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“I wanna do something stupid.”
Lena was lying down on the couch, holding her hands behind her back like a pillow. She’d spent the past thirty minutes staring up at the ceiling while she procrastinated writing a paper for the summer class she’d taken out of obligation to her mother. Luthor’s don’t take vacations, don’t you want to prove you’re worthy of your waiting position at Luthor Corp? Lillian had argued when she’d heard Lena’s summer plans. Of course, her disapproval meant Lena was signed up for some god-awful incredibly boring biology class instead of enjoying the summer before her junior year at university.
However, either Lillian was getting worse at inserting herself into Lena’s life or Lena was getting better at ignoring what she thought about her because she still hadn’t started typing and her paper was due in a matter of days. Instead, she’d been lying on the couch and pestering Sam, doing everything she possibly could to avoid thinking about the assignment.
“Like what? Go to a party and have a one night stand? ‘Cause we all know how well that went for me,” Sam responded, only half-joking. The party had been fun and all but now she had a sleeping toddler in the other room, so she couldn’t exactly recommend Lena follow in her footsteps.
“No,” Lena grumbled, rolling onto her stomach. “Something stupider.”
Sam raised an eyebrow and sat down on the chair across from her roommate. “Did the Lena Luthor, genius and prodigy child just say ‘stupider?’”
“I’m serious,” Lena retorted, “Do you wanna go on a road trip?”
“That’s not very reckless but sure,” Sam said with a shrug.
“Maybe I’ll buy a boat,” Lena thought out loud. “No, that’s tacky. And I get seasick.”
“Drop out of your bio class?”
“I want to do something stupid, I don’t want to die.”
“You could join the Area 51 raid,” Sam suggested, chuckling at the thought of Lena sneaking into a top-secret government facility. It was absurd, to say the least. Lena would never even consider doing something that thoughtless, especially if she was trying to avoid being lectured by Lillian.
But Lena sat up slowly and processed Sam’s words. She scrunched up her eyebrows, making her thinking face and leaned forward as she mulled the idea over in her head.
“Lena, you know I’m not serious, right?”
Lena nodded but didn’t respond. It definitely wasn’t a practical idea. It was downright insane, but that was what she liked about it.
For once, she had the Luthor name to her advantage, and who would stop her if she said she wanted to visit for science? She could say it was for research, that was how Lex used to sneak around before he went public about his crimes.
Lena wasn’t one to manipulate her power, it was one of the reasons she hated her parents so much, years of emotional abuse set aside. But she knew very well that she could buy her way in if she wanted to, it couldn’t be that hard. And if she’d learned one thing from her horrific mother it was that anyone could be bought if the right amount was offered.
“I know that face-- you better stop thinking,” Sam warned.
“Mhm,” Lena mumbled, not listening to a word Sam was saying. She slowly stood up and walked aimlessly into their tiny kitchen. “I need to make a phone call.”
The whole thing was much easier than Lena thought it would’ve been. As she’d suspected, almost any government worker could be bribed with the right amount of cash and the promise that she wouldn’t tell anyone about her findings. It turned out all she had to do was sign a few forms and persuade a few old men over the phone and she had scheduled a visit and tour of Area 51 for September 20th. And before she knew it, she was flying first class to Nevada getting ready to see dem aliens as she’d seen used so gracefully all over the internet.
Unfortunately, though, the trip was much more anticlimactic than she would’ve liked. Everywhere she went, she was led by an armed worker who made sure she didn’t peek around on her own or take any photos. Lena almost began regretting the trip at one point, wondering if it would’ve been more fun to just burst in and raid the place with a bunch of other careless idiots.
At one point, she ended up being shown some tech that caught her interest, but not as much as she thought it would. Most of the tour was the outside of buildings and training sights, which Lena was sure she could’ve found images of online if she tried hard enough. She was pretty sure everyone there knew she wasn’t there for science, as the watchful eye the guard had on her almost seemed suspicious. Even when she told him she needed to use the restroom as an attempt to get away from him and sneak off on her own, she was escorted to the bathroom.
By the end of her visit, Lena sat in her car, trying to figure out why she’d done all this. It was been pointless really. Even going to some frat party would’ve been more fun. (Despite all the older men were constantly trying to hit on her and the drunk guys who were very persistent in ignoring her when she told them no.)
She leaned back against her seat and sighed. Beads of sweat lined her forehead and the hot hair was making her hair gross and frizzy. Lena groaned as she looked at herself in the rearview mirror, seeing how flushed her cheeks were and how droopy her eyes looked.
That’s what you get when you do dumb shit for no reason.
Lena reached her seatbelt and admitted her defeat. She wasn’t going to get anything out of this visit. She wasn’t going to see any aliens. Even the woman who seemed to be staring at her through her side mirror had to be a human. That was just how things worked.
A breath caught in Lena’s throat and she abruptly let go of her seatbelt, leaning her head out the window so she could get a closer look at the woman, who upon closer inspection, probably wasn’t very human at all. Sure, after a first glance she looked just like anybody else. But Lena knew not to ignore her hospital gown, bare feet, and identification tag. She stood behind the tall fence, nervously shuffling back and forth on her feet, occasionally glancing over at Lena but quickly averted her gaze if they made eye contact.
Just looking at her made Lena’s heart rate speed up and she couldn’t help but get out of the car and walk over to her, making her steps slow and careful so she wouldn’t startle the woman. She stopped once she was just inches away from her, offering a small smile and awkward wave.
“Are you here for the raid?” The woman asked with a nervous chuckle.
“Something like that,” Lena grinned. “What about you?”
She cringed as soon as the words left her mouth.
“I think it’s pretty obvious.”
Lena nodded. “How did you get here?” she asked. “How did you get this far?”
The woman shrugged and took a step forward. Her face was covered in dust and sweat. Her lips were chapped and raw, her knees were scraped and bleeding. Lena wasn’t sure if she could feel the same type of pain as humans or if she was completely numb to it, but either way, she wanted to do something-- anything in her power to help.
“I-- I don’t know, I tried to escape” the woman admitted with a nervous chuckle. “It happened really fast, I just remember running and punching someone and blood and-- oh God, there was so much blood.”
She brought her hands up to her forehead and closed her eyes. She might’ve killed someone. She’d let her power get the best of her, going against everything they’d been teaching her. She was supposed to keep her emotions intact, she was supposed to stay in control. Fight with her hands, not her heart. Silly things like guilt and anger got in the way of everything they were training her for.
“It’s okay, they probably deserved it,” Lena said softly. “They have no right to be keeping you here, trapped up like an animal.”
The woman bit her lip and tried to force back her tears. “Maybe they had a reason,” she looked down, swallowing a lump in her throat.
Lena shook her head. “No, nobody should be locked away in there.”
She could see the woman slipping away, reverting into her head. She had to do something before they got caught and she was pulled back into whatever disgusting centers they had going on behind the gate.
“Hey,” Lena said to get her attention. “We need to focus, can you tell me your name?”
“Kara.”
Lena smiled when the woman looked up and made eye contact with her. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Lena.”
Kara forced a small smile and nodded anxiously. She was almost out, she was so close to being free. Why was it so hard to just stop feeling and go? She needed to act for once in her life, stop thinking and just do.
“Okay, you’ve gotten this far, you just need to get over the gate,” Lena said, a hopeful tone in her voice. Really though, she just didn’t want to think about how the fence was electric and there was a large chance Kara would die in any effort she made to continue with her escape.
“I… I think I can fly,” Kara said and wiped her sweaty palms on her gown.
“You can?”
Kara bit her lip and gave a small shrug. “I don’t know… I could once but they-- they don’t let me here. I haven’t tried in years.”
“Do you want to try?”
Kara paused. If she tried and failed she would humiliate herself in front of this stranger who was for some unknown reason risking her life to save her, even though she would go to jail if she were caught. She would be dragged back to the base, kicking and screaming where she would be forced to endure countless more hours training and experiments, all for a war that wasn’t even happening. And if by some miracle she succeeded in making it over the fence, she could still get caught. It would never be guaranteed that she was safe and now it wasn’t just her life at risk. If she was captured, Lena would be too.
She looked back up at Lena, who was quietly waiting for a response. She didn’t look angry or bothered, something Kara had come to expect from others over the years. She seemed understanding, kind almost.
“Okay,” she said eventually. She’d made it this far, she owed it to herself to at least see if she still had it in her.
She took a deep breath and looked up at the fence. It was covered with barbed wire at the top, which was near twice her size. If she touched it, she was sure to be electrocuted if she wasn’t chopped into pieces first.
Kara shook her hands out nervously, bending her knees as she prepared herself to push off the ground, something she hadn’t done in years. What could go wrong?
But within a matter of seconds, her shaky body began to feel light on her feet. The hot sand beneath her was no longer burning, it had been replaced with a warm atmospheric sensation that seemed to lift her off the ground even further. She closed her eyes and released a breath she’d unconsciously been holding in, allowing the air to wrap itself around her and carry her off the ground, higher and higher. And when she opened her eyes once more, she saw Lena, still standing on the other side of the fence. Her eyes were wide with amazement, her smile taking up half her face. The mixture of confusion and pure joy on her face was enough to make Kara laugh, almost causing her to fall out of the sky.
Slowly and carefully, she lowered herself down to the woman below her and took a step forward, unsure of what to do or say. But before she could even think about what was to come next, Lena had lunged towards her and was hugging her tightly. And even though she was a stranger and Kara knew absolutely nothing about her, she found herself wrapping her arms around Lena and hugging her back, easing into the contact and allowing herself to relax.
Lena felt good. She felt warm and safe, like a breath of fresh air. Her arms were weak and frail, Kara could tell from the way Lena held her, that she was holding onto her with everything she had in her. She had to remind herself not to be too strong, or she would break Lena in half.
Kara couldn’t help the stifled sob she let out, one she’d been holding in since she’d first been captured. It was all just too good to be true. She had no idea where she would go or how she would survive on her own, but for now, she was out. She was free to do whatever, to live on her own and to learn to harness her powers for good and for herself, instead of the corrupt things they taught her to do inside behind the walls of the base. She could just exist for once in her life, and that was all she’d ever wanted.
“It’s okay,” Lena said softly, feeling Kara begin to shake against her. “You’re out now, you’re free.”