#Lex is a prick across time and space

[natalievoncatte]

Lena watched their new visitor as she, in turn, watched the bier that lay beneath the healing power of the Purple Ray. It had been almost a full day and while she was breathing shallow breaths, Lena’s counterpart on the table was still not awake.

The cyborg stood just outside the perimeter of the beam, as still as a statue, just watching. At various times Kara, Nia, Alex, and Diana herself had all taken up silent watch next to her, along with the honor guard of Amazonian warriors.

Lena looked at… herself. Her doppleganger tapped the name tag on her leather jacket.

“It’s easier if you just call me by my number- 938. That’s how we keep track of each other.”

Lena nodded. “Others?”

“The other Lenas. There’s about fifty on the ship right now, the core membership. There’s about three hundred of us in total. We’re the ones who can’t, or won’t, go home.”

“I see,” said Lena. “Why can’t you go back?”

938 looked at her. “It’s not a fun story.”

“I’m listening.”

“Let me show you something.”

She held out her wrist. There was a piece of tech on her arm, like a bulky smart watch. When she activated it, a three dimensional holographic display appeared above the smooth surface. 938 pointed out the branches of what looked like a huge tree.

“The multiverse is much larger than you can imagine. I’ve spent some time charting a small section of it. See this branch?” she indicated one with a sweep of her finger. “This the reality cluster I come from. Our worlds are different from yours. I believe it’s because the divergence point, where the two universes split on a quantum continuity level, is further back in history. I think some of the changes can go all the way back to the Big Bang.”

“There’s so many,” said Lena.

998 nodded. “There are. There are worlds like yours, but many others like mine. We have no protectors. No Kryptonians. No Lanterns. There are worlds out there where no one has powers at all.”

“But not yours,” said Lena.

938 turned off the device, and turned away from the scene behind them. “For me it started with a lab accident. A genetically modified spider was irradiated and bit me before it died. It’d escaped from an enclosure in another lab and got zapped by my own experiment. I was sick for three days. When I came out of it, I had the proportionate strength, speed, and agility of an arachnid, plus a precognitive danger sense and spinarettes in my wrists.”

“You became a superhero?”

“Yes,” said 938. “For all the good it did. I fought the good fight for a few years and eventually ran afoul of a new gang in town. The problem was that it was led by my own brother.”

“Lex,” Lena spat.

“He’d experimented on himself. Used an unstable steroid. It drove him utterly insane and he started wearing a goblin costume and flying around on a rocket powered glider.”

“Oh God,” said Lena.

“My universe doesn’t have a Krypton. My Kara was human, only human, and I loved her with all my heart. I couldn’t breathe without her. She was my everything. I tried to keep her safe, so I kept my identity and my feelings from her, but it didn’t matter. Lex knew. He abducted her and threw her off the George Washington Bridge.”

938 looked away. “I thought I had her. I tried to use my webs to catch her but I didn’t think and the shock… I’m the one who killed her really. The sudden stop snapped her neck.”

Lena stared at her.

“I’m so sorry.”

938 shook her head. “I fought Lex after that. I was in a rage. I killed him in front of thousands of witnesses. I broke his neck, almost twisted his head off. It didn’t matter. She was still gone, and nothing would ever fill that void. I hung up my costume and turned back to science, trying to build something meaningful in Kara’s name, but no matter how many labs and fellowships I named after her it was never enough. That was how I stumbled across the multiverse, working on a portal device in my lab.”

“You found yourself, I take it. Or ourself.”

“No. I found another Kara, and in a world with no Lena. She was alone. I crossed over with some of my tech, never planning to go back. Then I realized, that woman wasn’t her. All I could ever be to her was someone grooming her to be a dead woman from another world. I despaired for a while, jumping from ‘verse to ‘verse, trying to find some reason to keep going.”

“What did you find?” said Lena.

“Lena 1467, the Sorcerer Supreme of her Earth. She’d lost her Kara too, in a car accident when they were med students. That was when the League of Lenas got going. We found more of us, started assembling a team.”

“To do what?”

998 looked at the cyborg. “Fix it. Save her.” She sighed. “Our main mission is to help out and protect as many Karas as we can, but also to protect the multiverse from rogue Karas or rogue Lenas that might breach the barriers between universes.”

“I’m assuming that’s to prevent wars between timelines.”

938 shook her heads. “No. Not long after I started traveling I had… an experience. I only vaguely remember it but there were these yellow aliens and they told me that we had to protect the branches from each other so that some kind of corruption won’t reach what they called the ‘core world’ or the ‘Ab-Juda-Earth.’ The multiverse needs superheroes. We have to exist to keep it alive.”

“So you’re here to help the cyborg?”

“Both of them.”

“You know,” said Lena. “The cyborg Kara mentioned something about yellow aliens when I first met her, but I didn’t think to ask-“

“She’s awake!” The cyborg was saying. “She’s awake, let me see her!”

Lena turned and found both her Kara and Diana holding the cyborg back.

“Shut off the Ray,” Diana commanded.

Once it was off, the pair released the cyborg. She lunged across the space, limping as her metal foot clacked on the floor, slowing as she reached the bier.

“Kara?”

Lena watched, 998 standing next to her. The cyborg kept her distance, suddenly apprehensive. The other Lena slowly sat up, finally prompting the cyborg to move.

“Lena?” she rasped.

The other Lena- thinner, visibly older with strands of gray shot through her hair, smiled and cupped the fleshy side of Kara’s face with her hand.

“You found me.”

“I found you. My love. My zhao. My red sunrise. I found you.”

“It’s going to be alright, baby,” said the other Lena. “I can fix you up. I’ll make you better.”

The cyborg took a deep, rasping breath, closed her eyes, and collapsed to the floor in a boneless heap.

“Move!” 938 shouted. “We don’t have time, we have to help her now. Princess, I need to jump my ship into your airspace. Please.”

“Who are you? What’s happening?” the other Lena demanded.

“Trust us, please,” said Lena. “You’re among friends here and we want to help you.”

938 was speaking into her watch.

“I need you now, hurry.”

Outside, a booming shockwave sent a blast of air through the open, airy temple, almost gusting Lena off her feet. Her Kara steadied her, then lifted her cyborg counterpart gently in her arms.

“Get her aboard my ship,” said 998.

[whythinktoomuch]

~pArT FoUr~

(pt. i)  (pt. ii)  (pt. iii) 

Lena spends the better part of her days either crying or trying not to cry.

The pressure in her chest is constant. Heavy and thumping. Especially in the moments where she forgets to remember just how terribly she’s hurting.

It’s unbearable. Even with how much her body has already endured, how hard she’s worked to survive thus far… this? This feels impossible to live through.

A part of her doesn’t want to.

Which is patently ridiculous, of course, considering how Lena’s already survived this exact situation at least once before. So, at some point, she must have wanted to come out the other end, scathed and all the more independent for it.

And yet… her body must remember it somehow, even when she herself cannot. Through muscle memory or synaptic paths already long since paved and broken in. Because, somehow, Lena can feel it in her bones—both broken and not—that she doesn’t want to try as hard this time. 

That this time around, surviving doesn’t feel so inevitable.

When Alex goes on to take over all aspects of her medical care, it suits Lena just fine. She’s too heartbroken to be a model patient anymore, and too angry about the state of her heart to care. And Alex, at the very least, somewhat deserves the treatment. 

It takes some time, much effort, and an exceptionally tedious line of questioning to determine that Lena’s missing the last ten months of her life. Alex tries to catch her up as best she can, without overwhelming her with all the details. Everything uncovered in the process is strange in its vague familiarity. Like ideas that Lena may have considered once or twice before, or perhaps even dreamed about.

She shot and killed Lex. She learned about Supergirl’s secret, and somewhere along the way, apparently became the would-be villain of the week. Then there was some inter-dimensional crisis. Then through some grand space-time fuckery, Lex was back, and alive and well enough to go after Lena with the Lexosuit. Then… well, there’s no point in parsing through what came then. Because right now, the only that matters is that… Lena can’t stay here anymore.

Lena’s right hand glides across the whiteboard with blessed ease as she composes her message, Transfer me. I’m healing, I’m stable. I want to leave.

“You realize that you’re here for your own safety, right?” Alex asks with a long-suffering sigh that has Lena huffing right back at her in indignation.

I REFUSE to be a prisoner

“You are not—God! Lex tried to kill you.”

SO?

“Look, I’m sorry,” Alex says, shaking her head. “But until the active threat to your life is neutralized, you’re staying put.” She scowls when the whiteboard creaks dangerously in Lena’s hands. “And don’t even think about throwing that at me. ‘Cause you and I both know that I’m not nearly as nice as Kara.”

Lena drops her gaze, suddenly forced to blink back against the hot prick of tears. She has to actively stop herself from staring at the corner of the whiteboard, the dent in it both prominent and devastating.

“Is there anything I can get you?” Alex asks. There’s just a hint of softness to her voice, a slight touch of Kara in the solicitude, and it roils Lena’s stomach.

Lena jots the first thing that pops into her head.

Macallan 12 year

Alex rolls her eyes. “Leaving now.”

With a huff, Lena snaps her fingers in rapid succession to call Alex back, then jots down the second thing that’s popped into her head.

WORK

Alex stares at the word, mulls over the request with a half-frown. “No laptop. Only phone. Deal?”

Lena practically slumps back into her bed in relief. She gives two thumbs up and nods emphatically.

Deal.

—

Three hours and twenty-three minutes after Lena gets her phone back, she hears a commotion unfolding right outside her door. An unfamiliar voice insisting No, you can’t be here, and a familiar voice snapping right back in a way that grants Lena’s heart a newfound comfort. It’s a voice that she hasn’t considered recalling in quite some time, but now, she’s taken aback by just how glad she is to finally hear it again.

“Lena? Lena. Thank fucking god, I found you. What the hell is this place?” Andrea strides into the room like she owns the place, flanked by a handful of large burly men in black suits. She orders a couple of them to stand watch at the door as she takes in Lena’s appearance. “Jesus, what have they done to you…”

Andrea cradles Lena’s chin with gentle hands, runs her fingers through Lena’s hair with the most tender expression of concern on her face, and the corners of Lena’s eyes are already gathering tears. Because, evidently, sometime in the last ten months, they’ve gotten to the point where they were allowed to touch each other like this again. And as much as it hurts, the poorly tended to wound pales in comparison to her most recent heartbreak, so Lena leans into the touch greedily and readily.

“I’m getting you out of here,” Andrea insists. “We’ll get you set up in a real hospital. Then we can sue every fucking person in this godforsaken facility until their great, great grand-children are paying out—”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Lena feels her chest cracking open all over again. She looks past Andrea’s shoulder and sees Supergirl shouldering her way into the room, stone-faced and demanding. Andrea immediately puts herself in between them.

“We were just leaving actually,” she says, hand planted firmly on Lena’s shoulder. “You can’t keep her here.”

“Lex tried to kill her,” Supergirl says. “You take her out of here, he’ll try again and might even succeed. Are you willing to risk her life like that?”

Andrea scoffs and gestures at her bodyguards with a careless flourish. “I can protect her just as well as you.”

“Really?”

Supergirl grabs one of the men by the collar and lifts him straight into the air, never once breaking eye contact with Andrea. The man protests, his arms and legs swinging about, but Supergirl hardly even notices the blows. When Andrea whips her head around at the rest of her men, they all just shuffle around in an awkward silence.

“Supergirl saved my daughter’s life,” one of them mumbles in half-explanation, half-apology. “In that hospital fire…” He gives Supergirl a solemn nod. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Supergirl says, nodding right back. She gently sets the other bodyguard back down onto his feet. “Sorry. Just making a point, friend.”

The stillness that follows crackles dangerously, with neither Supergirl or Andrea backing down, their glares equally matched in severity and purpose. Then Lena feels the hand on her shoulder start to tremble and slip off.

“The second,” Andrea hisses. “The very fucking second that Lex is apprehended, I’m coming back here for her, and not even you will be able to stop me.” She turns back to Lena, takes her hand in both of her own with a gentle squeeze. “I’m sorry, love… But I’d rather have you safe than anything else. You understand, right?”

Lena nods, even as her rather hastily thought out escape route starts to collapse before her very eyes. She turns one of Andrea’s hands over and traces a heart into the palm.

With a slight hitch of breath, Andrea presses a quick kiss to Lena’s hairline before addressing her men again, “Come on. We got a fucking madman to catch.” She gives Lena one last meaningful look and hand squeeze before storming out of the room, barely giving Supergirl time to side-step around her.

Lena exhales a defeated breath through her nose and holds out her phone. Given how she’s abused the privilege, she figures it’s only a matter of time before it’s confiscated again. At least this way, Supergirl would have to look Lena in the eye as she forces her back into isolation.

But Supergirl makes no move to take the phone. She just levels her steady gaze with Lena’s face. Then at the outstretched hand and phone. Then at the whiteboard sitting at the foot of her bed.

She leaves without saying a single word.

(next part here)

[shallow-seas-we-sail]

It was the Christmas after Lex had been imprisoned when Kara had finally kissed her; Santa hat skewed on top of her head, looking absolutely bashful as Lena had stood precariously outside the boundary of the mistletoe that was hanging above Kara’s front door. And Lena, ever the scientist, had decided that Christmas to test a working theory she had kept close to her heart for years. She stepped fully under the suspended plant, and pressed a quick kiss to Kara’s cheek, whispering her goodbyes. It was when Kara captured her hand as she stepped into the hallway, and pulled her gently back through the doors threshold and into her arms, capturing her lips in a soft kiss, that Lena had her definitive answer. And it had been somewhere between stolen breaths, and steadily escalating kisses when Kara murmured a single word against Lena’s mouth; a simple ‘stay’, and Lena avowed then and there under some ridiculous holiday tradition and the strands of soft, white Christmas lights that lined the lofts walls, that she would never leave the loving warmth that Kara provided. And when Lena found herself wrapped in strong arms that night, her heart slowing as reverent kisses peppered along her bare shoulder, she knew Kara’s heart had quietly opened and welcomed her home. The next morning over breakfast, Lena had drawn a heart around December 26th on Kara’s wall calendar, a gesture which had pulled a broad grin across Kara’s face, and left breakfast abandoned as Lena was plucked up from her chair into strong arms along with a flurry of kisses as she was carried back to bed. 

It was their first official Christmas together when Lena had slid a toothless key to Kara across the small island in her kitchen and asked Kara to move in with her. Lena had considered keeping her penthouse and simply relinquishing her closet space to be filled with dark and pastel button ups, and her pantry stocked with sugary snacks. Instead, she found herself drawn to finding a new residence, one that her and Kara could build a home in together. The revelation had left Kara nearly jovial as she swept Lena up in one arm, pressing a kiss to her cheek, and opened her laptop to browse Zillow listings. When they finally closed on the house, Kara had already chosen the colors for each room, and despite Lena’s best protests of being unable to sleep on anything less than seven hundred thread count sheets, still ended up with four king size jersey sheet sets. And Lena would never admit to loving them despite Kara’s knowing smile and teasingly calling her “a jersey girl” each time she pulled them from the linen closet.

continue on ao3

Their second Christmas together, Kara had proposed. It wasn’t theatrical, and though they had discussed the idea of marriage in passing, Lena half heartily believed that she would be ambushed by a well choreographed flash mob if and when Kara decided to get down on one knee. Instead, Lena had been pressed into Kara’s side on their couch, scrolling through emails on her tablet, and sipping wine while deft fingers carded through her hair when a small box was placed on her lap. Kara’s movements didn’t stop as she dipped her head to Lena’s ear and quietly asked her to open it, nor did they when Kara caught the sound of Lena’s hammering heart. Kara simply shifted beside her, encircling an arm Lena’s shoulders, and placing a warm, calm hand over the delicate muscle thrumming away in her chest.

“Will you?” It was a simple two word question, and despite being a prolific journalist and the owner of a Pulitzer prize, Kara inquired as she often did, with a sort of casual endearment that somehow always left Lena speechless and a little more lovestruck than she was before.

Lena said yes once her brain caught up with her heart.

Their third Christmas together had their house filled with roarious laughter from family and friends on the eve of their wedding. In another time, the controlled chaos would have left Lena swimming with anxiety, but instead she found herself surrounded with a familial love she had chased her entire life and it caused warmth to blossom in her chest. It was reinforced each time she caught Kara’s soft gaze from across the room, or felt her soon to be wife in her proximity; a steadying hand resting on the small of her back as Kara launched into a story to J’onn and Nia about the time she buried the Danvers living room in nearly four inches of snow for her and Alex on Christmas morning. Eliza interjected to remind her daughter that she also had shoveled out the living room before opening any presents, which caused a blush to creep up and settle into Kara’s cheeks. As she finished the story, Kara eyed her mother playfully, and blew out a puff of cold air that sent a small burst of flurries spiraling out into the living room, much to the delight of their guests who attempted to catch snowflakes on their tongue, and shook out the iced fractals from their hair. 

They married the following day in a small backyard ceremony with an overly zealous and emotional Alex officiating. Eliza had walked down the aisle bracketed by Kara and Lena. They wore simple white slacks and button ups, wrapped in ceremonial cloaks of deep navy and maroon that carried the House of El siegel on their back. Emotion caught in Eliza’s throat when she pressed a kiss to Lena’s cheek and told her she loved her, and caused Lena’s already paper thin resolve to get through the ceremony without crying to wither away completely. Kara held Lena’s hands, running her thumbs over the back of her knuckles in a silent, reassuring gesture that kept Lena grounded in the moment enough to finish her vows while shedding a respectful amount of tears until the cry perched beneath her chin tumbled out along with Kara’s “I do.” When her wife cupped her face and kissed her, Lena could taste salt, but more importantly it was the gentle touch that moved across her cheeks, taking away her tears and the heaviness from her fromer moniker filled Lena’s heart. She was no longer a Luthor, and on paper she was a Danvers, but in quiet, shared moments with Kara, she knew she was a Zor El. Kara shared her culture, and told animated stories of a previous life lived. She taught Lena a dead language, one Lena intended to keep alive in their household. The more fluent she became, the more she snuck in words throughout their day, loving the visceral reaction it pulled from her wife, especially in intimate moments.

Last Christmas they gathered their family in the living room and distributed holiday cards. Kara paced with anxious excitement until Lena reached out and captured her wife’s hand in her own and pulled her down gently onto the couch beside her. Alex turned the card over in hands obsessively, and held it up to the light of the fireplace, trying to decipher what was inside, while Eliza, ever intuitive, had cornered Lena in the kitchen earlier and with every ounce of motherly love, wrapped her in a tight hug, and pressed a kiss to cheek in silent congratulations. When Kara finally conceded to allowing their guests to open the cards, she steadied herself against Lena’s side, wrapping her arm around her wife’s shoulder and released a nervous breath in the quiet moment before the room erupted. Alex was first on her feet, waving the grainy sonogram picture, and nearly tackling Kara and Lena in a hug; she was going to be aunt, they were going to be parents, and love poured freely out all around them.

It was the next day that the sky bled. Lena found Kara that morning in the nursery, awashed in red light that poured through the windows, her face set in with a cold, distant stare. Kara slipped her hand into her wife’s as Lena came up beside her, and squeezed gently. Lena did her best to reign in her fear as an icy sense of dread crept up her back and pricked at her neck, settling there. Lex had escaped.

Sam had arrived shortly after and offered to drive Kara and Lena to the DEO. Kara had been with Alex on the phone nearly all morning discussing possible locations that Lex may be working out of when four black streaks broke across the sky and collided with the building, leveling that covert agency within seconds. The phone dropped from Kara’s hand as the call turned to static, and was out of the car, stumbling into the street, shock draining the color from her face as she collapsed to her knees. Doors opened along the street as people quietly got out of their cars and stepped out of their homes as debris began to rain down from the reddened sky. Lena gathered her wife in her arms, guttural sobs ripping from the back of her throat. Once a god that had fallen from the sky, now reduced to mortal flesh, Kara buried herself deeper into Lena arms, powerless to stop the grief that crashed through her body in violent, trembling waves. She screamed her sister's name as Lena and Sam pulled her to her feet and back towards the car. Lena gathered her wife and held her close in the back seat of the car as their friend drove them home. Lena caught Sam’s watchful eyes reflected back to her in the rearview mirror when an emergency broadcast broke the silence in the car; each of their phones buzzing and blaring with the alarm. Lena numbly reached into her pocket and read the message as Kara laid her head down in her lap.

Kal was dead.

“te zhao” Lena dipped her head, pressing a kiss to golden hair. ‘My love, my love, my love’ she repeated. Dread turned over in waves inside of Lena, and when she looked at her wife, she was met with a withering look. Kara knew, she had felt it, the moment when she was left unequivocally alone. No longer a sister. No longer a cousin. The last daughter of a dead planet and a dead race. She pressed her face to Lena’s stomach, kissing the small swell of life that was growing there, repeating her uncle’s Kryptonian blessing until they arrived home.

Kara withdrew in the hours that followed. She rocked quietly in the chair of their half finished nursery, a single finger pressed to her lips as her grief turned over and evolved into an unanswerable rage. It wasn’t until late afternoon when the sun returned. Lena watched as her wife walked to the backyard and into the sun, turning her hands over in the golden ultraviolet as if studying it. She only spared a brief glance back at Lena before she was sky bound, punching holes through the clouds.

Lena watched the news coverage of the recovery efforts downtown. She watched her wife lift concrete and beams, tossing them aside without thought as she searched for her sister. The recovery site grew eerily quiet as they watched Supergirl collapse to one knee and pull her cape from her shoulders. Lena reached out absently for Sam as she watched Kara pull Alex from the debris, gently brushing the soot from her sister's face before wrapping her with an infinite tenderness in the red fabric. Rescuers removed their hats, placing them across their hearts in grief and solidarity as Supergirl descended from the mounds of twisted metal, tears mapping their way through the ash that stained her cheeks. And for the first time that day, Lena let go, collapsing against Sam, who held her close until her tears subsided and the trembling in her body stopped, close until emotion had drained her, leaving her hollow out and exhausted, on the cusp of an oblivious sleep.

She awoke to pain cutting through her like a knife, deep and hot in her gut. Lena pressed her hands into the couch and against Sam, trying to raise herself up, but she collapsed, agony ripping out of her chest in a scream. It wasn’t until Sam slid off the couch, and kneeled in front of Lena that she noticed the angry, bright blood that had begun to pool beneath her friend in a morbid halo. The edges of consciousness began to blur for Lena as Sam moved around the house frantically with her phone pressed between her ear and shoulder, demanding an ambulance. The last thing Lena remembered were the first, fluttering movements that turned over inside her belly as the abstract life she carried bled from her body.

Kara was beside her when she woke again. The incessant beeping of the machines around her the only sounds that filled the room. Kara was still in her suit, streaked with dirt, her cape missing. She held Lena’s hand, and dipped her head, pressing a reverent kiss to her knuckles. Lena ran her fingers through her wife’s hair and felt the warm tears that slid across the back of her hand in between each tender kiss Kara placed there. She vowed resolutely to find Lex and to kill him. Lena placed a finger beneath her wife’s chin, and lifted gently until tired, bloodshot eyes met her own, “Go.” 

Lex was dead before sunset.

                                                          xxxxx

Lena had left six months later, unable to watch the rage Kara carried and how it settled deep inside of her, insidious and reckless. 

Unable to keep removing the green shrapnel from impenetrable flesh that carried the constant reminder of her brother and what he had taken from her.

Unable to walk by the closed, locked door of an unfinished room in the house that was meant to be a home.

And unable to reach her wife, who was a hollowed shell of who she once was.

It had been nearly a year since the sky bled, and now Lena watches the snow fall over Boston. Dense, large flakes that obscure the Citgo sign across the pike from her Fenway apartment. It is nearly 2am, and Lena is far from sleep. In the kitchen, she pours the last remnants from her bottle of wine, topping off her glass and moves into the living room. She had put up a tree only at Ruby’s request when her and Sam visited at the beginning of the month. Sam had warned Lena of her daughter's instance on celebrating the holiday, and Lena had relented, unable to steal the joy from her god-daughter. It wasn’t until Ruby began to unpack and hang the stockings, hers, Sam’s, Lena’s, and one small, nameless stocking that Lena had to excuse herself. Sam had followed her into the bedroom a few minutes later and knelt beside her, cradling Lena in her arms as she cried.

Lena settles onto the couch and brings the wine glass to her lips, the burgundy liquid reflecting the soft, white lights of the tree. The glass nearly slips from her hand when she hears a gentle knock, and the sound immediately breaks down the door to heart.

Anxiety turns over in her chest, and she can feel the upkick in delicate muscle behind her ribs, her pulse drumming away in her ears.

Which means Kara can hear it too.

When Kara knocks again, Lena stands, setting her glass down on the table and walks towards the front door, but hesitates as she reaches out, her hand hovering over the handle.

On the other side of the door, Kara raises her fist, insistent on knocking again and again and again, even if it takes all night until her wife answers. 

“Please.” Kara’s voice is quiet. She nervously adjusts her glasses as she hears the lock turn over. She shifts her weight on her feet, and taps her fingers anxiously against her leg. And for the first time in six months she sees her wife.

Rao, she is beautiful, and even if Kara had stumbled across the sky just for this view, it would have been worth it.

Lena grips the door handle tightly and without much debate, steps back and opens the door fully, allowing space for Kara to come in.

Kara gives a tight smile and steps inside. Wet snow is still clinging to her hair and jacket, and Lena resists the urge to reach out and brush it away.

“Thanks.” Kara says, shrugging her jacket off and hanging it on the rack by the door.

Lena closes her eyes for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. She wrings her hands together, attempting to turn over a ring she no longer wears and looks at Kara, who has moved in front of the tree and is studying the ornaments , “Ruby picked most of them out.” she says. The words feel forced, and she isn’t able to stand idly by and make small talk with her wife.

“Wh-.. what are you doing here?” Lena asks, shock apparent in her voice.

“It’s Christmas.” and Lena can feel anger begin to rear up in her chest.

“Don’t be obtuse.”

Kara lets out a breath and steps away from the tree towards the fireplace. “Fine. Tomorrow is our anniversary.” her fingers trail along the mantle, ghosting over the small stocking at the end. She pulls her hand back, afraid of the emotion that may break free if she allows herself to feel it.

“I told you I needed space.”

Kara nods and turns to face Lena, “I know.”

“This isn’t space.”

“It’s been six months, and-..,” Kara takes a hesitant step forward, and Lena wraps her arms around herself, trying to protect every tender part that she can, “I can’t be alone.” Kara finishes quietly.

“Oh? Did someone finally refuse to keep pulling Lex’s kryptonite out of you? Or did they grow tired of watching you practically kill yourself every night?” Lena retorts, coldy,

Kara drops her head, and guilt crashes over her. She had spent months after losing Alex and their child selfishly throwing herself into battle after battle, fighting until her powers were nearly extinguished. Fighting aliens and humans alike with modified weapons, laced and sharpened with kryptonite, a final gift from Lex who had flooded the black market with the radioactive rock before she killed him.

She fought until she came home bloodied with a pain racing through body like razors in her blood. And Lena has gathered her each time, piecing her back together until she couldn’t.

Until she could no longer bear the weight of her grief and her own and left.

Kara had spent those six months pinned somewhere between darkness and light. She sought counsel from J’onn, and began to pray again. She visited Alex often, and talked, hoping that her words would break through the clouds and find whatever god may be listening. 

“I deserve that.”

A sad laugh escapes Lena as she looks down, averting her gaze from Kara’s sad eyes, “I didn’t.”

“You’re right, you didn’t. And I am so sorry.” Kara pleads, “I told you I would never leave. I’m still here.”

“But you did leave. You were gone long before me, Kara. You became a ghost, each day I watched you disappear more and more. And...” Lena lifts her head, feigning bravery, “I couldn’t lose you, too. I couldn’t see you come home like that. You kept putting me in that position. I couldn’t grieve. I couldn’t move forward. You kept me trapped in that darkness with you.”

“Lena, I am so sor-..”

“I lost everything, too. I lost my family. I lost our daughter. I nearly lost you. But I couldn’t let it drown me,” Lena says pressing her hand against her chest, “not when I had to provide every ounce of stability as you spiraled out.”

“Ou-..” emotion catches and tightens like a vise in Kara’s throat, “our daughter?”

Lena closes her eyes, fighting back her own tears, unable to meet Kara’s gaze and see the shattered look on her face.

“inah?” Kara repeats, the realization folding heavily into her chest, “You knew?”

“I was going to tell you,” Lena breaths out, “that night I was goi-..” but her words are drowned out by the cry that falls out of her. It’s too much. She clasps her hand tightly over her mouth, trying to swallow it back down, but the emotion threatens to collapse in on her, and she leans forward, her hand falling from her mouth as her pain escapes in guttural sobs.

Kara closes the distance between them, and gathers Lena in her arms, pulling her close, shouldering her tears until the fabric of her shirt is stained with salt.

“Hey, I’ve got you.” Kara dips her head to Lena’s ear, fingers running through obsidian hair, “I’ve got you.” she whispers

Lena doesn’t know how long she stays pressed against Kara, only that her breaths begin to even out, and when Lena lifts her head, she is met with a sad smile. Kara raises a hand and gently wipes away her tears with the pad of her thumb, and Lena can feel the broken pieces of her heart being hoisted up from the dark valley in her chest. She closes her eyes, and leans in, pressing the ghost of a kiss to Kara’s lips. When she pulls back, eyes still closed, Kara pulls her bottom lip between teeth, savoring the softness. She has committed Lena’s kiss to memory many times, but this kiss, one brushed with forgiveness, leaves Kara enveloped in a stillness that she hasn’t felt in over a year. She can hear the shaky breath that Lena lets go of, one laced with vulnerability, and when she opens her eyes, Kara can see a spark, something hopeful that soothes the callosed walls of her heart.

Kara leans in, her nose brushing over the cupid's bow of her wife’s lip, and presses her forehead to Lena’s, holding her gaze. And Kara swears in this moment and in every one that will follow that she will gather every piece of Lena’s broken porcelain heart and make it whole again.

“Stay.” Lena says quietly against Kara’s lips, and Kara can’t help but smile, because the song the word carries is so familiar, “Always.” she answers, pressing a tentative kiss to Lena’s lips.

Slow shaking fingertips run across the line of her jaw, and Kara leans into the touch, turning her head and pressing a reverent kiss into the palm of Lena’s hand. She is more than willing to relinquish every part of her over to Lena in this moment, to allow her to forge this new path with every trembling touch, and Kara will follow her like thread, weaving back together their ruins with every ounce of gracious love she has.

The gentle touch moves down the column of Kara’s throat and past the center of her chest, until exploring hands pull at the edge of her shirt, untucking them from her slacks. Warm fingertips move under her shirt, pushing up the fabric, and Kara raises her arms, allowing Lena to pull the clothing free. Lena pauses for a moment, noticing the long, silver chain hanging around Kara’s neck, two matching rings suspended from it. She glances up to her wife, and studies the bashful, soft look that has settled on Kara’s face. Lena lifts the chain, gliding her fingers down its length until the weight of the rings settle in the palm of her hand.

“You’ve never been nothing short of a romantic.” Lena playfully chastises. 

Kara smiles, covering Lena’s hands with her own and capturing the rings in their joined hands, “More like nothing short of a cliché.”

“That too. But it’s one of the things I love about you.”

For the first time that evening, Kara can hear the mirth in her wife’s voice, and the warmth from it breaks like a wave against the shore of her heart. She leans down, capturing Lena’s lips in a sweet kiss. Lena presses her hands against Kara’s chest, and begins a slow ascent over warm skin until her fingers weave through the soft hair at the base of Kara’s neck and pulls her closer, deepening the kiss. There is no rush as Lena takes a step forward, pushing Kara back and guiding her towards the bedroom between kisses and insistent hands pulling at clothing until they are discarded in their wake. Kara’s hands rest on her wifes hips, and when her back meets the bedroom door, she reaches behind her, absently searching for the handle as Lena’s hands move to the buckle of her belt, unfastening and pulling it free.

They move in a familiar dance as they push through the threshold of the room. Kara keeps her hand on the small of Lena’s back, keeping her wife tethered as she reaches out and steadies a firm hand against the edge of the bed. Lena breaks their kiss, her soft eyes searching Kara’s face, and she knows the request before Lena has to ask; to stay close. 

“sokao.” Lena asks, leaning in and pressing her lips against Kara’s, the request causing a bolt of pleasure to move through her body. She nods and steps away briefly to gather what she needs.

Lena presses her head back firmly into the bed, her back bowing when Kara finally moves inside her. Her nails dig into strong shoulders as her wife moves with slow, deep thrusts. Hot breath and laguid kisses move over her neck, across the column of her throat and then capture her lips. Kara grips the edge of the bed as her other hand travels down the side of Lena's body, trailing warm fingertips over the subtle dips and valleys of her ribs until she reaches her hip and kneads into the soft skin there.

Lena gasps as Kara pulls her close, hand steady on her hip, and she matches her wife's movements, rolling her hips into Kara, taking her in deeper. Warmth begins to collect low in her stomach, and Lena pushes a hand to the center of Kara’s chest, gripping the chain hanging loosely between them, and opens her eyes, holding Kara’s hooded gaze. Lena digs a heel into the bed, pressing up and adjusting her position just enough to hear the moan that falls past her wife’s lips that Lena captures with a searing kiss.

“zhygam.” she whispers against her lips, “sern.”

And Lena knows the reaction she elicits from Kara when she speaks to her like this in her native tongue; she can feel it in the way her heart races and can see it in the candescent glow that races under Kara’s skin, lighting up her capillaries in a dim, golden hue that grows brighter until they extinguish as she falls freely over the edge with Lena.

Soft, grey light pushes at the edges of the bedroom windows, and under the snow blanketed glow of the city, Lena holds their trembling bodies close as Kara murmurs assurances of love against her skin, and Lena realizes in that moment that perhaps home wasn’t always meant to be a place, but it could also be a person.

“Do you know why I chose it?” Lena asks sometime later, curled against her wife’s side, running her finger over Kara’s chest, and the eternity knot inlay of their rings.

“Hm?” Kara hums, carding her fingers through dark hair, “chose what?” 

Lena props herself on an elbow, and rests her head in her hand, her finger ghosting over the platinum bands, “Gold.”

“Because you know it’s not my color?” Kara teases.

Lena swats playfully at her wife’s arm, “Because the body contains at least 0.2 milligrams of gold, with the highest concentrations being around the heart.”

Kara tilts her head down studying the rings, and then turns her gaze to Lena, whose eyes stay fixed on the bands with a distant look, “I chose gold because I believe we were forged in the heart of the same star, and when it collapsed, those parts of us traversed the universe, built worlds and life. The calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, and the gold in our hearts; we’re made in the interiors of collapsing stars,” Lena glances up to Kara, who is blinking away tears, “you came here and brought our star with you. And it is familiar as your touch and far as a distant memory, but it’s there, built into you and me.”

“Are you calling me a bunch of star stuff?” Kara asks conspiratorially, wiping the back of her hand across her cheek, capturing a stray tear. 

Lena smiles, her laughter escaping in a short breath as she leans down, pressing a soft kiss to Kara’s smirking lips, “I’m loosely quoting Carl Sagan, but yes, star stuff.” she muses.

Kara smiles brightly then as Lena lips move across her cheek, and down the slope of her jaw. In a cosmos where further seems forever, and forever seemed meant for few things, forever had found its way, lining their hearts and pumping through their veins, infinite as the snow falling around them in the quiet of the city.

-----

The kryptonian phrases are:

te zhao  - my love

inah - daugther

sokao - please

zhygam - come

sern - together/unite

[rebelwrites]

Chapter Eleven: He’s Back

Summary // Chapter List / Masterlist

A/N: things are getting intense now! Would love your feedback

Join The TagList Here 💜

Brooke wandered into the kitchen, a huge smile on her face. Today was the day she was seeing the people she classed as family. She was in a world of her own as she poured some coffee and didn’t see Xavier at the kitchen table.

“Stealing my clothes again are we?” Xavier chuckled as Brooke spun around flipping him off.

“Well maybe if you didn’t leave your room unlocked I wouldn’t be able to go rummaging through your draws” Brooke sassed making Xavier smirk at her fiestyness. “It’s like you are asking for me to steal your clothes”

Brooke was just about to say something else when a voice appeared behind her.

“Babygirl what have I told you about stealing people’s clothes”

Xavier squinted at the guy that just walked into his kitchen, calling his bumble bee babygirl. He was ready to kill. He watched as Brooke spun around so fast he wasn’t sure how she didn’t give herself whiplash, she ran into this guys arms with a giant grin on her face.

“I can’t believe you came Nate” Brooke giggled as she wrapped her legs around Nate’s waist and her arms went around his neck.

The look in Nate’s eyes made Xavier want to vomit.

“Well I see you have found her already” a female voice laughed taking Brooke’s attention from Nate.

“Shit Lex” Brooke sequeled as she landed on the floor just in time for her best friend to tackle her. “I missed you bitch”

“Not as much as he did” Lexi smirked “I swear to god he had been like teenage girl moping about ever since you left”

“I do not mope” Nate huffed folding his arms across his chest, making Brooke raise her eyebrow at him “okay maybe I just missed you”

Xavier couldn’t sit back and watch the two of them flirt, so he left. Bumping into his father on his way out.

“Son, where are you going?” Alex asked.

“Out” Xavier snapped slamming the front door behind him.

“Sorry about my son” Alex said to Bret and Rachel “he can be a bit temperamental at the moment”

“Trust me we know what that is like” Rachel sighed.

Craig was already biting his tongue, he knew that she was talking about his little girl, it didn’t sit well with him nor did he like them bad mouthing her in front of him.

“Where is Brooke anyway?” Rachel said looking around the place. “I hope she’s not causing trouble”

“She’s in the kitchen” Lily smiled, holding her arm out towards the open door, guiding them through the house.

“Alex I’m gonna punch someone soon if she doesn’t stop bad mouthing my daughter” Craig said to his best friend.

“You and me both brother” Alex nodded, squeezing Craig’s shoulder in support.

As the day went on Brooke was getting more pissed off, everyone could see it but Rachel kept poking the fire by making comments. She was moments away from snapping.

Every chance Rachel got she was making some comment about the club house or the people here. But she didn’t care who she pissed off.

“So I can see where the attitude comes from now” Rachel said. And that was it Brooke snapped.

“Can you shut the fuck up please?” Brooke shouted, making everyone look at her.

“That’s not the way to talk to the person that raised you” Rachel said in shock.

“You may have raised me but it’s obvious you hated me” Brooke said through gritted teeth. “I’m actually glad you sent me away because I found my real family. I should have seen the signs you didn’t care about a long time ago. When I can to you about the nightmares and you told me to stop being a baby and go back to sleep”

“They were just nightmares,” Brett nodded.

“No they weren't just nightmares” Brooke hissed “you didn’t care so you didn’t know the shit I went through at a young age. The nightmares are real, they are my memories but you didn’t give a shit”

“Bumble come on calm down” Xavier whispered pulling her into his arms.

“How can I calm down Xav?” Brooke sighed “they didn’t care about me”

“We did and do care about you Brooke” Rachel said “it’s just your behaviour we couldn’t cope with, you were constantly acting out”

“Have you ever thought that was her trying to get some fucking help” Xavier spat.

“What how you talk to her ok dickhead” Nate spat.

“Oh hell no” Xavier huffed letting go of Brooke and squaring up with Nate.

Alex could see things were getting extremely heated and if he wasn’t careful his son would put Nate in a coma.

“ENOUGH” Alex shouted slamming a pan on the counter “we brought you here so Brooke could see you but now I think that’s a bad idea.”

“Do you know what I’m done” Brooke shouted, “I don’t care if I don’t see you again for the rest of my life. At least I found my family and they actually give a shit about me”

Brooke had retreated to the corner of the kitchen as she received a text. A text that made her want to throw up. And she wished she never read the text. Tears pricked her eyes, as her breathing became erratic. Blinking at the words of the text she let her phone fall from her hands causing everyone to look up at her. She couldn’t take this not again. So she did what she did best and ran.

She was finally getting her life back on track, and that bastard was going to tear it apart again.

Nobody said anything as they heard her bike roar into life before the sound disappeared into the distance.

“Shouldn’t someone go after her?” Bret asked.

“She needs her space” Craig nodded.

“But where will she go?” Bret asked.

Xavier and James looked at each other and nodded.

“The willow tree” James said softly as Xavier picked up Brooke’s phone to see why she had bolted.

His face paled as he read the words on the screen. She didn’t run because of the argument she ran because she was scared. Running his hands over his face he took a breath.

“I'm know you are back, your time is running out"

“Guys we have a problem” Xavier breathed walking over to his father, Craig and James. “He’s back”

[rebellionbear]

Old Ch 15 of In My House

The new IMH ch 15 has been posted on AO3

<p>“Fuck! Ow!” Lena blurted out, her body tightening from the spasm of hunger that rocked her and her fangs slicing down and extending into position far too quickly, nearly piercing her bottom lip. Fuck! She twisted away from Kara, out of her arms and crawled to the far side of the bed.</p>

<p>“What’s wrong?” Kara asked urgent with worry. Lena held out a hand behind her, begging her to stay where she was.</p>

<p>“Stop!” Lena’s hands balled into fists as she pulled her focus inside. Kara stilled where she was.</p>

<p>Instinct and intellect worked together as Lena assessed her situation. It wasn’t long until daybreak. Maybe two hours. She was injured, but not physically. There was the pain from the transition, but she knew that would fade. But something else had … He’d said it was his mother. Whoever she was, she had some kind of powerful dark magic that Lena had tripped when she scaled the house. That little sleazy toad!</p>

<p>“Lena?” Kara spoke softly.</p>

<p>“Just … wait,” Lena replied.</p>

<p>She was almost certain that it was whatever bond she had developed with Kara that had saved her. That had given her the tiny window of her own magic to slip through the tendrils of paralytic poison that had been wrapped around her. She latched onto that. Kara had saved her.</p>

<p>That light that was Kara. That’s what had given her the strength. She almost laughed but it came out as a whimper. She could feel Kara respond behind her, sitting up and leaning toward her.</p>

<p>“Lena, please let me help you!”</p>

<p>Lena frantically waved her off again. She breathed in deeply, pulling the scent and essence of Kara inside her … once, twice. It helped center her, but in turn the hunger roared. “I will. Kara. I need … a moment.” It took energy just to say the words. </p>

<p>The part of her that ached with a need to repair herself thrashed against her will, but her will was far stronger. Lex had told her to let it free, to take and destroy, like a god. He’d told her that all mortals were fuel for their fire. He was a monster. So in the early years after her change she had tested it time and time again until it was unbreakable, forged by fire. </p>

<p>The first thing she mastered on her own was controlling the hunger. Once she could isolate it and recognize it for what it was, it couldn’t rule her. So she focused now, and she felt her fangs retract. She focused on the pain and she accepted it. She pulled it in and welcomed it and made it a part of her instead of fighting against it. Almost immediately she felt better. More herself. Her body began to relax, her limbs releasing their rigid hold, and she sat up on the bed beside Kara, who allowed a space to remain between them, giving her some room. </p>

<p>She heard Kara’s sigh of relief from releasing her own tension.</p>

<p>With her hunger restrained, Lena felt the anger slot into its proper position as well, like a fine watch gear clicking into place. Her eyes narrowed in focus. She would destroy Matthews, and his mother.</p>

<p>“I’m ok,” Lena said to assure Kara. “I’m sorry I had to pull away like that. It would have been hard to … do what I needed to … if you were too close.”</p>

<p>Kara eyed her with suspicious concern, as if she could see everything Lena wasn’t telling her. In a way it made Lena feel proud of her.</p>

<p>“You’re not ok,” Kara said. For someone who was naked she looked remarkably resilient to any attempt at deflection.</p>

<p>“All right. I’m not ok. I’m livid,” Lena admitted, cold fury rising to the surface. “That pissant Matthews tried to kill me. That smarmy, pustular, insignificant little …” Her eyes shone in vivid green like they might light up and burn a hole through the wall and across town to incinerate the man.</p>

<p>“Ok, ok,” Kara said. “We’ll take care of that part later.” She opened her arms in invitation.</p>

<p>Ready to accept the comfort now, Lena scooched over and put her head on Kara’s chest and took in the heat of her skin pressed to her cheek and the warm arms wrapped around her. The fury from a moment before deflated under the gentle energy surrounding her, Lena formed the barest of pouts and and slumped slightly. </p>

<p>“And I’m hungry,” she murmured. </p>

<p>A thought occurred to Kara and the corner of her mouth twitched. She tried to hold it in, but a sound escaped from the back of her mouth and out her nose.</p>

<p>“Are you laughing at me?” Lena asked in disbelief.</p>

<p>Kara closed her eyes and shook her head, but Lena could clearly feels the woman’s chest rising and falling with an effort to contain herself. </p>

<p>Kara tried to stop. She really did. She didn’t even understand why it was so funny to her. Maybe it was the stress of the last week coming out in a completely inappropriate way. She took a few gulps of air to regain her ability to speak. </p>

<p>“It’s just … it’s dumb,” she tried to explain, shaking her head again. Lena, for her part, was distracted enough now that her anger was even more remote, and she felt her own smile begin to emerge, though she was fighting it. </p>

<p>“It’s …” Kara began as a tear rolled down one cheek, “You’re hangry.” And here she burst out laughing, throwing her head back and and using her full lung capacity to let her amusement ring up to the rafters. Lena felt she had never seen a more beautiful, stunning column of neck in her life … or afterlife.</p>

<p>“I don’t know what that means,” Lena said through her own laughter. Kara’s mirth was infectious.</p>

<p>“I know. It’s ok,” Kara sputtered as she pulled Lena to her. She began with small kisses to Lena’s head until her breathing calmed down.</p>

<p>They moved to meet each other and lips found lips, and jawline, and throat, quickly progressing into passion.</p>

<p>Lena didn’t realize her fangs had descended again until Kara’s mouth found her own again and she felt her cheekily hooking her tongue around one and tugging at it. She pulled back suddenly. “Kara …”</p>

<p>“I consent,” Kara said, pulling back to meet Lena’s eyes before descending again to kiss Lena’s throat. “I know what you need, and I consent.” She teased with her teeth, pulling at Lena’s pale skin. Lena gasped.</p>

<p>Her hunger curled inside her in warm anticipation. It wrapped around and coiled with the desire that rose up in response to Kara’s attentions. She knew Kara was sincere. And she knew they had much more to discuss. But most of all she knew she could trust Kara with this.</p>

<p>Feeding on strangers out of necessity was its own practice. It was acting through layers of distance. It was a dance of selecting just the right subject to maintain her own standards of morality, to do no harm, to reach a mutual agreement for a one-time act.</p>

<p>Kara was so different. As bold as she was, as confident as she had shown herself to be … Lena knew that Kara was susceptible to being hurt by her. Their odd arrangement … relationship … had barreled from first meeting to something soul-deep, and feeding from her would take it even further. It was something Lena wanted to do right. She wanted it to be an experience Kara would never regret. And never forget.<br />

_____</p>

<p>Kara knew she was being impulsive again, but she knew this was right. Though she was surprised to feel Lena pushing her back down and crawling on top of her. She had expected resistance, and Lena insisting on talking first. But no.</p>

<p>“Oh, you’re not going to get me that easily,” Lena said, her pupils expanding as she pressed her hand to Kara’s chest.</p>

<p>By the time Lena’s thigh slotted between her own, Kara was panting from Lena’s ministrations to her nipples, the delicate prick of sharp fang to stiff, swollen bud followed by suction and soothing tongue. </p>

<p>By the time Lena reached between them and purred her response to slick depths and readiness, Kara was grinding and rolling her hips, seeking more and being rewarded so, so well.</p>

<p>By the time Kara felt her approaching orgasm roiling unstoppably inside her she had forgotten her lover was a vampire, and the sensation of sharp teeth piercing the flesh of her throat acted as a catalyst to the exquisite swell of pleasure that rocked her like seismic waves with every pull she felt. Every tug and swallow from Lena’s mouth. Kara lost count as her spirit soared into another plane of existence.</p>

<p>And then she was eased down, her link to Lena even stronger, like silver ribbon dancing along her spine.</p>

<p>She drifted gently from somewhere far out in space, back to earth’s orbit, back inside her body, back on her bed where she felt the bunched fabric in each of her fists. She had never felt so alive.</p>

<p>As the dark curtain of Lena’s hair lifted away from her and fingers slipped from inside her, with a mewl of protest Kara opened her eyes. Lena stared back down at her in adoration … and wary anticipation.</p>

<p>Kara realized how she must look, with the aftermath of an unbelievable experience reflected in her body, still rigid with the effort of holding itself together. A smile spread across her face and her muscles seemed to ease into warm languid pools. Lena returned the smile.</p>

<p>“Are you all right, love?” she asked. Kara closed her eyes again and nodded. </p>

<p>“I think I’m the best I’ve ever been,” Kara replied.</p>

<p>“You don’t feel weak?” Lena asked.</p>

<p>“No. Should I?”</p>

<p>“A little, perhaps.”</p>

<p>Kara urged Lena back down and into her arms. “I feel amazing,” she mumbled. “Alex gave me a supplement, while you were a bat. Maybe that’s it.”</p>

<p>Lena’s brow furrowed. “How much does Alex know?”</p>

<p>“Probably more than we do. And I hate to say this, but we should call her and let her talk with you before the sun comes up.”</p>

<p>Lena groaned. “Dear god, what happened while I was gone?”</p>

<p>Kara hugged her closer. She didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to pull herself out of this reverie. But there was only so much time before the sun rose again. “Let me call Alex and I’ll catch you up while she’s on the way.”<br />

_____</p>

<p>Alex arrived soon after the call to find a much-recovered Lena answering the door wearing one of Kara’s college sweatshirts, and Kara in her robe, sitting with a bruised and punctured neck nursing a can of the supplement at her dining room table. She did her best to not think about the practically glowing aura of satisfaction emanating from her sister.</p>

<p>Now that Alex was there, Lena gave them both the full story of what had happened at Matthews’ house.</p>

<p>“We’ve got to find this witch,” Alex grumbled. “Did Mike ever talk about his family, Kara?”</p>

<p>“Oh, yeah. He mentioned his mother a lot. Like he worshipped her. It was kind of creepy, actually,” Kara said. “He’d say stuff like, ‘Oh, Mother would love this,’ or ‘Mother wouldn’t like that’ while he was showing me the house. What did I care if his mother would like or not like something?”</p>

<p>“But he always just called her Mother?” Alex asked, her face twisted with revulsion.</p>

<p>“Yeah,” Kara said, disappointed. “No, wait! He did say it once. What was it?” She wracked her brain. It had been so insignificant at the time, and she was sure she had been trying to tune him out while she tried to make her decision about buying the house. “We stopped at a bar for lunch and to go over some paperwork on the approval process. The bar television was on, something about a revolution somewhere, and he said, more to himself than to me, ‘Rita would never abide that kind of disrespect.’ And somehow I was sure he meant his mother because of how he said it. And I just thought it was a gross thing to say about people trying to overthrow an autocracy.”</p>

<p>Alex entered the name into a database on her laptop. “I get nothing on a Rita Matthews,” she said.</p>

<p>“Are you sure that was the name?” Lena asked. </p>

<p>Kara pondered a moment. “I think so. The bar was kind of loud.”</p>

<p>Alex suddenly sat up stiffly, her eyes wider. She turned to Kara. “Rhea. Could it have been Rhea?”</p>

<p>“Yes! That’s it!” she affirmed. </p>

<p>Alex turned pale and closed her laptop. “Rhea Gan is the most ruthless, powerful witch we know of. She’s been off the map for almost a decade, but she still controls a nefarious cadre of supernaturals with an iron fist. They do whatever she wants, from blackmail to torture to murder.”</p>

<p>As she spoke, the first rays of sunlight began to break across the horizon.</p>

<p>“I have to go,” Lena said. She kissed Kara’s head and looked to Alex. “As long as we know who we’re dealing with, we can handle this. We can take her down.”</p>

<p>Alex nodded. This was an opportunity to do some good for the world. And she would do whatever it took to make sure Kara was safe.</p>

<p>She saw how Kara looked at Lena as they parted and how Kara watched as Lena retreated to her safe room upstairs, and she knew that she would now include Lena in that umbrella of protection as well.</p>

<p>Kara turned to her, determined. “Let’s see if we can get a plan in place and decide what to do next.”</p>

<p>“We will. I already have a few ideas. But then you’re going to go back to sleep and get some rest, too. You’ll need it to recover,” she said and then noticed the hazy smirk of remembrance spreading across Kara’s face. “Ew. Don’t think about that in front of me.”</p>

[tessatechaitea]

Supergirl #8

Check it out, kids! A free digital comic book on this $3.99 comic book that used to cost $2.99! What a deal!

So DC Comics has decided they can no longer draw the line at $2.99 on monthly comic book titles. But what they can do is distract everybody with a free digital comic code! I'm super angry about this right now! Not because I have to pay an extra dollar on the monthly comic books but because I could be talking about Emerald Empress's tits! I particularly like the giant one leaking milk in her right hand! Wowzers! The story begins with Kara being excited by a visit from her cousin, Superman. That's because she's forgotten that the only time he comes to visit her is to criticize the way she chooses to live her life. It's always "Wear underwear when flying around the city!" or "Don't stick the Kryptonian memory crystals in your vagina!" and "Stop immediately punching people in the face when you meet them!" and "Stop constantly exploding your vagina!" He has a lot of advice on what she should do with her vagina. Krypton is a lot more like Earth than people realize.

Why would he bring up the time she died as an example of cousins getting together?! That's not sexy at all!

Supergirl is about to remember how awful visits from her cousin can be when he begins to explain that today is a Kryptonian holiday: The Day of Truth! On this day, "Kryptonians tell only the truth, no matter how blunt or brash." Holy fuck. That sounds like the worst holiday ever. I have a feeling most Kryptonians took the day off work and locked themselves in a dark room until it was over. The problem with that kind of holiday is that most people's "truths" aren't truths at all! They're just terrible opinions a person thinks which they want to label as truth so they don't sound quite as horrible expressing them. What The Day of Truth really sounds like is a woman's every day experience on Twitter as sea lions harass them endlessly with "logic" and "reason" and "polite discussion." And of course Superman's first though on The Day of Truth was to go harass Supergirl with some of his "truths." I said it at the end of the last commentary when he appeared! Superman only visits to tell Supergirl how she's living her life incorrectly. Even when she died in the crisis on infinite Earths, Superman made it all about him!

How about saying, "Go to hell, you prick! Why aren't you spending the day with Lois, hmm? Is it because you know this holiday sucks ass and you'll just wind up saying a bunch of shit you'll regret later?!"

I bet Superman totally just made up this day. I wonder if the Kryptonian Fox News affiliate had to go off the air on this day? Luckily for Superman (because if Kara is going to tell the truth, Kal's about to get buried in some), Emerald Empress begins attacking a cement mixer in downtown National City. So instead of attacking each other in the spirit of the holiday, Supergirl and Superman fly off to speak some truth to Emerald Empress. If Superman doesn't say, at least once, "You are so fit!", I won't believe he's taking the day seriously. Supergirl can't remember why Emerald Empress is mad at her. That makes sense since Emerald Empress is from the future. She's probably mad about however this battle ends. Also, she has apparently already tracked down Saturn Girl in Arkham Asylum and learned that Supergirl destroyed her life. Again, I'm betting Supergirl destroys her life because Emerald Empress attacked her for no reason on the Day of Truth (even if the reason is that Kara destroyed Emerald Empress's life because she attacked her on the Day of Truth for no reason). Supergirl explains that magic cannot hurt iron. And she says it out loud on the Day of Truth, so it must be truth. But I think she's wrong about that! I think the iron has to be smelted by a Rabbi or spit on by a priest before it can become an anti-magic talisman. I don't think Ford built their engines out of anti-magic iron. I definitely know Volkswagen didn't! Supergirl defeats Emerald Empress with an engine block so Emerald Empress teleports away but not before truthfully saying, "This isn't over! Lots of people hate you! You might want to reconsider punching people in the face when you meet them!" Meanwhile, Batgirl voyeurs through batnoculars from a building across the way. I bet she just solved the Mystery of Supergirl's Missing Underpants! Superman and Supergirl fly off to the Fortress of Solitude to eat dinner with Clark's family on the Arctic Express. I don't know why there is a train sitting outside the Fortress but I'm sure the reason can be found in a Golden Age story I've never read.

So she can't use contractions but she understands the way we categorize extended family? I don't even understand that shit!

After dinner, Superman and Supergirl play catch between the Earth and the Moon using the Supermobile. I would have used the Bottled City of Kandor. Since it's the Day of Truth, Superman finally gets around to what he wants to discuss. He needs to tell Supergirl about how he is now the Superman of every DC Universe. I know Superman Reborn only showed two merging but that was probably due to limited space and/or artist error. I won't believe that DC needed to fix Preboot Superman by integrating him with New 52 Superman. That's like pissing in a milkshake to make it more palatable. No, Preboot Superman has definitely integrated with all of the Supermen that have ever appeared in any non-Elseworlds DC Comic book. And in so doing, apparently, he's changing all of the other characters into their united forms as well! The only thing stopping the process from being truly complete is a tiny dicked blue man on Mars. Don't think about it too hard or for too long! Shh, shh. Just let it be. Meanwhile, Simon Tycho apparently isn't a gelatinous butler encased in crystal (unless he became a sentient AI unit in Supergirl's Underwater Fortress of Secret Shame?) anymore. He's back running Tychotech and stealing technology and generally doing bad corporate things and pretending he's not a poor man's Lex Luthor. Also involved in corporate espionage (probably)? Batgirl! Everybody is looking into the rumor that Tychotech has developed (or, you know, stolen) the next big step in green energy. Catco, the DEO, and Batgirl's company (whatever it was called. Luke Fox's Cock Industries?) are interested! The Ranking! +1! This comic book became so much better when Cyborg Superman was removed.