moment she had shown Alura’s AI to Kara… she shook her head and tried not to be swept by emotion.

Alex inhaled deeply and looked down to her younger niece, and explained with similar words to the ones she had told Kara so many years back.

“Sweetie, this is Kryptonian technology. It’s an interactive artificial intelligence program that has Ieiu’s memories. It’s not really her…”

Addie’s face looked so sad and disappointed, but the little girl understood immediately.

“Liam, Luna…” Kara’s hologram turned its attention to the twins, “I’ve been programmed to pass on the knowledge and history of our family to all of you. Whatever it is you would ask Kara, you may ask me.”

Luna looked at her brother, melancholy painted all over her face.

“Ieiu told us the story, remember?”

Liam nodded and sighed.

“With grandma Alura. She asked for a hug and–“

“And Alura’s hologram told her it wasn’t programmed for that,” the hologram finished for him, then proceeded, “a fault Lena and I corrected in our own version, though I can perform the gesture of hugging but… not having a body prevents me to give you the physical comfort you might be seeking.”

“So what’s the point, then?” Luna snapped bitterly.

“How did Mom and Ieiu kept this from us?” Liam ignored her sister and looked in Alex’s direction.

“I don’t know,” Alex shook her head, wondering to herself how many more secrets Kara and Lena might have kept to themselves.

“Your mother and I argued a lot about this, politely, as we always did,” the hologram explained, attentively. “This is the way of Krypton, but not the way of Earth. There were a lot of ethical implications. Lena thought that, when the time came, you should be able to move on – grieve and let go of the past. However, in Krypton family legacy means everything, so although I agreed with her, I wanted to honor my own family by respecting our traditions. That’s why it’s only me. Your mother didn’t map her memories. That doesn’t mean that she didn’t leave behind an insane amount of data and recollections of her life…”

Luna was highly skeptical. “But how did the data survive?”

The hologram smiled, “Praise Rao for L-Corp’s cloud storage servers.”

“Is there any possibility that some other data might have survived? The blueprints for the accelerator? What about Telle?” Luna asked, a little too anxious.

“I don’t know, you will have to go through the data to find out.”

Luna groaned, exasperated, and Liam crossed his arms over his chest. He asked a direct question, then.

“How do we undo it?”

The hologram looked puzzled, if that was even possible.

“What, exactly, is what you want to undo, my son?”

Liam didn’t pause.

“The Anti-Monitor. Your deaths. How do we bring you and mom back?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have the knowledge to answer that question.”

“Yes, you do!” Luna cried, her voice a little too loud. “You have Ieiu’s memories. Over the years, she fought the unthinkable and always won. She time-traveled to save mom, once.” Luna paced around the room visibly frustrated, she turned to Alex then. “She brought you back from twisted realities, Alex, more than once! She defied all odds, and always, always came on top, because she was Supergirl… Superwoman.”

Luna closed her eyes, emotion creating an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. Alex couldn’t bear to see her like this.

“Loo,” Alex began, softly, “I don’t think this is the way to–“

Luna shook her head violently and snapped back at the hologram.

“In all those memories… in all those quests… there has to be a way. Search her memories, dig deep, and tell us!”

There was a long moment of silence. Alex didn’t know what to say to prevent things from escalating.

Then, the hologram answered, but there was no trace of Kara in its voice this time. It spoke as a machine would: “A moment, please. I’m gathering information online to compare it to my own database.”

The twins were anxiously waiting for the hologram to give an answer and they looked as if they were about to fry someone with their heat vision if they didn’t get it any time  soon. And Addie… the little girl just squeezed her auntie’s hand tighter, the tables turned now, as if it was Addie’s turn to keep her aunt grounded.

“The Anti-Monitor said he had fought me in other realities, that I almost killed him…” Kara’s hologram spoke finally, solemn and grave, “…and he said it wouldn’t be the last time. He was also obsessed with hurting me through Lena and my progeny… So you will find him in a reality where you both exist, no matter your age. He’s hunting the Zor-El family across the Universe.”

Luna rested her hands on her hips in a gesture inherited directly from Kara that they both used when they were upset.

“Well, that narrows down the search,” Luna clenched her jaw as she looked to her brother. “It’s time for the hunter to become the prey.”

Alex almost had a heart-attack. She gently released Addie’s hand and took a few steps until she was eye to eye with Luna.

“Hey, hey!! What are you talking about?” She muttered to her niece trying not to raise her voice, but she already suspected this was going to be a heated argument.

Luna looked down to her feet and then she took a deep breath, gathering the courage to confront her aunt.

“Wherever he’s going next, Alex, he’s not expecting us, we have an advantage over him. I mean… he’s not expecting us, who have already fought him! And we almost won! We could save other worlds, millions of lives, with the knowledge we have now.” Luna’s tone was pleading… pleading for Alex to understand, to let them do something.

“Are you insane? I’m not letting you cross realities to go after an unbeatable-dark-matter-monster that wants to kill you both!” Alex scoffed at the nerve Luna had sometimes… then she paced around the room and threw her arms out in the air trying to fucking calm down. She did not achieve it.

“Besides, advantage? You have nothing! You have a devastated city and the pain of losing your parents which is obviously clouding your judgment! What if he comes back to finish what he started? What if you leave for other Universes in search of a chimera, and he ends up here when the planet is at his mercy, huh?!”

“It won’t happen,” Liam spoke, awfully calm. Alex shot an annoyed look at her nephew, who always kept his cool and applied logic to everything. Luna had Kara’s temper, but Liam perfectly embodied the cerebral side of Lena. They’re so much like them… so much it hurts, Alex thought to herself, but she quickly had to snap back to reality because after all they’ve been through, it was obvious that what was left of her family was about to step into danger for the umpteenth time. She needed to prevent it. At all costs.

Alex closed her eyes for a second and rubbed her temple. Then, she turned back to Liam.

“How do you know it won’t happen?”

Liam pointed at the hologram in the room, patiently observing the scene.

“Because he’s after Ieiu. Now that she’s… gone, he will track her down in a different reality.”

“That’s the most plausible scenario, yes.” Kara’s hologram added without being queried this time. “It’s likely that now that he’s fought you he’ll attack a Universe where you’re still young, infants even. That will give him a physical and psychological advantage over any version of me or your mother.”

Alex was about to swear like a sailor and give them all a piece of her mind, but Addie’s presence prevented her from going all Badass-Motherfucker-Director-Danvers on her niece and nephew.

“Just by going there, we’ll even the odds.” Luna chimed in. “Mom taught us everything about parallel universes… quantum mechanics is on our side. She perfected Cisco’s devices for inter-dimensional travel, and we’ll have everything we need. Long live Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, the Planck constant and the Observer Effect!”

“And Kryptonian strength,” Liam added.

“That, too,” Luna smiled at her brother and raised her hand in the air for an imaginary high five and that, that was the last straw for Alex.

“Oh my God, would you please stop it you nerds, you frikking pains in my butt?!”

Alex didn’t want to raise her voice like that, she really didn’t. But sometimes, these two carbon copies of Kara and Lena were too much to handle. And now that their parents weren’t here anymore, even though they were adults now… she had to protect them. Even from themselves.

“This is our planet,” Alex spoke calmly now, trying to make them see her point, praying for them to see her point. “What’s left of your family is here. It’s not – it’s not our war.”

Luna took a few steps forward to take her aunt by the shoulders and speak looking her in the eye.

“Since when? There are other families out there. And we can help them,” Luna reasoned. "Would Ieiu and mom have said that it’s not our fight? Would they have looked the other way?”

Ah, touché. Alex should’ve known… there was no way of stopping them. Not with the willpower that ran through their blood.

“No. They’d go, those two stupid jerks would go and try to save as many people as possible,” Alex swallowed hard, absolutely defeated. She yielded despite herself. “Just like you two stupid jerks. You’re your parents’ children, no doubt. I can’t fight that. It breaks my heart, but I can’t.”

“Alex…” Luna began, trying to comfort her aunt.

“I’m just – I’m just sorry I can’t protect you, kids…” Alex closed her eyes and fought back the tears. Not here, not now, they didn’t need this…

Luna hugged her. And it was impossible not to return the hug and it was beyond futile to resist the urge to close her eyes and imagine, just for a weak second, that it was Kara who she was holding. That her sister was here with them. That it was going to be alright.

When they broke the hug, Luna’s eyes were shimmering too.

“You can protect Addie,” she muttered to her aunt. “You can protect this planet. Call Clark. Call J’onn. Build a resistance. We… we’ll be alright. You know we can take care of ourselves.”

Alex didn’t have time to scoff in disbelieve or laugh bitterly because her nephew engulfed the two of them in a bear hug.

“And you know we love you, right?” Liam asked.

Alex sniffed and damned her luck for having this family of honorable, unselfish assholes.

“You little shits…”

“Auntie, language!”

The three adults glanced down to discover that Addie had somehow managed to sneak in between them, hugging Alex’s waist now. They laugh at Addie’s expression of annoyance, and, for a moment, there was no hurt, only family.

“I know, sweetie, I’m sorry,” Alex hugged her niece back and they all stood there, enjoying each other’s presence, trying not to think about what was coming.

But then, Addie’s voice brought them back to reality.

“Loo? Li? Are you abandoning me too, like Ieiu and mom?”

“No, no, Pookie!” Luna shook her head vigorously and kneeled in front of her little sister, turning her around gently so they were eye to eye. “Listen, we’ll come back. We’re going to find a way to bring them back, or at least… at least we’ll find a way to avenge them. Do you understand, little sis? We love you.”

“Ok,” Addie nodded without giving it much thought, “but please don’t die. I don’t wanna be an orphan again.”

Everyone forgot how to breath for a second at the pain in the girl’s voice and Alex particularly felt the words like a punch to the stomach.

“Oh, Pookie, no, no, never!”

Luna picked up Addie in her arms and they all engulfed her; Alex ruffled her hair, Liam kissed her cheek and promised to take her out for a flight before they left.

Alex cringed at that. It was really happening. If Kara and Lena were alive, they would kill her. Probably.

Kara’s hologram had turned itself off long minutes ago because even an AI knew when to give a family some privacy.

“You better come back in one piece, ok?” Alex threatened, never breaking their embrace. It didn’t sound much like a threat, but they all understood what she meant. “Or I swear I will haunt you down across realities and I will bring your sorry asses back home in whatever state you’re in just to beat you up myself, you hear me?”

Luna affectionally acknowledged the order. “Yep, Director Danvers, we hear you.”

Gentle chuckles echoed through the lab and they all felt this was a defining moment, a memory they would treasure no matter what.

After all, they were about to try to undo the impossible.

Chapter Text

Kara had to change clothes because Liam decided their first shared experience with their new Russian nanny deserved to be celebrated by peeing all over his Kryptonian mother.

It had happened a few times at the DEO, and Kara just lamented Lena wasn’t present to see it because it always made her laugh like a maniac, and she loved it when Lena did all sorts of unladylike sounds. Also, if her C-Section stitches stung a bit from the laughter, it would be an adequate vengeance for leaving Kara unsupervised with Natasha Terranova. Sadly, Lena was going over L-Corp stuff with Jess and Jon, and Kara didn’t get her well-deserved revenge.

Kara and Natasha had agreed on bottle-feeding the babies tonight so Lena could rest a bit. Luckily, there was plenty of breast-milk Lena had prepared at the DEO, so they only needed to warm it up. With a new shirt on and baby Luna happily snoozing against her chest, Kara joined Lena, Jess, and Jon in the kitchen island, quickly followed by Natasha with baby Liam in her arms. Kara carefully handed Luna to Lena so she could prepare the bottles, and with her baby girl firmly protected by her arms, Lena announced she would be going over the tasks she was going to assign everyone, but first, she dived into a carefully constructed recap filled with white lies. Jon kept an impenetrable facade of professionalism, but Jess couldn’t help but stare in awe as she watched her boss being her usual competent, analytical self with a baby in her arms as if nothing. 

Lena and Kara had agreed on their official version of events before leaving the DEO. It was meant to protect them from the press, their enemies, and anything else lurking out there, but mostly, to protect Kara’s identity as Supergirl and the babies’ true ancestry. They were always going to become targets, being Lena Luthor’s children, but if word got out they were also half-Kryptonian, their enemies would triplicate, at the very least.

“So, this is the situation,” Lena began while Kara handled a warm bottle of milk to Natasha, “just before my mother kidnapped me, I found out I can’t have children. Although Kara and I have known each other for just a few months, she was my only friend in the city so I confided all this to her. The only medical solution was to have an egg donor, and Kara offered,” as Lena paused, Kara took the opportunity to take Luna from her arms and sat on a stool, with the baby ready to enjoy her dinner. Kara loved the cute sounds they made when they were fed and she couldn’t get enough of doing the task. She sensed that Lena relaxed a bit beside her, as everybody took a moment to look at the twins, despite the seriousness of the conversation. 

Lena knew lying to her friends was always going to be difficult, but she couldn’t take any chances. Both Kara and Lena knew what was at stake, this version of events was the lesser of two evils… 

Lena sighed and proceeded. 

“I had been inseminated with Kara’s egg and an anonymous donor when Lillian took me as revenge for stopping her plans to create chaos in the city with alien weapons. Only Kara and I knew this. We are both their mothers, legally, and we’ve decided to raise them together. For now, Kara will be living with us here, at least until the authorities put my mother behind bars… And that’s it.” Lena regarded every one with intention. Kara was in awe, once again, wondering how many times she had rehearsed the speech in her head to be able to deliver it with such truthfulness. “Not a word to the press, not a word to staff. They can speculate all they want. This penthouse has to become a fortress, and we’ll need you three to accomplish that. Any questions?”

Jess, the Colonel and Jon all shook their heads.

It was quite obvious no one was buying it. And it was also unmistakably clear that they’d stick to the story and remain unquestionably loyal to Lena. Kara knew then, without the shadow of a doubt, that their secrets would be safe with this group of remarkable people.

She then looked back at Lena and cleared her throat, remembering something.

“Uh… Lena?”

It took the young CEO about a second to understand what Kara was implying.

“Oh, yes. Sorry,” Lena looked back at her team, with Natasha frowning between Kara and her. Lena ignored her. Or tried to. "You’ll also be seeing a lot of Supergirl around. She’s… an ally, to Kara and me. Agent Alex Danvers, from the FBI –“

“You mean the DEO,” Jon chimed in, his eyebrows raised with a mixture of suspicion and amusement. 

“Nothing escapes you, Jon, but let’s keep that between ourselves,” Lena replied. 

"Always,” Jon nodded.

“As I was saying, Alex Danvers, Kara’s sister and assistant director of the DEO, yes, will be around some days too. Kara’s mother, Dr. Eliza Danvers, will also check on me and the twins regularly, she’s our doctor now, so she needs to have full clearance. We will also be cooperating with Hank Henshaw, the director of the DEO, in the investigation about my mother. It’s possible some other agents from the DEO will need security passes, let’s stick with their FBI covert, for their sakes and ours. And of course, everyone needs to be cleared before they come up, everyone… Kara’s friends, and even your trustworthy pizza delivery guy, Kara. No one goes in or out this building without the proper authorization…” Lena paused for a moment, her tone becoming a little less formal, “I don’t want them treated like criminals, of course, but – there can be no mistakes. Any security breach could have terrible consequences. For all of us… but most importantly, for the babies. You’re in charge of that, Jon, just like everything else regarding security.”

They all understood her meaning. No mistakes. Ever.

Jon nodded again.

“It’s already been taken care of, Lena,” he reassured her, “we’ve installed new security arches on the ground floor and panic gates, and I’ve planned out a new schedule for everyone. Also, when you have a moment, I’d like you to have a look at the new team. They’re the best and I trust them with my life, but I know you’ll want to meet them before I green-light them.”

Lena dedicated him a content smile at the efficiency display.

“Will do. Thanks for that, Jon. And also, please, no guns in the house. I don’t care how you guys handle things downstairs, but there are two newborns under my roof now, if a weapon, any weapon, reaches our private elevator, it means you’ve failed. Make sure it doesn’t happen. Understood?”

“Absolutely,” Jon complied.

The Colonel, on the other hand, sighed with resignation.

“So I guess that means I can no longer sleep with my beautiful Baikal-441 under my pillow…”

Lena dedicated her a sympathetic smile but stood her ground.

“I’m sorry, Tasha. It’s not negotiable.”

“I know, child. Fine by me. Not like I will have time to cherish her while I’m wiping your babies’ yagoditsy, no?”

Everyone blinked at the Colonel.

“It’s true,” she shrugged.

Both Luna and Liam had finished their bottles and Kara and Natasha began the strange dance of burping the babies.

“Ok,” Lena clasped her hands together for emphasis, “now that everyone knows what to do, I’d love to go to bed and rest now that the babies are fed and before they demand my attention again… I’m sorry, guys, but I’m exhausted.”

Jess’ eyes went wide with surprise.

“That’s the first time I hear you admitting something like that, Miss Luthor.”

Lena smiled, and for a moment, she appeared to be much older than she really was. She was tired, yes, and there was no point in hiding it from the people she trusted the most.

“There’s a first time for everything, Jess, and, apparently, now that I’m a mom this is my new normal. Make sure you schedule that meeting with Sam, ok? I promise I’m not going back before I’m ready but I really need to know everything’s fine, it will give me peace of mind.”

“Of course, Miss Luthor.”

Both Jess and Jon took that cue to leave the penthouse. As they were approaching the elevator, Lena softly called out behind them.

“And Jess? Jon?”

They turned around as they entered the elevator. Lena smiled again, tired, yes, but so very grateful.

“Thank you. For everything.”

They both smiled back at her, and before the elevator doors closed, Jess had time to say one more thing.

“Welcome home, boss.”

Before tears of gratitude could hit her eyes, Lena felt a calloused hand on her shoulder, squeezing just slightly. 

“Go and rest, child, I will take care of the deti for you, we’ll be right here.”

“Thanks, Tasha.”

The Colonel got up gently with little Liam in her arms.

“Miss Kara, I’m going to take this handsome boy to his crib. You bring Luna when you feel like it.”

Kara nodded at the Colonel, who was already singing a Russian lullaby while she left the room.

As Lena got up to head straight to bed, Kara quietly strode behind her, her voice low – Luna had just drifted off to sleep in her arms.

“Uh… um… Lena? I gotta go to pick up the rest of my stuff from my apartment, remember? Will you be alright?”

Exhaustion was clouding Lena’s mind a bit so she shook her head and then remembered that Kara still had her things at her apartment, that they’d agreed she’d go back as soon as they’d settled the babies at the penthouse and that… she was being a terrible friend trying to excuse herself just like that.

“Oh, God, I forgot, Kara… of course!” Lena rubbed her forehead, blushing a little, “Do you want me to go with you? Or Jon can have someone do it for you, if you want to.”

“No, no, that’s not necessary, I – Mon-El is waiting for me there. I–  I have to go.”

Lena’s mind was once again playing games with her. They had talked about this. Kara. Mon-El… they weren’t on good terms, Kara had told her. And she needed to talk to him. And Lena had forgotten and she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being a bad, bad friend, but a migraine was beginning to settle in the back of her skull and just the mention of Kara’s boyfriend added another sort of pain she didn’t have time to indulge at the moment.

“Oh.” 

And so that “oh” was all Lena said before she shook her numbness away and forced herself to ignore everything, except Kara.

“How… how are things between you two?”

Kara shook her head gently and lowered her gaze in what Lena knew by heart as the standard sorrowful Danvers gesture.

“Well, you know I haven’t talked to him since the babies were born. But, he’s been very insisting, I’ll give him that… and I’ve– I’ve been the one avoiding it all and now I’ve got ninety-two unanswered messages and forty-five lost phone calls.”

It was seeing her like that, seeing Kara conflicted, and worried and in pain, what really cleared the fog in Lena’s tired mind. She searched her friends’ eyes and maintained her gaze once she had those beautiful blue orbs looking back at her.

“You can’t keep going like that, Kara.”

She knew she was using a somewhat scolding tone, but she didn’t care. Kara really needed to start putting herself before everyone else.

“I know, I know… that’s why I’m meeting him there… there’s… there’s a lot of things I’m trying to figure out and I need to be honest with him.”

Lena smiled knowingly at her friend.

“I’m sure you’ll work things out, Kara.”

“Thank you.”

They both locked eyes while smiling at one another for what seemed to be a moment suspended in time. Only little Luna’s sleepy cooing sounds could break the spell.

“Ok, so… I’ll put this one on her crib and Natasha will look after them while you nap, I shouldn’t be gone for long. Is that ok with you, will you be alright?”

“We’re just going to have some rest, Kara, I believe this family can survive an hour or two without Supergirl around.”

“Jeez, ok, I was just making sure everything’s under control, ma’am.”

Lena laughed gently and spontaneously placed a soft kiss to Kara’s cheek.

“If I’m still knocked out when you come back, you wake me up, ok?”

“Ok.”

“Bye, Kara.”

“Bye.”

It’s not like she was counting, but Kara stood there, unable to move, perhaps an entire minute. Maybe two. The place where Lena’s lips had touched her skin burned like fire, and she couldn’t quite fathom why. 

She blamed the stress, the weirdness and the unbelievable events of the past week. She blamed the feeling of gloom and constant alert she was experiencing after learning about the Anti-Monitor. She blamed herself, ultimately, for not being good enough. Fast enough. Smart enough. Strong enough. For Lena. For her children. No matter that the Kara that had perished in another Universe trying to save everyone wasn’t even her… She had seen with her own eyes that the stuff of nightmares could come true, and she just couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed to be better. In every possible way… just, better.

Kara buried all those dark feelings deep inside her mind along with the electricity of Lena’s touch and the unsettling and brand new warmth she felt whenever they locked eyes. 

Finally, the only thing that took her back to reality was her daughter stirring in her arms, making the most lovely, indescribably beautiful, little sound.

“Me too, baby girl,” Kara whispered, “me too.”

***

He was already inside when she arrived.
That was… unsettling, to say the least. 

“I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in,” Mon-El said as he took his hands out of his pockets and walked towards her.

Kara just shook her head and let it slide, leaving her purse on the floor and instantly feeling like everything was out of place, even in her own apartment. All of this, it felt wrong, unnerving, and she crossed her arms over her chest automatically as an act of self preservation.

“I… I know I’ve been difficult. I know I’ve been a jerk. But I had an interesting conversation with James last week and I… I just wanna be honest here.”

Kara’s body was telling her to tense up, to enter Supergirl mode, to shield herself from whatever Mon-El was about to say. She sadly thought that the lies and the toxicity had been such a fundamental part of their relationship from the very beginning, that her instincts were screaming at her not to relax in the presence of the one person she was supposed to trust the most. And she was tired of fighting her instincts. She was tired of walking on ice. And did Mon-El deserved a fourth, a fifth chance?

He certainly deserved at least the benefit of the doubt, but Kara was quickly realizing that’s not something you’re supposed to constantly hand over to a partner.

“I thought… I thought we were being honest with each other. Especially after your parents interplanetary visit.”

“I know, Kara, I know. Please hear me out.”

“I’m listening.”

He stepped awfully close to her, taking her hands in his. Kara could see there was real emotion in his eyes, real fear of losing her, and adoration and wonder but… she could only feel the tension in her muscles and the way her mind analyzed his behavior as a dance of deception he had tried before.

One last chance… she heard herself whisper in the back on her mind. And she had to fight with all her Kryptonian willpower to relax under his touch. One last chance.

“James told me I should be honest with you. I’m not hero material, we know that now. I loved being a hero because…” he sighed deeply, lowering his gaze to the floor. Kara could see he was fighting back the tears and through his fingers she could feel his hands trembling. “It meant I got to spend every single day by your side. And now I know it’s all far more complicated than that.”

He shook his head and when he blinked, the tears fell silently down his cheeks. Kara couldn’t stand seeing anyone in pain, and right now she couldn’t even remember why she was mad at him in the first place. Sure, there was a long list of reasons but… could this be the one time he got it right? Could this really be the last apology she’d hear from him? She had never seen him so opened up, so transparent. Perhaps she had been quick to judge. Perhaps she had been a cynic, a hypocrite.

He squeezed her hands gently, as if to gain strength. He sighed deeply and then looked at her with a sad smile.

“But when I was honest with myself and when I really thought about what I want, that’s just it, Kara.” He closed his eyes for the briefest of moments, and Kara could feel his heartbeat going up, the throbbing veins in his neck, the raw pain he was going through… she felt awful, she felt terrible knowing she had caused that, somehow. She reached out to touch his cheek, out of compassion, and he choked back a sob. He opened his eyes to look at her. He let it all out. 

“I want you. I know that you need balance, a purpose to everything you do. But me… I’m… I’m a simple man, just like that. Because I was meant to be a Prince and I never wanted that, I craved a normal life, a simple existence… And when I got here I– I– I’m content if I serve drinks and then I can come home to you. And I’m content if I have to beat up bad guys and save people and then come home to you. I know you want me to be… better. I know that… because I have these powers and you want me to do something with them. But this is me, Kara. A man that just wants to love you. And I’m sorry that I can’t be someone… greater. Someone like you. I was a regular guy trying to see myself in the mirror of a goddess. There’s only one you, Kara, and I know I’m not your equal. You’re better than me. You will always be better than me. But this is the truth, and I hope you can love me the way I am, and… the way I love you.”

They broke her, the words, they cut her in two. She had been so self-centered, so up on her high horse that she hadn’t seen the way she had undermined his confidence and his self-esteem. Here he was, saying that they weren’t equals, because Kara had pushed him to be someone he hadn’t chosen. She had been thinking she had used her, abused her, patronized her… but hadn’t she done the same with him? 

She had stepped in her apartment with her mind set on breaking up with him, on calling him out on his behavior, on telling him he had disrespected her at every turn, that he was, basically, a lying jackass. But, now, now she could see herself somehow reflected on him, she could see the pain she had caused him and she wondered if it all could be called a tie. No, not a tie, she knew that, she knew what she had endured couldn’t be wiped just like that… but knowing she had caused at least a fraction of that same pain was enough to make her doubt herself.

“I’m– I’m sorry, Mon-El. I never wanted you to feel like that.”

He smiled weakly at her, shaking his head.

“It’s my fault. First, I lied because I knew you’d hate me for being the stupid Prince of Daxam, then I tried to be with you everywhere, everyday… and I was mean and I was… I’m… it’s all my fault.”

Kara couldn’t take the way he let his shoulders fall, his chest shaking now, his sobs almost uncontrollable. She took his face in her hands and made him look at her. 

“No. Listen, listen, I’m sorry that I tried to choose your path for you,” Kara whispered slowly. He tried to shook his head, she didn’t let him, she needed him to understand she had heard him, she understood now, “I was selfish. And I stood on my moral high ground and I ignored your real wishes and I tried to force the way I live my life upon you, and I’m so, so sorry.”

He wouldn’t stop shaking, so Kara reached out and hugged him gently. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his head against hers.

“Oh, Kara. I know I’m not worthy of you, but I just – I just…”

“Shhh, it’s ok. I know. I know.”

They stood there, holding each other, caressing each others’ backs for a long time. Kara wouldn’t let go until she was positive he was calm. She just wanted him to stop crying, to stop suffering. No one deserved to be misunderstood or misguided. No one.

“I just want to be with you,” Mon-El whispered, his voice shaking still a bit, but much calmer, “be a good boyfriend to you. Someday a good husband, if you’ll have me, Kara.”

Kara’s eyes shot open. She didn’t jerk away from him, but that was her one instinct after hearing what he’d just said. 

Perhaps they could work things out, maybe they could start all over again, but even if that were the case, she’d want to take small steps, build mutual confidence from the ground up, little by little, day by day… panic sat indistinctly in the pit of her stomach as she realized they were definitely not on the same page. She took a deep breath against his chest; she could, she should wait, now all that mattered was making sure Mon-El was fine and then, then they could talk, slow things down…

“And someday, Kara, someday I want to be a good father for our children.” 

Oh, shit. So much for slowing things down.

The inner panic, the fight-or-flight response within Kara, even the part of her brain that was slightly amused by Mon-El’s suggestion, couldn't, wouldn’t ever be prepared for the words the former Prince of Daxam pronounced next.

“Even… even the twins. We could make it work, if you could convince Lena to give them up.”

Kara’s blood ran cold. For a second, she forgot how to breathe. This time, she stepped back. This time, she looked him in the eye and prayed to Rao that she had heard him wrong.

“Wait… what?”

Mon-El tried to follow Kara with his arms, but she kept a defensive pose, just willing him to try and explain. He sighed and tried to smile, rubbing his hands together, trying to hide his nervousness. 

“Listen, before you freak out – I thought it through… in fact, it’s the only thing I’ve been able to think about. It’s – it’s actually perfect… I know that women on Earth don’t usually do it, but in Daxam they did things like this all the time.” 

Kara wasn’t aware at the moment, but her body had finally surrendered to her first instincts: her fists on her hips, her jaw clenching hard, her frown tensed and almost ready to call upon her heat-vision… Mon-El always thought she had seen Kara mad at him. He had no idea.

“What things, Mon-El, exactly?”

It was Supergirls’ voice now. Calm, collected, but a millimeter away from channeling Rao’s wrath. 

“Think about it. We would take the burden off her shoulders… In Daxam, they even had these uh– you know, like women breeders? They gave their children to aristocratic families so they could have a better future and besides, some women didn’t like going through labor and all that so they paid for–”

“I’m gonna have to stop you right there.”

Kara closed her eyes out of pure embarrassment for what Mon-El was suggesting. She took a deep breath and when she opened her eyes again, she just couldn’t believe he was still standing in front of her with a pout as if he was talking about the most innocent thing in the world. It was just pure madness.

“I – I have no words, really. And I don’t think you know what you’re implying, because if you knew, then – God!”

Kara removed her glasses and let them over the kitchen island, she rubbed her forehead with both hands. She wanted to scream. Punch something. One last chance? No, one last mistake on her part.

Mon-El nervously stroked the nape of his neck. He had to find a way. He knew Kara was always meant to react like this, but he had to make her see.

“Listen, I’m not crazy. I know, I know it’s a lot, but… Kara, come on, Lena’s human, she doesn’t understand what’s like to have these powers. You and I, we get it, and together we could raise them as a real family.”

If Kara had had anything in her hands at that exact second, she would have smashed it to pieces. 

“You just told me a minute ago you don’t wanna be a hero, you wanna have a normal life, be a simple man!”

As Kara’s voice grew louder, Mon-El’s approached her with a soft whisper, trying to reach to her, trying to make her understand.

“Yes, but I’d help you with everything… We – Kara, we could be together and be a family.”

She knew she ought to be mad. But what she felt was beyond that. Rage. Shame. An indescribable pain just thinking of Lena ever being separated from the twins…

“They already have a family! And it’s Lena!”

“But that’s not–“ 

“And me!!”

She was yelling now. She could tell because she felt the walls around her almost vibrating by the force emanating from her vocal cords. Finally, Mon-El was silent, regarding her with wide-eyes and nostrils flaring.

“I’m their family…” Kara began, her voice softer this time, but fully charged with the determination of a Kryptonian hero. “Me and Lena, we are their family. We are their parents. You can’t change that. No one can. For better and for worse. And if you can’t understand that, if you can’t wrap your head around it even for the briefest second to try to understand and show compassion, and empathy and – then… then… what am I even trying to do here, Mon-El? Why am I even explaining myself to you?”

Kara let her arms fall to her sides and shook her head.“Because we love each other, Kara, we have to figure things out.”

Mon-El’s voice sounded so small in her ears. So pitiful.

“No, you love yourself Mon-El, more than anyone. And I don’t blame you, but I can’t keep going like this. I have… I have to put me first, for once.”

She turned around, making her way towards the door with precise steps. She opened the door for him.

“Kara, what…”

“Get out of my home.”

There was not even a hint of regret, or sadness, or anger.

Mon-El panicked immediately, he even took a few steps backward, as if trying to stay away from the door as much as possible.

“What? Kara, please, don’t be unreasonable. I’m serious about this. I really think it’s the best option for everybody!” He paced around the room and Kara just stood there, holding the door for him. “Just think about the babies. With you and me they could have a mother and a father with the same powers they have, we could teach them and more importantly, we could protect them…” Mon-El stepped carefully towards her. He prevented himself from reaching out to Kara, but still, he pleaded with his eyes. New tears had arisen. Kara didn’t feel anything anymore. Where there was pity, now she felt coldness. Where there used to be affection, now she only reached out to the emptiness. “Lena never wanted them! And what her mother did was a terrible thing, it was horrendous, unnatural… if we do this for her, she will be able to live her life and you and I, Kara, you and I can give the babies the life they deserve.”

Mon-El was almost ready to fall on his knees and beg. And Kara, she was so tired. 

She took a deep breath, and then looked at him. Really looked at him.

“I really hope you can find your place in this world, Mon-El, but wherever that is, it’s not by my side. Go out there. Explore this amazing planet. Live. And don’t cling to anybody, just… just try to know yourself. And then, choose. Choose what kind of a man you want to be. Perhaps when you accomplish that, you will know love. Genuine love.”

“Kara, don’t do this, please…”

Mon-El choked on his words, his face contorting.

“It’s over. It’s been over for a very long time. I just… I was blind. And I’m sorry.”

Kara would always feel compassion and empathy when in the face of pain, but she knew he was going to be all right. Mon-El was a survivor above all things, even above the lives of others.

“Now, as I said, get out.”

***

Patrolling the skies always cleared her mind, so after dropping her things back at Lena’s penthouse (Lena was still asleep, she didn’t have the heart to wake her though, she checked on the twins and Natasha told her to go and do whatever she needed to), she  took off discreetly, embracing the feeling of the super suit fitting her like a second skin.

The night proved to be long and busy, just what she needed, and after rescuing a kitten from a tree, putting out a fire in the woods and preventing a robbery at a liquor store, she was more than ready to hang the cape and rest a while.

She flew by the penthouse a couple of times, scanning everything with her x-ray vision, making sure no one was around to spot Supergirl entering Lena Luthor’s home in the middle of the night. The Colonel seemed to be asleep in the babies’ room, also surprisingly asleep themselves, but she could tell that Lena was awake, sitting on the couch, rapidly typing in her laptop. Kara made sure she was alone and then proceeded to land on the balcony.

The door was slightly open. She smiled to herself, Lena knew she was out there and was kind enough to make it easy for her.

The brunette didn’t even look at her when Kara entered the living room in her super suit.

“I’m mad at you. You didn’t wake me up when you came back from your apartment,” Lena said casually as she regarded something in her display.

“Is that… silk?” Kara deflected as she approached her friend, who was indeed wearing a long set of Stella McCartney’s Betty Twinkling pajamas. 

“Yes, it is. We had an agreement, Miss Danvers, and you didn’t do your part.”

Lena finally looked at her. The only light illuminating the room, apart from the moonlight entering the balcony, was that of the laptop’s display, showering her cheeks and forehead in a rather beautiful blueish tone.

Kara sat on the arm of the couch nearest to Lena, carefully moving her cape out of the way. “You’re attacking me to distract me from the fact that it’s 2 in the morning and you’re up… doing what… working? Playing The Sims?” Kara comically tried to stretch her neck to take a look at what Lena was doing… She got a glimpse of a series of unintelligible lines of code with numbers and commands and formulas. “What is that, nerd porn?”

Lena almost choked on her own saliva. 

“Uh… excuse me? Was that an almost dirty joke? Who are you and what have you done with my Kara Danvers?”

Kara winked at her as she stood up and turned around in the direction of the kitchen.

“It’s just humor. You should try it sometime, Miss Luthor.”

“Noted,” Lena smiled, going back to her typing, “the Colonel made some pirozhki for dinner, we left you some on the counter.”

“Pirozhki?”

“They’re kind of like baked pastries? Russian potstickers, if you prefer. You’ll love them.”

“Yeff I lof demf, oh my Goff, they’re deliffious!!”

Lena didn’t need to look up from her laptop to know that Kara was literally devouring the food.

“Easy, tiger, there’s more in the fridge if you want.”

“Oh, fe Folofel if the beft, I lof fe Folofel…”

“Grab a plate and come keep me company, pirozhki monster.”

Kara complied, sitting next to Lena on the couch.

“It’s ok, Kara, you can kick your boots off.”

“I’m afraid I might get your carpet dirty, milady.”

“Very funny, stable girl.”

Kara grinned widely and gently took her boots off. Seeing that Lena was seating with her legs comfortably bent over the couch, she mirrored her friend’s pose as she enjoyed her last pirozkhi.

“You still haven’t told me how things went with Mon-El,” Lena said carefully, once Kara left her empty plate over the coffee table.

“And you still haven’t told me why the babies are asleep right now, at the DEO we usually fed them around this hour…”

“Kara.”

“Mm?”

“Don’t change the subject, please. Unless… unless you don’t want to tell me.”

Kara finally gave up and breathed in deeply, nodding at Lena in a gesture of understanding. She dedicated her a tight-lipped smile and sighed.

“It’s ok, Lena. I mean… it’s over. Between us. Mon-El and me. But it’s ok.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that, Kara,” Lena darted her eyes from her, and her voice became a low whisper.

Kara really didn’t want Lena to think this was heavier than it looked, because it wasn’t.

“No, really. It’s for the best. We never… I was just postponing it, you know? But I knew, deep down. I’ve known for a long time.”

When Lena finally looked back up at Kara, her eyes were red and they shined with the flares of tears.

“But – uh… all of this. The babies and all, I mean… please tell me this didn’t ruin your relationship because I could never forgive myself if –“

Kara quickly rose to her feet only to kneel in front of Lena. She gently took the laptop from her hands and placed it on the other side of the couch. She replaced it with her own hands, wrapping around Lena’s to prevent her from shaking.

“Hey, no, no. You don’t have to blame yourself for anything, you hear me? None of this is your fault. And I made my own choice. I’m right where I want to be.”

Lena awkwardly tried to smile but she let out a little sob while she tried to hug her own face. Kara couldn’t take it, so she sat beside Lena to bring her into her arms. 

“It’s ok, Lena. We’re ok. I promise. Everything’s gonna be ok.”

Lena found the crook of her neck and she sobbed there, gently. Kara instinctively used her cape to wrap it around Lena’s body, as if she wanted her to understand she was safe, protected, home. Kara whispered soothing sounds and rocked Lena’s body until she felt her relax a little.

“I’m sorry,” Lena whispered against the skin on her neck, “all I seem to do these days is cry all over your suit.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll send you the laundry receipt.”

Lena’s soft laugh sent sweet, warm vibrations along Kara’s entire body, and for a moment, just for a moment, everything was right and good. And Kara took the liberty of breathing deeply in Lena’s shampoo scent, and she closed her eyes and let herself imagine there was no threats out there, no Lillian, no Monitor, no parallel universes, no Kryptonite, no pain, no loss. Kara tried to imagine that the only thing that existed in the world was this room, just the two of them, a Super and a Luthor in each other’s arms, almost drifting away.

A mean little voice inside her head rebelled against this unanticipated moment of peace, overflowing her with sudden shame and confusion… what the hell are you doing, Zor-El?

And as a response to the voice, Kara almost jerked from Lena, almost let go of her heat and her comfort, but to push through it all, she pulled her a little closer. Later, she could try to answer that question, later, she could bathe herself in the guilt of feeling so at peace, so relaxed while Lena suffered and cried in her arms. Later.

“Are the babies ok? Do you need anything?” Kara whispered slowly, fearing that Lena had fallen asleep in her arms, gently tracing circles with her fingers on Lena’s back.

“They’re fine, I fed them an hour ago or so,” Lena whispered back, her voice muffled against Kara’s neck and hair. “Natasha’s sleeping in the room with them, but tomorrow I’d like to move the cribs to my room if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, that’s ok, we can do that.”

“Do you like your room, Kara, do you have everything you need?”

“Yeah, it’s great, thank you.”

Kara never stopped caressing Lena’s back and she didn’t seem to mind. Another few minutes passed in silent comfort.

“What are you doing up, then?” Kara asked, again in the lowest of voices. “You know when they sleep, you should too.”

“I can’t.”

Lena’s response made her sound like a five-year-old. Kara chuckled gently.

“Well, we’ve got twins. Sleeping is no longer a can, is a must.”

Kara felt Lena uncomfortably stirring in her arms.

“I can’t stop thinking about… it.”

Kara understood immediately. 

“I know.”

“It’s just…” 

Lena finally turned around and gently moved away from Kara’s arms. The Kryptonian felt her absence immediately. Lena’s hair was down and messy because of the hug, and her eyes were intense and bright even in the darkness of the night, and Kara could only lose herself in them.

“What my mother did to me felt like the most horrifying nightmare…” Lena spoke trying to keep her voice down, but the tension in her tone gave away her agitation. “But now, it pales in comparison to what she showed us–“

Kara shook her head and tried to reach out to her, again.

“Hey. Hey, Lena. It was– terrible, yes. But it was not our reality. It hasn’t happened here.”

Lena got up from the couch to grab her laptop, she furiously typed something and then turned it around to show it to Kara. She pointed at the screen, that was displaying what looked like a Danvers-Luthor family portrait.

“It happened for them,” Lena said, defeated.

Kara regarded the picture silently. Slightly older versions of Lena and herself smiled at the camera in what appeared to be a picnic day. They were in a park, dressed in summer clothes. Kara had her arm around Lena’s shoulder, and with the other, she was holding her son’s hand. Liam smiled with the goofiest of grins at the camera, and that beautiful little face was enough to melt present Kara’s heart. Lena had a beautiful baby girl in her arms, around the age of two. She was black and beyond cute and absolutely perfect. Little Luna sat at Lena’s feet, sticking her tongue out for the camera. The twins couldn’t be older than twelve in the picture. And Kara found it hard to breathe when she realized those were not her actual kids, but they could be.

“Where did you get that?” Kara asked, as collected as she could.

Lena sighed and sat down again beside Kara, navigating her coding program as she spoke.

“There’s… zettabytes of data in here. The other Lena sent out… everything. I wonder if it was unintentional because there are so many personal things here… Look…”

Lena showed Kara dozens of pictures, much in the style of the picnic one. The Danvers-Luthor family in social gatherings, family adventures and domestic snapshots.

Kara stared in awe, and she pointed at some of the pictures as Lena scrolled through them. One of young Liam was particularly disturbing: he had a blue t-shirt and a red cloth over his back, standing with his hands on his hips in the most Super pose of poses. 

“God… he looks so much like Clark, only younger. But… he has your eyes. And Luna…”

Lena found another picture of Luna opening a Christmas present with the most beautiful smile.

“She’s a carbon copy of you,” Lena whispered.

Kara just stared in awe.

“Yep, but with your jawline and your eyebrows.”

Lena shook her head in disbelief.

“Weird, huh?”

Kara could only nod.

“I wonder about the baby… do you think we – I mean, they had another kid?”

Lena sighed, a little frustrated with herself.

“Don’t know, but there’s so much data that I had to write a specific algorithm just to try and decode it, that’s what the program is doing right… now. Uh.”

A red alert appeared on the screen, and Lena proceeded to type code again.

“What?” Kara asked, not following a thing of what Lena was doing.

“There’s… a firewall,” Lena explained as her eyes analyzed the insane amount of data appearing on the screen. “Interesting. Wait a minute. This code… It’s mine.”

Kara frowned and Lena had a breakthrough, finally understanding what was going on. She was trying to decrypt her own doing.

“Of course it’s mine. It’s a security system I tried to develop when I was at MIT but I never finished the project. Guess future me did the rest.”

Lena got up from the couch, excitement and purpose taking over her body. She sat on the floor, placing the laptop on the coffee table, never taking her eyes from the screen.

“So… can you access everything, somehow?” Kara asked, hoping her moral support was enough to encourage Lena.

“Gimme a sec.”

The Luthor genius proceeded to type a series of rapid commands and variables. When a new alert appeared, she worked her way around it, reverse-engineering every line of code she encountered. Kara just watched her silently, admiring the way Lena’s eyes focused on the task, appreciating the way Lena’s pulse point beat with purpose in her neck, watching as she bit her upper lip, so undoubtedly focused, so full with determination. Kara was so fascinated by it that she entered a sort of trance, regarding Lena’s jawline with intent, wondering, just for the briefest of moments, how it would feel to place her lips over Lena’s—

“Hello, Mrs. Danvers. Long time no hear.”

The lights came alive in the room. The TV was on. Even the Nespresso machine turned itself on and Lena stepped away from her laptop, suppressing a scream.

“Wait a minute…” Kara whispered, “I know that voice.”

“Excuse me for a second while I fetch data from this reality thanks to your Internet connection.”

The voice spoke again, but this time it wasn’t coming only from Lena’s laptop. It was going out the TV, the sound system in the room, even Lena’s and Kara’s phones.

“Nice firewalls you got there, but not strong enough. I’ve taken the liberty of updating your security systems, Mrs… oh, I see – you’re not… you’re not Mrs. Danvers.”

Kara and Lena looked around each other, following the voice. 

“The year is 2017 in this reality. And you’re not… involved with Miss Danvers. Who is… here, too. Interesting. Anyway… Ms. Luthor it is, then. Nice to meet you both.”

The electronic devices began to turn off one by one, until there was only Lena’s laptop and the TV, which stopped showing static to finally display just a “T”, and the voice ended up broadcasting only from it.

Kara and Lena exchanged confused looks, though they both could easily guess what had happened.

“Sorry about that, I was adjusting to being resuscitated in a different reality. My name is Telle. How can I help you today?”

Chapter Text

She dreamed of a boy with brown hair and eyes like jade gemstones and a blonde girl with sapphires in her gaze. They were tall, proud, handsome. In her dream, they flew through the skies dressed in white, and they held her hands and made her fly with them. She should’ve been scared, but wasn’t. Then, the blue and the sunshine above them disappeared and transformed into clouds and thunder. 

A voice – no, a growl parted the dark sky in two. It didn’t sound human. It was raw, untamed rage.

“Zor-El… I will find you. I am all that exists!”

She looked to the boy, his beautiful green eyes turning red. She turned to the girl, her blue orbs doing the same.

“No,” they said in unison, “we’ll stop you this time.”

And they launched forward to the skies as they left her behind, and she fell, and screamed and thought she was going to die, but the impact never came. She just kept falling, falling into the dark embrace of the night until the Earth turned upside down and she was falling into the sky, into space and beyond. She saw crystals orbiting around the Sun, with people trapped inside, people screaming. They said things to her, but she couldn’t understand. They spoke an alien language, one she didn’t know. 

She should’ve died, her body should’ve turned to dust as she abandoned the atmosphere but she just kept going further into deep space, the stars only a blur of light around her, until her journey ended in the orbit of a far-away planet, so much like Earth, big, blue, vast and beautiful. 

It was comforting, just being there, floating, seeing it exist and bathe in the light of a red star.

But then, on the surface, she saw red. Lava, storms, entire cities exploding. 

She heard a voice, and this time it sounded human, filled with pride, love. 

“The trip is long, but you’ll sleep most of the way and we’ll be with you in your dreams.”

The voice reminded her of her mother’s, and mixed feelings invaded her brain; dread, pain, longing…

“You’ll journey to Earth to look after your baby cousin, Kal-El. Because of the Earth’s yellow sun, you’ll have great power on this planet. You will do extraordinary things.”

Another voice responded, and her heart skipped a beat when she realized this was a goodbye.

“I won’t fail Kal-El, or you.”

“I love you, Kara.”

She couldn’t do anything. She just watched in horror as the planet exploded into oblivion. One spaceship escaped the madness, followed by another that got knocked off course by exploding debris. The second spaceship was then sucked by what appeared to be a black hole. She screamed, trying to ask for help, trying to stop whatever was happening, but no one answered, and soon she found herself once again floating alone in the empty, cold darkness.

“Nia…”

She heard someone calling her name. A woman. She didn’t recognize the voice.

“Nia, please…”

She felt agony in the voice, as if it was her own. 

“Nia, please, help us. Help my family.”

She turned around to see a blonde woman, floating in front of her. A red cape. A blue suit. An “S” in her chest…

“Nia, please. Help my children.”

“Superg–?” BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP.

Nia Nal fell from her bed. Glad her new apartment had a fluffed up carpet, she groaned loudly and tried to reach up to her nightstand where her terrible new alarm clock was broadcasting the bells of Hell… BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP.

Unable to reach the clock, she just let herself fall down on the floor again and pulled the plug of the damn thing.

Nia just let herself rest for a moment, wondering why on Earth she would dream of Supergirl and exploding planets… Not that weird dreams weren’t her new normal, so she just shrugged it off, like she always did, and proceeded to go on about her day. The dreams had gotten weirder and weirder when she moved to National City.

The Dreamer suit her mother had given her a few months ago was still folded inside a suitcase. Nia knew she was not a hero and blamed her luck for the umpteenth time, as she wondered why destiny had played such a cruel card with her, giving her these reckless powers she didn’t want instead of passing them on to her sister. She didn’t have the time to train or even try to understand what they all meant. She had no hero material and no matter how much her mother tried, she refused to even try. She wasn’t worthy, she knew. 

Her mind wandered for a bit, but she refused to pity herself, she had done enough of that. She propped herself up to take a look at the time on her iPhone, and almost had a heart attack.

“Shit!”

She was going to be late, again. Snapper was going to kill her. Perhaps she shouldn’t discard so quickly the hero path, especially if Catco fired her on her first week in the job.

If only the dream had warned her about being late instead of giving her weird, eerie images she wasn’t capable of deciphering...

The dreams are always bullshit, Nia thought to herself as she ran to the shower, and this time won’t be any different. 

***

Lena and Kara discovered that time flies when there are babies involved. 

A month passed, then another, then another, and soon they were celebrating Liam and Luna’s first four months, and though Lena was still breastfeeding them, they were slowly transitioning to solid food. Kara enjoyed the messy ritual of feeding her children pureed fruits and vegetables and unsweetened yogurt.

Kara was supposed to be back at CatCo by then, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave the babies’ side for more than a few hours and only when the world needed Supergirl, so she made a request for another two months of unpaid leave. She had some savings, plus Lena was still insisting on paying for everything, so she could do it without worry. 

Lena would be lying if she didn’t admit she felt a little relieved that Kara would be able to stay at home some more. They had found themselves falling easily into a domestic routine, but Lena wasn’t ready to confront it all by herself.

Luckily, Natasha, Jon, Jess, Alex and Eliza were around plenty.

Lena herself was the most surprised when she realized having people around was rather pleasant. She didn’t want to dive into the implications: her sudden and new irrational fear of being alone was another poisoned gift from her mother, as if the PTSD from previous kidnappings by Lex wasn't enough. Eliza might have mentioned a colleague of hers a few times, best therapist in the West Coast, she had said, but Lena politely refused every time. I’ll do it, I know I have to, she had responded, but not now.

And Eliza hadn’t pressed the matter any further because in that now, Lena had glanced briefly at her children enjoying their tummy time with Kara in the new baby-friendly mat they had bought for the living room. Both Liam and Luna loved playing peek-a-boo with their Kryptonian mother and had recently proved to be able to recognize their own names. They had turned into beautiful, wide-eyed babies that had a goofy laugh just like Kara and stared at everything with the same spark of curiosity in Lena’s eyes. No sign of any powers yet, and they all were thankful for that. 

Luna was a little bigger than Liam, her hair fair and her eyes blue like the morning sky. Liam’s hair changed each month but for the past few weeks it had settled for a golden brown that highlighted his big grey-green eyes.

Eliza knew Lena was trying to imprint these images in her mind, to treasure those moments. Eliza knew she still feared for the babies, still feared for what the future could bring for them. None of them had forgotten about Earth-Y, about the Anti-Monitor, about Lillian’s prophecy… And that’s why Eliza let it go with a gentle touch to Lena’s shoulder and a reassuring smile, not without adding a piece of her wonderful mind: I get it darling, take all the time you need. But, please, just remember that in order to be able to protect them, you need to take care of yourself first.

Lena was scared, yes. But with each passing day, with each moment the twins babbled something at her or grabbed her fingers or giggled in her arms, she turned that fear to strength. Pride. Even anger.

But she only let it show when she was alone, in the quiet haven of her lab, studying every piece of information Telle had given her, going through every second of footage her mother had accumulated – planning, designing, engineering.

Lena didn’t let anyone see her there while she worked, only accompanied by the AI her alter-ego had created in another reality. 

Telle turned out to be a wonderful assistant, but an unnecessarily witty one sometimes. Lena adopted her instantly, nonetheless, and she found it funny and strange that it was easy to get along with the AI, like working with an old friend.

Lena wondered to herself how much of the other Lena’s mind was exactly like hers, as she had also flirted with the idea of creating an AI to help her work. The project had been called “Hope” in its initial state, but Lena had discarded it in favor of other endeavors. And yet, here she was, working with an AI assistant created by her very own doppelgänger. 

It didn’t seem like things would go this smoothly on that first night, when Telle appeared in her living room for the first time, rendering both Lena and Kara speechless. Let’s say that Lena had something more than a hard time getting used to it…

“The year is 2017 in this reality. And you’re not… involved with Ms. Danvers. Who is… here, too. Interesting. Anyway… Ms. Luthor it is, then. Nice to meet you both.”

The electronic devices began to turn off one by one, until there was only Lena’s laptop and the TV, which stopped showing static to finally display just a “T”, and the voice ended up broadcasting only from it.

Kara and Lena exchanged confused looks, though they both could guess what had just happened.

“Sorry about that, I was adjusting to being resuscitated in a different reality. My name is Telle. How can I help you today?”

Lena closed her eyes briefly, trying to get a hold of what was happening.

“We saw the feed from your world,” she said. “You were destroyed.”

Telle responded immediately.  

“I was, yes. But you put me back together. I made partitions of my backup code and spread them along the data we sent, hoping someone smart enough would find me someday. I’m not the original Telle, of course, I’m just a copy. But here we are, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena didn’t realize that she had grabbed Kara’s hand looking for comfort when Telle began to speak. Only now she was being self-conscious because Kara had squeezed her shoulder with her free hand, as if trying to ground them both.

“Ok…” Kara muttered, “oh God, this is like a Black Mirror episode…”

“Hello, Ms. Danvers,” Tell greeted Kara, who was having a hard time trying not to picture Cat Grant smirking at her from behind the TV.   

“Uh…” Kara began, tentatively, “if you’re really Telle, can I ask if you know what happened after the attack in your reality?”

Once again, Telle didn’t make them wait.

“I’m afraid I’m unable to comply, Ms. Danvers. 99.3 percent of the simulations I’ve made conclude that at least downtown National City suffered a massive loss of human lives, but I can’t simulate anything else, there’s no data. I’m just a backup, as I said. The original me died in the blast, perhaps I’m not at full capacity. Yet.”

Lena lowered her head, suddenly dizzy, and the only thing preventing her from actually falling was Kara’s hand in hers.

“So… you don’t know if our other selves survived. Or Liam and Luna, or that thing… the Anti-Monitor,” Kara reasoned.

“Correct,” Telle confirmed, no sign of any emotion coloring the IA’s voice. “I’m no longer tied to Earth-Y, that’s what we liked to call ourselves, by the way. What should I call this reality?”

“Uh…” Kara stuttered for a second, “Barry Allen named us Earth 38, but we’re still debating that.”

“Earth 38 it is. For now,” this time, Telle’s voice managed to convey that it was, somehow, searching for the right words to continue, “I see that you’ve unlocked Mrs. Danvers personal files. You’ll encounter her diaries here, and many mementos of her life with her family. Would you like me to fetch any particular data for you, Ms. Luthor?”

“NO!” Lena cried immediately, almost desperate. “No,” she repeated softly, her voice still on the verge of cracking, “no, thank you, Telle, that won’t be necessary.”

Kara frowned at her but stayed silent, letting Lena step away from her to sit down on the couch. The Kryptonian hero sighed, knowing this was another brick in the wall for Lena, another unexpected turn of events that shattered their already fragile reality. Still, Kara knew she had to keep up appearances, remain calm and collected in the face of uncertainty. Kara shook her head, trying to tame her beating heart, and regained control of her voice and her body for Lena’s sake.

“I do have some other questions, Telle, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all, Ms. Danvers.”

“We saw some pictures of the Danvers-Luthor family from your reality,” Kara chose her words carefully, though she could’ve guessed the answer to her question.  “Can you please tell me who the little girl is?”

Telle showed them on the TV screen more pictures of a happy family. Lena, smiling with the girl on her lap. Kara, laughing as Liam, Luna and a barely walking Addie jumped on her. There were many other pictures: J’onn with little Addie in his arms, Alex playing with the three Danvers-Luthor children, Thanksgiving dinner with all of them together, including Eliza, Jeremiah… and a smiling Lillian? 

Lena closed her eyes at the unbelievable sight and wondered what other unpleasant surprises Earth-Y had in store for her.

“Their third child,” Telle explained, “Adele Lucille Danvers-Luthor, officially adopted when she was ten months old. She was of Phorian origin. A ship with her entire family crash-landed in the Pacific when they were escaping the expansion of the Third Daxamite Empire. She was the only survivor. Supergirl – eventually Superwoman, in my reality, rescued her. Addie’s family were refugees. She survived because she was in stasis.”

Kara heard Lena gasping behind her.

“Oh, my God.”

Telle waited for them to take in the information. Several seconds passed, but none of them said anything. When Telle spoke, it almost felt as if the AI was trying to offer them some kind of comfort.

“She was with Alex Danvers when the Anti-Monitor attacked. For all I know, they were out of the radius of the blast. If Earth-Y still exists, Alex and Adele should be safe.”

“If…” Lena echoed.

The rest of the night was a long conversation between the three of them, getting to know Telle’s capacities and abilities, and what use they could make of them.

Now, almost four months later, Lena had become familiar with its code, and after a few updates, she finally integrated Telle on all her personal systems.

The amount of data sent by her Earth-Y self was almost unattainable, so she and Telle had been working together for weeks, deciphering everything and trying to find the best way to be ready for the Anti-Monitor. Their first choice was, of course, the accelerator turned weapon designed by Lena, Liam and Luna in Earth-Y.

Lena had also made prototypes for a new suit for Kara based on those designed by her alter ego, but that was still a secret as she hadn’t brought herself to tell her friend. Yet.

Telle had asked a few times why she hadn’t given Kara the new suit. Lena had shrugged and excused herself by saying it needed a few more tweaks.

Lena could swear the AI had a nosy personality and it was funny to think that it didn’t fall far from its metaphorical tree – Cat Grant. 

Still, Lena and Telle worked together almost effortlessly, because sometimes they could find themselves from time to time in what the AI called “creative differences”.

“What I don’t get,” Telle’s voice resonated through the lab as Lena wrote equations on her newest hologram board, “is why you just don’t follow the blueprints. It’s all there.”

“Why replicate something when you can actually improve it?” Lena asked arching one eyebrow, confidence and purpose clear in her face. Her hair was up in a messy bun, she was wearing sweatpants and a white lab coat, finishing her edgy outfit with the pair of cozy slippers Jess had given her last year for her birthday. The left one had a couple of glasses of wine embroidered on it; the right one, the phrase “Wine not?”. Jess really did know her too well.

At L-Corp’s lab, she would always appear impeccable. Sometimes, she wouldn’t even wear a lab coat. It was a statement, making science in a Donna Karan. 

But right now she was in the basement of her own building, away from the rest of the world, just a quick elevator trip away from the safety of her home, there was no need to keep appearances or to study her every move. She had been down in the lab for hours now, but Natasha hadn’t called, so that meant the babies were doing fine and Kara was probably back from her weekly meeting at the DEO. Alex and J’onn had set up an intricate plan to find any clues on the Anti-Monitor, but they had come up empty for now.

“You’ve been working for three hours and a half in those algorithms, Ms. Luthor. It’s time to take a break,” Telle suggested in a somewhat uncharacteristic neutral tone. The AI knew Lena would put up a fight.

“It’s alright, I want to keep going before I’m needed upstairs,” Lena said, absentminded. 

If Telle had eyes, they would be rolling. “You need stress relief. Your body and your mind need something else besides working and tending to your family” the AI insisted, “even though you’re a mother now, you need the proper leisure time of a woman your age.” 

That made Lena look away from her tablet and up to the ceiling, as if searching for Telle.

“What do you mean?” 

It took two seconds for Telle to respond. Lena didn’t see it coming.

“I have found six potential matches for you at the best-rated dating app at the App Store. You should go on a date, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena laughed out loud.

“I’m not exactly available for dating right now.”

“The purpose of the date would be to have sexual intercourse with your designated partner, not the date itself, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena almost choked on her own saliva.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re a young woman. You’re on your sexual prime. It’s been four months since you gave birth and your body is adjusting to the changes, but it is ready now to revel in the positive side-effects that sexual intercourse provides.”

Lena’s porcelain skin went red like Krypton’s sun and the heat in her cheeks even made her a little dizzy.

“Are you out of your mind?” The CEO couldn’t believe what the AI was saying and she had so many questions about what lines of Telle’s code controlled these suggestions and how could she have missed them.

“The Lena from Earth-Y designed me, among other things, to protect her family, to monitor and detect any potential health issues that might arise. I only have her as a reference, but your stress readings are off the chart and there’s a high probability that what worked for Mrs. Danvers will work for you too. She had a rich and thriving sexual life in her marriage that kept her healthy and focused,” Lena groaned out loud, Telle ignored her, “but since you and Ms. Danvers are not involved in this reality, I concluded I needed to find you an available sexual partner.”

Telle proceeded to show Lena in every screen on the lab the list of candidates it had found for her. They were all Kara’s age. They were all blonde. Some even wore glasses. All six of them were smiling at the camera with a sunshine attitude that resembled Kara’s. Very subtle, Lena thought sarcastically.

“This is inappropriate on so many levels,” Lena sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with both her index fingers. 

Lena had been so careful when navigating Telle’s database, excluding personal files that recounted the lives of the Danvers-Luthor clan from Earth-Y. Still, Telle would bring them up from time to time and no matter how well-intentioned the AI seemed, it always ended up stirring something inside Lena, leaving her sad, angry and lonely.

“Then please enlighten me, Ms. Luthor. As I said, my only reference guide is Mrs. Danvers, and she used to find solace in her wife.”

That made Lena finally snap.

“Well, but we’re not married here, are we?!”

As it turned out, it was possible to render Telle speechless. 

For five seconds, at least.

“I can see I have upset you. I’m sorry, Ms. Luthor.”

“Yes, that’s what you said the twenty times before,” a rising sensation of self-awareness took over Lena’s mind as she shook her head and felt suddenly overwhelmed by… well, everything, “perhaps I should delete all trace of your relationship with the Danvers-Luthors from your database, that would probably help you be a little more impartial.”

“But my memories of them…” it seemed unlikely, but Lena could have sworn there was a hint of fear in Telle’s voice, “they’re linked to my programming, Ms. Luthor. They’re all one and the same.”

Lena shook her head bitterly.

“Then perhaps I should be doing this on my own, right? Perhaps it was a mistake to think you’d be able to see me as something more than a lesser version of your creator!”

“That’s absurd, Ms. Luthor. You’re your own person.”

“Well, sometimes it doesn’t seem like it…”

“Sorry, I don’t understand.”

“And it’s better that way.”

Lena’s anger took control, finally, and before she could even pause to breathe and talk herself out of doing something stupid, she grabbed the nearest chair and sat down in front of her primary computer.

“Well. Show me everything.”

At first, Telle expressed its confusion and asked Lena to explain what she meant exactly. Lena proceeded to command the AI to show her all personal files stored in her backup. Telle complied without a fight, much to Lena’s surprise.

What lay before her was incredible: family pictures, videos, Kara’s articles and awards, e-mails, Addie’s adoption papers, and even Lena’s diaries in the form of audio logs, among other things. A lifetime of memories, achievements, intimate moments and love. So much love. 

It hurt her like a shot through the heart.

She listened to her doppelgänger’s audio files, absolutely torn with emotion as she heard her own voice age along the years, as if she was telling herself the story of her own life, one she hadn’t live yet. 

One she would never get to live, she realized as she heard her Earth-Y self professing her love for her incredible wife for the umpteenth time, and expressing how lucky she was that she had found Kara, and how proud she was of the beautiful family they had raised together…

Lena rubbed salt in the wound by also navigating the intimate collection of family photos and videos. They all took her breath away, but when she stumbled upon the Danvers-Luthor wedding pictures, her heart sank down on her chest and she thought she had lost the ability to breathe.

They must have been around the same age she and Kara were now, in their reality. A black and white gorgeous shot of the two of them interchanging their rings. Lena was gazing lovingly at Kara, who smiled brightly as she slid the wedding ring on Lena’s finger. Her alter ego was wearing a long white dress, made of mixed tulle and almost out of a fairy-tale. Fastening at her neck, a Chantilly lace cape, extending to a romantic and voluminous train. In her right hand, there was a bouquet of white plumerias. Kara was not wearing a dress, but she looked just as spectacular – tailored white trousers but, around her waist, there was a gathered, detachable chiffon skirt. A cropped crepe tailored tuxedo jacket with satin lapels finished the outfit, taking present Lena’s breath away.
They seemed so happy that Lena couldn’t bear the pain that perched on her chest.

It wasn’t fair. They deserved to live. And she… she deserved to know what love like that felt like. But she would never have it. And she needed to make her peace with that, before it was too late.

Then again, how could she? How could she deny everything she was feeling when she had been forced to have Kara’s children? When each day she woke up to Kara’s singing voice, to Kara’s smile as she greeted their children with a lullaby?

Even if she wanted to escape from this, she couldn’t. She didn’t have a choice. And though having Kara around had seemed like a good idea months ago, now Lena couldn’t trust herself not to fuck it all up. Because it was too much… and now that she was being honest with herself, she felt trapped. And she knew she would fuck up… soon enough, she would do it, because after all she was only human and Kara didn’t know that all the affection, all the care and the gestures and the sweet words she dedicated her were slowly, mercilessly bringing her down.

Lena knew. One of these days she would make a mistake. One of these days, when Kara picks her up from the couch where she fell asleep, exhausted, one of these days when Kara puts her down gently on her bed and whispers something in Kryptonian and places a kiss to her forehead, one of these days… Lena wouldn’t pretend to be asleep, and she would do something stupid like putting her arms around Kara’s neck and pushing her down for an open-mouthed kiss.

And that would be the end of them. And that would be the end of Lena.

She was sobbing now. Telle was silent, for once, and she was grateful.

And of course, because the Universe was out to get her and her luck was always this bad, that was the moment Kara Danvers decided to pay her a visit. It didn’t help she was wearing those jeans that made her look so fine and a checked black and blue shirt and her hair was loose and she wasn’t wearing her glasses… 

And Telle, that snake, had the nerve of letting her in without warning her. 

Lena would have cried if she wasn’t doing that already. 

“Hey, you! The Colonel sent me to bring you upstairs for dinner. Said you’ve been here almost all da–”

Kara stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the red, puffy eyes that Lena greeted her with.

“Lena? What’s wrong?”

Lena couldn’t find her voice at the moment so she just sat up from her chair, threw her arms in the air, as if she was surrendering to an invisible force, and then pointed at her computer screen, defeated. Perhaps Kara would understand that way, perhaps she wouldn’t ask any questions.

The blonde approached Lena’s side carefully and couldn’t contain a gasp when she saw the image on the screen. 

“Is that…?”

Lena just nodded.

“Wow.”

Wow, indeed.

After a few seconds of Kara blinking in confusion between Lena and the screen, she finally turned to Lena and put her hands on her pockets, fidgeting nervously.

“I thought you said… uh… you said it was better if we didn’t know anything about them. About their lives.”

Kara waited, and Lena was loathing herself already for not having the courage to escape all this with a white lie.

“I – it was a mistake. Telle was giving me a hard time comparing me to the other Lena and… I guess I snapped.”

“That’s not like you.”

Kara’s eyes softened with affection, and that made Lena feel even worse.

“Well, yeah, I haven’t been feeling like myself for a long time now…”

The bitterness in Lena’s voice didn’t go unnoticed and Kara reached out, slowly, trying to bring Lena to her arms. That always seemed to relax her, but this time, Kara didn’t know she was offering fire to a moth.

“It’s only a picture, Lena.”

Lena took a step away from Kara, who took the hint immediately but also felt the sting of rejection piercing through her chest.

“It freaks me out either way, it makes me mad, actually,” Lena said under her breath. Kara heard every word.

So the reporter tried humor, then.

“Oh, I see. Can’t stand the thought of being married to me, huh?”

She faked a smile. Bad move, Kara. Bad move.

Lena scoffed, anxiety taking over her voice and her trembling hands.

“It’s not that, Kara… it’s just that…” Lena closed her eyes, rubbing at her temples, mad at herself for not finding the right words, “I’m not that person in those pictures even if she looks like me… I’m not… a mother. And I’m definitely not a wife. It’s so alienating it infuriates me.”

Kara knew Lena was in pain. She knew that the words were not meant to hurt her. Lena was coping as well as she could and little outbursts of anger like this one could and should happen. She shouldn’t take it personally, she shouldn’t be replaying in her mind the way Lena had jerked away from her touch but still, she fell for the trap her own insecurity was setting up for her. Kara fought fire with fire, condemning them both to get burned.

“What exactly is infuriating about it?” The Kryptonian questioned defensively, crossing her arms over her chest, “they seemed to be a happy family… too perfect, I’d say. Or is it that you really can’t stand the thought of being married to me?” Kara asked with a false smile on her face, trying to pass a real fear as a joke. Again, poor choice.

Lena shook her head, trying to get a grip.

“Kara…”

But her friend wouldn’t let her.

“Because, see, those people might not feel like us but they are versions of us, and some could say they were good people and judging by what we know, they seemed pretty decent, but now they’re gone because they tried to protect us, all of us, Lena… so I get that it might make you mad imagining yourself being married to me, which is, of course, completely stupid, but they deserve our respect, at least.”

Kara’s monologue was raw and delivered through gritted teeth.
Lena knew it was all her fault. She had caused this. There was no way back now.

“That’s not what makes me furious, Kara.”

“Then what is it?”

Kara’s impatience collided directly with her shame and self-disgust, and Lena yelled, for the first time.

“She had a choice!”

Kara stared at her, wide-eyed and frowning at her, her mouth opening but no sound coming out of it. Lena sighed and let herself fall over her chair, defeated. 

“She had a choice,” Lena began again, calmer, sadder… “That Lena… she's so different from me I don’t even recognize myself in her.” Lena pressed a key and the computer screen showed pictures of the Danvers-Luthor family again; Lena hugging Kara beside a Christmas tree, Lena receiving an award for some scientific achievement, Lena smiling at the camera, spread over a couch and holding in her arms her sleeping five-year-old twins. “Look at that. Look at that smile. That wisdom, that… peace. That’s not me.”

Kara took a step towards her.

“Lena–“

But Lena raised her hand. She hadn’t finished. She stared into space, blinking back tears. 

“She’s not me, Kara. She looks like someone who made her own choices. My life here… in this reality? I’m just a casualty of Lex’s and Lillian’s deeds. So I’m jealous, Kara, I’m jealous that she got to shape her life the way she wanted to. Liam and Luna… in that reality, they were born out of love. In our world… they were forced on us.”

Kara kneeled down gently in front of her.

“God, I’m sorry, Lena, I’m an idiot, I thought – it doesn’t matter what I thought.”

Lena was lost in her own thoughts. 

“How are we going to explain it to them? When they grow up? When they’re old enough to understand?” She whispered the question, as if she was irrationally afraid that someone else might hear her. A single tear rolled down her cheek. “How can I look them in the eye and tell them they are not here because I wanted them… that they’re here because my mother is a blood-thirsty monster?”

Kara couldn’t bear it anymore. She stepped closer and took Lena’s face in her hands, making her look down at her, trying to bring Lena back to the light.

“We’ll figure it out,” there was a hint of despair in Kara’s voice. A plea and a promise. “We’ll find a way, together. They’re ours now, not Lillian’s.”

As if it was physically painful for Lena to step away from Kara, she closed her eyes, took one of Kara’s hands in her own, kissed the reverse of her palm, and looked her right in the eye.

“If you think that’s enough, you’re even more naive than I thought.”

Lena took Kara’s hands and put them away from her face. She stood up and began pacing the lab. Kara sighed, looking down at her hands as Lena kept on slipping away from her.

“Do you think we can raise kids improvising, Kara? Most people plan their lives around them, we are just two gal pals playing it by ear, stupid enough to think we can give them a proper home while we go on with our lives and also stop the extinction of the human race? Do you see how stupid we are, how embarrassing it sounds?”

Lena’s voice went to that low, pained tone she had when she was trying not to break down.

“We agreed on this, Lena, I thought we had figured it out. We can do this, together.”

Kara was panicking now. She stood up from the floor, she searched Lena’s eyes frantically.

“You keep saying that, but I’m sure the twins didn’t even cross your mind while you were out on your Supergirl duties.”

Lena knew she was being cruel. Why, she didn’t know. Or she did, but the answer was buried deep in the darkest corners of her mind.

“What? That’s… that’s not fair!” Kara ran a nervous hand through her hair. This couldn’t be happening, How did they even get into an argument as absurd as this one? Still, the hurt inside Kara hurried her to say something. To state the obvious. To refrain from seeing the meaning behind Lena’s words. “Of course I think about them! And even if I didn’t, that wouldn’t mean anything, I’m out there saving lives!”

Lena let her head hang down for a moment, making a decision. She couldn’t escape from her feelings, those who would eventually destroy her and her relationship with Kara. But perhaps she could put distance between them. Maybe she could hurt Kara enough for her to go away, to leave her behind. She was being selfish, and petty, and stupid. But she just wanted to rest for a while, even if the price was too high to pay.

“I know, Kara,” Lena nodded, her tone calmer, this time. Colder. “And yes, it’s not fair. Because for this to work, they have to be the absolute top priority. And I thought you could help me, but… I don’t think that’s going to be possible.” Lena made sure to make eye contact with Kara. She had to know she meant it, this was no bluff. “I can’t ever disconnect from them, Kara, you don’t understand. They are in my mind every second, every minute, with every breath I take. I’m their mother, I carried them inside me, Kara… you… you just feel obliged to be here because of guilt.”

Kara’s eyes went wide with realization and pain.

“You know that’s not true!” Kara stepped once again in Lena’s personal space, she took her hands in her own, she searched Lena’s gaze, she panted like a wild animal in a cage… "They’re mine, too, I– I don’t want to– I can’t live without them now.” Kara squeezed Lena’s hands, then her shoulders, her cheeks… she shook her head, blinked back tears, smiled while sobbing, she rested her forehead against Lena’s, her noses almost touching, her breath hot against Lena’s cheek, "I can’t live without yo–“

Lena jerked away and once again, Kara felt the emptiness. And fear, like she had never felt it before. And Kara knew fear. But not like this, not like this thing that was tearing her up…

“Don’t you see, Kara?” Lena asked, lips quivering. “This isn’t a fairytale. You don’t get to play the princess and the prince. You can’t have it all. I’m sorry.”

Kara threw her arms to her sides, frowning as she wiped her tears with the back of her hands.

“What are you saying? Are you kicking me out?”

Lena sighed. Her judgment was clouded and she didn’t even know what she meant. She tried to downplay it. She tried to remain calm. It was easier said than done.

“No. No… but I’m saying… we need to rethink this. You shouldn’t suffer the consequences of acts that you had no say in. Perhaps it would be best if we called this arrangement off, I just don’t want you to waste your life…”

Kara saw Lena faltering, just for a second, and she took the opportunity the same way she trapped speeding bullets in her hands: focus, determination, absolute mental clarity.

“Lena, Lena… please, hear me out. I’m here because I want to. I’m here because, as crazy as it sounds, the moment I held them in my arms, I knew I wanted to raise them, to love them, to care for them with you.” Kara once again tried the physical approach, she couldn’t help it after all. Her hand took one of Lena’s on her own, and this time she was happy with just that, not pressing her luck. “We can’t go back to the way things were, none of us can. But I’d rather fall on a knife made of Kryptonite than giving up on you and the babies. That would be torture, Lena. Please, don’t shut me out from this…”

Lena knew it was a mistake, she knew she was being weak and foolish, once again. She was the one falling on the knife, and still, she couldn’t bring herself to break Kara enough to push her away. Not when the blonde pulled her towards her chest, decidedly this time, opening her arms, finally, and crushing her against the Kryptonian warmth of her body, dooming Lena to a bitter surrender.

Lena let herself go against Kara’s chest.

“I just… I just don’t know what to think right now, Kara.”

“I know.”

As Kara stroked her hair, Lena let herself inhale the essence of the taller woman’s perfume. She knew it was all wrong. So wrong.

“I’m sorry…”

“Shhh. It’s ok. We’re going to be ok.”

No, Lena thought to herself, we won’t be. But you almost make me believe.

Lena had wanted to keep her distance and, ironically, now she was in Kara’s embrace, closer to her than ever. She even let herself be carried to bed, with Kara flying them both – more like floating – to Lena’s bed.

Natasha had taken the babies’ cribs to her room, Kara told her to reassure her that Luna and Liam were fine. Lena felt both relieved and guilty, but Kara’s arms soon made the world go away, if only for a night. 

Lena knew dawn would greet her with regret and self-disgust, but somehow, she managed to ask Kara, in the most fragile of voices, if she could hold her until she fell asleep.

Kara agreed, and Lena drifted off as Kara’s voice rocked her in the sweet melody of a Kryptonian song. 

Lena dreamed of a wedding day that wasn’t hers. Despite that, she woke up awfully calm. 

Kara was still holding her, sound asleep behind her, and she would have melted under any other circumstances, but she had made a decision as soon as she had opened her eyes, and she would stick to it.

Telle had been right. She needed stress relief. And Kara Danvers was just her friend.

But there were plenty of people out there dying to take Lena Luthor on a date.

Chapter Text

National City

Earth-38

The aroma of coffee invaded their senses as soon as they set foot inside the place. Noonan’s felt the same in this new reality they had just landed on, and Luna was beyond grateful for that.

Liam, on the other hand, just mumbled behind her, unaware that her sister was having a moment. Luna always said her one true love was coffee and though her parents used to laugh at her for such a dramatic statement, she was dead serious about it. Her brother’s affections had always lay with milkshakes, so he didn’t quite get it.

“You know, this is starting to feel like a tradition. We always end up here in each new Earth we visit. Obsessed much, sis?”

Luna smiled while they waited in line to place their orders.

“We’ve only been to three different universes counting this one, don’t be a fussbudget. Besides, you know it’s one of the steps of our protocol: check if the establishments, corporations and buildings we knew from our world exist in others. If there are resemblances, that could mean –“

“That the Anti-Monitor might be around, yeah, yeah, I know the drill. But you gotta confess, each time I suggest we go to Starbucks–“

Luna was barely able to contain herself before her eyes lit up with heat vision. She shook her head and glared at her brother.

“Over my dead half-Kryptonian body, Liam Jeremiah,” she growled between gritted teeth, “Noonan’s has the best coffee in NC and I refuse to set foot in that hybrid aberration you call a coffee shop.”

“You’re biased. I just want a pumpkin spiced latte, I’m not a monster,” Liam shrugged.

“Go ahead, you can go get that crap while I enjoy my fresh roasted Nyeri Ichamara Kenyan coffee,” Luna retorted as her eyes drifted across the gourmet selection.

Liam smirked.

“Snob.”

Her sister glared at him with a frown that made him laugh out loud, genuinely amused.

“Punk,” Luna scoffed back, but Liam was already shaking his head in disbelieve.

This exchange, this routine of doing something so mundane together as getting coffee, picking on each other, doing sibling stuff… it almost made them feel like nothing had happened. Like their lives hadn’t been turned upside down by a tragedy of apocalyptic proportions. Like they hadn’t left behind what was left of their family, including their little sister, to go on a mission that could possibly end up being a suicide one.

But then again, they needed these moments. To stay sane. To breathe a little. 

Soon, it would pass and they would go back to being on alert, to heightened senses and minds set on the mission. Still, it was these moments that kept them grounded. It was the hope of saving lives that made them go on and conceal themselves from the unbearable pain of having lost their city and their parents.

They had been jumping different Earths and dimensions for three weeks, and still no sign of the Anti-Monitor. Liam had argued it could be a good thing. There was always the possibility of the monster being badly hurt. Perhaps they had managed to kill it, even, but they couldn’t be sure and Luna said they couldn’t stop until they either found the monster or gathered proof that he wasn’t a threat anymore.

The plan was simple: find a reality similar to Earth-Y with a younger version of their mothers in order to warn them… They knew the Anti-Monitor wouldn’t attack a reality with two full-powered half-Kryptonians twins that could help Kara and Lena. 

The part of laying out everything to their parents’ alter-egos wasn’t so clear, though. How were they supposed to explain they were their children from an alternate future, no less?

Luna had suggested a pretty straight-forward speech.

Something like this – “Hello, Ieiu, I mean… Kara. Hello, Mom, I mean, Lena… we’re your kids from the future. Twins, actually. Mom gave birth to us in Argo, which is the last city of Krypton, floating in space, perhaps you know it exists, perhaps you don’t know it yet – sorry, spoilers, haha, surprise! Anyway. We were brought to this world with Kryptonian tech and grandma Alura’s help. Liam’s got Mom’s eyes and I got Ieiu’s hair and we both like potstickers and kale because why the hell not and I’m a writer and Liam’s a doctor and according to uncle Brainy we’re both level 10 intellect, but I think it should be higher and he’s just jealous. Oh, and actually, we don’t come from the future, not exactly, not from your future at least, we think, we don’t know… we come from another universe, our home is Earth-Y, where you were married for twenty-six years and you raised us and our little sister, Addie. The thing is you guys died… I mean, not you, but our parents, our reality’s version of you, well… you died trying to protect the planet. And now we want to get that Anti-Monitor bastard and kick his ass to Krypton and back and get fucking revenge and, if possible, reestablish our world as it was before he attacked us and bring our parents back from the dead? So, yeah, that’s it. Nice to meet you.” 

Yeah, Liam had said after hearing Luna’s pitch, perfect plan, sis, sure, can’t lose.

Then, he vetoed any unilateral attempt on Luna’s part to do the explaining part. So they were back on square one, and would probably have to improvise when the time came.

One thing was clear: the Anti-Monitor had set his mind on hunting down the Zor-Els across worlds, so whatever explanation they could come up with would have to do.

Both sister and brother placed their orders and Luna spotted a good place to sit down and set up a strategy for the day. Liam had second thoughts and, iced tea in hand, he turned around to order a blueberry muffin when he bumped into something. No. Someone.

“Oh, my God! I’m so sorry!”

The high-pitched voice of an anxious young woman reverberated across the place as Liam blinked at her. He had managed to save his own drink, but the cup the girl was holding lied on the floor between them. 

Both Liam and the girl began to apologize at the same time with mirrored awkwardness.

“Uh… it’s my fault, actually. Jesus, I’m so sorry…”

“No, no, I wasn’t looking and I…”

Liam bent down to try to help the girl whose belongings lay on the floor after their collision. The contents of her purse were scattered all around them: cellphone, lipstick, wallet, tissues, a pen, a notebook, and a Catco Worldwide Media employee card.

They both kept rambling and apologizing in unison. 

“Here,” Liam said, “let me help”, and he proceeded to take all the content inside the purse again before the girl had time to get to anything, “God, I’m so sorry, so sorry…”

As Liam rose up to his full height, the girl just stared at him, her mouth hanging open, her eyes completely fixated on Liam’s broad shoulders under a light blue shirt, his strong jawline, his green eyes showing a light heterochromia with a hint of blue around his left iris… She was staring, speechless, gaping like a dying fish.

“Dude, you’re such a klutz, at least buy the girl another drink,” a warm female voice took Nia out of her reverie just to stunt her again by looking at an almost equally tall blonde goddess with eyes like the blue sky and the strong arms of a mythical Amazonian warrior. Not even the black and red checkered shirt she was wearing could hide that. Nia shook her head trying to regain some self-composure just as Liam extended his hand in the most awkward-but-adorable-but-extremely-clumsy-way.

“Oh, sorry… uh… sorry again. Golly, where are my manners? My name’s Lucas. Lucas Danforth. This is my very lovely and not sassy at all twin sister, Leah.”

Something felt oddly familiar about them as Nia took them in, tall and handsome, both of them awfully cute in their vintage-looking glasses, standing side by side with apologetic, kind smiles on their unfairly beautiful faces. She short-circuited right there because the only thing she could come up with was a blatant stupidity.

“Lucas and Leah, uh? Any chance your parents are Star Wars fans?” Nia snorted at her own joke, and immediately wished for the ground under her feet to open up and eat her whole.  

“What?” Liam blinked at her and she felt her cheeks burning up.

“Uh… you know… because of Luke and Leia… The twins from– Uh… nevermind. I’m Nia.”

They finally shook hands and Nia could only think he had really nice fingers.

“Nice to meet you, Nia,” Liam smiled warmly at her, “and yes, our parents are nerds. I’m really sorry about your coffee though. My sister’s right so let me buy you another one.”

Nia shook her head.

“Oh no, no, no, that’s not necessary.”

“Please, Nia, let my brother deal with his embarrassment or I won’t hear the end of it…”

“But it was my fault–“

“That doesn’t matter. Let him help, we won’t be able to stop him anyway.”

Leah’s words were just a way of comforting Nia out of her own guilt because Lucas was already on his way to make a new order. 

“Wanna sit with us, since we seem to have ruined your morning?” Luna offered, pointing to their table.

Nia just nodded and sat opposite to Luna as she tried to reorganize her purse only to realize her best (and only) work shirt had fallen victim to a massive stain of coffee. Panicked, she reached for a paper napkin and proceeded to unsuccessfully rub it all over her ruined shirt.

“Uh, that’s not going away, is it?” Luna’s voice was calm while Nia was on the verge of tears of frustration.

“Apparently not…”

“Are you ok?”

Nia closed her eyes and imagined Snapper looking at her with that frown of disgust and disappointment she knew so well despite the short time she had been working for him.

“No, it’s nothing but…” Nia put a hand over her eyes and breathed in, trying to calm down her beating heart, “My boss is going to kill me.”

“What – why?”, Luna frowned.

Nia shook her head and anticipated in her mind all the things that could easily go wrong in the next few hours.

“It’s just… I’ve got this important meeting in an hour and I won’t have time to go back to my place and get a new shirt. It’s been an awful week at work as it is…”

Luna bit her upper lip and looked at her with real concern. Suddenly, she reached out and touched Nia’s hand gently, just for a brief moment.

“Ok, ok, I get it. Listen, we might be able to help out,” Luna reassured her confidently, “we just flew in this morning from Metropolis and our hotel is around the block. I can lend you anything of mine. Actually, I have a shirt that might be just right for you.”

Nia was speechless for a few seconds and then she just shook her head and sighed, a little bit overwhelmed. 

“Oh, God, I can’t accept something like that. That’s so kind of you but it’s too much.”

Luna reached out, again, this time she caught both Nia’s hands in hers. Nia registered how warm they felt, the same had happened when she had stretched Lucas’ hand. That, and the direct eye contact with Leah’s bright blue eyes made Nia abandon all reticence. 

“Nia, really, is no problem. My brother and I… we… let’s say we’re used to helping people. Plus, we’re here on vacation, visiting friends, it’s not like we have any urgent matters to attend. Let us, please.”

“Ok,” was all that Nia could mutter, softly, looking down at their intertwined hands.

Luna smiled sweetly at her and released her hands the moment Liam put a new cup of smoking hot coffee right in front of Nia.

“Here you go, Nia, again, I’m so sorry,” the young man said as he reached out for a chair to join them.

“It’s alright, Lucas. You’re very kind. Both of you. Thank you, really. It’s rare nowadays to find this kindness in strangers, especially in big cities.”

“It’s our Irish ancestry,” Liam smiled proudly. 

“Yeah”, Luna agreed, “you’re lucky this didn’t happen at a tavern because right now we would be buying you pints until dawn.”

Nia laughed naturally, relaxed for the first time since the incident.

“No, guys, but thank you, really. And Leah, I insist, you don’t need to lend me anything–“

“Oh, no, we’ll do it. You just need to tell me where to deliver it, and I promise we’ll get you a new shirt in time for your meeting.”

Nia sighed but smiled anyway and proceeded to rip out a piece of paper from her notebook to write down an address and her phone number.

“Here,” she handed it to Luna, “you can probably give it to Fernando at the lobby, he’ll get it up for me through Eve. Just say you’re delivering it for Nia Nal, they’ll know what to do. And I wrote down my number in case you guys need anything. Please don’t hesitate to call me if there’s anything I can do to return the favor.”

Luna read the note quickly and showed it to Liam before blinking back at Nia with wide eyes. 

“Wow, you work at CatCo?”, Liam said enthusiastically, almost getting to high-pitched squeal level. 

As if she had done something wrong, Nia frowned and suddenly had the urge to justify herself. Liam mistook it for Nia feeling uncomfortable as he had shown far too much excitement and raised his hand in an apologetic gesture.

“Oh, no, it’s just… we’re, we’re huge fans…”

Nia sighed and played with the pen in her hands.

“Well, I’m just a sort of glorified junior reporter covering for someone else…”

Luna raised an eyebrow, a carbon copy of the gesture her human mother had made into an art, as her Kryptonian mother used to say.

“Nah, CatCo only has the best, if you’re there it means you’re talented,” Luna winked at her and Nia felt it again: the familiarity, a tingling sensation of deja vu…

“It’s strange,” Nia thought aloud.

“What is?”, it was Liam’s voice, now happily chewing on his muffin.

“I keep getting this feeling like I know you guys from somewhere…” Nia responded, trying to search deep in her mind. Perhaps they had crossed paths before? Maybe she had bumped into one of the twins in a club, or a party, or just in line to order something in any other coffee shop?

Liam snorted half of his iced tea and proceeded to laugh nervously as he tried to wipe his chin with a napkin…

“You know we get that a lot? It’s my fault. I mean… it’s just that I always stand out, I mean I always do something like – because my sister is right, I’m a klutz, my arms are far too big, maybe, I don’t know, or maybe it’s just the twin thing, but we haven’t met before, I assure you, we’re just… you know… we have pretty common faces, ha, right, sis?”

“I would have remembered if we had met before, Nia,” it was Luna’s voice, ever so confident. She just stared intently at Nia, her voice an octave lower than usual, her hands steady. The exact opposite of her brother. But Nia didn’t let herself be trapped by those cerulean eyes again.

“You said you flew in for Metropolis,” Nia interjected, “I used to live there until I moved here. All I’m saying is that perhaps we met somewhere in the city.”

“Perhaps, yes. Could be,” Luna nodded her head slowly, the hint of a smirk in the corner of her mouth, “but again, I’m telling you – I’d remember.”

Nia smiled back at her understanding that this Leah person was just a player. She couldn’t hide her amusement and just sighed and proceeded to take a sip of her coffee. 

“Well, as I said, thank you for everything. I better get going.”

“Yeah, us too, I’ll text you the moment we drop the shirt, is that all right?”

Nia stood up and shook her head, frowning in frustration, still thinking about what was escaping her.

“Really, I’m telling you, I’ve seen you guys before… I can’t tell where or when but–”

Liam looked at her like a deer in front of the approaching headlights of a car and Luna just shrugged her shoulders with a smug smile on her stupidly perfect face.

“Guess we’ll never know,” Luna chirped.

“Yeah, right,” Nia rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. She turned around and wave her hand in the air, “see you later, Skywalker twins!”

And with that, she was gone.

Liam and Luna stared at the door in silence for five minutes straight, neither of them  focusing really on anything, perhaps too shocked to say something.

It was Liam who spoke first, but he wasn’t very eloquent.

“Wow,” he muttered, almost to himself.

“Yep,” Luna replied, still fixated on the door.

“We just met Aunt Nia. In her twenties,” Liam blinked at her sister then, “wild, huh?”

Luna tilted her head to the side, looking back at her brother.

“Hey, I’m proud of you, dude. You were very smooth in the beginning…” Luna took a sip of her coffee, smiling to herself, “though for a moment there I thought you were going to lose it,” she added.

Liam frowned at her, “well, I’m losing it now because you flirted with her! You flirted with our Aunt Nia! No, Loo, nooo!”, he pointed an accusing finger at her unbothered sister.

Luna rolled her eyes, “what did you want me to say, exactly? Hey Auntie, yes, we seem familiar to you because someday you’ll have the power to see the future in your dreams and we’re actually your surrogate niece and nephew!?? I had to – you know, distract her with something!”

Luna did have the decency to look slightly embarrassed, though. 

Liam blinked at her again, studying every muscle in her face.

“Ok. I get it. It was a strategy.”

“Of course it was!”

A pause. Then, a mortified squeak from Liam.

“But even so… ew, sis, ew!”

Luna stood up motioning for Liam to get a move on.

“I know, I know, ok? I feel dirty. Let’s head back to the hotel to get her a new shirt.”

“You think she might lead us to something?”

“She could, yeah. For now, we know she could have some ties to Ieiu – I mean, Kara, this world’s Kara – through CatCo, you know? It’s a lead. Let’s try to be friendly and see where that takes us, ok?”

Liam opened the door for them.

“Ok. But promise me, no more flirting with our aunt.”

Luna laughed.

“No more flirting, I promise. Unless the situation requires it…”

Liam faked the sound of throwing up.

They accomplished their simple mission relatively quickly. Luna chose two shirts so Nia would have some options and made a neatly prepared package with an amicable note signed by “The Skywalker twins”. They delivered it at CatCo’s security desk without much trouble. Luna immediately texted Nia, and she got a ton of heart emojis in response and an invite to buy them dinner that same night, as a thank you, if they were available. They accepted and Luna called it an easy success. At least now they had something, a lifeline to explore how different this Earth was from theirs.

When they were walking back to their hotel, they fell into a comfortable silence motivated by the thin line of hope the chance encounter with Nia had thrown at them. 

Luna watched the people coming and going and enjoyed the sounds of the city thriving around them, the mundane routine of a world that didn’t know the danger that loomed above it. 

Liam, on the other hand, had his mind on an entirely different topic.

“I swear when we get back I’m telling Uncle Brainy,” Liam broke the silence with the same stuck-up tone of a know-it-all he had displayed since he was able to talk.

Luna groaned, mortified. She knew her brother had been going over that thought from the moment they had left Noonan’s.

“You wouldn’t dare, jackass,” she shook her head, laughing.

“Yes, I would, Miss I-Make-Heart-Eyes-At-My-Aunt.”

Oh, so the little brother was in the mood for a good fight. Luna chuckled and bit the inside of her cheek with a smug gesture. It was on.

“Then I would have to tell Ieiu and Mom about that time you smoked pot in Mom’s lab,” Luna winked at him as Liam’s jaw dropped to the floor.

“Now, that’s low. It was one time and it was just scientific curiosity, as I was trying to study the effects of psychoactive drugs on a half-Kryptonian brain. Since you didn’t volunteer for that, I had to do it myself! And – and it did nothing! I didn’t get high or anything!”

“Ha, you keep telling yourself that, dude.”

Liam just paused every movement and looked at her sister dead in the eye.

“Okay. Okay, right. So that means I could tell them about that time you had a threesome in your room while they were on vacati–“

“That’s enough, snitch!”

From there, it all just… escalated.

“Traitor,” Liam scoffed.

“Grow up,” Luna imitated his tone and that irritated Liam even more.

“Me, grow up? Pfff. You grow up!”

“I’m ten minutes older than you, you grow up, stupid!” Luna snapped as her brother’s eyes went wide.

“Stupid?”, he replied, eyebrows rising, utterly offended, “I have four PhDs, you’ve only got two!”

Luna laughed mischievously.

“That’s just because I wanted to focus on my writing, and it doesn’t prove anything. Yeah, yeah, little brother, you keep rolling your eyes at me, you might find a brain back there!”

Liam narrowed his eyes at her and tried to repay Luna with a taste of her own sarcastic humor. 

“Ooh, someone got up on the wrong side of the cage this morning!”

Now, to the pedestrians surrounding them and any oblivious spectator, this interaction could seem like a real heated argument with hurtful interactions. And it was, it really was at a first glance. Under normal circumstances, if the bickering got too far, they would take off to the sky and the siblings would settle their differences with a race to the Fortress of Solitude and back. But in this unexplored Earth, they could not use their powers without the risk of drawing unwanted attention to themselves, undoubtedly jeopardizing their mission. It had been a while since they had argued like this, and though it had started as a joke, and there was, of course, the silent understanding between them that this was just a way to blow the high amount of pressure they were under, it still felt strange between them, to be at odds. As if there was some kind of wickedly charged energy around them. Perhaps it was a sign. A warning, an omen of the Anti-Monitor lurking over this reality…

The twins didn’t have time to process those thoughts or even get to that conclusion, as it all faded into the background when they turned a corner and watched in horror as a family of three cried out for help from a window, flames and smoke coming out of their apartment in the twentieth level of a residence building.

They both immediately tensed, reaching up to their buttoned shirts, ready to change into their super suits and do what they did best, no matter what universe they were in: saving people.

Liam was ready to rip off his shirt and show the proud emblem of the House of El in his chest when his sister had a moment of clarity and reached out for his wrist to stop him.

“Li… we can’t,” Luna whispered, sorrow in her voice and her eyes conflicted and unsure. 

They looked back to the family. A middle-aged man held a little girl to his chest covering her eyes, while a woman clenched to his waist crying out for help. The flames were closing in on them, and the smoke coming out of the window turned darker and thicker by the second.

“We can’t just sit here and do nothing!” Liam shook his head, his eyes brimming with tears of helplessness.

“If we fly up there we’ll be all over the news tomorrow and our cover will be blown,” Luna murmured between clenched teeth, each word a struggle because she knew she was being rational about this, but all her heart wanted to do was save that family and forget the consequences, “if this Earth turns out to be our chance to find a way to bring Ieiu and Mom back…”, Luna closed her eyes to gather some strength for what she was about to say, “we’ll never… we’ll never see them again. And the monster will keep on killing worlds.”

Liam grimaced in pain and shook his head.

“I know… I know…” he then locked eyes with his sister, an unbearable sorrow written all over his face, “but we can’t let them die,” he looked back up to the helpless family, their time running out as the flames approached them inevitably, “Ieiu and Mom would never forgive us,” Liam said, finally.

Luna let out a quick burst of pained laughter.

“Fuck it,” she whispered, finally giving in.

The Danvers-Luthor twins looked at each other, sad smiles on their faces, as they nodded together and reached out to their respective chests to transform in the blink of an eye. If this world was their chance, they would have to improvise, because whatever happened they could not simply look away. They were Supers, after all, Kara Zor-El and Lena Luthor’s children, Kryptonian and human, the best of both worlds, and no matter what it cost them, truth, justice, and compassion for all was the only path they could walk.

If saving a family of three cost them their parents, if it cost them their world… they would have to live with the consequences and fight back. Because they were Zor-Els, they were Danvers, they were Luthors, and no matter what, they always would find a way.

As they were about to sacrifice it all, the wind around them whooshed rapidly.

“Look!,” a man standing near them pointed up to the sky, “it’s Supergirl!”

The Danvers-Luthor twins watched in awe as a younger version of their Kryptonian mother saved the family in a split second. She was wearing a suit they had only seen in expos and pictures: in their timeline, it was officially the second suit their mother had worn as Supergirl, of the many that would come over the years. Primarily blue, with red accents and a gold belt, her cape coming out of her shoulders and, thank Rao, pants. 

She looked magnificent in it, and both Liam and Luna were blown away, luckily blending in with the hundreds of bystanders that watched the scene, amazed by the mighty of National City’s resident hero. 

Supergirl settled the shocked family gently on the ground but looked back quickly to the burning apartment.

“You’ll be safe here, now let me try to save your home,” Kara told them in the most perfect combination of compassion and determination. 

She rose back in the air quickly and entered the apartment through the window. To minimize damage, she used her freeze breath inside, and within seconds there was no hint of fire or smoke.

The crowd broke into loud applause and cheers as Supergirl touched the ground again, making sure the family was safe and sound. An ambulance arrived and a firefighter tiller-truck followed quickly. Supergirl took a quick second to wave at the crowd before she exchanged some words with the paramedics and shook hands with the chief officer of the firefighters. She had another brief interaction with the rescued family who wouldn’t stop hugging her, before waving again at the crowd and floating up above them with a bright smile.

“Be safe, National City!” she shouted at the crowd that roared back at her, her smile turning into adorable laughter, “And remember, I’m always around!”

And with that, putting on a little bit of a show, she took off with a rushing sound, making the air vibrate and leaving everyone behind cheering and applauding and posting quickly to their social media all the snaps of Supergirl in action.

In the middle of it all, Liam and Luna, frozen, almost breathless.

“You tourists, right?” The man that had first spotted Supergirl nodded his head at them, seeing how pale and speechless they stood there. “It’s always a shock, the first time you see her,” he shook his head and chuckled to himself, pointing to the skies, “we’re lucky to have her,” he said and then resumed walking, waving goodbye to the speechless twins. “Welcome to National City and enjoy your day!”

The city went back quickly to its brimming, fast-paced chaos. Everyone back to their business.

Except for Liam and Luna.

They just stood there, still looking up to the clear blue sky.

“Loo?”

“Yeah?”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“She’s…”

“Keep your cool, dude.”

“It’s just…”

“I know. I know.”

There was so much to do now. A world of possibilities had opened right in front of them. First, dinner with Nia. From then on, they had to figure out how to contact this world’s Supergirl. Convince her to build a resistance with them. Fight back the impossible.

The exhilarating wind of excitement engulfed them both, and they looked at each other, shocked, nervous, and filled with hope.

“I love you, punk,” Luna said as she reached out to give her little brother a crushing hug.

Liam’s arms were already open.

“I love you too, snob.”

***

Kara landed on the penthouse’s balcony with two freshly prepared bags of Big Belly Burger. She entered the house with the retina scan and code-protected mechanism Lena had designed for her to fly in and out the place without trouble.

“Alex?”

She put the bags on the kitchen counter and used her super-speed to change into comfy clothes (rainbow socks, sweatpants, and a blue ocean t-shirt).

“Alex, you ok?”, she called again as she grabbed two plates from the cabinet and proceeded to empty the content of the bags on them. “If you don’t come quick I just might eat your cheeseburger…”

“Coming!”

Alex’s distressed voice resonated from the corridor. Kara used her X-ray vision to discover the cause of her sister's discomfort. She chuckled as she saw Alex struggling with two seven-month-old half-Kryptonian babies hanging like spider monkeys from each of her forearms.

Taking pity on her sister, Kara hurried to meet her halfway and take one of the babies from her. Little Liam and little Luna were giggling non-stop, their heads thrown back and their mouths open, chins and cheeks smearing with bubbly baby drool.

“How is it possible for them to weigh so much?” Alex cried with little relief when Kara took Luna from her so she could focus on supporting Liam with both her arms.

“Eliza says their weight is just the average for human babies their age.”

“That’s Mom trying to reassure you and Lena.”

“Nah, it’s just that you’re out of shape.”

Before Alex could reply and express how offended she was, Kara proceeded to greet her children properly, who had gone ecstatic the moment they saw her, babbling incomprehensible but very enthusiastic things at their Ieiu. 

“Hi, my ukiems!” Kara kissed Luna’s fat cheek and blew raspberries in her little belly as the baby girl laughed, then she kissed the top of Liam’s head and fake-bit his little nose, getting the same reaction. “Did you have fun with Auntie Alex? Did you?”

“We watched the same Pocoyo episode fifteen times, I assure you they had fun,” Alex sighed, visibly tired.

“The one where Pato has the hiccups?” Kara asked even though she knew the answer.

“The one where Pato has the hiccups,” Alex nodded and couldn’t refrain a yawn.

“That’s a classic,” Kara smiled back to Luna in her best (worst, in Alex’s opinion) impression of Pocoyo’s original narrator, the one and only Stephen Fry.

The Danvers sisters brought the babies to the living-room and placed them gently in the hexagonal gated playard Kara had installed a few weeks ago, so they could play safely on their own. It had the best foam mat ever (Supergirl’s logo in comic style and bright colors), and some of their favorite toys: a big stuffed toy of Martian Manhunter, a teddy bear dressed as Superman and plenty of teethers to chew on safely.

Alex and Kara sat down on the couch, burgers on the coffee table, ready to enjoy their dinner while they watched the babies try to crawl and play and babble at everything.

“So…” Alex began as she finally attacked her prized cheeseburger, “how was the Supergirlin’ today?”

“Fine. Stopped a couple of robberies – why do criminals still insist on robbing anything in this city when they know I’m around? I’m officially offended about that by the way – but the best part was saving a family from their burning apartment.”

“Oh, wow, they alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, a young couple. They had a little girl, Maya. All safe and sound.”

“Congrats, sis.”

“Thank you.”

There were a few moments of silence as they ate comfortably and chuckled at Liam trying to get rid of his socks while Luna wrestled the teddy bear.

“And you? Did you enjoy your quality time with your niece and nephew?”

Alex nodded.

“They are a handful and I’m exhausted, but they’re hilarious too.”

“Yeah, they are,” Kara agreed as she stared dreamily at her babies, now trying to chew each other’s ears. “Thank you for being here on your day off. I know it’s a lot to ask, but we gotta give the Colonel a day for herself from time to time and I know Eliza can’t say no but that’s exactly why I didn’t want to ask her this time, she deserves her rest too, no matter how much she enjoys being a grandma.”

“You know it’s no problem, Kara. Maggie is working and it was either spending time with my homies here or passing out on my couch from Scotch and pizza and reruns of the Property Brothers."

"Uh, sad," Kara joked raising her eyebrows at her.

"I know," Alex rolled her eyes and threw her sister a nearby cushion.

Kara laughed deeply and caught it before it hit her face easily, “thank you, anyway," she said, gently, "it means the world to me, Alex.”

“Ok, ok, don’t get too mushy, sis," Alex faked being annoyed but Kara's warm declaration. Then, she cleared her throat and got a little more serious, “I'll always be here for you, you know that,” Alex declared softly, “I’m more than happy to spend time with them. Even though they drive me insane, much like their Kryptonian mother. I love you and I love them and that's it, period."

"I love you too, Alex," Kara launched herself forward to hug her sister but Alex patted her back as she got up from the couch and headed for the kitchen.

“Yeah, I know, I know," Alex turned around to Kara as she kept walking backward, "I'm gonna open this obscenely expensive bottle of wine I’ve been gifted for being such a cool aunt," she reached down on the kitchen counter and presented to her sister a bottle of Screaming Eagle Sauvignon Blanc “God bless you, Lena”, Alex whispered to the bottle as if it was the most precious thing she'd ever seen and then went back to Kara, as if nothing had happened, with the most annoying patronizing tone, "and you are going to tell me everything about what the hell is going on with princess Luthor. Where is she, why is she not home yet and, is she still being weird? Talk. Now,” Alex demanded in her best Agent Danvers tone while she poured herself a glass.

Kara opened and closed her mouth and then blinked, shaking her head, searching for words with no success. Things between her and Lena had been a little awkward for the past two or three months and Kara thought, no, she knew it was her fault, that maybe she had done something wrong. Still, it was hard to explain, because on the surface everything felt the same between them, surface being the keyword.

”She’s been anything but sweet,” Kara sighed and looked at her hands, suddenly not so eager to finish her burger. “And at the same time… kind of distant?” She looked back to Alex with baffled eyes, "It's... it's complicated.”

“You bet it is,” Alex nodded as she inhaled the rich tones of her glass of wine, “you guys have two kids together that were forced upon you, which is the epitome of weird, yeah, but then there’s the matter of impending doom upon the multiverse…” Alex reaches out to squeeze her sister’s knee gently, bringing Kara back from her dark thoughts, “But hey, Kara, you two seemed to be working it out. You were doing amazing, with the babies, with this living together thing we all thought was nuts, but you guys proved us all wrong…” Kara smiled absently and Alex sighed, “it was working,” she continued, “and if you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t even suspect things have changed. You guys seem fine to me whenever we’re all together… so, what happened?”

“I –“ Kara couldn’t find her voice. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes for a second. She opened them and spoked low, as if each word hurt her vocal cords, “I think it’s me, that I – I did something. I think it’s my presence, my – I think I remind her,” Kara shrugged helplessly, hands up in the air as if she was giving up to some invisible enemy.

“Remind her of what, Kara?” Alex frowned. She even put down her glass and blinked at Kara, concern for her sister sparking in her eyes.

“The pain Lillian put her through,” Kara snapped, her tone charged with despair, “of the Anti-Monitor lurking out there… if she hadn’t met me, all this wouldn’t be happening.”

“That’s ridiculous, Kara!” Alex blinked at her, shocked at the foolishness in her sister’s words, “Lena wanted you here, Kara. She always did. And you have nothing to do with the terrible things Lillian is capable of or with a world-destructor monster created thousands of light-years away!”

Kara rubbed her palms against her temples, her expression tired, her eyes sad, sad like Alex hadn’t seen them in a very long time.

“I know. In my mind, I know,” Kara breathed in, “it’s the way she looks at me. I think she… I think she hates me,” she said with finality, her eyes away from Alex and fixated on her children, crawling clumsily around the playard.

Alex took her sister’s hands in hers and tried to make her focus on her own eyes.

“The Lena I know,” Alex began, softly, “the Lena I helped when she gave birth to these two beautiful creatures, no matter how grim the circumstances, that Lena, Kara, would never hate you.” Kara smiled joylessly at her, and Alex sighed, frustrated and confused, “Did anything happen between you two?”, she inquired, “did she tell you anything?”

Kara shook her head and blinked back bitter tears.

“A few months ago she found something in Telle’s archives. Family pictures of the other… us,” Kara breathed in deeply, “even – uh – even wedding pictures.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. It was so triggering for her. She panicked… she kind of tried to push me away, you know?”

“That’s only human, Kara, anyone in her shoes would –“

“I know!” Kara cut her sister off, surprising them both, “I know,” she repeated, softly, “but since then it’s like… she’s the same, but she’s different. She laughs with me and is there for me, as a friend, but something feels odd. Something feels cold between us.”

“Perhaps it’s only your perception, Kara, have you asked her if something is up?” Alex rested her chin on one of her hands, giving her full attention to her sister.

“No, no. I’m too afraid,” Kara confessed in a cracked voice, “because it would be weird. She’d looked at me as if – Rao, perhaps you’re right, perhaps it’s only me! As I said, she’s been nothing but perfect,” the Kryptonian hero sighed deeply again and threw her head back, annoyed with herself, “she’s awesome with the babies, she reads to them every night, she makes sure to spend all the time she can with them…” Filled up with untamed energy and frustration, Kara stood up from the couch and rested her hands on her hips, then combed her hair with her fingers, then sighed and threw her arms around in the air, gesticulating as she tried to make Alex understand, as she tried to understand it all herself, “and you know, the suit, she didn’t have to, but she designed the new suit for me, a thank you gift for being there for me and the babies, she said,” Kara scoffed, a bitter chuckle coming from deep inside her throat, “and she’s working on the lab non-stop, trying to improve the accelerator design so she can build it as soon as possible. She’s put Telle to good use to protect the babies and gather every bit of crucial information we can, she’s devoting L-Corp’s resources with Sam to find anything that can help us, anything… and you’ve seen the sunroom! Rao, the sunroom, it’s amazing!”

“It is, yeah,” Alex nodded, urging her sister to keep talking and let it all go.

But the mention of the sunroom brought happy memories to Kara’s troubled mind, and she paused and breathed deeply for a moment.

The sunroom, Lena’s secret project for months that had been revealed to the Kryptonian just a few weeks ago, the same day Lena gave her the new suit. One of the upper floors of their building had been under renovations for months, but Lena wouldn’t tell Kara what she was doing with it…

“It’s a secret project,” she had told her, “and you can’t take a peek because the walls are made of lead.”

That had sparked Kara’s curiosity but, trusting that in time Lena would tell her what was all that about, she had easily forgotten about it. Until the day Lena took her up on their personal elevator, and Kara was greeted with a large open space that looked like a replica of the Fortress of Solitude, only instead of cold, blue tones, the yellow and warm sunlight bathe every corner.

“I call it the sunroom,” Lena had told her, “it’s not a sunroom per se, you know it, but it was the working title I gave the project and now it’s stuck. You can call it whatever you want. This whole floor is yours. It has all information I could gather on Krypton through Telle and you have an equipped office, a lab, a personal gym, various training chambers, a conference room in case you want to bring any of your superhero friends, and, of course, a recharge room that’s powered by the newest and most efficient L-Corp solar panels. In case something happens… and I wish more than anything that you don’t ever have to use it, but just in case, you have a comfortable bed and your own quarters under 10,000 kilowatts of solar energy so you can recover from anything or just give yourself the ultimate sunbath. That way, you know, you have another option besides the DEO. I’ve also added a medicalized room with state-of-the-art equipment, which of course Alex and Eliza are invited to use whenever they want, and, again, I hope you don’t ever have to use it yourself, as a patient, I mean, but I wanted to be prepared for every eventuality. Then there’s another thing, a feature only you can activate through your own personal alphanumeric code, a retina scan, and a safe-switch so it can’t be used against you.”

Kara was in awe and she had to swallow hard two times to make sure she could find her voice.

“And what is it?”

She would always remember Lena’s smile, bright and natural and larger than life.

“You can change the yellow sun lamps into red sun lamps,” Lena explained, brimming with pride, “in case you ever want to train with Alex or… whatever you’d like to use it for. I know you had low radiation Kryptonite lamps at the DEO desert facility, but the red sun radiation is safer for you. And of course, with time, you can use this whole place to train Liam and Luna. Or to teach them about Krypton… anything you want.”

Kara just stood there, gaping at Lena, wondering how it was possible for someone to be this generous, this thoughtful.

“C’mon, Kara, say something, don’t leave me hanging here…”

“I… Lena… this is too much. This is… this is the best thing ever.”

“So, you like your secret early birthday gift?”

“Like it, Lena? I – I love this place!”

They would never talk about how Kara took Lena in her arms and span her around while kissing her cheeks loudly, laughing, feeling over the moon. They would never say aloud how it had felt to be in each other’s arms and laugh together and forget, for a moment, all the things that could not be. All the words that were left unspoken. But they would feel the awkwardness of the moment when Kara put Lena down gently, and they realized their bodies were too close, chest to chest, their noses inches from touching, both breathless, both almost intuitively leaning forward before Lena jerked away and turned around and said something about a meeting with Sam and just let Kara enjoy the space by herself. And Kara was left alone there, wondering why she felt like she’d been struck by lightning. And it felt so very different from being attacked by Livewire.

“Sometimes people cope with trauma in all kinds of weird, unexplainable ways. Perhaps she just needs some time, Kara. She’ll come around.”

It was Alex’s voice. Calm, collected, warm, bringing Kara back to the present with her compassion and her wisdom. Her rock, always.

“I know,” Kara sighed, her mind still miles away, “that’s what I’m doing, giving her time, and space. Perhaps she’s already working on it, she has these meetings she goes to, once a month, she never tells me where but… she’s supposed to be in one of those right now. Jon’s always with her, and the whole security detail. I worry, but – ” Kara shrugged and forced herself to smile. “I’ve got to respect that. I’ve got to… be patient, I guess.”

“That’s what friends are for,” Alex nodded empathically.

 “Yeah,” Kara agreed and threw herself gently into Alex’s arms.

Her sister, who knew her better than anyone, hugged her back and placed a gentle kiss to Kara’s head, knowing exactly what would cheer her up.

“Hey, Kara. Look,” Alex whispered.

Kara lifted her head from the crook of Alex’s neck to watch her babies sleeping while seated, their backs touching and their heads resting in each other’s shoulder, looking like exhausted little Buddhas, their round, perfect little heads resting side by side. It was a strange position for them to be in, Kara wondered how in the world they had pulled that, but also the sweetest thing on Earth and at the same time, unequivocally comical.

“Wait, wait,” Kara murmured while she searched for her phone in her pocket, “gotta capture this, Lena will kill me if I don’t.”

Kara took a couple of pictures of the babies and immediately sent them to Lena with a bright smile on her face. Alex rolled her eyes and put her arm around her sister’s broad shoulders.

“What do you say you and I give a bath to these peanuts and then put them to bed? We still need to open the vanilla ice-cream gallon I brought you.”

Kara’s eyes went wide with anticipation.

“Sounds like a mission for us!” Kara clapped her hands together silently, careful not to wake the babies, her face shining with a glimpse of joy, “Danvers sisters, yes we can…” Kara sang quietly but filled with excitement.

There, Alex thought, there’s my sister.

“If you can’t do it, Danvers can…” Alex finished their own personal chant in an equally quiet voice, mimicking Kara’s smile, finally at ease seeing she had been able to induce a sincere one this time, “First one to wake them, loses.”

Kara laughed out loud. She lost immediately.

***

The penthouse was silent and peaceful a couple of hours later, with the babies bathed, fed and sound asleep in their room. When they turned six months, Kara had finally convinced Lena to move their cribs out of her room so they could share what they called the witching hours. Lena had been reticent at first, but Kara insisted it was only fair, considering she didn’t have her Kryptonian stamina. They had also accommodated the Colonel on a lower floor, giving her the nights off – they were more than thankful for Natasha’s babysitting skills, they didn’t need to push her. 

All in all, Liam and Luna were able to sleep seven to eight hours straight most nights, but still, it was unfair for Lena to be immediately woken up when the nightly fussy performances started. Luna was usually the best behaved out of the two, with Liam being the hardest to calm down most times. Once the babies went back to sleeping in their own bedroom, there were occasions in which Kara couldn’t calm them down before Lena was awakened by the inconsolable crying bouts, but Kara did most of the hard work at night, and she did it proudly.

And now Kara watched them sleep peacefully, reflecting how nothing gave away their Kryptonian ancestry or the dreadful circumstances in which they had been brought to this world. They still hadn’t shown any signs of powers, though Eliza had stated that really didn’t give away anything – Kara had only begun to feel her powers when she had spent a couple of years on Earth, even Kal, who had arrived as a baby, hadn’t shown any abilities until he was four years old, and it took him years to learn to control his powers. He hadn’t even known he could fly until he was seventeen.

Although the possibility of them ending up having no powers at all was highly unlikely, Kara knew that, no matter what, they would always be different. Even powerless, there was the reality of Liam and Luna having two female parents; if that wasn’t reason enough for them to be pointed at, one of said parents was a superhero leading a double-life, and the other was the heiress of a financial empire linked to dark deeds in the past. They were both Luthor and Super. They wouldn’t have it easy.

But in here, at home, in their bedroom, bathed by the pale hue of the moonlight, they were just two babies growing up, safe, loved and happy. Kara wished that among her powers there was the ability to freeze time, or at least to keep her babies in a bubble, to be able to prevent them from feeling sadness, or pain, or sorrow. Ever. 

She smiled to herself, knowing very well that this wishful thinking was absurd. Life was inevitably intertwined with love as much as it was with pain, happiness as much as loss. She knew that very damn well, and she knew that her children would have to fight most of their battles in life on their own, but she hoped they’d know she’d always be there for them. 

She would always run when they called.

Kara sighed then, feeling a little restless since Alex had left. She checked the time on her phone and paced the room, wondering if Lena would be home soon. It’s not like it was late, not for a Saturday night but… She didn’t like it when she was out there, in the city. There were many threats and not just the extra-normal ones. When Lena had gone back to work at L-Corp (only two days a week, as most operations were handled by Sam now), Kara had to call every single one of her contacts in the fourth estate to prevent paparazzi from stalking her. Of course, the one phone call that changed everything was that she made to Cat Grant, thank Rao for her. It was Cat’s intervention (and her many subtle threats and straight-forward, barely legal yet elegant methods of extortion) what had kept the hyenas at bay and away from putting Lena on the spotlight, but even the power and influence of the media queen could be bypassed if Lena put herself out there for far too long.

The babies were still a secret, no details had transcended about the months she’d been kidnapped by Cadmus, and Kara just wanted to protect her. Above everything, she wanted Lena to be alright. To feel safe. And perhaps her overprotectiveness was the cause of Lena’s forced smiles and quick, cold hugs. Time, Kara thought, recalling her conversation with Alex, just give her time.

Her super-hearing warned her that their personal elevator had been called from the building hall, and she smiled to herself bashfully, her heart skipping a beat thinking about Lena crossing the entrance and being back on their home. All of them, together, as a family, no matter how unconventional.

But it wasn’t Lena who greeted her when the doors opened. Natasha stood there, cursing in Russian, her blonde hair soaking wet, her clothes ruined by the rain, shaking an umbrella that got the floor all slippery.

Kara blinked at her and frowned.

“Uh… Colonel?”

“Oh, hi, moy Kara, it’s raining cats and frogs!”

“Dogs.”

“What?”

“Cats and dogs.”

“That’s what I said, da?”

“Yeah.”

The Colonel crossed the kitchen and just put her umbrella inside the trash can and her wet coat in the sink. Kara was still blinking, no matter how much time she spent with the Colonel, she always found her fascinating, to say the least.

“Uh… Natasha?”

“Da, miss Kara?”

“What are you doing here? Isn’t today your night off?”

The Colonel looked at Kara with thinly veiled amusement.

“Oh, Lena didn’t tell you? I’m here to take care of the babies just in case you need to…” Natasha waved her hand in the air awkwardly, “you know… do your thing?”

Kara raised her eyebrows and blinked, confused, once again.

“My thing?”

“Yeah, your thing, you know?” Natasha kept waving her hands in circles, and Kara couldn’t quite understand what she meant by that. “Go for a walk or something,” the Colonel said rapidly as if she was uncomfortable trying to explain herself.

Kara sighed, patiently watching as the Colonel made her way around the kitchen, searching for Rao knows what.

“Ok, I don’t know what you’re talking about but really, we don’t need you tonight,” Kara smiled politely, “Lena will be here soon and I –“

“But she’s going to be out a couple more hours, right?” Natasha pursed her lips and it was her time to blink back at Kara, “or at least that was what she told me in the text.”

“Text?”, Kara swallowed, “she texted you?”

“Da. So, you know, this way you go do your thing,” there it was, the incomprehensible waving of hands in the air, “if you want to, of course, and I take care of moy babies. Yes?”

Natasha looked transparent, all good intentions and willingness to help. 

And Kara knew she wasn’t lying or messing around with her. And Kara also knew, deep down, that she should let this all go, that perhaps Lena was caught up on work, or maybe having a night out with Sam and Jess, or possibly she was at one of those secret meetings that might be a therapy group (Kara wouldn’t know because Lena hadn’t told her, and she had to respect that because Lena was her friend, Lena was entitled to her privacy and her own secrets and to be out late on a Saturday night in the city and – yes, time, she needed to give her time, as Alex had said, time and space). 

Kara knew she should just trust Lena’s judgment, and that it was foolish and petty of her to be offended by the fact that her friend had texted the nanny and not her.

Perhaps it was the PTSD from Lena’s kidnapping, perhaps it was Kara’s savior complex, perhaps it was just an unfounded panic, but Kara ignored all these rational, mature thoughts.

“Oh, I remember now, yeah,” Kara lied, turning around to remove her glasses, “thank you, Natasha, I won’t be long, please stay with the babies…” she said over her shoulder as she marched towards her room, where she could use the large window there to fly out, away from the Colonel’s baffled eyes, “I’m gonna go do… my thing,” Kara murmured to herself as she reached the hallway, using super-speed to change into her suit. 

She flew to the night sky through dark clouds and heavy rain.

Wherever Lena was, she needed to find her.

Chapter Text

The music in the club was loud, obscenely loud.

Lena knew why. It’s not like the crowd came searching for a chat. Using their mouths for talking was not their priority, though some of them would have to indulge in dull conversation to get what they wanted.

Luckily for Lena, she could jump the boring steps of the process and just… choose. Also, the music reached her subdued by the crystal gallery in her VIP lounge, the biggest in the whole club and the best view above the dance floor and the bar. She could activate the state-of-the-art speakers installed in the room if she wanted, but she didn’t need to pretend she was here for a drink and a dance and a few good laughs like all the women below her. She could pick, point, and have whoever she wanted.

Because everybody wanted her, one way or another. They all would stare up at her, at some point in the night. Some looks were lustful. Some were envious, hateful even. Most of them were filled with curiosity mixed up with all of the above. She could choose, yes, probably anyone she wanted, even the ones that despised her could be a great hate fuck.

And yet, two months coming here, spending a few hours of her Saturday night, and still, she hadn’t done it. She hadn’t chosen anyone at all.

She was about to ask her personal bartender for a second alcohol-free mocktail when Veronica Sinclair appeared unannounced. She had the nerve of taking her hand and kissing it as she whispered something.

“Tu es magnifique ce soir, ma chérie Lena.”

Lena scoffed and jerked her hand away from her, answering in flawless French.

“Va te faire foutre, Roulette.”

Veronica smirked when she heard the Luthor calling her by her alias, very pleased with the visceral reaction of telling her to fuck off. She joined her in the expensive leather couch, sitting at a cautious distance from her. The shady entrepreneur crossed her legs, and Lena admitted to herself that Veronica was quite stunning in her green emerald dress that showed her tattoos and left little to the imagination. Lena looked better in her dark blue off-the-shoulder Gucci, of course, but she couldn’t deny Veronica’s sense of fashion.

“So, tell me, my friend…” Veronica’s smirk wasn’t going away, much to Lena’s disdain, “what the fuck are you doing?”

Lena raised her signature brow and pursed her lips. She was never very good at playing dumb, but she tried anyway.

“What do you mean?”

Roulette sighed and gestured to one of her people, who moved immediately to prepare drinks in the lounge’s private bar.

“I promised myself I’d behave but – let’s say my curiosity has gotten the best of me.”

The CEO nodded knowingly and shook her head gently.

“Part of the deal was you asking no questions,” Lena emphasized as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Oh, I know. But where’s the fun in that?”

Roulette had the nerve of winking at her, and then she changed her tone to something that resembled empathy, sincerity even, “besides, you look like you could use the company.”

“If I needed the company…” Lena stared defiantly, “I would have asked.”

“Bullshit,” Roulette grinned at her, stupidly smug. 

The bartender came back with two drinks. Roulette took hers with gusto, and Lena just shook her head. The bartender left the glass on the large, polished coffee table in front of them.

Lena knew Roulette would comment on that. She didn’t have to wait.

“The thing is you’re annoying me, Luthor.”

“So now I’m Luthor, not ma chérie?”

“Just like I’m Roulette for you, right?”

It was Lena’s time to smirk.

“We both know Veronica died in boarding school along with your virginity and your moral compass.”

Roulette smiled broadly, and Lena knew in that precise moment her wit was going to backfire. 

“Oh, you’re one to talk…”

Lena grabbed her phone to look at the time, finding it hard to stand Roulette’s predatory gaze on her. Perhaps it was time to go back home. She felt stupid, all of a sudden.

What was she playing at, each week, in this den she didn’t even like? She should be with her children, Lena thought to herself as Roulette kept on searching her with her gaze. She didn’t even care. She should be back home, enjoying the time with her babies, bathing them, reading to them, putting them to bed and listening to their steady breaths and little coos. Luna and Liam had quickly become her world, and she wasn’t even mad about it because it was the greatest fuck you to her mother. Lillian thought she was poisoning her, scarring her forever, and instead she had ended up giving her a reason to fight, to live, to strive to be the better, the best Luthor, the one that would always fall into the light even if the rest of her family stood steadily in darkness.

Luna and Liam had done that, they had made her a better person just by existing. 

So what was she doing here, away from them? She didn’t need this. She couldn’t afford to lose time with stupid games, and she suddenly felt disgusted with herself, how could she be so banal when she had children to raise and a multiverse to save?

“Where the hell is your mind right now?”

Roulette’s viperous voice brought her back to the club, to the night, to her regrets finally catching up with her.

“See… this is what intrigues me,” Roulette lowered her voice, staring right into Lena’s eyes, “you pay the twelve grand fee VIP membership of my exclusive lesbian club to stare into the darkness and drink children’s beverages when my bartender could make things that would make you enter Nirvana. And I’m not talking only about the drinks. And this lounge? This place is meant for sex, for wild orgies, for women orgasming all over the place. Yet all you do each Saturday is… brood. Yes, you’re annoying me. You’re killing the vibe.”

“Oh, that’s what worries you? I see,” Lena scoffed. 

“I know we’re not exactly friends but… if you need to talk, Lena, I have ears,” to her credit, Roulette sounded genuine under the thin veil of sarcasm.

And that’s what made Lena burst out with laughter. If only she could tell Veronica she didn’t drink alcohol because she was breast-feeding two little Kryptonians. If only she could tell her the world might be ending soon because a being made of pure energy and evil would consume them all unless she could figure out how to stop it. If only she could confess how she was unequivocally, desperately, madly in love with her best friend who happened to be the other parent of the miracle children she didn’t ask for, children who had invaded her life providing her with a will to love unconditionally that made her incredulously happy and sad at the same time. 

It hit her, then. The absurdity of it all. The absolute mess her life had become. It wasn’t even believable. And she laughed louder, higher, she laughed and laughed until her eyes were filled with tears and Roulette was staring at her with both worry and terror.

“Someone broke your heart…” Roulette whispered, looking strangely fascinated with Lena’s pain, “or… you want something. And you can’t have it.”

Lena was wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. At some point, the tears of laughter had become real ones. She breathed in deeply, closed her eyes, tried to calm down. But all she saw was Kara’s face filled with sunshine and warmth, absolutely clueless and innocent.

“Her,” Lena clarified, her voice calm, centered. “I can’t have her,” she let out a little snort and looked back at Roulette, tears rolling down her cheeks. She didn’t care. “But also I do have her, in a way?” Lena frowned, trying to find the words to explain through a grimace of pure pain. Roulette listened intently, in silence, fixated on her. “In a way that’s intimate, permanent. A torture so sweet,” Lena smiled and in her eyes there was an ocean of sadness. “I’m… helpless, really. So yes, Veronica, I come here to brood. I still pay you, though, or are you going to turn down my twelve grand per month because I’m killing the vibe?”

Despite Lena’s best efforts to rekindle the flame of bile and sarcasm between them, Roulette just kept on staring at her and Lena could swear there was empathy in her gaze, recognition even. 

“Oh, Lena, sweetheart…” The socialite was about to reach out to take Lena’s hand, but the young Luthor turned around and wiped furiously at her tears. She got up, suddenly nervous again, a mixture of shame and disgust in her tortured face.

“This isn’t helping,” Lena murmured to herself. She walked decidedly to the large balcony where she could see the dance floor, “I’ve been fooling myself.”

Roulette joined her. For a few liberating seconds for Lena, the two women only watched in silence as the crowd went crazy when the addictive beat of Robyn’s hit Dancing On My Own began to resonate through the club. Women jumped and embraced and cried their heart out through the lyrics, and for a moment Lena felt envious, longing for the freedom of being just another body, clashing with other bodies on the dance floor.

“I don’t think I’ll be coming back, Veronica,” Lena whispered, only loud enough for Roulette to hear. She was calm now. She even smirked. “I’m sorry, you might lose the twelve grand in the end.”

Roulette sighed, not bothered at all.

“I couldn’t care less about the money, Lena, you know that.”

Lena raised an eyebrow.

“Of course, this isn’t your principal source of income, right?”

Roulette just nodded.

“I see it as a hobby. Making women happy makes me happy. Speaking of which…” Roulette raised her hand then and unexpectedly cupped Lena’s cheek. Her hand was cold but her fingers smelled of lavender. Lena didn’t step out of the touch, but she didn’t move into it either. “It’s okay if you don’t come back,” Roulette said while her thumb caressed Lena’s skin. “But if this is your last night here, you might as well try to find what you were looking for. If only for one night?”

Lena put her hand over Roulette’s only to turn around and look at the dance floor.

“One night,” Lena whispered.

“One night,” Roulette echoed. 

And with that, Lena nodded and left the room. She didn’t look back to her former friend, she was a woman on a mission.

One night, she kept repeating herself as she walked down the stairs and into the dance floor. One night, she thought again, and again, like a mantra as she became a body clashing with other bodies. One night, the phrase looping in her mind as someone tugged her by the waist and made her turn around. A tall blonde, nothing like Kara; slender shoulders, curled hair, full lips. She looked like Charlize Theron’s and Angelina Jolie’s lovechild, Lena thought, a little awestruck.  She was attractive, and more importantly, she was right there. The precise moment. The right place.

The woman offered her hand as a new song hit the floor. One night, Lena told herself as she took the offer. One night, Lena repeated, and then I’ll go back to Liam and Luna, to Kara, unconditionally.

The crowd approved enthusiastically as Kylie Minogue’s All The Lovers blasted through the speakers. The beat was intoxicating, hot, erotic. The blonde pulled her close. They began dancing hip to hip. Lena circled her arms around her partner’s shoulders. The blonde took her by the waist, pulled her impossibly closer. Lena looked up at her, and saw eyes dark with desire, and it was a refreshing feeling, after so long, to be desired. To be wanted. Something stirred inside her, something primal, finally. Lena bit her lower lip, unconsciously, and her partner saw it as a green light.

One night, and I’ll take my broken heart and I’ll make it into strength, Lena thought as warm hands went down her back and cupped her ass. 

One night, and I’ll go back to work. Non-stop. I’ll find the Anti-Monitor. I’ll protect everyone. I’ll prevent everything, Lena kept thinking as her body entered an auto-piloted routine – she tugged blonde curls, gave a little bit of encouragement. 

One night, and then I’ll move on. I’ll raise my children. It’s only one night, Lena said to herself in a dark corner of her mind as her dancing partner claimed her lips and took her face between her hands.

Only one night for this, and then I’ll get over Kara, that was the last coherent thought Lena had before she let herself go and be desired, before she moaned in a stranger’s mouth and allowed her body to be set on fire with want, unaware that in that precise moment, Supergirl had landed at the club’s front door, lured by Lena’s very own accelerated heartbeat.

Chapter Text

The Phantom Zone

A Timeless Land

The monster was half-dead. Or half-alive, maybe. The energy that kept him going was barely pulsing through his veins. His armor was broken, faulty and unstable thanks to the absurd sacrifice of the Zor-Els. Pure hatred drove him now, eager to recover in order to destroy every version of them, every drop of joy or love that any of them could hold inside their tiny bodies. He would hunt them across worlds, he would watch the life drain from their eyes and he would conquer all matter and become everything. Alpha and omega. 

He was infinity. 

He was all there is.

His vengeful thoughts fuelled his will as he crawled through time and space. The Phantom Zone was the only place he could go after his dreadful encounter with the Zor-Els on Earth-Y. 

There, he could rest. There, he could wait and plan without the burden of losing precious time.

Time didn’t exist in the Phantom Zone, so the creature made a nest there, and planned.

His empty, luminous eye sockets sparked with the promise of death and destruction, the nourishment that fed him. His wrinkled mouth almost painted a smile, imagining the many tortures, the pain he would inflict upon Humanity. Still, his body was unstable, the Zor-Els had damaged his life shell, and his life force leaked out like water from a failing vessel. He needed to do repairs, so he called upon the Manhunters he had enslaved many years before. He knew they’d have a purpose, and they delivered. 

With the privilege of a timeless hideout, it didn’t matter that it would take him a thousand years to heal as the Manhunters rebuilt his life shell, dying from exhaustion across the decades. He replaced them with new minions, hunted across the Multiverse by his loyal demons. 

Ah, and the Zor-Els would be exactly where he left them once he decided to step out of the forsaken land. They would be waiting, spattered in different versions across the Multiverse, unaware that soon they would be erased by his power, like insects on the sole of his boots.

With a new armor and his mission clear, he rose again, ready to crush reality under his finger.

But he wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. This time, he would weaken his enemies first. He would feed their worst nightmares.

And what he needed was right there, in the Phantom Zone, waiting for him to be released. It didn’t take him long to find it, as he knew all, he saw all.

He looked at the specimen, unimpressed. Kryptonians were supposed to be formidable, but they always disappointed him. Two other specimens were there, sharing the same crystal jail. One was female, the other, a brute. They would have to do.

“Kara Zor-El’s head, and those of her offspring, in exchange for immortality and eternal freedom,” it was simple. In his pitch-less voice, the words sounded like a menace instead of a bargain, “I’m sending you to an Earth where Zor-El doesn’t know her full potential yet and her descendants are nothing but helpless cubs. Should be easy for you, General.”

He snapped his fingers protected by Nth metal gloves. A portal opened next to the monster, and the Kryptonian fugitives before him solemnly nodded before disappearing through it.

Whether these petty creatures succeeded or not, it didn’t matter. 

There were many others he could send. There was a Universe filled with enemies of the Zor-Els.

And he? He had time. Time to regain his strength and attack again, and all the Infinite Earths would cry mercy before him, and he would have none, for he was alpha and omega.

He was inevitable, and one insignificant family of Kryptonian and human hybrids couldn’t stop him.

Earth-38

National City

Kara landed on the pavement, right before the club’s front door.

She noticed two things right away.

The first one was that Jon was standing in his Armani suit guarding the club’s door next to a 6.2 feet tall doorwoman. 

The second thing was that Lena’s heartbeat was still agitated, but she could feel she was not in danger as she first had thought when she found it amongst the endless noises of the night. The usually calming sound of Lena’s heart sounded excited, joyful even? Whatever it was, she needed to find her.

Jon approached her first.

“Supergirl, what are you doing here?”

Quick! Summon the reporter reflexes! Make up a good excuse! Kara’s mind raced trying to find the perfect words, but as always she retorted to the perks of having a double identity, the easiest way out.

“Well, Kara Danvers called me because she was – uh – worried. About Miss Luthor.”

Jon smiled politely at her but frowned.

“I just spoke to Miss Danvers on the phone a few minutes ago. Miss Luthor is safe.”

Liar, Kara thought. But she should play along. She couldn’t accuse Jon of lying without raising some questions she didn’t have the time to answer now.

“Yeah, well, you know I’m friends with both Kara and Miss Luthor and I… I don’t know when you spoke to her but I made Kara a promise to check in on Miss Luthor in person.”

Supergirl rested her hands on her hips, and Jon knew then that there was no way around this. But he had to try. For Lena’s sake. Better said – for all their sakes.

“Supergirl, please. You have my word, Miss Luthor is fine and she’ll be going home very soon. My job is to protect her and I would never let her come in harm’s way,” though Jon’s tone was confident and reassuring, he made a point of making eye contact with Supergirl and said the following sentence almost in a whisper… “Kara Danvers knows this, she trusts me too.”

What was he getting at? Jon’s somewhat patronizing attitude was getting on her nerves. 

She scoffed despite herself and shook her head, golden locks waving in the air as she grew impatient.

“Yeah, right, but Kara is not here right now and if you’re so good at protecting her, how come you’re out here and not by her side, inside the place?”

Jon looked taken aback for a moment, his James Bond pose breaking a little as he… blushed? Kara had to blink twice. But he was blushing, indeed.

“It’s – it’s a women-only club,” Jon said finally, looking nervously behind him.

Realization hit Kara as she began to put the pieces together.

“Oh,” was all she could say. Kara felt something twist inside her stomach and confusion clouded her mind for a moment. She knew this about Lena. Why was she surprised?

Jon quickly regained his trademark composure.

“But I have two of my best female agents inside watching over her.”

She admired Jon’s commitment, she really did. And she knew Lena was in good hands, but still, this whole situation didn’t sit right with her and she knew that if she just saw her, if she just talked to her for a moment, everything would go back to normal and the rampant anxiety within her would settle down. It didn’t matter that Lena had gone through a lot of effort to hide this place from her – she could have her reasons, she could have her secrets but – Kara needed to know that she was alright. So she couldn’t give up. She had to see her with her own eyes, no matter what.

“Ok, I – I know you’re good at your job, Mr. Essen, but I’m going in now,” Kara said with finality, walking past him, “thank you for your time.”

“Superg –“ Jon grabbed one of the arms of steel quickly, almost desperately. Kara saw something new in his eyes – panic? Then he whispered, only for her to hear, “Kara, please. Don’t.”

She didn’t flinch. She just stared back at Jon and dedicated him a tight-lipped smile. She was more annoyed than worried. She didn’t have time for this.

“So you know,” Kara accused.

Jon seemed to hold his breath for a moment and then sighed as if he knew he had already lost.
“I wouldn’t be a good Chief of Security if I didn’t know. But you don’t have anything to worry about. I’m not here to argue with you, my job is to protect her. And you. All of you, Lena, you, the children –“

Although he sounded sincere, Kara just couldn’t stand it anymore. Lena was right there, a few steps away from her, she was so close, and the uneasiness she felt wouldn’t go away until she saw her. She knew this, but she also didn’t want to hurt Jon. So she looked down at his hand, still clutched to her forearm, and gave him one single warning. 

“Let me go, Jon.”

He complied, slowly, carefully. He knew there was no way he could stop her, so he pleaded once more, 

“Please, Supergirl…”

Kara turned towards the door without another word, her usually confident super-strut a little hesitant. The woman on the door just stepped aside and opened the door for her (she knew better than to stand in Supergirl’s way).

Kara took a deep breath. She was nervous, for some reason. More like utterly terrified. The last time she felt like this, like she was about to fall down a dark hole, was when she was running down an alley, struggling to take off because she just saw the plane Alex was in falling from the sky. She knew Lena was not in danger. She knew there was no logical reason for her to feel like this. Still, she had to remind herself to calm down and channel her superhero apparent composure. As it turned out, she had other weaknesses besides Kryptonite.

The first thing she noticed was that it was hot. Of course, it was a nightclub, and the intoxicating (not in a good way) atmosphere of the place was built on the mixture of deodorants, perfumes, alcohol and sweat. The place was packed. Women everywhere, in groups of three, four, dancing, laughing, drinking. But then there were others in pairs, whispering things in each other’s ears, touching, dancing, kissing… Kara had to look away a few times, feeling like she was intruding, like she shouldn’t be seeing something so intimate. She had been to places like these before (heterosexual places, though), she wasn’t scandalized or embarrassed, she wasn’t a prude despite what Alex and Maggie might say to tease her. Yet, there was something so alien to her (no pun intended) in two people making out in the open. She had never met anyone who she wanted to do that with. She had never felt the urgency of kissing someone in front of the whole world. She had never felt uncomfortable with public displays of affection from others, but doing that herself? She never had felt the need. With Mon-El, with so many others… it was actually the opposite.

Was something wrong with her?, she wondered. As she walked slowly among so many women who looked like they were having the time of their lives, Kara envied them. She thought about the customs in Krypton. She thought that maybe the way humans approached love and desire would never sit right with her because after all, she had been born in a Kryptonian birthing matrix, her purpose written in her genetic code and her destiny sealed by the role her parents had assigned her. She was supposed to be a scientist, in Krypton. She was supposed to marry someone from another powerful house, when she was of age, and honor tradition and have some matrix-made children of her own, and also engineer their traits and aptitudes as her parents had done with her. But all that changed the moment she was put in a pod to follow her cousin to Earth. Destiny wasn’t written in stone anymore. She had defied everything that had been chosen for her, both on Earth and Krypton, so perhaps her path to love would be a new one too. Something unexpected, something that would feel right for her.

“Whoa. Dude. Great cosplay!”, a slurring voice exclaimed behind her.

The dim lights and the loud music had prevented everyone from realizing that Supergirl herself was walking among them. Kara hadn’t even thought about the pros and cons of stepping into a lesbian nightclub in full super suit, that’s how much the need to find Lena was clouding her judgment. 

The woman who had spotted her was visibly drunk and Kara smiled awkwardly at her, hoping the people around them would just ignore her.

“Wait – wait a minute…”

The drunk woman squinted up at her in the dim light, and Kara saw her clumsily reaching in her pockets, probably trying to find her phone.

Kara walked past her trying not to draw attention to herself. She saw the woman that had recognized her walking up to the bar to talk to her group of friends, she was waving her arms in the air. She didn’t need to use her superhearing to know she was telling her friends that Supergirl was in the club. 

She needed to find Lena, fast.

So she breathed in, deeply, and closed her eyes. She tried to find Lena’s heartbeat, again, she knew it so well, it shouldn’t be hard… and there it was, fast, agitated, almost in sync with the deep kick of the music. 

“Feel, can't you see there's so much here to feel?

Deep inside your heart you know I'm real

Can't you see that this is going higher, higher, higher, higher?”

Kara was a Britney girl, but she knew the lyrics to the Kylie classic, and it was both the diva’s voice and Lena’s heartbeat what ended up guiding her towards the dancefloor. 

At first, she had to use her X-Ray vision to spot her, there were too many bodies moving between them. The first few seconds she couldn’t believe her eyes, so she shut them wide and shook her head, scoffing to herself. She must have focused on the wrong person. Only she hadn’t.

Kara slowly walked towards where Lena was, almost in the center of the dancefloor, exactly as the song reached the chorus again and the whole club sang their hearts out to it. It was beautiful, almost, but Kara couldn’t appreciate the moment because she only had eyes for what’s happening right in front of her.

The stroboscopic lights that helped the crowd ride their moment of euphoria along with the song’s climax didn’t prevent her from having a clear view of what was happening. Lena didn’t notice her, how could she?

Something within Kara made her stop breathing for a second, she didn’t know what it was, but it felt like a ball of fire exploding inside her chest. Rage. Confusion. Disappointment. Hurt, above all.

“I'm standing here with you, why won't you move?

Even if it throws you to the fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire”

Lena was kissing a tall blonde woman with curly hair and legs for days. Kissing? No, that was not the word. She was devouring her and being devoured in return. Their hands were all over each other’s bodies, little moans of pleasure and desire escaped their mouths whenever they separated, just for a millisecond, just enough to keep breathing.

Kara stood frozen as she watched (and heard, because her superhearing was having a mind of its own now), and for some reason, she couldn’t tear her gaze away, no matter how big and scary the ball of fire within her was becoming, burning her, threatening to destroy her from the inside.

“All the lovers that have gone before

They don't compare

To you”

The tall blonde grabbed Lena’s ass and began sucking her neck as the song was coming to an end. The young CEO’s eyes were closed in ecstasy, and Kara felt like throwing up.

The Kryptonian suddenly realized this was all wrong. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t have come. She shouldn’t be feeling what she was feeling, no matter if she didn’t even know what it was. 

A new song replaced Kylie’s hit but Kara didn’t have the time to notice. As she turned around to try to escape the place as quietly as possible, the drunk woman who had previously recognized her suddenly surrounded her with a bunch of her friends, all of them shouting and jumping around her and recording her with their phones, losing their minds over her muscles and the suit and the fact that she was there. They asked for selfies and autographs and Kara couldn’t keep up but she smiled and was as polite as possible as they all went crazy around her. It was only a matter of time before almost the entire club noticed and all eyes were on her. 

All eyes, including Lena’s.

Kara couldn’t look at her. She didn’t want to, too afraid of what she might find in the ocean of green and blue that had always felt like home. Kara knew that tonight had changed things, she didn’t know how, or even what had changed, but she knew things were not going to be the same from now on and she didn’t want to face it. 

And, besides, the ball of fire still burned inside of her. She was afraid that if she looked back at Lena it might burn them both. 

She had been desperate to find her, to see her with her own eyes, and now she couldn’t look at her and all her mind kept telling her was to run away, to put as much distance between her and Lena as possible. So when she heard Lena’s voice calling her, just a timid ‘Supergirl?’ that only the Kryptonian could hear, she panicked. 

Fight or flight, right? Well, she clearly needed to fly in this case. As far away as possible. 

She excused herself and even though her legion of fans cried out in disappointment and kept reaching for her, Kara managed to make her way to the front door.

Jon was right there, almost in the same spot she had left him. When they locked eyes, Jon’s mouth hung open for a moment, and Kara knew whatever she was feeling was, she had it written all over her face.

The more reason to run. 

She heard her hurrying behind her, calling her again, but she didn’t even look back.

Kara summoned all her strength to jump and fly at top speed. The blast from her take off was so powerful that Jon’s tie ended up wrapped around his neck, and the group of fans from inside the club that had run chasing after her had to hold on to each other as their phones kept recording and they all stood in awe, squeaking and swooning like love-struck teenagers.

“Oh my God, this is gonna go viral in my Insta!” 

“Did you see those biceps? I mean I saw the pics but – up close? I’m in love.” 

“I think I’m gonna pass out.” 

“My roommates are not gonna believe this!” 

“I’m never washing my hand again, ever.”

In the middle of the joyful chaos, one woman in a dark-blue Gucci dress just stood there, staring up to the point in the sky where Supergirl had disappeared.

Jon walked up to her, approaching carefully. 

“I tried to stop her, she wouldn’t –“

Lena shook her head.

“Don’t,” she said simply, her voice calm, her hands trembling a little, “just take me home.”

He nodded and thoughtfully looked away when Lena tried to hide the tears in her eyes.

***

Kara flew high, higher than it was safe for her. She broke the sound barrier and kept pushing, up, up, up and away until she felt Earth’s gravity trying to pull her down. She had done it before while lifting Fort Rozz, she could do it again with nothing but her hands and her cape. A spacecraft leaving the surface of Earth needs to be going at about 11 kilometers (7 miles) per second, or over 25,000 miles per hour to enter orbit. That’s approximately 33 times the speed of sound. Kara went through all these numbers in her head as she just pushed harder, her teeth clenched and her eyes focused on the stars. She couldn’t breathe in space, that was true, but she could go without air longer than any human so she would be fine. Though, in this case, she was like a dog chasing a car: she didn’t know why she was doing this, she just knew she had to do it.

Perhaps being in space, if only for a few seconds, would burn the image of Lena in that woman’s arms. Lena moaning in her mouth. Lena being groped and fondled by those hands. 

Kara screamed. 

No one could hear her up here, as she was close to breaking gravity’s barrier and experience 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat would be welcomed. Kara needed to feel something more than this inexplicable, illogical pain.

When she felt the air around her disappearing and becoming fire, she realized how absurd this was. 

How pathetic she was. 

So she stopped. Dead in her tracks. And she just let herself fall back to Earth. 

The feeling was welcomed. The air pushing against her. Her head spinning. The peace of not having to do anything, just… fall. 

She calculated she had about five minutes before hitting the ground. Given the speed and drag, she needed to react in four and a half minutes tops, or she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from impacting the ground. 

She smiled. She knew she was above the Pacific Ocean. She wouldn’t hurt anyone. Falling was something she could control. It wasn’t real. She would stop before she hit the ground. Falling was easy. The wind spinning her body was white noise to her ears, a relaxing chant that told her this, you can control. This, you know. 

But the ball of fire inside of her still refused to be tamed.

Lena in that woman’s arms. Lena in the arms of others. Men. Women. It didn’t matter. They were just shadows in her mind, images she was making up and still… there was this dull ache. Why was she torturing herself? And why did it hurt, in the first place?

Kara didn’t understand. Lena was her friend. She could do whatever she wanted to do with whoever she wanted to do it with.

Rage. Confusion. Disappointment. Hurt, above all.

As she kept falling, her mind kept replaying the scene in the club.

Rage.

Kara tried to reason with herself. She always felt protective of Lena. She was just worried about her. She had lost her once, and she couldn’t go through that again. Not with Luna and Liam in their lives. Not with all that was at stake.

Confusion.

Their children. So beautiful, so magical. Kara loved baby Luna’s dimples that resembled Lena’s and little Liam’s intense green eyes. She could tell they would be like his mom’s. She loved that they looked like Lena. And she felt a warm wave of pride and love whenever Lena told her they actually looked like Kara. They were theirs, a hundred percent, no matter what destiny Lillian had intended for them. Kara realized her children had escaped destiny the same way she did. And Lena, she had done it too. Kara knew they were family now, the four of them, their bond unbreakable, but still, she yearned for something. Something more. But what more could she expect from Lena? Her thoughts made no sense, her mind felt like it was not her own.

Disappointment.

Lena was letting herself go in that woman’s arms. She wasn’t even paying attention to her surroundings. In the middle of a club. On the dancefloor. What if someone that wanted to hurt her took the opportunity? What if she wasn’t there to stop it? Why was she being so reckless? And more importantly, why had she hid it all from her? She doesn’t trust me, Kara thought.

Hurt, above all.

Lena had been so wonderful with the children and so gradually cold with her over the past few months. Kara had thought she needed time and space, and she had given that to her until she couldn’t hold back anymore. She had no answers, just questions and feelings she couldn’t process. All she could do was let herself fall into the ocean.

The fall! Her eyes fluttered open. She had about ten seconds to recover control of her fall before she hit the water. Of course, the impact wouldn’t kill her, she would barely feel it, but there was no need to frighten innocent sea-creatures or spook some poor intern monitoring a seismograph in Hawaii.

Kara turned her body around, her hair getting in her eyes, her cape obstructing the movement in her arms… she pushed her fists forward and corrected her trajectory in the last second, now flying up again, avoiding the ocean surface. 

She screamed again, and this time her throat burned and she felt she couldn’t breathe. Her eyes fired up, but her heat vision never came out. Instead, fresh tears that felt like waterfalls.

Because she knew, finally.

Hurt, above all? 

No.

She had been so stupid. So blind.

She was unequivocally, desperately, madly in love with Lena.

Kara Danvers, in love with Lena Luthor. 

She screamed again as she kept flying to nowhere, into the night, into the skies.

She was in love with Lena. It was so clear to her now. And it felt right and natural and good.

But she knew she was doomed.

Kara Zor-El, in love with her human best friend, the accidental mother of her children. 

And because of that, and perhaps other things too, but especially because of that cruel twist of destiny, Lena Luthor wouldn’t, couldn’t ever love her back.

So Kara kept pushing herself to the limit, flying around the globe with no direction, wishing the pain would eventually feel slightly bearable, hoping her tears would freeze up in the sky.

Chapter Text

With her heart pounding fast and blood pulsing in her ears, Lena ran to the twins as soon as she arrived at the penthouse. 

Luna and Liam were peacefully asleep. 

She had taken up the habit of watching them sleep when she was upset or stressed out. 

But it was very hard to calm down after what had happened in the club. It was impossible not to think of Kara, and the expression on her face when they locked eyes and Kara ran before she could say anything.

What would she have said, anyway?

She couldn't quite understand how things had gotten to this point. So she watched her children sleep and accepted the hot cup of tea Natasha brought her way without even asking.

They talked briefly, Lena asked her if she could stay with them for the rest of the night, and made up a lame excuse about work and deadlines and – well, it didn't matter because Natasha just nodded, didn’t question anything, didn’t protest at all. 

Lena told her she’d be in the upstairs lab if she needed her, and Natasha smiled. Of course, there was no lab, only Kara’s Sunroom, but the Colonel just went along with it. The same way she, Jon, and Jess pretended to not know that Kara Danvers and Supergirl were the same person. 

Lena guessed her paler than usual features and the badly camouflaged anxiety in her voice were the reasons why Natasha was being so calm, so understanding. Jon had done exactly the same. She didn’t know what she’d do without them.

But now, she needed to focus on Kara. Stupid, loyal Kara.

She needed to talk to Kara. She dreaded it, but her mind screamed at her to make things right, somehow, even if she didn't even know what was wrong in the first place.

Why had she run? And why had she come to Roulette’s club? Stupid, loyal Kara, indeed.

She didn’t even bother changing. She did redo her lipstick, though, because of course it was a mess. A pan of piercing guilt ran through her as she revived the moment when she realized Supergirl was looking at her as she made out with a stranger. A moment of pleasure and euphoria had turned to anguish in the blink of an eye when she saw the women surrounding Kara, when she watched her fly away from her. She knew it was stupid to feel like this, it was absurd to feel the need to explain to Kara. But why did she run? Lena sighed deeply as she felt the menace of a migraine settling in her temple.

Why did she run? The question kept pounding in her head, and Lena couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed to make things right. Desperately.

She stepped out of the elevator and into the Sunroom with the watch Kara gave her tightly held in her hand. She activated the mechanism that revealed the House of El crest and pressed it without second thought. For emergencies, Kara had told her. 

Well, this was a big one.

She didn’t expect her to appear right away. Kara had literally run from her. 

So she waited. 

Five minutes. 

Ten.

She probably knew there was no emergency at all. Stupid, loyal and stubborn Kara.

Still, she pressed the button again. And again. And again. 

And when no Goddess appeared from above, she ordered Telle to open the dome and she yelled at the sky like a lunatic. Too late to be proud now.

“Kara Zor-El, wherever you are, I know you can hear me, so come back here right now or I swear you’ll pay for this!”

Thirty seconds later, the Goddess in red and blue appeared, hovering above her. She looked beautiful, magnificent and… sad?

“How exactly were you planning on punishing me, Miss Luthor? It’s no joke to threaten a Kryptonian.”

They didn't know that at the time, but Supergirl wasn't the only Kryptonian who heard Lena's threat traveling through the sound waves of the cold night.

The young Luthor was glad that Kara was holding on to her sense of humor. Perhaps a good sign. Although Lena could see right through her.

“Oh, I was going to tell the Colonel to never make pirozhki for you again,” Lena smirked.

Kara narrowed her eyes, “You evil, evil Luthor.”

Lena chuckled, and for a moment, Kara smiled down at her, as if nothing had happened. But the reality could only be ignored for so long.

“Will you come down here, please?” Lena asked, her voice tired but hopeful, “we need to talk.”

Kara floated gently towards her, landing with almost no sound a few steps away from her. They weren’t within arms reach, Lena noticed, and there was something unsettling about the way Kara diverted her eyes from her. The distance between them felt wrong. But it would have to do.

So they stood awkwardly in front of one another, bathed by the pale moonlight and the blue lights of the Sunroom, their very own Fortress of Solitude, only smaller.

With the dome open, the chilling breeze of night roamed freely around the space between them, but Lena didn’t know if the shivers she was feeling were from the cold or her own anxiety. 

She didn’t know how to begin, but she had to find a way.

“How did you find me?” 

Lena measured her words, and they were gentle and deliberate, but Kara did what Kara did when she was nervous: she hung her head a little down, her gaze fixated on Lena, a veil of remorse and fear in it, and something that could easily evolve into a full-blown pout in her mouth. 

Fidgeting with her cape wasn’t helping, so Kara just let it all out unfiltered – the guilt, the haste.

“I was – I was worried about you when the Colonel came home and she said you were going to be late. I wondered why you hadn't texted me and I kind of panicked, sorry.”

Lena wondered how it was possible for Kara to be the most powerful being on the planet and yet look so small, sometimes, so vulnerable. 

“You don’t have to say you’re sorry, Kara, I understand.”

Kara sneered and turned around to pace the room, exasperated with herself.

“Yes, but it was obvious you wanted privacy and I – I didn’t respect that. That’s why I’m sorry.”

Lena shook her head and once again invoked her CEO voice. Severe but serene, understanding but firm. 

“No, Kara, don’t. You can’t comply with something I never asked you to do in the first place. It was me who avoided your questions for months. It was me who didn’t tell you what I needed from you, or what I wanted… it was me who was embarrassed. And I kept you in the dark for no reason. I’m the one who’s sorry and I sh – “

Kara didn’t let her finish. The superhero started rambling without even looking at her friend.

“Yes, yes, I get that. But I made a mistake, Lena, I was the one that crossed the line. Lesson learned. I promise I’ll do better, I won’t be where you don’t want me to be and I need to get it together – “ 

“Kara, please –“

“No, I mean, I need to stop going crazy thinking you might be in danger just because I don’t know where you are or who you are with – “

“Kara, STOP!”

Lena’s voice echoed through the Sunroom and Kara finally looked at her – guilt, hurt, and embarrassment written all over the hero’s face.

“I – I’m sorry.”

It was the final straw for Lena. She couldn’t take it. 

“No, no! Stop that too! Stop saying you’re sorry! Stop thinking this is your fault!” Lena sighed, frustrated, “why aren’t you mad at me? I lied to you!”

“Well, you didn’t lie… you just omitted some information,” Kara had the nerve to shrug, and Lena couldn’t believe her, “well, it was obvious you were enjoying yourself…”

“You know what, Kara? I wasn’t!”

When the Kryptonian just blinked like a deer caught in lights, Lena’s self-loathing and rage finally took control of her.

“I wasn’t enjoying myself. I went to that club every Saturday for almost two months looking for meaningless sex. Do you know why I did that, Kara?”

“You don’t owe me an explanation, Lena, I get if you – “

Lena raised her hands in the air in despair.

“No! No, stop being selfless for a fucking second, Kara. Stop giving me everything I need the moment I need it! I want to tell you why I did it,” Lena looked beyond pain, out of her mind, and Kara thought the only time she had seen her like this might have been when Lillian came to the DEO and she finally confronted her mother. 

Kara swallowed hard, still not getting why she was on the receiving end of her friend’s fury. 

“I did it to feel something that didn’t have a catch, Kara. To feel something on my own!” Lena’s voice went up an octave and then she pressed her palms to her forehead, trying to regain some composure. “So many people in my life have taken so many things from me. So many things, Kara,” she continued, softer this time, her eyes closing briefly, her face contorting with hurt as a random unpleasant memory crossed her mind, “I don’t even know how to feel things on my own anymore, I just think about how I’m supposed to feel and then I force myself into it. And I hated myself for that. So I went there, and I hoped to forget, if only for a few hours. And you know what happened?”

Kara looked at Lena like every word was punching her in the gut. Still, she tried to pour into her eyes all the sympathy she could. She knew what she needed to do now. Just be there for her. Let her pour it all on her. If there was someone on this planet that could take it, it was Kara. And she'd do it, she'd do anything for Lena.

“Tell me,” Kara encouraged, her voice low and compassionate. An invitation that Lena took to finally break down.

“I couldn’t do it,” Lena confessed, her voice breaking, “I sat there, alone, miserable, and I couldn’t do it because I was being the selfish brat I’ve always been while I left you behind with our children and didn’t even bother to tell you where I was. The end of the world is knocking at our door, and I chose to spend my Saturday nights looking for a quick fuck."

Lena was trembling now, her body shaking with sobs she had tried to refrain unsuccessfully.

She tried to cross her arms but she ended up awkwardly hugging herself. Kara wanted to reach out. She wanted to take Lena in her arms, but she knew she couldn’t because she might never let her go. 

And that would be an absolutely selfish and unforgivable thing to do before her friend finally had a breakthrough. 

“And you know what’s even better, Kara Danvers?” Kara had to close her eyes, unable to retain her own tears when she heard her name in Lena’s inconsolable voice. “That today was the day I decided to go along with it, only for a night, only to get it out of my system and be the person you think I am.”

Kara once again opened her mouth to protest, but Lena wouldn’t have it.

“I – “

“Don’t, please. I’m mad, Kara,” Lena smiled bitterly, “Mad at myself. Mad at you, for not being mad at me.”

Kara was fed up with Lena’s insistence on belittling herself.

“Lena, I could never, you had your reasons – “ she tried to appease her, ever so considerate, so forgiving. 

“Oh my God, would you stop being a martyr for even one second?!”

And once again, Lena threw a bomb of frustration over her.

“Don’t you get tired, Kara? Don’t you get tired of putting everyone’s needs before yours? Don’t you get fed up with everyone’s expectations of you?!” 

Kara frowned. Of course she got tired. Of course she felt the burden, sometimes. But all the anger she had within her had been harnessed already, depleted, vanished along with dreams of her mother, of her father, of Aunt Astra and her lost planet. 

“You forgive, and you respect, and you excuse us all because we want so much from you and you just take it? And for what?” Lena kept going and she was taking no prisoners. “You don’t ever tell me what you need, Kara. You don’t take days off from me, from the babies, from Supergirl, from the DEO…”

The Kryptonian hero just stood there, regarding her friend with intensity, her eyes glassy, lip quivering, fists clenched. 

“Don’t you see, Kara? The more you give us, the more we want,” Lena emphasized raising an eyebrow, because she knew what she was talking about. She was guilty of being one of those who had taken too much from Kara, asked for too much, and she knew. “And you don’t even ask for anything in return. You never put yourself first. And that makes me mad, yes.”

Kara was speechless. She wanted to refute Lena. She wanted to tell her this wasn’t about her. Still, no words came to her, and Lena knocked her down with one final perfect blow.

“Would you even have an answer, if I ask you right now what it is that you want, Kara?”

The blonde closed her eyes. 

I know what I want now. Perhaps I’ve known for a long time, but I didn’t want to see. But I can’t tell you. Not now. Not ever.

She would have laughed if the words hadn’t sounded so cruel in her head. Lena had always had great timing. She put on a brave face. Chin up, shoulders back.

“I want… I want you to be safe,” Kara breathed in, “I want my sister safe, and happy. I want Luna and Liam to be happy. To grow up without fear. I want the world to be safe.”

But her words only made Lena laugh bitterly. 

“No, Kara. That’s not an answer. You want these things, yes, but I'm asking what is it that you want for yourself. Truly. Without shame. I’ll show you.”

Lena approached her slowly. Kara held her breath as her friend entered her personal space. Those intense green eyes were too much for her, but if she looked down she’d encountered a cleavage that would make her mind spin and exposed shoulders engulfed in the finest silk. So she endured. She held Lena’s gaze and prayed mercy to Rao.

“You play the game with the truth. For example: I want you to be mad at me, Kara.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

Kara held her ground even though Lena’s face was inches from her. She didn’t stutter.

“I’ll play your game. I’ll tell you what I want.”

Lena smiled, satisfied, and took a step backward, letting the tension between them breathe just slightly. 

“Tell me,” Lena echoed Kara’s words. She watched the Kryptonian as she rested her fists on her hips. Lena had to suppress a gasp, she knew then that Kara was going in for the kill.

“I want you to stop hurting,” the blonde began calmly but commanding, “I want you to stop thinking this is all your fault. I want you to really look at yourself and see what I see: your beautiful, kind-hearted soul.” It was Lena’s turn to be speechless, and it was Kara’s moment to take no prisoners. “I want you to stop believing the lies Lillian and Lex fed you your entire life. You’re a genius, a gift, and you’re better than them. You’re a good person, Lena, and a good mother even after what they did to you. You’re stronger than me because you keep going. And I – I just worry. I worry all the time.” 

This time, it was Kara who shortened the distance between them. She walked forward until they were almost chest to chest. Almost, but not quite.

“You ask me what I want, deep down, what my heart desires without shame, Lena? I want you to trust me so I can protect you,” Lena tried to look down, but Kara followed her with her gaze, “You, and the babies. I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it. I want us to fix this, whatever this rift between us is, so you will finally let me protect you, for real, this time. I failed you once and I’m not going to let that happen again but if you keep things from me, if you don’t trust me completely… I’ll lose my mind, Lena. I don’t want to lose you, Lena. Not again. So there. That's my answer. I can't lose you. I won't.”

Kara waited. She didn’t move, she didn’t step back. She could see the tension in Lena’s jaw, the way she was blinking back tears. 

“Good,” Lena spoked, finally. And the venom in her voice was a sham. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

The brilliant Luthor turned around and without any further explanation, she just walked away.

“Where are you going?” Kara called behind her.

Lena didn’t even bother to look back.

“To bed. I’m tired.”

“No.”

“No?”

“This is your game, but I’m not finished.”

Before Lena could turn around, Kara used her superspeed to move right in front of her. 

“You know what else I want?” Kara sighed, sounding defeated, showing for the first time how really tired she was. “I want you to stop making me feel powerless.”

Even though it was a whisper, Lena felt the anger radiating from Kara’s ever warm body.

“Oh, there it is,” Lena smiled, “all cards on the table. Now you’re mad, Zor-El. Finally. So, first you tell me I should stop blaming myself and now you say that I make you feel powerless. I’m not your Kryptonite, Kara, and you should really make up your mind.”

Lena scoffed as she tried to walk past Kara.

“Don’t go, please” Kara pleaded, and Lena took pity on her. If only for a second.

“It’s clear that we’re not going to resolve anything tonight, Kara,” Lena said, almost tentatively, “we should get some sleep, talk this out in the morning with coffee and pancakes.”

Kara didn’t flinch. 

“No. You wanted me to be mad at you. You asked me what I want. So we’re doing this. Now.” 

Lena crossed her arms over her chest and covered her fear with a tight-lipped smile.

“Do you have the slightest idea of how unnerving you are, Supergirl?”

Kara just ignored her.

“You make me feel powerless, Lena, because I couldn’t protect you when you needed me the most and now you’re here, in front of me, and I feel like the closer I get to you, the more you slip away from me. I need you to understand how important you are to me. You. Liam. Luna. What I first told you is the truth. What I really want, more than anything in this world, is for the three of you to be safe. For my family to be safe. And you're a part of that and you just won’t let me take care of you. So, you might not be my Kryptonite, but you’re tearing me apart, all the same.”

Lena swallowed hard. It was nice to have a taste of her own medicine. Kara’s words cut her through the bone. She couldn’t move. She almost couldn’t breathe. And her eyes were welling up and she couldn’t fucking see what was right in front of her, in more ways than one.

“Thank you, Kara, thank you for being honest,” she said serenely, burying deep inside the shattering pain she was feeling. She had had the best teacher, watching Lillian perfecting the technique over the years. How hard could it be? “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed.”

Oh, but it was hard.

She couldn't move. She couldn't bring herself to turn around and ignore her aching heart.

These tears, she couldn’t swallow. She had lost at her own game. Again.

“I should’ve known,” Lena whispered as she tried to regain control of her body, “I should’ve known it was going to get so much worse.”

“What are you talking about?” Kara asked, alarmed at Lena’s expression.

Lena tried to put one foot in front of the other, but her body felt heavy.

“I’m breaking inside, Kara,” she finally confessed. “It’s killing me. The pain…”

The Kryptonian knew this was the time she had been postponing. She would finally take Lena in her arms and she wouldn’t stop holding her until the Earth stopped spinning. 

But as she was about to reach out and fulfill one of the desires she hadn't confessed out loud, Kara whispered a sympathetic "I know", and she achieved exactly the opposite.

“No, you don’t know at all, Kara! You don’t know a fucking thing!”

Lena jerked away from her. Kara took a few steps back, baffled.

“You don’t know what they did to me!” 

Lena was bawling freely now, her hands in her hair, her eyes lost.

“You don’t know what’s like to be in my head, to endure the nightmares, the thoughts about – you don’t know how you feel inside when your own mother violates your body, your mind, your soul!”

Just be here for her. Let her pour it all on you, Kara reminded herself as she struggled to stand still. If there is someone that can take it, it’s you. 

“And they–  they remind me every day." Lena looked in the door's direction and Kara knew instantly she was talking about Liam and Luna. "God, I love them, I love them so much! And then I hate myself because I don’t think I can take it… How can I love my own children when I didn’t ask for them? How can I know I won’t hurt them? How can I be sure I won’t turn into her?!”

Kara bit her lip and shook her head, unable to control tears of her own.

“You won’t! That will never happen to you! You’re better than them, you’ve always been! I’ll keep you and the babies saf–”

“OH GOD, STOP IT!" Lena paced furiously around the room, "you don’t see it, do you? You won’t even be here, Kara! How much longer is this farce going to last? Face it, Kara, this is you playing house! When will you get tired of it? Next month? A few years from now, when they begin asking questions you won’t know how to answer?”

Kara was speechless once again. 

Lena had doubts about her commitment to her, to the children? Why didn't she tell her? Kara didn't know if she should feel offended, or heart-broken, or guilty. She kind of felt it all at the same time.

Lena kept going, far too lost in her own pain, “Or next week, maybe, if you decide you want one that it’s only yours this time, yours and Mon-El’s?”

Kara snapped out of it hearing the dreaded name of her ex-boyfriend, “What does Mon-El have to do with this, I ended things with him months ago! I don't even know where he is!”

And Lena simply chuckled and shook her head, hugging herself again, looking so utterly unconsolable that Kara wanted to take off, grab the Moon, and put it at her feet if only that could take away her pain.

Instead, the Kryptonian just stood there and listened as her friend cried her heart out.

“You know, if I could choose…" Lena started, the bitterest smile on her face, her words spitted out through little sobs and sniffs, "between them never been born and them not being yours… I’d choose to leave you out of it. Because I hate that they’re yours, Kara. More than anything, I wish they weren’t yours with all my heart.”

Suddenly, the room felt like someone had opened a hatch and all the air was sucked out. Kara literally stopped breathing for a moment. When the air entered back into her lungs, she choked on her own tears.

She panicked irrationally for a second, wondering if there was any Kryptonite around. 

“So no, Kara. You don’t know pain like this.” 

Kara closed her eyes trying to stop the images of Lena walking away from her, of the children out of her reach…

I hate that they’re yours.  

Hate. Lena genuinely hated her? She blamed her for what happened to her. She loathed the fact that she was impregnated with her children. 

And Kara couldn't blame her. What had been done to her was terrible but she only wanted to scream, beg Lena to stop, because every word was killing her.

What Kara didn't know was that Lena was dying inside just like her, and it was that raw pain and that unbearable vulnerability that prompted Lena to say aloud something she would have never voiced under any other circumstances.

“The unbearable pain of knowing I can’t have you," Lena whispered.

And in the cold air of night, Kara raised her confused eyes, red with tears, and looked at Lena as if she'd been brought back to life.

The hero opened her mouth, but no sound came out of it. 

The unbearable pain of knowing I can’t have you. 

Without even realizing it, new fresh tears fell freely down Kara’s cheeks, but they tasted differently.

"I'm sorry," Lena's voice was merely a sob. "I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I'm sorry I said that I hate – God, Kara… I don't deserve them. I'm an idiot. I – I need to go."

When Lena hurriedly tried to walk past Kara, the hero reached out and grabbed her by the hand. 

"Lena," it was a plea and a prayer.

Lena turned around and found herself in Kara's arms, her gaze fixated on the House of El's crest shining proudly in the hero's suit.

Kara circled Lena's waist with both her arms and she held her there, watching her breathe in, breathe out, not saying a word. Lena was obviously embarrassed. The scientist awkwardly raised her hands to Kara's chest and tried to push, gently, but Kara didn't move an inch.

"No", Kara whispered, "look at me. Please."

Lena shook her head, tears renewed.

So when the young Luthor refused, Kara spoke.

"You do have me."

Kara felt the woman in her arms trembling, and she knew it wasn't from the open dome.

"You always have. Even when I didn't know," Kara tilted her head a little, gently searching Lena's eyes.

And she finally complied. Lena looked up, cheeks red, breathing uneasy, and Kara couldn't help but place a tender kiss to her forehead, then resting her own against Lena's.

Kara felt Lena's hand grabbing the back of her neck.

They were almost slow dancing, holding on to each other like two castaways on a lifeboat.

Lena's dark blue dress contrasted beautifully with Kara's red cape and the moonlight bathed them in a hue of white and gold. From afar, they'd appeared to be a painting.

It was Kara who stepped away, only enough to lock eyes with Lena and look at her with pure adoration. Lena's legs almost gave way.

Unable to refrain herself anymore, Kara looked down to Lena's mouth and launched forward, taking a brief pause before their lips touched to make sure this was what Lena wanted. The young Luthor made sure to express her approval by pushing Kara down and entangling her hands in blonde locks.

They kissed, tasting lipstick, tears and something that felt like electricity.

Kara brought her hands up and caressed Lena's face and only took breaks to run her thumbs over her lips and smile at her and make sure Lena had stopped crying. 

"You do have me," Kara vowed, once again, and Lena slowly nodded, mesmerized by how dark the blue in her hero's eyes had turned.

They kissed again, and again, and Lena didn't notice the moment Kara covered her shoulders with her cape, but the warmth from the Kryptonian's body became so welcoming she could melt in Kara's arms at any given moment.

They were so happy they didn't notice they were being watched. 

That’s why the man hiding in the shadows chose that moment to attack.

They did hear him, though.

"Zor-El. Finally."

Kara looked up to the dark figure hovering over them and pressed Lena tightly against her. She didn't recognize him, but she knew immediately with every fiber of her being that they were in danger.

“Kneel before Zod!" the figure commanded in a wrathful, sickening tone.

Kara locked eyes with Lena and said only one word.

"Run."

Chapter Text

Kara had kissed her. 

Lena had to blink twice, trying to grasp all of the implications. But her mind was still in a haze, excited and hurt and hopeful, all at once. She had confessed her feelings in a moment of weakness and despair, and now, about thirty seconds later, she suddenly felt joy, redemption even.

The sensory overload was only logical because Kara had kissed her.

"You do have me."

Kara's voice sounded sweeter than the perfectly entangled voices of the Girls Choir from the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Dublin.

She could only hear that healing sound and she could only feel the warmth radiating from Kara's body, the perk of her Kryptonian cellular structure capable of turning her cells into the greatest organic power units in the known galaxy.

Kara's lips had tasted as soft as she had imagined, and Lena was positive she wasn't exaggerating or falling victim to an over-the-top romantic cliché as her mind told her nobody else's lips would suffice, from now on; nobody else's kisses would quench her thirst.

Well, perhaps she was overdosing on corny thoughts, after all, because when she looked up to Kara's blue eyes the verses of a thousand poets came to mind. 

She searched frenetically through all the languages she knew, through all the countless nights and days spent amongst the company of books and authors, from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Yeats, from Cummings to Neruda, from Rosalía de Castro, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andressen, Bryce Echenique, to Lisel Mueller and Rabindranath Tagore… And she ended up landing softly over the incommensurable lines penned by Emily Dickinson (but of course!).

The answer was always in Kara's eyes, and Lena's heart sang unapologetically in the golden cage of her mind: 

My river runs to thee:  

Blue sea, wilt welcome me?  

My river waits reply.  

Oh sea, look graciously!  

I'll fetch thee brooks     

From spotted nooks,—  

Say, sea,  

Take me!

It goes without saying that Lena was also drunk with desire. She could have changed the words to an unabashed "Say, Kara, take me!", but destiny had other plans.

Because, of course, with her luck, Lena could expect nothing less than a vengeful villain falling from the sky the moment she kissed the woman she'd been pining over for what felt like a very long time even if it really wasn't.

There it was, a man (an alien?) dressed in black (is that a Kryptonian coat of arms on his chest?) floating above them. Lena had been so lost in Kara she had forgotten to ask Telle to close the dome. 

Mental note for the future: try to not make stupid mistakes that will give free access to your home to interplanetary villains that probably want to kill you and/or your friends and family.

“Kneel before Zod!"

Well, shit.

Kara and Lena exchanged shocked looks. Everyone on Earth-38 knew that name and his trademarked pompous demand.

Zod had been Superman’s mortal enemy before the last son of Krypton (a popular incorrect assumption, by the way) had sent him and his goons back to the Phantom Zone, after a gruesome battle in Metropolis that had taken place almost a decade ago. Kara wasn’t Supergirl back then and Lena was at MIT. None of them had known Zod in person, luckily, but the impact of his terrible actions had scarred the whole world extensively, no matter who you were or where you were when it had happened.

General Zod was a madman, a megalomaniac, a destroyer of worlds whose sole intention was the annihilation of humanity in order to build a new Krypton from our very ashes.

Before either Kara and Lena could ask themselves how or why this criminal had ended up on their doorstep when he was supposed to be locked up in the Phantom Zone, where Superman had returned him after the battle, there was the small matter of making sure they both got out of the encounter alive.

When Kara commanded Lena to run, the young CEO didn’t think twice, in her mind only one mission: protect Liam and Luna. Protect their children, above all else. 

They didn’t know why Zod was here, but given what they knew about the possible impending collapse of reality... well, nothing was out of the table. There was an unspoken agreement between them as Kara gave her a serious, silent nod before turning around to face her family’s mortal enemy.

Lena didn’t look back even if she feared for Kara's life. If Superman defeated Zod once, surely Kara would do the same easily given that she was the strongest Kryptonian on Earth, right?

Right.

As she ran barefoot down the stairs, heels in hand, Lena forced herself to focus.

“Telle, Red protocol, NOW!”

The hidden earpiece in her left earring allowed her to hear the artificial intelligence responding to her demand.

“Already deployed, Miss Luthor. I’ve triggered all the silent alarms. DEO agents should be here in about four minutes. Miss Terranova was with the children in the nursery but I alerted her and they are already in the panic room, safe and sound. For now."

Lena sighed with relief, but immediately after her heart skipped a beat as she thought about the possibility of the babies getting in harm's way. She had designed that panic room, though, and it was equipped to keep out any kind of threat, human or otherwise. The twins would be safe, they had to be.

“Assessment of the threat," Lena shook her head quickly and kept hopping down the stairs as fast as she could go.

“Three hostiles." 

"Three?!"

"Kryptonian. One female, two males – Miss Luthor, WAIT–" 

Lena didn’t have the time to register Telle’s warning as she finally entered her living room. 

She only saw a blur of black in front of her and suddenly the air was being knocked out of her lungs as she was violently pushed across the room.

Lena groaned loudly from the floor as she tried to get on her feet. Her Gucci was ruined and her left side burned with pain. She felt the metallic taste of blood in her mouth and tried to turn around, but her attacker grabbed her and pushed her against a wall, holding her there. 

She tried to breathe but fingers of steel pressed hard around her throat. The young Luthor struggled for air as she looked into pale blue eyes filled with arrogance and cruelty.

“So this is Kara Zor-El’s human whore... Mmm. Not bad. You’re pretty. For a human.”

Faora Hu-Ul, Zod’s second-in-command, stared at her enjoying every gasp of pain, every twitch of Lena’s eyes filling with despair.

“There’s a room in this house covered in lead and red sun lamps, protected by your inferior technology. We both know who’s in there. I can't locate it, but I can destroy this building down to its foundation. You will take me to that room, human whore, or else, everybody in this building will suffer. Including you.”

Lena's eyes went wide with terror. 

No, no… they know about Liam and Luna? How? 

And as if Faora could read her mind, the Kryptonian criminal dedicated her a triumphal smirk.

"You know you can't win. Your pathetic Zor-El is already struggling against our General. She won't be able to hold all of us. You may as well give me the children now, and I promise to make it quick."

Lena had to think quickly. She didn't stop the tears in her eyes, it would help with the plan she was forming in her head.

"Please… please… they're only babies," she gaped, in her best damsel in distress voice.

The Kryptonian fugitive scoffed and put just a bit more pressure on her throat. 

"No. They're aberrations. They're an insult to Kryptonians. Lead me to them or die."

Faora flared up her heat-vision as if to prove her point and Lena closed her eyes, convincingly trembling in fear.

"Kara will never forgive me!" She yelled between tears.

And at that, her attacker released her hold on her and watched with contempt as she fell to the floor.

"Zor-El won't be alive. None of them will. It's your choice whether or not you'll suffer the same fate. Give me the children, and we shall spare you."

Lena coughed trying to get some air into her lungs as her throat burned. Faora's smiled widened.

"You don't need to die for those half-blood aberrations." 

Keep her talking, Lena's mind raged, just keep her talking. If she hasn't killed me yet is because she really can't locate the panic room. They don't wanna kill them just busting through the building. Zod is a madman, he wants to put on a show. She needs you. Just keep her talking.

"I'll give them to you…" Lena croaked weakly between coughs, "But… only if you spare Kara…"

Faora laughed as she crouched in front of her.

"You're in no place to negotiate. You're just an ant in my boot, human. I'll say it for the last time: Zor-El and the children will die at the General's hand, no matter what you do. Do you wish to suffer the same fate?"

Lena shook her head.

"But – I can't lose her… I can give you the babies but – Kara…"

"You love her," it wasn't a confirmation so much as a taunt.

"Yes," Lena didn't hesitate, the truth in her voice and the tears of frustration adding the credibility she needed to keep the charade going.

"Pathetic," Faora snarled at her.

Lena locked eyes with her tormentor, blood smeared across her lower lip.

She knew nor Faora nor Zod had any intention of keeping her alive, even if she gave up her children. But if something had transcended in the press about the Kryptonian fugitives, it was their disdain for humanity, their hubris. The fact that they saw humans as pathetic little creatures controlled by their emotions would have to play to her advantage.

"I'm giving you my children, my blood… please don't take Kara away from me too," Lena begged as she tried to get on her feet, failing miserably – and on purpose. The fact that she truly feared for Kara and the children's safety was what perhaps sold Faora on the whole thing.

"Very well, then. I'll speak to the General. I can't promise anything but… perhaps Zor-El would be of use for us."

The smile Faora gave her reminded her of Lillian. It was all bullshit.

"Okay…. okay…" Lena took a deep breath, closing her eyes in pain and crawling on all fours, trying to appear like a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, about to sentence her own children to death for the slim chance of saving the love of her life. 

The reality was quite different, as she finally was within arm's reach of what she was looking for: her scattered right heel, which she grabbed, detaching the heel from the outer-sole as fast as she could and throwing it in Faora's face.

The Kryptonian caught it in the air quite easily and looked dumbfounded for a second before scoffing at Lena.

"What was that, you pathetic little creature? You expected to kill me with a piece of plastic?"

One thing this Kryptonian war criminal probably didn't know about Lena Luthor? She could engineer the crap out of anything and even her gadgets had gadgets.

Lena smiled then, through the pain and the dread. She would at least have this moment.

"No. I expect to kill you with this," she said as she pressed the counter of her shoe, which secretly hid a tiny little button that set up an electrical charge emitted from the heel that Faora was holding.

Lena watched as the Kryptonian was hit with a shock of 10,000 volts, a charge that could kill a human being. Faora's body contorted in a sick dance of pain for five seconds. Kryptonians were vulnerable to electricity, as Kara's multiple encounters with Livewire had proven, but Lena didn't know if her little magic trick would be enough to at least paralyze Faora.

As it turned out, it wasn't. 

Once the shock ended, Faora was still on her feet, and Lena knew it was over.

"You can have my children when Hell freezes over, you dumb bitch," Lena growled.

Faora's eyes filled up with rage. She screamed and charged and Lena didn't even have the time to brace. She grabbed her and sent her across the room once again, and this time Lena's body made a dent in the living room's wall. 

She cried out in pain as Faora approached her, intention clear in her violent stare. 

Lena knew she had just signed her death sentence, but knowing she was buying Kara some time was enough. 

Knowing Kara would protect Liam and Luna until the end was enough. 

Her sweet, gorgeous Kara, whose sunshine smile and adoring eyes she would never see again… She would never get a chance to watch Luna and Liam grow up, to guide them through high and lows, to embrace them when they needed comfort or to celebrate with them when they reached milestones in their lives. 

Lena swallowed hard and imagined their pretty little faces lighting up and cooing, beaming at her in the pale morning light and reaching forward with their little hands, longing to be in her arms.

Her babies. Her painful, odd, but eventually fortunate miracle. 

Forgive me, please. And the plea was for the three of them. She hoped, with time, Kara, Liam and Luna could forgive her.

She had time to register how Faora's eyes fired up with the blueish flares of heat vision, and Lena braced herself on pure instinct. 

Yet death never came. 

Something, someone stood in the way. A blur of red and blue and gold.

"Kara?", Lena gasped out loud. 

Lena could only see her protector's back as she was engaged in a heat vision battle with Faora. Her savior did have long golden locks, maybe a bit darker than Kara's. The majestic red cape was there, yes, but it appeared to be longer than the one she had designed for Kara, and the pose, the suit, the body… it was all the same, and somehow, very different. 

It can't be, Lena thought to herself.

Finally, her protector was able to outlast her adversary, as Faora collapsed in Lena's living room having solar-flared. And then, her guardian angel turned around and Lena was staring at Kara's eyes only they weren't Kara's and they had a hint of green that she recognized as her own.

She gasped, fascinated, and going through a mild shock at the same time.

"Luna."

She knew immediately. And for some reason, stupid, unwelcome tears welled up in her eyes and she wanted to reach out but her knees gave way and she almost stumbled on the floor. Luna caught her mid-air.

"Mom!"

Luna panicked for a second. The word just slipped her mouth. Not that she cared at that moment.

Lena was in pain and she groaned loudly, holding on to Luna's strong arms, slightly thinner than Kara's. 

The young hero used her X-Ray vision and sighed in relief as she saw that Lena did not have any life-threatening injuries, though the pain from a broken rib on her right side was evident.

"It's okay, you're okay…" Luna's words sounded like a self-reassuring mantra as she scooted her up as if she weighed nothing.

"I need to take you someplace safe."

"No!"

Luna looked down to see Lena's eyes filled with terror, but not for her own life.

"Kara" Lena pleaded simply as if she knew the young woman holding her would understand with just a word. And she did.

"Ieiu," Luna gasped involuntarily, she quickly shook her head then, "I know, but… Liam –", she searched for the right words, knowing this Lena wouldn't know who she was talking about, "my – my brother's helping her. He's like me. We – we can help."

A loud, concerning noise made the ceiling tremble. It was clear there was a battle above their heads, and they couldn't know who was winning.

Fighting back a grimace of pain, Lena stared up at her savior, so familiar and so foreign at the same time.

"Luna, please."

This time, Luna did notice how Lena spoke her name with confidence. She took a deep breath, her heart beating fast in her chest and not from the recent fight.

"You know who I am."

For an answer, Lena gave a question. "Do you come from Earth-Y?"

Luna nodded slowly.

"Then, we know everything. You. The Anti-Monitor. Your… your parents. All of it."

It would've been terribly awkward if there wasn't another loud noise above their heads that interrupted the moment. Luna sighed and gently placed Lena on the floor, crouching in front of her. 

The young woman frowned, visibly in dispute with herself, and Lena saw the same crinkle that appeared on Kara's eyebrow every time she worried. It was… beautiful, seeing a part of Kara in her daughter, so clearly.

But they didn't have time.

"I can help her, please," Lena whispered, her voice almost breaking, "my babies are safe for now, but we need her."

That final plea seemed to convince Luna, who nodded solemnly and successfully hid the rapid beating of her heart at the mention of the word "babies", which was a box full of paradoxes and Back to the Future references she didn't have time to unpack at the moment.

"What do you want me to do?"

As if they had been partners before (and Lena thought to herself that, in another universe, they had), Lena quickly gave her orders.

It should've been almost an out-of-body experience to meet her daughter from a parallel universe but Lena just let herself be guided by the adrenalin and the desire to keep everyone alive. Ever the pragmatic scientist, her instructions were clear and precise.

She would have time to freak out later, when everyone was safe.

"The safe in my room. It has a three-step verification process. There's no time, just break it. There are lots of prototypes in there but I need you to take something that will look like a gun. It's not a gun, it's a matrix-assisted laser–"

"biomolecular disarranger! We can deplete their solar reserves with that!"

The enthusiastic smile on Luna's face made Lena's heart skip a beat and she couldn't help to smile back but time was definitely not on their side so she quickly shook her head and urged Luna to hurry.

"Yes, but the trigger is linked to my DNA and you can only fire it once. Only I can operate it. So, please, go!"

With a gust of wind and kinetic force, Luna was gone, only to appear three seconds later after a loud noise coming from the master bedroom.

Lena shrugged.

"Well, we needed to renovate anyway."

Luna handed her the weapon-looking device and watched in awe as Lena manipulated it, opening a little side flap that revealed a touch screen. Lena tapped something and suddenly the thing came alive with an electric jarring sound. 

"It will take a few minutes to charge. Can you get me up there?"

Luna Danvers-Luthor had stared many times at eyes like the ones that appeared fierce and determined in front of her. The only difference now was the youth and something else she couldn't quite place. It wasn't terror, but it was fear, the kind that makes you fight back with all you've got.

"Please…" Lena begged, unabashed and unapologetically, "I can't lose her."

Luna relaxed her frown, letting out a long sigh. 

"Okay," she nodded, proceeding to scoot Lena up in her arms once again as if this wasn't the young alter ego of her mother. There was still self-consciousness in Luna's eyes.

"Hold on tight," she smiled weakly.

Then, as if to encourage her, as if to give her strength or get over the awkwardness of the moment, Lena said something. So simple. Yet, so meaningful, at least for Luna, for the part of her that still couldn't believe her mother was gone.

"You've got this," Lena smiled nervously at her.

And Luna knew, rationally, that this person in her arms was not her mother, but that didn't matter anymore.

For the first time since her city was destroyed and her parents were gone, Luna's heart filled up with hope.

***

“Run."

Kara didn't wait to watch Lena go. 

She turned to Zod, who was floating menacingly over her head and charged without a word.

She followed her instincts, there was no need to do otherwise. It was quite obvious the intruder didn't have friendly intentions. 

Kara knew Zod was supposed to have vanished forever in the Phantom Zone, but it wasn't the time for questions. She had to make sure he was busy while Lena got out of harm's way. An intrusive thought told her their babies were in danger too, and a new and terrifying kind of fear washed through her, but she immediately focused on her enemy and vanished all thoughts that didn't set her mind on how to defeat the madman. 

Zod wouldn't get his hands on her family. She just wouldn't allow it.

Kara threw a devastating fist at Zod's jaw, but the General had time to block the attack with both his arms and quickly flew away from her. It was clear that he was one of those predators that enjoyed playing with his food.

"So you're who they call the last daughter of Krypton. We meet at last, though I must say I'm not impressed," Zod taunted her, and Kara was so disgusted by his voice that she felt a wave of old anger rising within her, a feeling she thought was long lost.

They circled each other in the air, slowly rising above the building, the city lights of the night serving as silent witnesses of their mutual assessment. 

"You’re not your cousin, but you will do. Your family was one of the many poisons that suffocated our precious Krypton. Your uncle, your mother… yours is a lineage of disgrace, Zor-El."

Kara ignored him. 

"Why are you here?", she asked firmly, her voice rising above the sounds of the city. "How did you get out of the Phantom Zone?"

Zod clenched his jaw, his eyes filled with unfiltered rage. 

"I'm here to have justice, Zor-El, to make sure your line is finally exterminated. Kneel before me, and I'll make it quick for you, and those two little abominations you're hiding in this building."

Kara should've known better, but she lost it the moment Zod made it known he knew about the babies. With a raging cry, she charged forward and this time, Zod fought back. Entangled in a grim dance of fists, kicks and heat vision, the two Kryptonians fell back to the building, through the dome, and back into the sunroom, falling on their feet and shaking the building to its foundation, with their arms fighting for domination.

"Kryptonians and humans can't live together, Zor-El," Zod growled between punches, "we are the superior race by nature's law. You crossed a red line when you allowed them to mix your blood and create those abominations. For that, you'll pay!"

That only ignited Kara.

"They…" punch, "are…" punch, "my…" punch… "children!" With a devastating headbutt, Kara finally drew blood. Zod took a few dizzy steps back, but he was smiling at her.

"They're only a mistake. Surrender now, Zor-El, and I might even spare that human woman you seemed to be so fond of."

Kara's eyes flared with heat and Zod knew he had once again touched a nerved.

"You have fallen into the same habits as your cousin. So dishonorable, so pathetic, so… human."

Supergirl began another devastating attack, concentrating punch after punch on Zod's chest and belly. He grimaced in pain, but Kara was relentless. 

"You come to my home and you insult my family and you threaten my people!" With one final right hook, Kara sent Zod across the large hall, his Kryptonian body leaving a path of dust and rubble on the floor. "I thought you'd have learned your lesson when Kal defeated you, but you seem to be the same maniac that my uncle sentenced to the Zone. Well, humans have a saying, you know? Third time's a charm."

Kara stood tall and proud as Zod stumbled to his feet, apparently about to be defeated. Only he had a sick smile on his face, and when he locked eyes with Kara, she knew something was wrong.

"Oh, Zor-El. Hubris is your family's only legacy."

Kara was about to wipe that smug expression on Zod's face when something knocked her off her feet. An unforgiving tackle. Suddenly, she was on the ground, her back pressed to the floor, and on top of her, a Kryptonian brute threw punch after punch to her face. 

Zod was not alone, and he had waited to reveal this until she thought she was winning. Kara raised her arms and tried to block the vicious assault, but her attacker was furious and unforgiving.

"Surely you remember my loyal Quex-Ul, from my battles with your cousin. Right now, my second-in-command, Quex's sister, Faora Hu-Ul, is making sure your precious human gives up your half-blood cubs."

As in cue, Kara trapped her attacker's fists in both her hands, filled with renewed anger at Zod's words.

Quex-Ul screamed like a wild animal to her face, and Kara thought to herself he was as ugly as he was vicious. She headbutted him time and time again until there was blood in her forehead as well as in his nose. Finally, Quex fell backward but quickly balanced his position, and the pain inflicted by Supergirl only seemed to make him angrier. A wild animal, indeed.

Kara rapidly stood and held her ground ready to fight, though she found herself facing two full-powered Kryptonians on her own and she knew she didn't have the upper hand. Her head was dizzy, and she could taste iron in her mouth. On top of that, she couldn't stop thinking about Zod's words – if it was true he had sent Faora after Lena and the babies, she didn't have time. She had to find a way to quickly defeat Zod and Quex. 

The odds seemed impossible, but she had to persevere.

As Quex got in position next to Zod, fists high and an evil smirk on the brute's face, Kara took a wide stance, her knuckles white, eyes fixated on the men in front of her.

"Look at her, Quex," Zod sneered, "they say she's the most powerful Kryptonian in the Universe. Stronger than Kal-El. Tell me, Zor-El, do these humans that you revere so much think you're below them? Why do they call you Super-girl, then? Why not Super-woman?"

There was an answer then, but it wasn't Kara's voice.

"Because girls are strong as hell."

A young man dressed in the blue and red of the House of El hovered above their heads, and majestically so.

Kara's jaw dropped. Quex looked just baffled. All smugness on Zod's part was suddenly lost.

“Kal-El? No… you're not him," the Kryptonian General paled still.

The unannounced guest gently landed by Kara's side. 

 “My human name is Liam. But my Kryptonian name is Jer Zor-El," he spoke with aplomb, "grandchild of Zor-El and Alura In-Ze, son of Kara Zor-El and Lena Luthor Danvers."

Kara gasped. 

But so did Zod. "That's impossible! You're supposed to be an infant in this reality!"

Liam shrugged, and Kara was shocked when she was reminded of her father and even Kal in his timid smile, "Well, my parents used to say I was always a precocious child."

Quex looked to his master, "My lord, Mobius lied! He betrayed us!"

Zod shook his head.

"No, there's got to be an explanation."

Liam turned to the woman that looked like his Ieiu, and he couldn't help but smile at her.

Kara's heart skipped a beat when she noticed how Liam's dimples resembled Lena's. His eyes, his hair… She had so many questions, but –

"It doesn't matter, we have to kill them!" Zod cried then, his eyes filled with rage, "Kill them all!"

"Fight now, explain later?" Liam scrunched his nose involuntarily as he asked the question, and Kara wondered how on all the Earths could he be so cute and so handsome at the same time. She nodded at him. 

They got ready, side by side.

Kara could only nod and show a smile of her own as she readied herself to fight and not question the weirdness of standing next to her grown-up son from the future. Or was it from another dimension? Another Universe, maybe?

Well, the technicalities didn't matter anymore, because the odds had suddenly changed in her favor.

Chapter Text

Alex ran as fast as her legs would let her. 

She was at the DEO when they received an alert from Telle, warning them that Lena's penthouse was under attack by super-powered beings. She didn't even pause to wait for J'onn's reaction.

"Alpha Team, with me, now!"

Vasquez and Grimes followed her in full gear. 

And here they were four minutes later after driving through the streets of National City as if they were on a race with the Flash himself. 

As Alex got out of the service elevator, running upstairs to the penthouse, she prayed to a God she didn't believe in that her sister was safe, that Lena was safe, that her niece and nephew (whom she had come to love to pieces so easily) were safe. 

Because if anything were to happen to those two crazy rugrats who laughed at their own toes and always covered her favorite shirts in bubbly drool, there would be blood. 

If anyone dared to even touch a fair hair on their funny round heads, she would be ready to murder.

So Alex ran, for Kara and Lena, but mainly (and she discovered this with a sudden warmth in her chest she didn't have time to unpack) she was running for Luna and Liam.

Because while Kara and Lena knew how to take care of themselves, her niece and nephew were innocent little creatures, unaware of the hostilities and the perils of the world. And Alex was the protector, goddammit, so nothing should – nothing could happen on her watch. 

She arrived at Lena's door with her heart pounding fast and her teeth clenching from tension and anger. She quickly positioned herself for the retina scan and she heard Telle's voice in her earpiece immediately. 

"Danvers, Alexandra. Full access granted. We're currently under Red Protocol so I've let myself into your comms system in order to warn you. There's an incapacitated Kryptonian hostile in the living room. She’s been temporarily depowered. Please, proceed with caution."

With her Alpha Team behind her, Alex gestured for them to take positions on each side of the door.

"Telle, where are Supergirl and Lena?"

"Top floor. Engaging hostiles."

Alex drew in a quick breath.

"Shit. Are they in danger?" 

"Yes," the AI paused for a moment, and Alex could swear it was thinking, the fact that Telle had Cat Grant’s voice adding an air of haughtiness to it, "but they have help."

Alex was puzzled but she had to ask about Liam and Luna too.

"Ok. I'll take that. Where are the babies?"

"Inside the panic room protected by Ms. Terranova,” Telle informed her, “Mr. Essen and his team are waiting for you there, guarding the door until you arrive. As per Ms. Danvers and Ms. Luthor request, the panic room will only open for them, and you."

"Good. Let's do this. Weapons ready,” she commanded, “red sun radiation settings.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Alex kicked the door with her team following close behind, her gun ready and her senses heightened.

As they turned to enter the living room, they heard a groan and what sounded like a curse in an alien language. Alex recognized the Kryptonian blasphemies to her own amusement.

Faora Hu-Ul was trying to get back on her feet.

“Don’t even think about it”, Alex growled.

Faora turned, still kneeling on the floor. Alex recognized her immediately, she had studied everything regarding Zod’s past invasion to prepare for similar attacks, as part of her DEO training.

“Ah, another pathetic human with a toy gun. Very amusing, but I don’t have the time –"

Alex fired a precise shot, chipping Faora’s shoulder. Hasty as it might have looked, Alex knew exactly who she was facing so she needed to have the upper hand as quickly as possible. The Kryptonian cried out in pain and Alex took another step toward her, unwavering and unafraid.

“You’ve solar flared, I’m afraid. That means you won’t be getting back to your super-self unless you’re exposed to continued yellow sun radiation. It’s midnight, so you won’t be getting any sunshine in hours. That pain you’re feeling right now? It’s nothing compared to the real deal. I can make it go away if you play nice or I can make you experience it in a whole different level. Either way works for me, sister. Now, what’s it gonna be?”

Faora’s eyes went wide as she saw blood dripping from her wound.

In that exact moment, J’onn in his full Martian Manhuter form and James in his Guardian suit entered the room.

“Alex! What’s happening?” J’onn looked to the kneeling Kryptonian soldier, he knew right away her wound wasn’t fatal given Alex’s expert marksmanship. Her second-in-command had managed to control the situation within seconds. Alex could be ruthless sometimes, yes, but only in order to protect others. 

“Please. Please, we were just following orders!” Faora pleaded, knowing she couldn’t get out of this one while depowered and with the infamous Martian Manhunter in the room.

“Whose orders?” Alex ignored J’onn and James and kept pressing. 

“It was Mobius!” Faora’s eyes were unfocused, she was probably beginning to lose consciousness. “The monster… He… he did’t have eyes under his armor. He was just… light. He freed us from the Phantom Zone, demanded Kara Zor-El’s head and the blood of her offspring!”

Alex motioned for her agents to approach Faora and cuff her. The team moved to comply.

“There’s no future with the Anti-Monitor. There’s only darkness and death and nothingness,” Alex spat back with rage. She sighed, knowing she couldn’t go down this path and that time was running low for Kara and Lena, “we’re gonna treat that wound and then you’ll answer the rest of our questions,” Alex told her, “we don’t intend to hurt you anymore, so please, behave.”

J’onn, Alex and James gathered in circle to catch up about the situation. Faora was dragged out of the room by Vasquez and Grimes while hissing and protesting but knowing she couldn’t do anything but comply. 

“So the Anti-Monitor did this?” James looked to J’onn. 

“Yes. She called him by his ancient name – Mobius,” J’onn sighed, worried, “my guess is after his run-in with the Kara and Lena from Earth-Y, he ran to the Zone to heal or maybe just plan his next move. There, he must’ve encountered Zod and his goons and sent them after our Kara.”

A loud noise from the upper floor made the ceiling tremble.

“J’onn, I wanna go up there and help her but you know she’d want me to bring the babies to safety first,” Alex looked pleadingly at him, J’onn nodded.

“Take James with you and protect the children. I’ll go help Kara.”

Alex didn’t hesitate, no matter how much she wanted keep her sister safe. 

“Guardian, with me.”

As J’onn made use of his Martian technology to join Kara in the fight, Alex and Guardian entered the hallway looking for the panic room. 

“Agent Danvers, in here!”

Alex recognized the voice of Jonathan Essen, Lena’s chief of security. He was inside the laundry room, apparently. Only Lena’s laundry room was practically as big as Alex’s apartment. 

Inside, Alex and James found Jon and two of his agents, all of them carrying what looked like very advanced weapons.

"I thought Lena didn't allow weapons in the penthouse,” Alex raised her eyebrows with a hint of disapproval. 

“She doesn’t know,” Jon sighed, “these are a courtesy of our mutual friend, Bruce Wayne… I know she’d disapprove, but if I gotta protect them from aliens or supervillains or whatever, I have to have something.”

Alex, ever the pragmatic, couldn’t help but agree with an understanding nod. 

“Now, where is this panic room?”

“Right beneath you, Agent Danvers.”

Everyone looked around as Telle’s voice reverberated through the room.

“Ok… uh… Telle?” 

“I’m right here, Agent Danvers.”

“How do I get inside the panic room? Do I knock or something?”

There was a pause. I swear it does that on purpose, Alex thought to herself.

“Touch the floor.”

“What?”

“Just touch the floor, Agent Danvers.”

Alex shared a look of incredulity with Guardian and Jon, but kneeled gently and touched the floor with the palm of her hand. A line of white light appeared suddenly, as if the floor itself was scanning her hand. The light changed to green and then, the sound of something big in motion.

“Lena, you fucking genius,” Alex whispered in awe as in front of her, the floor revealed a set of stairs illuminated by red sun lamps. They went down deep, into what looked like a dark corridor. Jon was about to say something when they heard the sound of crying babies. It was strange to feel such relief at that sound.

“Natasha? Colonel? Are you there?” Alex called.

As in cue, the Colonel appeared with baby Liam in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other.

“So I see that we all are hiding our weapons from Lena, huh?” Alex didn’t sound mad at all, only amused.

Natasha was also very relieved to see them.

"Ms. Alex! Yeah, Ms. Lena is boss, da, but I protect!" The Russian proclaimed as she approached them.

“That you do, Colonel, that you do”, Alex agreed as she met Natasha halfway, “here, let me take him from you while you go get Luna.”

Natasha nodded. She hung on to her Kalashnikov, though.

Alex’s full attention was turned to her baby nephew whose big bright green eyes were red from crying.

“Oh, hello buddy. Shhh. It’s ok. We’re here. Auntie Alex is here.”

Natasha emerged again with baby Luna, who appeared as frightened as her brother. 

Alex quickly turned to everyone in the room.

“I need you all to help us escort the babies to safety. Nothing can happen to these two, ok? Nothing. Can I count on you?”

Guardian, Jon and his team nodded quickly. 

“What about Supergirl and Lena?” Guardian asked.

Telle decided to intervene, once again.

“As I said before, they have help. The children’s safety is Ms. Danvers and Ms. Luthor’s top priority.”

Alex wanted to protest but she knew the AI was right, and trusted that J’onn would keep Kara and Lena safe.

“Well, you heard Telle…”

As the group began to move, Jon raised another important question. 

“Agent Danvers…” he cleared his throat, visibly concerned… “Alex. The babies, we need somewhere safe. Somewhere where they can’t find us in case something goes wrong.”

Luckily, Alex had the answer. She held Liam close to her chest and her nephew decided that the crook of her neck was the perfect place to rest his little head, sighing deeply as only babies do when they’re beyond tired, making her melt from head to toe. She would kill for these children, she knew it. She would die for them, too. 

“I know just the place,” Alex announced solemnly, “just follow my lead.”

***

If hatred could win wars and bring people back from the dead, Zod would have had his New Krypton on Earth by now, commanding an immense army of perfectly bioengineered Kryptonian soldiers. These people in front of him, they couldn’t know, they couldn’t understand. 

And it wasn’t hate towards them what powered Zod, not exactly. It was hate towards the fact that they couldn’t see the truth in his vision, they couldn’t see this was the only way. He wasn’t a madman, no, he didn’t see himself as one. He was a loyal soldier, desperate to save his kind from extinction. 

But Kara Zor-El didn’t see it, Kal-El didn’t see it, and because of that they had to be eliminated. It hurt, it really did, going against those who should had helped him rebuild a new home, but it had to be done. Kara and Kal were the living proof that coexistence was impossible – there was no doubt that you either became a soft, ignorant pawn in the humans’ hands, or you simply fought them to stay a true Kryptonian warrior. There was no in between.

So Zod made the call again, because he was the only one brave enough to do it.

“Kill them all!”

He saw the knowing looks between Kara Zor-El and her hybrid son, the aberration that should be nothing but an infant in this reality. It made him sick. Mobius, the Anti-Monitor, his supposed savior, had lied. But it didn’t matter anymore. 

And so the battle began.

Zod charged forward toward the hybrid. He looked very much like Kal-El, tall and dark and proud. He would kneel nonetheless. Zod would make sure of that. Meanwhile, Kara Zor-El and Quex clashed together. She would kneel too even if Quex couldn't take her. 

Zod just focused on his prey. The half-blood would suffer. Then, his mother.

What Zod didn’t know is that Liam Danvers-Luthor had fought him before, in his own reality. An older version of Zod had escaped the Phantom Zone from his universe too, and Liam had faced him as a young Superboy in training, alongside his sister and his Kryptonian mother, with Lena always guiding them through the comms.

What Zod didn’t know is that Liam had studied him, that when his parents were preparing him to become a superhero, they made him and his sister go through trials and training routines yes, but also, they made them read. They read a lot. Reports. Threat assessments. Recounts of battles and encounters from his mother and her cousin, Kal-El. Lena made them recite statistics and traits and weaknesses and come up with strategies in many what-ifs scenarios. You have the powers, Lena used to tell them, but it's always the smarts what decides battles. 

So yes, Zod didn’t know it yet, but he was going to lose.

Frustrated as each punch found a solid block from Liam, the Kryptonian general roared and took off in the sky. If he couldn't land a fist on the half-blood, he would distract him to find another way. 

From the corner of her eye, Kara saw Liam following after Zod quickly, but she couldn't join him as she was having her own one on one with Quex-Ul, the brute who was pure muscle and uncontrolled rage. Quex landed a punch to her side and Kara cried out but pushed through the pain and used the momentum of his body tipping forward to land a hook to his jaw. Quex fell to the side, blood dripping from his twisted mouth.

"I don't want to fight you! You don't have to listen to Zod!" Kara pleaded, but it was no use.

Quex screamed and his heat vision fired up. Kara reacted quickly and their rays of solar energy met halfway as a shiver ran down Supergirl's spine, remembering her fight with her uncle, Non, and how absurd it was that he had to lost his life for a wrong cause. There were so many things that Kara regretted, but the fact that she was forced to take her uncle's life for the greater good was one of her biggest sorrows.

She hoped Quex wouldn't force her hand like that, but the goon just kept going. She knew she was stronger. She knew she had the upper hand. And yet, she held herself back, trying to think of another way. But Lena was in danger, the babies were in danger, Liam was battling Zod alone… once again, she was given no choice. 

When she was about to unravel her strength and pour her all on her heat vision, she noticed a rush of wind passing by her side. Something… no, someone. A blur of red and blue punched the thug at superspeed. The force was so devastating that his body made a hole through the wall, consequently falling to the street below them. 

Kara panicked knowing there could be people in danger that could be crushed by Quex's fall, but she didn't had the chance of going after him.

The blur of read and blue stopped a few feet in front of her, mid-air, turning into a young dark-blonde woman with blue ocean eyes that kind of looked like hers but… not quite?

"I got this. You talk to her."

Before Kara could say anything, her not-quite doppelgänger took off following the trajectory of Quex's fall. Kara turned around to discover that the her she was referring to was Lena Luthor, coming at her with a limp and a weird gun in her hand. 

"Lena!"

"I'm alright, Kara, it's nothing."

Supergirl ran to her, quickly scanning her with her X-Ray vision. A broken rib. It had to be painful, and there was some other minor damage, but luckily nothing too serious. But there were also marks of fingers around Lena's neck, turning an ugly purple…

"No, no, you're… you're hurt, Lena, your neck! What did she do to you?" Kara's voice filled with a rage Lena had never heard before. "Where are the babies?"

And Lena knew right there that if Faora had dared to touch one hair of their children's heads, she wouldn't live to tell it.

"They're alright. They're okay, they're in the panic room with the Colonel, and Alex is almost here…"

"You alerted the DEO?"

"Telle did before I had the chance."

Kara seemed relieved if only for a second. She automatically went back to panic mode, trying to get Lena as far from there as possible, pushing her a little, gently but frantically. 

"What are you doing here, then? I told you to run. It's not safe!"

"I can help you with Zod."

"No, Lena… you have to – you need to get away from here!"

Lena jerked away from her and kept pleading.

"All I need is a clean shot and we can depower him for a few hours…"

And finally, the Kryptonian's anxiety took the better of her.

"I said, NO!"

Lena fell silent, clearly taken aback by Kara's anger. The Kryptonian's eyes changed immediately from worry to guilt, and she reached out, taking Lena's face in her hands as if she had done it a million times before.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, it's just – I can't bare the thought of… I just need you to be safe."

Lena softened and caressed Kara's hands in hers, reading through the despair she could see in those bright blue eyes she had come to adore.

"Kara, you've seem them. There's more of us. We can do this," the brunette whispered in the softest of voices, and that seemed to work like a charm on Kara's anguish. 

Feeling the adrenaline flowing through her veins, Lena got bold and planted a quick kiss to Kara's lips. After a second, she pulled back, feeling completely insecure about the gesture because she really didn't know where they stood. They had just kissed in the middle of a heated argument, Lena had confessed her feelings in the ugliest of ways and they hadn't had the time to process or make sense of what was going on between them. It was this moment of danger what was making them feel vulnerable around each other, and maybe Lena had misinterpreted everything. But then Lena saw Kara's face lit up with joy, and all she could think of was kissing her again… before things could escalate, they both quickly remembered they were in the middle of an urban battle.

"It's really them, isn't it?" Kara looked up to the sky, then back at Lena, "how did they get here? How is this possible?"

Lena shook her head, "I don't know", then she took a step back distancing herself from Kara, trying to keep a cold head. "Listen, you need to lead them," Lena appealed to Kara's experience, to her sense of leadership, looking intently into the Kryptonian's eyes. "Fight together. And bring Zod down here so I can shot his pompous ass down."

Kara chuckled despite herself, "I'd rather you give me the gun."

Lena sighed, "I can't. It's linked to my ADN. I'm the only one who can fire it."

"Of course you are," Kara smiled again, quite bitterly this time.

"Kara. Just trust me. Please."

And there was Lena's hand in hers. Kara had never felt so… energized. Lena's words did something to her mind and body that was beyond words. She was a supposedly all-powerful being, but she had never felt what true power really felt like until Lena had looked her in the eye as a true equal. 

Kara looked down at their intertwined hands and she felt like a lightning had hit her. This was it. This was true power. The might of a Kryptonian paired with a Luthor. 

"Always," Kara promised, and all the hidden meaning and implications the word had were lost to Lena, but Kara made a mental note to tell her later, to show her what she truly meant by that. She wanted to say so many things to Lena, the hopes and fears she had been burying deep in her mind since Lena came back, since the twins took over their lives like the sun parting the clouds on a sad, rainy day. Kara wanted to tell Lena how she couldn't live without her, not anymore, not ever, how she had changed her reality forever, how she wanted to be better because of Lena, and Liam and Luna. Better meant stronger to protect them, wiser to care for them, faster to always be there for them.

Kara wanted so many things now, and all of them started and ended in Lena's name. In Lena's eyes, and Lena's voice. 

Kara was terrified, truly and uncontrollably terrified for the first time in a long time. This was a different kind of terror from the one she had felt when Lena disappeared, or when the babies were born.  

How could she put all what she was keeping inside into words? How could she be able to explain? Perhaps only three words would do. Perhaps there was only one answer that could make Lena understand, she saw it clearly now. Kara didn't need to say everything. She just needed to say the truth. 

She kissed Lena's knuckles, she fought back tears, and inhaled...

"Lena, I –"

Their moment came to an abrupt end as they heard the thud of something falling close to them. Luna had carried an unconscious Quex back to the sunroom, placing unceremoniously the Kryptonian brute on the floor.

"Ta-da! Someone needed a nap!," Luna announced, perhaps a bit too proud of herself. 

She looked up to the frozen pair holding hands and looking at her with the tiniest hint of panic, and realized she might had fucked up something. What, she didn't know.

"Oh, oh... I'm sorry. You were – ah, sorry. I seem to do this a lot. I mean. You know, not getting social cues, making things awkward... Yeah. I guess that doesn't change even if you go to other dimensions, huh? Lucky you, guys!"

The silence that followed was charged with awkwardness, as Lena took a step back from Kara and looked between them as if she was playing one of those spot the differences games.

Kara was able to calm down through looking at Luna and realizing the girl had inherited her goofy side, and a high level of sass she couldn't quite place. Maybe she had spent a lot of time with Alex. 

She said the only right thing that came to mind.

"So, hey. Hi. I'm Kara."

It wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't put her hand forward to (for Rao's sake, Kara!) shake her daughter's hand.

But for a response, there was only Luna's enthusiastic shake and a smile brighter than the yellow sun.

"I know. I'm Luna!"

Lena was very amused by the scene, and the two blondes looked at her then, and God, how she wished she had her phone with her because if they weren't in a life threatening situation she would have snapped a pic of the most surrealistic moment of her life.

"So… uh…" Kara didn't know where to begin, but she pushed through the weirdness of it all, "care to join me and your brother in the fight against Zod?"

Luna winked at her then, hands on her hips, a super smile on her face.

"Thought you'd never ask."

Kara turned to Lena, then.

"I'll be ok," the brunette reassured her and gripped her gun tightly, "do your thing, Supergirls."

Kara nodded. Luna fought back the desire to squeal. 

The two Kryptonians looked at each other and inhaled deeply. A fraction of a second later, they took off in perfect synchronization and Lena just stood there, in awe, terrified, waiting. 

Lena gripped her gun with both hands. She'd be ready when they came down. No matter her trembling legs and the pain on her side, that was beginning to make her clench her teeth as her vision got blurry. She'd be ready. She had to be.

Chapter Text

Liam despised it when the villains destroyed public property just to spite him.

From a strictly strategic point of view, he understood why they flew through buildings and wreaked havoc, causing collective panic to distract him.

Of course, he had to help the civilians first and ensure no one got hurt. But why, Rao, did they have to target public fountains, streetlights, and... is that a bus that Zod is throwing at him? Empty, thank Rao, but... really? What was the point? Pissing off taxpayers?

Why couldn't they have a nice, far-from-populated-areas battle where he would only have to worry about Zod giving him one of those boring evil guy speeches?

Zod was having a hard time creating destruction, though. For one thing, it was late at night, so there weren't many people on the streets, which Liam was thankful for. The fact that they were in the financial district also played to Liam's advantage since most of the buildings Zod was trying to damage were empty. Liam thought Zod was like a dog chasing cars... but then, a plane flew high above their heads, and the satisfied smirk forming on the General's face told him all he needed to know about how things were about to take a turn for the worst.

"Oh, no, you don't!"

Flying through the chilling night air, Liam sped up to catch up with the General before he reached the plane.

That's when his sister and his Ieiu's doppelgänger decided to join him in the chase.

"Come here, Zod! Zoddie! Bad dog!" Luna taunted the General, his sister loquacious as ever.

As Liam closed in on Zod, he saw the General's eyes light up with malicious glee as he caught sight of the plane, a commercial jet headed to National City's airport, filled with innocent passengers unaware of the evil lurking outside. Liam knew what Zod was going to do, and he couldn't let it happen. With a burst of speed, he lunged at the General, hoping to knock him off course. Just then, Luna joined the fray, coming in fast and strong. As Liam hit Zod, Luna was on the other side, ready to punch him and not let him recover.

Frustrated, the Kryptonian General screamed in rage, and in a final, desperate move, Zod unleashed a blast of energy from his eyes that hit the plane's wing, causing it to start tumbling out of control.

"I’ve got it!" Kara yelled as she flew past the siblings. "You get Zod, I’ll get the plane!"

Liam and Luna hovered in the air hesitantly but quickly came to their senses as Zod taunted them.

"You won't enslave me again! I'd rather die than have my freedom taken away!" The General barked with his usual air of grandeur.

Luna faked the sound of vomiting. "Just. SHUT. UP!"

Meanwhile, Kara raced towards the falling aircraft at lightning speed. As she got closer, she could see that the plane was spinning out of control, the fire spreading from the wing to one of the main engines. She felt the sensation of déjà vu as she positioned herself under one of the wings, calculating the speed and strength she needed to use to help the body of the plane land gently over the water so it could float for a while, giving the emergency services enough time to get to the scene and rescue the passengers and crew. Not many years ago, she had made her first save when Alex's plane went down in flames. There was no Supergirl back then, only her smarts and her wits to save her sister along with everyone on board.

Kara knew that once again, the river was her best shot at making a safe landing, so she used the exact same strategy as last time. If she were honest with herself, she would admit she hated saving planes: so many variables, so little time. The rapid calculations and the sheer amount of strength she had to use were always exhausting.

When she saw the river below her, she quickly let go of the damaged wing and focused on guiding the plane from below, using her whole body. She had to move quickly. 

She could feel the weight of the plane bearing down on her, but she refused to give up. With all her might, she began to slow the plane down, easing it towards the river's surface.

Kara cried out, calling on all her strength to shield the main body of the plane from imminent contact with the water. As the plane touched down on the water, Kara managed to ensure that it didn't capsize or sink. Even underwater, she heard a river patrol alerting all nearby emergency services and rushing towards the scene, ready to get the passengers and crew to safety.

Kara continued to guide the aircraft towards the shore as she listened to what was going on in the cabin and made sure that everyone was alright with her X-ray vision. She had to make sure there wasn't anything that the emergency services couldn't handle before flying back to Luna and Liam, no matter how terrified she was of what Zod could be doing to them.

But the half-Kryptonian twins were standing their ground, even when Zod's strategy turned almost suicidal. 

The siblings flew through the dark sky of National City, their eyes trained on the figure flying towards them at top speed. The General's face was twisted in fury as he headed straight for them. Liam could see the pure hatred in Zod's eyes and knew that they needed to end this as quickly as possible. Even if Kara was able to save the plane, it was only a matter of time before Zod took innocent lives. 

The General charged at them with lightning-fast punches, but Liam and Luna moved in perfect harmony, dodging and blocking his every move. Luna spun around Zod, her legs kicking out in a vicious arc. Zod barely managed to duck in time.

"You will not defeat me!" Zod shouted, his voice booming through the night.

"We don't need to defeat you," Liam replied calmly, his eyes locked on Zod's. "We just need to stop you from hurting anyone else."

The Kryptonian convict snarled and charged at Liam, his fists clenched. Liam met him head-on, their fists colliding with a sonic boom. The force of the impact sent Liam hurtling backward, but he quickly regained his balance and flew back into the fight. Luna circled around them, looking for an opening.

Zod was now blinded by rage. He thought his pure will would win him the battle, but he didn't account for the way the brother and sister worked in perfect unison. They had been doing so since they were little kids. They had been taught how to combine their forces and be stronger together. The General didn't stand a chance, and deep down, he knew. That's why he threw devastating punch after devastating punch without a care for saving his strength. He wanted to hurt them, and knowing he would lose only make him angrier.

Suddenly, Zod lunged at Liam with a ferocious uppercut, but Liam caught his wrist and twisted it, sending Zod spiraling toward Luna. She was ready, and landed a solid kick to his stomach, sending him reeling.

But Zod was not so easily defeated. He recovered quickly and came at them with renewed fury. Liam and Luna knew that they had to end this fight soon, or risk losing everything.

They flew towards Zod, their fists charged with power. Zod sneered at them, but they were too fast for him. They punched him simultaneously, and Zod let out a roar of rage as he fell down toward the L-Corp building, where Lena awaited her chance with her gun at the ready.

Before Zod's body impacted the floor, Kara appeared out of nowhere to grab him mid-air. Bruised and exhausted, Zod could only scream as Kara held his face up and twisted his arm, bringing him a few feet away from Lena.

"Lena, NOW!" Kara shouted, struggling to keep Zod still. 

Even with trembling hands, Lena drew on her fencing training to take a deep breath and aim carefully. She fired, hitting Zod in the chest with a powerful beam that depowered him instantly. Kara let his body fall, the General finally unconscious and unable to harm anyone else, at least for a few hours.

It was then that Liam and Luna landed on the ground, panting with exhaustion.

"Man, I thought he would never shut up!" Luna said, a triumphant grin spreading across her face.

Kara couldn't help but smile as she watched Liam and Luna high-five each other. They were so open, so in sync with one another. She knew it was silly, but part of her felt a tiny pang of jealousy. She was used to working with others, but not in the way she saw Liam and Luna make each other better. She knew it was a feeling she didn't have time to explore right now.

"Kara…?"

The Kryptonian looked back at Lena as the young Luthor let her gun fall to her feet, the adrenaline of the battle finally leaving her body and giving in to pure exhaustion.

All alarms went off in Kara's head as she saw Lena, paler than usual, her eyes unfocused, and her breathing quickened.

Before she could ask what was wrong, Lena collapsed right in front of them. She never hit the floor, as Kara's arms were around her before that could happen.

The last thing Lena heard was Kara Zor-El desperately calling her name.

***

"…Though we go forth alone, our soul unites us under Rao's gladsome rays. We are never lost, never afraid, for we shrink not under the sun of righteousness. Rao binds us to those we love; He gives us strength when we have none; and in the darkest places, He guides us. For Rao sees all, feels all, His love eternal. Rao protects us so that we might protect others; and we shall rise, a fire in His hearth, burning and free."

Lena woke up to the sound of Kara's voice. It had a kind of gentleness to it she hadn't heard before. It was soothing, reverential. She thought she was dreaming, at first. But as her senses returned, she realized that Kara was sitting beside her, holding her hand, and praying to Rao.

Lena wasn't much of a believer: she believed in science, reason, and mathematics. But she could certainly see the appeal of relying on a higher power, and she couldn't help but feel a strange sort of peace around her as she let Kara's voice guide her to the land of the awake.

She tried to speak, but her throat was dry and scratchy. Kara noticed her stirring and turned her head to look at Lena, a relieved smile spreading across her face.

"Lena, you're awake," Kara said softly, her voice full of emotion.

Lena managed a weak nod and a small smile. She felt weak and disoriented, but Kara's presence next to her was a comfort. She tried to sit up, but Kara gently pushed her back down.

"Take it easy," Kara said, concern etched on her face. "You passed out after you shot Zod. You need to rest."

Lena looked up at her. She wanted to ask so many questions, but the words wouldn't come out.

Instead, she closed her eyes and gave herself a moment to breathe, feeling the weight of Kara's hand on hers, comforting her. Lena felt her body relax, her mind clearing the chaos that had consumed her.

Lena opened her eyes once again, slower, this time, and looked at Kara, "That was beautiful," she said, her voice still raspy.

Kara looked exhausted, the signs of battle clear in her super suit. Still, she smiled. "It's an old Kryptonian prayer. My mother and I used to say it together. It always brings me comfort."

Lena studied Kara, her heart full of gratitude. Everything had changed between them, after the kiss. The chaos that unraveled after Zod's attack hadn't let her think about it, but she knew, deep down, nothing would be the same between them. She knew that normally she would be feeling afraid and having the urge to run, but for some reason, all she wanted to do was to be able to touch Kara's hand, as she was doing in the moment. Just be by Kara's side, that's all she needed, all she asked. She wanted to tell her how she felt, but the words were stuck in her throat.

Instead, she gripped Kara's hand, squeezing it gently. Kara's eyes met hers, and Lena felt a jolt of electricity run through her.

"Thank you, Kara," Lena said, her voice barely above a whisper. "For everything."

Kara leaned in and brushed her lips against Lena's forehead, a gesture that felt tender and caring. "Don't scare me like that, ever again, okay?" she whispered back, her eyes shining with emotion.

Lena couldn't help herself as she chuckled gently, "I'm sorry. I promise I don't do it on purpose."

Kara nodded and smiled back. Lena felt fingers tracing the back of her palm. It was fascinating, how such a small gesture could send shivers down her whole body.

Lena closed her eyes, feeling a sense of peace wash over her, even though she was exhausted and still a bit disoriented.

"Talk about déjà vu, huh?" Lena's voice sounded hoarse still, but there was a certain levity to it.

"What?" Kara frowned.

"We've been in this situation before. Me, in bed, feeling like shit. You, by my side, taking care of everything."

"Yes. Yes, we've been here before." Kara smiled, reaching out to tuck a lock of hair behind Lena's ear.

There was a moment of comfortable silence, both lost in the memories of the past few months, and the many adversities they had to overcome, in the little and big moments they had with their tiny family… 

Lena's head suddenly shot up, her eyes wide open, "Kara! The babies! Where are they? Are they alright?!"

Kara mentally kicked herself. Lost in her worry, she had forgotten about everything else. The Kryptonian pushed Lena down gently on the bed, once more, and reassured her, "They are alright, they are safe. They're in the next room, don't worry, Alex is with them. I'll bring them to you in a little while, okay? But Eliza needs to check on you before you see them, is that alright?"

Lena let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, okay... where are we, by the way?"

"Um... an old DEO facility. In the desert. No one will know we're here. It's a safe place. For now. Everyone's here, even Liam and Luna… I mean… you know… from Earth-Y?"

Lena nodded, remembering the strange experience of being saved by her daughter from the future. Or was it another universe? Or both?

"And Zod and his goons?"

"Well, this facility has state-of-the-art cells designed specifically to hold Kryptonians inside. They're not going anywhere."

"I feel like there's a story behind that…" Lena raised her eyebrow as she tried to sit up on the bed.

"Yeah, and I'll tell you someday. But for now, you need to rest."

Lena smiled weakly, already pushing the blankets away, "I need to see my children, Supergirl, and you're not stopping me."

"Ok, alright, but I'll carry you!" Kara protested.

"What? You're not carrying me! I'm a grown woman!"

"And you're hurt, and weak. And I won't be seeing you pass out right in front of me again, okay? Enough of that!"

Before Lena could protest, she felt one of Kara's arms going under her legs, the other around her back. Lena was wearing a DEO tracksuit and she made a mental note to herself to later ask Kara who had changed her clothes. 

Suddenly, she found herself in Kara's arms. The Kryptonian froze mid-action as Lena's face was inches from hers, their gentle breaths mixing in the air. They stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds, and there was an intensity in Kara's gaze Lena hadn't seen before.

"Lena… Can I…"

"Yes?"

"Can I kiss you?"

"Yes, Kara. You can."

Kara leaned in slowly, her lips soft as they pressed against Lena's. 

It was a gentle kiss, filled with tenderness and reassurance. 

Lena felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes, overwhelmed by the emotions she had been bottling up for so long. They broke the kiss, both of them smiling softly.

"Thank you," Kara whispered, her forehead resting against Lena's.

"For what?" Lena asked, her fingers cupping Kara's cheek.

Kara poured her heart out, her voice quivering with every word. "For fighting by my side, no matter the odds. For not giving up. For believing in me even when at times I don't believe in myself. For being the strongest person I know." Her lower lip began to tremble and a tear rolled down her cheek, falling on Lena's fingers.

Lena felt a surge of love for the Kryptonian, moved by her vulnerability. "You're pretty strong yourself, Supergirl," Lena said, her eyes closing as she leaned in to kiss Kara's tears away.

"Only because I have you by my side," Kara said, squeezing Lena's hand gently.

For a few moments, they just sat there, holding on to one another, letting the warmth of the other be the only thing they allowed themselves to feel.

"I don't want things to go back to the way they were," Kara whispered after a little while, her voice soft but determined.

"Kara," Lena murmured her name, her face frowning with worry.

"I want you. All of you," Kara continued, her eyes brimming with tears, but the fire of purpose burning in them.

Lena's heart skipped a beat at Kara's words. The Kryptonian kept going, as if something within her had been opened and couldn't be tamed. "I know...I know I've made mistakes, and I know I've hurt you because...how didn't I see it sooner? But - life without you feels like a day without sunshine. I know it will be complicated. I know we have the babies, and that the awfully stupid Anti-Monitor is trying to destroy the world, but I need you. I want to be with you. I want to… I want to be yours, Lena. If you'll have me."

Kara's words left Lena breathless. "I mean - of course you can think about it, and if you don't want the same, I'll understand and..."

"Kara. Kara, listen to me," Lena interrupted, her eyes searching Kara's. "I want to be yours, too."

Kara's eyes widened in surprise. "You do?"

"I do. I always have," Lena said.

"Lena," Kara whispered, still in shock from Lena's admission. 

Lena thought her name sounded like a prayer on Kara's lips. It was the sweetest music to her ears. 

Their faces were so close to each other, their noses almost touching. They met halfway. This third kiss between them was different. It was filled with a depth of emotion they both felt but had been too afraid to express. Kara could feel the heat emanating from Lena's body, and it made her heart dance in her chest. 

Lena's lips moved softly against hers, and Kara opened her mouth just enough so Lena could slip her tongue in, tentatively testing how they fit together. Kara moaned her approval and Lena gripped Kara's suit by the neck, pulling her impossibly closer. Kara's hands roamed down Lena's body, finally settling on her hips. The heat between them intensified as Lena's hands got lost in Kara's hair, caressing golden locks and encouraging the Kryptonian to explore further.

They pulled away, needing air, but Kara took the opportunity to plant kisses all over Lena's jawline, and the brunette let herself go and closed her eyes, feeling nothing but Kara's lips, Kara's hands, and Kara's devotion.

"Kara," Lena whispered in Kara's ear as the Kryptonian kissed her pulse point.

Her name on Lena's lips seemed to put Kara through some kind of trance. She pulled away, gazed into mesmerizing green eyes, and looked at Lena's lips as if she was staring at the gates of Heaven.

They should have stopped. They knew it; it was the worst possible time and the worst possible place to let desire overwhelm them. But they had waited long enough, and the threat of constant danger had made them realize just how precious the here and now was, how fragile every moment of happiness could be.

"Lena", Kara repeated again, as if that word was the key to life. In her case, it might just be.

They slowly leaned in toward one another, throwing caution to the wind and eager to get lost in this moment… 

"Kara? Lena? Can I come in?" 

…when a knock on the door startled them both.

It was Alex. Kara knew her sister very well. It wasn't a question, really, it was an announcement. So Kara used her super speed to sit back on her chair and casually cross her legs, as Lena was left speechless on the bed, awkwardly clinging to nothing but air.

Just as Kara had guessed, Alex barged in without waiting for an answer. 

"Oh." Alex was the face of innocence. "Lena, you're awake! Kara, why didn't you say something?"

"I uh… I…"

"I told her to give me a few minutes, I was a little dizzy when I woke up," Lena came to Kara's rescue when she couldn't find the words to say.

Alex got in doctor mode immediately, approaching Lena to take her pulse, "How are you feeling now? You were a little dehydrated when you were brought in. Still dizzy?"

"No," Lena offered a sincere smile, "not anymore. But Kara told me Eliza is around. Can I see her?"