#rise of the house of luthor

[missluthorwillseeyounow]

What do you do when someone you love is a psychopath and a serial killer? How do you pick up your life and move on from it?

If you're Lionel Luthor, you don't. Your son betrays you and the legacy you built for him, and so your heart betrays you too. You sit at your desk with those damn pills your quack of a doctor prescribed and one too many drinks. You feel a warning twinge on your arm before excruciating pain, red and angry, blooms in your chest, and you never see the morning. 

The only good thing about this is that you never see your son go to trial for killing 47 people over a span of 6 years. People whisper that you are one of Lex Luthor’s victims.

If you’re Lillian Luthor, you don’t either. You clean the damned mess these Luthor men left you. You take over the company that your husband had the gall to leave you, just as he left you with your only daughter. You clean up the tatters of your family’s reputation and legacy that your son left behind. 

In the eyes of the world, you move on. You rise, finally able to flex the muscles so long held back by your husband and the rest of the world's expectations. And you bring Luthor Corp with you. 

The millstone of the trials and scandal hang heavy on your neck, but all your life you have taught yourself to walk gracefully among lesser beings with your back straight and your head held high, just as you did as a young girl with textbooks on your head. This is no different.

But once a month, you make a pilgrimage to Stryker’s Island. To Lex. To the son you loved the best way you knew how, the only way you knew how - with a firm grip and the relentless, uncompromising push to achieve excellence, the intractable determination to make him grow into his fullest potential. That this potential was realized in murder, malice and manipulation was not your intent, but the world is far too quick and vindictive in their judgement because he is a Luthor. The mightiest always fall the farthest, and those beneath them wait hungrily for the chance to pull them down.

Your daughter leaves you too. The daughter who emerged, not from your body, but from your husband's infidelity. The same one who once looked up at you with eyes full of innocent trust that you vowed you would reciprocate in the best way you knew how. And so you did your best to prepare her, to mold her in your own image - into what a Luthor woman should be in this cruel, savage world that both worships and hates Luthors. 

You’ve seen what the world does to Luthors who do or say the smallest wrong thing and you never want her to suffer those whispers and so you tell her yourself. Better she hears it from family than the mouths and forked tongues of strangers.

But she is too hard-headed and too soft-hearted to comply. She rejects your bequest, the ungrateful girl, and tries to escape the Lena Luthor you tried so hard to cultivate all these years. 

As if you don't know. As if you could forget that it was her who brought this down upon all of you. Her, and that detestable Clark Kent. 

And if you are Lena Luthor, you cannot move on. You cannot escape it. No matter how far you stray from your family. No matter how many reparations you make, no matter how hard you strive to separate yourself from the curse it brings -- it always finds you.

It finds you in the dark hours when you’re by yourself without the touch of another woman or the burn of alcohol to distract you - and suddenly you’re a scared little girl again, walking into an ominous house made of grim oak, unforgiving marble and dark shadows. And the only warmth you receive is not from a largely absent and formidable father nor from a condescending and controlling mother, but from a charismatic and mercurial brother who taught you how to play chess and promised you the world.

But it turns out his shadow was the darkest of all, and you didn't see until it was too late.

How could you not see it?

You were just a girl at that time, Agent J'onzz once tried to comfort you with that fact. Back when Lex was arrested.

Just a schoolgirl home for the holidays -- shoes polished as bright as the naivete in your eyes, uniform pressed to Lillian's exact standards, picture perfect but always with just one tiny detail you forgot that was enough to attract notice and invite criticism. This time it was the glasses sitting slightly crooked on your face. 

You were more concerned with weathering the scorching disapproval just long enough until you got back to boarding school that you failed to notice Lex's distance. You failed to recognize the signs. You failed to decode his lies.

You failed.

By the time you got back to boarding school, he would have killed 2 more people.

By the time you caught on, he'd already killed 31. Those lives are all on you, because you were so absorbed by yourself, you didn't see what was happening under your nose. And those 3 agents Lex killed because he refused to come quietly? The judge and jury he poisoned at the trial? That's on you too.

Forty-seven lives taken. Forty seven more than there should have been if you hadn't been so blind. 

If only you hadn't been comforted by the gentle hand holding yours under the table throughout Lillian's litanies of your shortcomings everytime you were home from school. If only you hadn't fallen for the "adventures" he had tricked you into that always ended with you in disgrace or punished, like that time you stole Lionel's prized pen from the King of Jordan, just for him. 

If only you hadn't believed the fairy-tale dream of the two of you escaping to the snow-covered mountain peak, of finally being free of the Luthors’ oppressive presence.

And now he's serving 20 consecutive life sentences, and you've devoted your life to studying and stopping people like him.

Now you have 10 years of experience as a profiler and an undercover operative for both the Interpol and the FBI. Your work has taken you from Toran, to Kaznia, to Corto Maltese, to Metropolis, and now to National City.

You have seen the worst humanity has to offer, from terrorists to human traffickers to serial killers. But you keep looking into the abyss.

Because you looked into it once, you stared it in the face, and you didn't recognize it for what it was. 

_________

Or, a Supercorp Criminal Minds AU

There's actually 3 major plots in this, and they all intersect in varying ways

The first is Lex as a serial killer

The second is about Sam and Reign

The third is the most vague one, which includes Lena’s birth mother and Leviathan

It starts (as the intro says) with Lex being a serial killer who killed 47 people. In one version of this story, Clark is a reporter who, like Lena,  made the connection between Lex and the murders. One night after dinner  with the Luthors, Clark sneaks into Lex’s study to find evidence he can use for his story. 

He’s rummaging in a desk when he hears a voice from the doorway.

“You  won’t find anything there.” Clark whips around to find Lena standing  there, silhouetted against the light coming from the hall. He tenses,  thinking she’s about to tell her brother what Clark was doing. 

“If  Lex really is behind these murders, and I know you think he is, you  won’t find anything there. He’s not foolish enough to hide evidence  here." 

Clark doesn’t say anything, he just stares at her.  Lena pauses, looking away. "I… I didn’t want to believe it. Not Lex… He  wouldn’t…” Steel injects itself into her green gaze. “But the more time I  spend with him, the more clearly I see the truth. You see it too, don’t  you?" 

Clark straightens up and nods gravely. “Yes.”

The FBI eventually becomes involved in the investigation, and the team includes a certain agent on the fast track to becoming the unit chief, J’onn J’onzz.

J’onn meets Lena only briefly, but he’s struck by the young girl’s keen intelligence and remarkable calm. (Eventually, he becomes the one who suggests that Lena consider a career in profiling and criminal psychology).

Fast forward a couple of decades later, Lena is working with the BAU. The other members of the team here are J'onn, Alex, James, Brainy and Winn. Lena is a transfer from Interpol, and she's had years of experience in profiling, suspect and victim identification, as well as infiltration, under her belt (I also hc that she worked briefly with the CIA and the MI6, mostly in intel, profiling and undercover work).

For the sake of her anonymity (and also because it was necessary for her undercover work), she's erased all connections to Lex and the Luthors (including old photographs and newspaper articles until the name Lena Luthor is but a footnote in the Luthor history with nothing to tie her to who she is now). She's also changed her last name. (I'm torn because I just don't know if I can use the name Walsh for Lena, it doesn't sound.. right? Idk So for now, she's Agent Kieran).

Lena is very professional, almost intimidating. She’s revered by the younger agents in the Bureau, well-respected by her colleagues and highly praised by her superiors. But she's very guarded and keeps everyone at arm's length, doesn't go out for after-work drinks with the others, practically sleeps with one eye open — years of working undercover and living with a serial killer will do that to you.

Until a certain promising young recruit comes along.

Kara is new in town — the adopted sister of Alex Danvers, the cousin of one of J'onn's old friends (I don't think teaming family members up is actually allowed in the FBI, so some suspension of disbelief is required here). Lena is assigned to oversee her training and transition into the team herself.

Kara's sunny demeanor couldn't clash more with Lena's icy, professional facade. Lena approaches the task with thinly-veiled impatience and something remarkably close to disdain.

However, Kara quickly proves to be more than a perky attitude and a pretty smile. She squirms at blood, which Lena is quick to exploit at first (What FBI profiler can't stand the sight of a corpse? "We profile serial killers here, not celebrities in high-waisted jeans.").

But Kara displays true empathy to the victims and their families, she's sensitive to other people's emotions and knows just what to say to get a reluctant victim or witness talking. She's extremely dedicated to catching the unsubs, and relentless in her investigation. Not to mention, she's extremely handy to have around in a crisis.

Lena finds this last part out when they're on a case, trying to find a missing girl.

The team is headed to the unsub's apartment, but on a hunch, Lena heads to an abandoned warehouse near the apartment, with only Kara as backup. They enter the warehouse, and just as they're clearing the rooms and checking for the missing girl, the unsub attacks Lena and manages to pin her to the ground, choking her. Kara gets there just in time to shoot the unsub in the leg, saving Lena's life.

Later that evening, Kara and the rest of the team go to the bar to celebrate. Lena is absent, as usual.

Just as Kara is getting another round of drinks at the bar, a low, smoky voice interrupts her. "Didn't profile you as a drinker, Danvers.”

Kara squeaks, nearly dropping the drinks, and turns to see Lena smirking behind her. “I wonder what other surprises you're hiding behind those glasses and cardigans."

"Agent Kieran! I didn’t expect to see you here— No, these aren't all for me, I— " Lena's face softens at Kara's babbling, and she takes a few of the shot glasses from Kara's hands.

"You know, I have a rule..." A wry smile lifts one corner of her lipsticked mouth. "Anyone who saves my life gets to call me Lena."

Kara blushes profusely at the other woman’s arched eyebrow. "Well then, if I'm calling you Lena..."

Lena smirks. "Kara it is, then."

For the first time — much to the gaping surprise of the rest of the team she's worked with for years — Lena joins them for a post-case drink.

To everyone's — and no one's — surprise, the pair quickly become the best of friends.

Two days into their friendship, Lena starts jokingly calling Kara Supergirl. Three weeks later, they start grabbing lunch together. Three months in, Kara sends Lena a video of herself petting a St. Bernard on the street only to be bowled over in a mass of furry paws and puppy licks — and the cadets Lena is training are even more bowled over to hear the "Ice Queen" laugh. Of course, they're later treated with a scorching glare and a sharp reprimand, but it's a revelation just to discover that she's actually physically capable of laughing.

By six months, the whole department is in a secret "will they or won't they" betting pool. A year in, and every other department has stakes in the pool (Alex publicly condemns the pool, but secretly bets a hundred bucks that "they will" by winter).

One time while they're eating lunch together, Kara tells Lena why she became a profiler when her career was in journalism.

"It just felt... too late. I'd be covering these stories about these terrible things, people who were already victims, and I thought... it's too late... Don't get me wrong, I loved being a reporter. Journalism was a way to bring truth out there, to give voices to these victims, but.... I wanted - needed - to do something more. I wanted to stop these things from happening. To keep these people from becoming victims."

But despite their growing closeness, Lena has yet to tell Kara about Lex, or about her life before the BAU.

She doesn't tell Kara about the woman she'd loved once, who hates her now because of the lies Lena told her. She doesn't tell her about Reign. She doesn’t tell Kara about the sweet young girl living far, far away, who plays soccer and loves to sing and read. The little girl Lena loves from afar, but knows only through secret updates from James, because it's for her own good.

Because that sweet little girl that Lena hasn't seen since she was a baby deserves to live a life that's whole and good — away from those who love her, but could hurt her. Whether she's thinking about Sam or herself, Lena doesn't know.

There are too many secrets, Lena decides, as she shoves them all one by one into their little boxes, clamping the lid securely shut. Kara is too good to be tainted by any of them.

Kara, who gets squeamish at the sight of blood, but resolutely hunts each killer like an avenging angel. Kara, who somehow, somehow still believes in the good in people.

And when she realizes that there is very little of that to be found in Lena Kieran or Lena Luthor, Kara will hate her as much as Lena hates herself.

But then the day comes when Lena receives a package in the mail.

She reaches in and pulls out two things: one, a chess piece — the white knight — and the other, a surveillance photo of Kara and Lena having lunch together.

On the back of the photograph are three cryptic little words that fill her with dread: “See you soon, sis.”

Panic overrides logic and years of training, and Lena stashes the package and its cursed contents into her safe. Heart racing, she calls the warden at Strykers. It takes several favors, but she manages to procure video footage confirming that her brother is still incarcerated. Despite the visual confirmation, she doesn’t sleep a wink that night, nor the night after.

Everything is quiet after that, so quiet that Lena is almost lulled, if not into a sense of complacency, then at least a state of less vigilance. Everyone needs a breather, a reprieve from paranoia at some point, and that is exactly what Lex is counting on.

A string of seemingly-unrelated murders heralds Lex's return, luring the BAU — and Lena — closer and closer. Lena knows she should leave, and leave soon. The closer the team gets to figuring out it's Lex, the more danger they're in — not just Kara, but the rest of the team that Lena has now come to care for.

But Kara, being Kara, holds onto Lena and keeps her from leaving.

Kara knows her too well now. She knows that something is wrong. She pushes without pushing, in that earnest yet respectful way, relentless in her concern for the people she cares about, yet still mindful and considerate in her efforts. It's one of the things Lena loves about her.

And then, after coming home from a case one night — Kara is shot by an intruder in her apartment.

The whole team is thrown into chaos trying to find Kara’s assailant. They all agree that the attack cannot be random, but there’s a frustrating lack of evidence anywhere.

But Lena knows.

The lack of clues is a glaring clue in and of itself. She knows this is Lex’s handiwork. Her brother’s way of getting back at her for “telling on him”, just like he used to when they were children. Except the stakes are infinitely higher this time, and he has gone too far.

And Lena — who should've known — didn't prevent it. She was too selfish, too greedy, wanting more time — more time with Kara, more time with her team, her family — and now this is the result.

Lena knows that Lex will go after everything and everyone she loves, because he wants to hurt her. Luthors are not raised on half-measures. Win the game, or burn the board. He will not stop, Lena knows this. Not until either of them is dead.

While half the team is waiting at Kara’s bedside, and the other half is delving into Kara’s case — two people are noticeably missing.

Alex can’t bear to see her sister looking so weak and vulnerable in that hospital bed.

Instead, she goes to Kara's apartment to clean her sister’s blood off the wall before Kara gets home from the hospital.

She's just getting a bucket full of soapy water when she hears movement at the door. Alert, Alex already has her gun out and trained at the door.

When the door opens, all Alex sees is a flash of black hair and wide green eyes before she gets a gun aimed at her too.

"Lena?? What the fuck?! What are you doing here??"

Alex puts her gun down slowly, her heart still hammering. Lena cautiously does the same, her hands held out to her sides.

Alex gestures at the door "How did you—?"

"Kara gave me the key three months ago." Lena's eyes haven't lost their wary edge, but she has the decency to look a bit abashed. "She said I could come over anytime."

"Yeah, but Kara's still in the hospital. What are you doing here?"

"I know that," Lena slants her a light glare as she looks around Kara's apartment. "I just — I wanted to make sure the place is secure, and... well... I didn't want Kara to come home to that."

She gestures at the blood-spattered wall, but looks away quickly. As if she, like Alex, can't bear to stand the sight of Kara's blood.

It's funny. They're both seasoned agents, they deal with horrific things on an almost daily basis. The sight of blood rarely fazes either of them anymore. Except this is Kara's blood.

It seems impossible that Lena could get any paler, but here she is, as white as a ghost and looking just as sick as Alex feels. And yet, she's still here. Out of everyone in Kara's circle of friends and family, only Alex and Lena are here, performing a task that somehow seems more terrible than anything either of them have encountered.

It's in this moment that it begins to dawn on Alex just how special Lena is. How special she may still become.

Alex bends down and drags the bucket of soapy water to the wall. She doesn't look at Lena, and instead focuses on the wall and swallows down bile at the sight of her sister's blood. Over her shoulder, she mutters "Grab a sponge."

"That's not gonna be enough. We, um—" Lena clears her throat and chokes out. "— need bleach."

Alex nods curtly. "Under the kitchen sink."

Lena gets the bleach, and the two of them silently begin scrubbing Kara's blood off her walls, and that's that. Once they're done, Alex gets a couple of beers that Kara keeps especially for Alex in her fridge and offers one to Lena.

Then Alex gives her a mild version of a shovel talk lol

And then, two days before Kara is released from the hospital, the news breaks. Lex Luthor, convicted serial killer, has escaped from prison.

All eyes are focused on the BAU screen, except J’onn’s. He turns to his left. Lena Kieran watches the television without batting an eye.

Lena waits only until after Kara has come back home, to make sure that she's safe, that Alex is staying with her for now.

Looking at the blonde tucked into blankets on the couch, soft and vulnerable, Lena can't bring herself to say goodbye, so instead, she just leans over to kiss Kara on the forehead and says good night.

Then without a word, without even packing a bag, Lena Luthor leaves National City to lure her brother out of the shadows.

Lena makes her exit just as the team is on the cusp of finding out that Lena Kieran is Lena Luthor.

She leaves her apartment intact, knowing that Kara and the rest of the team will eventually search it. She sticks the surveillance photo of her and Kara on the bedroom mirror and writes on the glass in red lipstick: "I'm sorry. I promise I'll make this right."

J'onn is the only one who knows the truth of who Lena really is, and in the end, he's the one who tells them.

With Lena gone, it's clear to J'onn that she's about to do something monumentally stupid, like sacrifice herself for the team. He gathers everyone, and tells them the truth.

The group is gathered around the conference table, staring at pictures of young Lena on the screen.

Tiny Lena, not even 5 years old, just after she was adopted by the Luthors, her wide green eyes sad and confused, her little hands clutching a worn, well-loved teddy bear.

Six year old Lena and a teenaged Lex Luthor standing together in front of Lena's new school. The little girl in her neat uniform, holding onto the older boy's hand, looking at her big brother with an adoring smile.

Fifteen year old Lena on summer vacation, and a now-adult Lex, the young girl perched on the hood of a restored vintage car with Lex's hand on her shoulder. Lena is thinner, more gaunt, and her smile less bright, but Lex is different. He's grinning at the camera, looking every inch the charismatic billionaire playboy. You would never know from Lex Luthor's easy smile that he had already been killing for 5 years at this point.

Finally, the last Luthor family portrait, taken the year Lex was arrested. They're a beautiful family, there's no denying that. Each person in the photograph is regal and proud — but in each set face, there's a private war being waged. Lena looks far older than her sixteen years. Her face shows no emotion in each cut line, but her eyes betray all: a somber intensity that's impossible to look away from. Lex is the exact opposite. His smile is charming and draws the viewer's gaze, but his eyes are cold and dead. Within 8 months, Lex would be in prison, Lionel would be dead, Lillian would be running the company, and Lena would no longer be a Luthor.

Kara feels... she doesn't know how she feels.

There's anger, shock, confusion and... hurt. A lot of hurt, a heavy ball of it resting on the base of her spine, mixed with the ache of a longing she doesn't understand, something broken that only confuses her more. So she decides to settle on the anger.

Yes, anger is good. It gives her a sense of purpose and clarity, and it doesn't threaten to make her curl up into a tiny ball. She's angry that her best friend — one of the most important people in her life, second only to Alex — has been hiding all of this from her for years. She's angry that Lena, who has taught her so many things — not just about being a profiler, but about life and love and friendship — didn't trust her enough to tell her about any of this.

Anger is good, because it keeps the tears stinging the back of her eyes from falling, because... because Kara's always thought she knows Lena better than anyone. Had believed that out of everyone, Lena had trusted her, Kara Danvers, enough to get to know her. But now, it seems she doesn't really know Lena at all.

The screen flickers.

Everyone blinks up at the screen in confusion as it begins to glitch. Suddenly, the photos of Lena disappear from the monitors. It’s replaced by what looks like a grainy video feed. Kara turns to J’onn, who shakes his head, frowning. This was not his doing.

“What the hell?” Alex frowns up at the monitor and nudges Winn, who immediately squints into his computer screen. “Who’s doing that?”

“I have no idea...” Winn mutters. “Gimme a second...”

It looks like feed from a surveillance video, except it’s showing what looks like a cabin. Even from the pixelated image, it looks well-decorated, expensive, like something from a country home magazine. Outside the far window, Kara can see a view of snow-capped mountains. Outlined in the middle is a dark shadow of a man.

“They live soft, luxurious lives, don’t they? Your so-called friends. Oblivious, unencumbered by knowledge, and so pathetically... mortal. Fragile.” A smooth baritone voice cuts through the static, and Kara’s blood chills. That voice is familiar. “You and I, we have been trained in the hard school of danger and war. Haven’t we, sister mine?”

Another figure steps out of the shadows and into view, and Kara gasps. Even in the grainy image, Lena’s smile is sharp and icy. “Comparing yourself to Alexander the Great now, are you? But then again, you always were trying too hard, Lex.”

I don't know exactly how happens, I haven't figured it out yet, but Lena confronts Lex with the intention of killing him, except she's the one who's "killed".

And Lex, being the sadistic ass that he is, had the whole thing captured on a hidden camera and it's being broadcast on every BAU monitor, for Lena's family to see.

The whole team watches Lena "die".

But Lena had a failsafe. She told someone of her location, maybe Andrea or Jack or Jess idk, and had them standby to help her in case something happened.

The whole time Lex streams their confrontation, Kara is frantic. The table suffers under her fury, splintering with the force of her desperate grip.

Every time they get nowhere trying to track Lena and Lex, Kara punches the walls, and Alex has to hold her sister back, afraid of how Kara is losing control.

When the feed broadcasts Lena's death, it seems almost unremarkable. One second, Lena is standing, the next she's on the floor, lifeless and unmoving.

A deadly silence grips the BAU conference room. No one is moving, not even breathing. It's as if when Lena dropped dead on the feed, so did they. They wait. And wait.. and wait.

Lena doesn't move.

On the screen, Lex checks his sister's vitals and satisfied, steps over his sister's body and out of sight. The camera blacks out.

They all stare dumbly at the screen for a long moment, afraid to move, as if moving from their frozen spots would make it true.

It's Alex who stirs first. She jumps into action, frantic, ordering Winn to get the feed back, but it's impossible. The room erupts in a blaze of action, but Kara... Kara's the only one left staring at the screen, frozen in shock and disbelief, as if she can't believe it's real.

It’s not. It’s not.

In the interim between Lena's death and the reveal that she’s alive, Kara spends every waking moment hunting down Lex or secretly looking into Leviathan (which she also uncovers when she digs deeper into Lena’s life before the Luthors and learns more about Lena’s mother).

Kara goes down so deep into the rabbit hole, that Alex is genuinely afraid for her sister. She almost prays that they don't find Lex Luthor. Not because she doesn't want that man brought to justice, but because she's afraid of what Kara can and will do once she sees him.

Kara hasn't mentioned Lena's name in months. But then again, most of their team hasn't.

In the months since Lena’s death, two new members have been brought int the BAU team, William Dey and Nia Nal.

William and Nia know very little about Lena from the team itself, because her name is hardly mentioned. Nia only knows Lena through her reputation, and through what Alex and the other agents outside of their team have told her. 

Alex is the only one in the team who says Lena's name because she hates that everyone tiptoes around it.

Lena was their friend. Her friend, and it's not right that everyone flinches at her name, that they can't look at the plaque of her on the memorial wall. She knows how hard it is to look at Lena's picture there, just as hard as it was to look at Kara's blood on the walls.

But Alex is not gonna be the one to look away. Lena didn't look away when they cleaned Kara's blood off the walls, and Alex will not look away from her either. She's gonna hunt Lex Luthor down like the animal that he is and make him pay for taking Lena from their family.

But Alex is getting worried about Kara.

Her sister doesn’t sleep anymore. Barely eats. Kara doesn't stop — she pores over old files of Lex's murders, goes over the old profile, possible places he might be. Alex is worried about her fixation with Lex. It's not healthy. Kara's grief — or her refusal to grieve — is gonna drive her to the ground.

So she confronts Kara about it.

They're in the BAU conference room when Alex finally speaks up, but Kara meets her gaze head on. With one hand, she points to the empty seat Lena used to favor, right across Kara's. "Lena's chair, Alex. What do you see when you look at it?... Nothing, right? We've left it empty all this time. No one can bear to sit it in. Tell me, what do you see, right now?"

Alex glances over at the chair, then back at her sister "Kara..."

"Tell me what you see, Alex."

Alex sighs. "Nothing."

"Exactly. Nothing." Kara nods, her eyes hard. "Do you wanna know what I see? I see her, Alex. I see Lena sitting across from me, just as clearly as I can see you now.”

Alex swallows at the intensity burning in her sister’s eyes.

“I see her everywhere, Alex. All the time. I see her smile, her eyes, and I—" Kara's voice cuts off with a sob. The agony in her eyes is almost too much for Alex to take. It takes a long moment before Kara can speak again.

"I can't stop, Alex. Whenever I stop and I look at her, I — I know she's - she's gone, but she looks so alive, and I— I know the only way I can get any kind of peace about it is knowing that Lex Luthor has been wiped off the face of the earth."

A frisson of fear shivers down Alex's spine. "Killing Lex won't bring Lena back, Kara."

"I know that, Alex." Kara's eyes are dark as flint. "Believe me. I know."

Sometime after Lena’s “death”, the BAU receives an unannounced visitor.

Lillian Luthor strides into the BAU bullpen, tall and imperial in her furs, her icy glare making everyone it lands on feel small and insignificant.

She strides past the bullpen, past Kara, and comes face to face with J’onn. Her cold blue eyes render everyone in the room silent. She scoffs her hatred into his face.

 "Taking my son away from me wasn't enough for you people, was it? You had to take my daughter away from me too. I warned her. I warned her this would be her undoing, and I was right. And now she's dead." 

They end up having to work with Lillian to find Lex, because as Lillian says "It takes a Luthor to find a Luthor." [And there's gonna be an interrogation lol. I just have this vague idea of Lillian talking about Lex and Lena.]

"The truth is, I lost Lena long before now.” Kara suspects that this is the closest anyone has come to hearing regret in Lillian Luthor’s voice.

“I was.... harsh on her, in a way I never was with Lex. Lex always had a sharp edge to him, but Lena — Lena was too soft, too vulnerable. A Luthor cannot be soft. Not when the world is watching, waiting for you to make the smallest mistake."

It’s not enough. It’s nowhere near enough. Kara slams her hands on the table, unable to believe the nerve of this woman. J'onn grips her arm in warning, but Kara ignores him, snarling at Lillian, her anger plain on her face. "You abused her! You made her feel unworthy of love, unable to trust anyone—"

Lillian lifts her chin. "I made sure my daughter could face a world that's hungry for Luthor blood. I made her a Luthor."

"She was just a little girl when she came to you!" Kara shouts, her fury growing by the second. "A little girl whose mother just died, who was looking for love, and instead she found you. She trusted you—"

Lillian's voice rises, a flash of heat scorching the cool, detached dignified tones. "I made her strong!" 

"She didn't need to be strong!" Kara yells, surging up to her feet, her face inches away from Lillian. J'onn grabs her shoulder, restraining, but Kara presses forward. "She needed someone to love her! And you answered that with nothing but condescension and neglect! The only one in your family who made her feel loved was a psychopath who betrayed her!"

Lillian is struck silent, her eyes wide and her face strained as she stares at Kara. Kara meets the older woman's eyes, staring her down without the fear that a younger Lena must have shown Lillian all those years ago.

Kara wishes she could've been there to hold that young Lena in her arms, wishes she could've taken her away from the family that broke her.

"The Luthor name didn't deserve Lena. You never deserved her."

[nerdpoe]

Of Kindness and Empathy 5

First, Second, Third, Fourth, AO3

Discrimination Hidden in Fantastical Law?

Is our government taking away the rights of Metas by pretending they aren’t Metas at all?

Lois Lane . Daily Planet . Updated 15th of April 20XX

Recently brought to light, the Anti-Ecto Acts are rife with controversy. They appear to be centered on one young teenage Meta Hero, Phantom, and mandate reporting others ‘like him’ to the ‘correct authorities’ for mandatory study and testing.

But the definition of ‘like him’ is open ended, and under current interpretation even Superman or The Flash could fall under that. Is this another attempt by Lex Luthor? The answer may surprise many, but the answer to that is no.

The Laws appear to have been backed by a billionaire named Vlad Masters, who sells inventions oddly specific to tormenting the teenage meta trying to save his small town.

Why is Masters so against this child? What is the end-game of the Anti-Ecto Acts? Is this another attempt to enslave or discriminate against Metas?

We went to the scene of Phantom’s rise to Heroics and got the story from those who were there first-hand, and to potentially find answers for why Masters is behind those Acts.

“Oh, those laws are flim flam, and everybody knows it,” one concerned citizen is quoted as saying, who’s name will not be disclosed for their safety, “Boxy here is the best sorter I’ve ever had, my warehouse has never been so organized! Who cares if he floats a little?”

…

“Phantom is the best,” a local high school student said, “Better than Superman! I bet if they got in a fight Phantom would lay him out!”

…

“Oh, Phantom? No, I have no intention of turning in my co-Hero,” Red Huntress, the other town hero, said, “those laws were just passed because the government wants to make deadlier weapons, and Phantom and his species are pretty much power houses.”

…

The members of the so called ‘Ghost Investigation Ward’ stated that they had no comment.

…

The Drs. Fenton are the loudest proponents that Phantom is dangerous. However after sitting down with them and running through the Anti-Ecto Acts and how they affect other Metas, and that Phantom was likely just a Meta trying to help, they admit that perhaps they forgot the humanity required for science.

“We just want our baby boy and little princess to be safe,” Dr Jack Fenton said, “but I guess we got so caught up in it that we forgot about everything else. We do that a lot, just look at us, blathering on about ghosts. Hey, do you want to see a portal to another dimension?”

Down in the basement there is, indeed, a portal to another dimension. This reporter stood outside of it and, after they prepared their RV, took a small tour as well.

Which leads to even more questions for these laws. Are they meant to target aliens instead? Would this dimension attempt to go to war with ours for these Acts?

The Drs graciously allowed us to search for a ‘Ghost’ to ask.

“Our King is not bothered by weaklings such as you,” Ghost Entity ‘Fright Knight’ said, “Your foolish laws could not begin to interfere with our Realm. They are but an annoyance that you greatly exaggerate to feel that you are more important than you are. Leave, mortal, lest our patience wear thin.”

Other ‘Ghosts’ reported that their King was likely not to seek war at all, and was a more peaceful sort who tended to avoid conflict if it was unnecessary.

They did assure us, however, that he was fun to spar against.

We declined invitations to ‘test our mettle’. 

“Baby Bop is a pretty great King,” Ghost Entity ‘Ember’ said, “He’s not all snobby or self-important, and he lets us govern ourselves pretty much. It’s actually pretty nice. You’d know if he was angry, don’t worry; he’d just crack your planet open like an egg.”

…

In conclusion, these Laws that were passed were done so by corruption and bribes. Why would the government need ‘deadlier’ weapons? Do they intend to go back on the many intergalactic treaties we have thanks to the Justice League?

Next issue, we at the Daily Planet will do a deeper dive to find the corrupted politicians responsible for passing such an Act.

@spooky-fm @markus209 @osnii @samgirl98 @skulld3mort-1fan @gabrielandjackthenephilim @suppengott @glow-worms-are-believers @zeldomnyo @everest-nightshade @learning-to-fly-on-my-own @spoopyspoony @deatlive @hnymp @latheevening226 @roseinbloom02 @tsukihimeyfan @arsonpotato @wanderingrutabaga @nanepet @bjurnberg @mentalcarebear @amuseofminds @fire-glass @thewondersoflebanon @ascetic-orange @botwadtict @notforyoucloudheads @idfk-man10 @leftmiraclechaos @midnightenigma 

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[thevelaryons]

The Dragonpit

The Storming of the Dragonpit is one of the notable events that occurred during the Dance of the Dragons, and GRRM built it up quite subtly that it almost makes you think, could it have been avoided? Ultimately, it is one of those tragedies that is very much a consequence of character choices that were made.

It begins with Rhaenyra acting on the false accusations against Addam which results in him fleeing from the city, in fear for his life. This is specifically described as Rhaenyra's undoing:

And thus did betrayal beget more betrayal, to the queen’s undoing. As Ser Luthor Largent and his gold cloaks rode up Rhaenys’s Hill with the queen’s warrant, the doors of the Dragonpit were thrown open above them, and Seasmoke spread his pale grey wings and took flight, smoke rising from his nostrils. Ser Addam Velaryon had been forewarned in time to make his escape. Balked and angry, Ser Luthor returned at once to the Red Keep, where he burst into the Tower of the Hand and laid rough hands on the aged Lord Corlys, accusing him of treachery. Nor did the old man deny it. Bound and beaten, but still silent, he was taken down into the dungeons and thrown into a black cell to await trial and execution.

— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons: Rhaenyra Triumphant

The book previously mentioned that Addam was residing at the Dragonpit, as part of his duties:

It had long been the custom for at least one dragonrider to reside at the pit, so as to be able to rise to the defense of the city should the need arise. As Rhaenyra preferred to keep her sons by her side, that duty fell to Addam Velaryon.

— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons: Rhaenyra Triumphant

After Addam's escape, Corlys was arrested. Rhaenyra's actions towards the Lord of Driftmark and his heir had a very major repercussion for her:

By ordering the arrest of Addam Velaryon, she had lost not only a dragon and a dragonrider, but her Queen’s Hand as well…and more than half the army that had sailed from Dragonstone to seize the Iron Throne was made up of men sworn to House Velaryon. When it became known that Lord Corlys languished in a dungeon under the Red Keep, they began to abandon her cause by the hundreds. Some made their way to Cobbler’s Square to join the throngs gathered round the Shepherd, whilst others slipped through postern gates or over the walls, intent on making their way back to Driftmark. Nor could those who remained be trusted. That was proved when two of the Sea Snake’s sworn swords, Ser Denys Woodwright and Ser Thoron True, cut their way into the dungeons to free their lord. Their plans were betrayed to Lady Misery by a whore Ser Thoron had been bedding, and the would-be rescuers were taken and hanged.

— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons: Rhaenyra Overthrown

The Velaryon soldiers would have been well armed and armored. They're specifically described as joining the Shephard (who later leads the attack on the Dragonpit). With their many numbers, its enough to lend great strength to the paltry bunch of smallfolk gathering together in discontent. Some of the Velaryon soldiers were even captured by Rhaenyra and executed, in which their bodies were displayed outside the walls of the Red Keep. King's Landing descends into rioting shortly afterwards.

The Shepherd’s rats were armed with spears, longaxes, spiked clubs, and half a hundred other kinds of weapons, including both longbows and crossbows.

— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons: Rhaenyra Overthrown

It's rather unlikely that the smallfolk would be armed with such weapons that are typically carried by soldiers in service to noble houses. So these are clearly the Velaryon soldiers that abandoned Rhaenyra previously. It's said that more than half of Rhaenyra's army was made up of soldiers sworn to house Velaryon and many hundreds abandoned her cause. So you can imagine the kind of numbers the Shepard would now have amongst his followers.

Their rioting through the streets eventually leads them to the Dragonpit, as that seems to have been the Shephard's intention:

As the one-handed prophet shrieked his curses at “the vile queen” in the Red Keep, a hundred severed heads looked up at him, swaying atop tall spears and sharpened staffs. The crowd, Septon Eustace says, was twice as large and thrice as fearful as the night before. Like the queen they so despised, the Shepherd’s “lambs” were looking to the sky with dread, fearing that King Aegon’s dragons would arrive before the night was out, with an army close behind them. No longer believing that the queen could protect them, they looked to their Shepherd for salvation. [...] Then he raised his right arm and jabbed the stump of his missing hand at Rhaenys’s Hill behind him, at the Dragonpit black against the stars. “There the demons dwell, up there. Fire and blood, blood and fire. This is their city. If you would make it yours, first must you destroy them.

— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons: Rhaenyra Overthrown

Eventually the crowd does march on the Dragonpit and kills all the dragons there. Though the Dragonpit was not left defenseless, but having a dragonrider in their midst could have made all the difference in that chaotic situation. That is, after all, the reason why a dragonrider was stationed there in the first place.

The Dragonpit had its own contingent of guards, the Dragonkeepers, but those proud warriors were only seven-and-seventy in number, and fewer than fifty had the watch that night. Though their swords drank deep of the blood of the attackers, the numbers were against them. When the Shepherd’s lambs smashed through the doors (the towering main gates, sheathed in bronze and iron, were too strong to assault, but the building had a score of lesser entrances) and came clambering through windows, the Dragonkeepers were overwhelmed, and soon slaughtered.

— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons: Rhaenyra Overthrown

Once the Dragonpit falls, Rhaenyra decides to leave King's Landing, as the city is no longer safe for her:

The loss of both her dragon and her son left Rhaenyra Targaryen ashen and inconsolable, Mushroom tells us. Attended only by the fool, she retreated to her chambers whilst her counselors conferred. King’s Landing was lost, all agreed; they must needs abandon the city.

— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons

Wild tales and rumors followed about the deaths of the dragons: that some were hewn down by men, others by the Shepherd, others by the Warrior himself. Whatever the truth, five dragons died that bloody night as the mobs broke into the huge dome and found the dragons chained, and people perished in droves. Half the dragons that began the Dance were already dead, and the war was not yet over. Rhaenyra fled the city shortly after.

— The World of Ice & Fire, Aegon II

The encroaching Green army certainly helped enflame the residents of King's Landing into a panic. On Addam's part, he was tasked with the duty to "rise to the defense of the city should the need arise", and he died fulfilling that very same duty:

The accused turncloak Addam Velaryon, born Addam of Hull, had saved King’s Landing from the queen’s foes…at the cost of his own life. Yet the queen knew nothing of his valor. Rhaenyra’s flight from King’s Landing had been beset with difficulty.

— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons

In an ironic turn of events, Rhaenyra later ends up as the one fleeing from King Landing, in fear for her life.

[ghosts-and-entropy]

Things Don't Stay Forever

DC x DP prompt. Or story? Story, I think, cause I plan to add more chapters. Idk, I'm building this world as we go along. It's my side project to keep writing. But you can take it and roll with it too :D.

But for a prompt: Lex Luthor created a virus to "combat and destroy other viruses and diseases in the human body." This is in quotes because he placed it under this description himself. In truth, the virus is supposed to destroy metahuman abilities. (This actually happened in the comics) But the virus didn't work as he wanted it. Something happens, still working on this part, where the virus is leaked into the air and causes a global pandemic.

That's right people, this is an Apocalypse AU!

It is eventually going to be Dead on Main or JasonxDanny cause I love that ship. But it's going to be very slow going.

Anyway, enjoy the first chapter!

Chapter 1: And that’s when I realize that, in the end, we’d all wish for the same thing. Just a little more time.

Danny remembered when it started.

The minuscule, barely noticeable at the time, change in the world that jumpstarted the end.

A news report on the WGN9 station at ten at night.

He remembers it was January. He had been out hours before, keeping an eye on Amity and her dead, and her living. It had been snowing that night. Cold and windy, the cool air had felt good on his skin and in his core. He had flown for two long hours around Amity relishing in the dark and quiet before making his way home.

He remembers sitting on the living room couch, dozing and alone after a long day of schoolwork, ghostly activities, and dealing with the imminent problem of his future.

He remembers closing his eyes, his arms resting against his stomach, rising with his breaths. He hardly listened to the words of the newscaster talking. Her words had been so distant and muted, his thoughts the complete opposite, almost blaring and intrusive.

He remembers wondering, through the anxiety-ridden whispers in his head, where his mom and dad were. If they were in the house or if they were out again, hunting. It was late. It was snowing. But they always stood up late through any type of weather. Catching ghosts at night was easier than during the day. He made sure before heading home the ghosts kept their heads down for the night in case his parents were out.

He hadn’t seen them when he was flying though. They had probably been in the basement then.

He remembers the throw blanket under his head, resting on the back of the couch. How it still smelled like Jazz’s perfume even when she hadn’t been home for months, away at college. His eyes had stung and watered under his eyelids and he fought to keep the tears where they were.

He remembers it was cold in the house. It was always hard to tell if it was because his dad ran hot so the temperature had been lowered, the ghost portal opened in the basement, all the ambient ectoplasm in the house, or if it was him, or maybe all four options.

But what he remembers the most about that night was the moon. Bright and full, shining in through the living room window, helping to illuminate the space and him alongside the TV screen. Offering a kind of silent comfort he never took for granted.

He remembers that the most because it was the first thing he saw after snapping open his bleary eyes when he heard it. The thing that set off a warning in his head. The name of the man who would later help realize the end. His gaze quickly shifted to the screen to see the newscaster, Tiffany Snow, begin her news report.

“Billionaire and CEO of LexCorp, Lex Luthor, has recently announced a scientific breakthrough his company has been working on for years. Sources say Luthor has hired some of the greatest scientific minds in the 21st century onto this project that will, quote, “change the world.”

A project that would change the world. One they have spent years working on.

And suddenly, everything went silent.

A recorded scene of Lex Luthor shaking hands with delegates from multiple countries played out on screen. Luthor looked pleased. Behind him, a line of scientists in lab coats stood, looking blank or grim. The delegates standing next to Luthor grinned and clasped hands with one another, and flashes of camera light flooded the conference room they stood in.

Danny remembers slowly sitting up, his eyes, red-rimmed and tired, staring at Lex Luthor, right into his eyes. His face was instantly frozen on the screen staring right back with dark eyes. His hands still clasped in another’s, a small smirk rested on his face but he didn’t move. Time had simply stopped.

Still. So very still. Danny hardly moved or breathed. Just stared into the billionaire’s eyes like he could foresee the future and all its mistakes. Silence had reigned around him. Only the frantic whispers of a warning rushed into his head like static. He couldn’t understand them, there was too much, too many voices talking at once. Building and building louder and louder until—

And then it was over.

Tiffany Snow was gone. Lex Luthor and all his scientists behind him were gone too. A commercial for life insurance played on, the narrator’s voice booming after long seconds of utter silence and static. Danny remembered flinching and rubbing his eyes, taking deep breaths because what the hell had that been?

What was that?

He’d never felt anything like that before. It felt like…an omen. A premonition? He’s never had premonitions before. So what…?

He remembers thinking maybe he had been tired. Danny had been running himself ragged for days, for months. Maybe it was time for him to go to bed. Finally, rest after a long couple of months.

It had to just be sleep deprivation, that was all. It didn’t feel that way.

He remembers turning off the TV. He stood up, draping the blanket that had been resting on the couch over his head and shoulders, wrapped and held in one hand like a childish comfort in front of his nose. Remembers walking up the stairs to his bedroom in the dark, the only light in the whole house coming from the moon.

He remembers lying down and staring at his glow-in-the-dark star-covered ceiling. Small and colorful blob ghosts darted up and down through them. They were quiet and playful with one another. He counted them like sheep, over and over.

He fell asleep later that night, hours later because he couldn’t get what had happened out of his head. Remembers the sinking feeling following him the next day and the next. Watching out for the news every night after for more reports on Lex Luthor or LexCorp or this thing that was going to change the world. He had asked Tucker to put an alert on his Blackberry for those two keywords for any articles that popped up online.

Because something was wrong or was going to be wrong. That eerie feeling on the back of his neck down to his queasy stomach had left him sick and paranoid for months after. It was the reason he had been so overprotective of his family, his friends, and his hometown both as Fenton and Phantom for months.

That deep knowledge of Death being near. The End of all things. Not the afterlife. Not all the ghosts, spirits, shades, and other indefinite things that walked the Earth but actual Death. As if the shadow of it eclipsed the planet and the sun couldn’t shine through.

He remembers being seventeen and not worried, not concerned, but absolutely terrified and sure that something was coming.

And then it was July. A day after his eighteenth birthday. One month after his high school graduation. One month before college, although, that was never in the plan to begin with if he was being honest.

But it was July. One day in and the world was dying. Just like he felt it would.

Because Danny remembered when it started.

But long before the outbreak ever occurred. When there were just small hints of something to come—nothing damning, nothing for sure—Lex Luthor was working on something groundbreaking. But no news of it ever hit the media after that first initial report. The one that made him anxious.

Although, now that he has some time to reflect on it, he realizes maybe he hadn’t been the only one either. There may have been others who caught those signs too.

He ponders this as he watches clips of Wonder Woman, usually tall and confident, grim face and small, as she helped care for the dying in India. The Flash sped toward hospitals all across Europe carrying supplies of medicine and food.

Superman, powerful and usually bigger than life, hovering over a burning village in Vietnam, his face dazed and shocked at the destruction below him. Like it was his first time seeing such a thing.

And then there was Batman’s Knights. Small snippets of gloved and cape-covered Bats ran and jumped through Lady Gotham’s large skyscrapers and high-rises, carrying items that shaky cameras couldn’t capture.

Gotham had been in quarantine days before the outbreak. Metropolis too. Countries were warned three days in advance. Every country around the world began to plan and lock down before the first wave could hit. They weren’t given enough time.

Israel built fences and walls around itself. So did China and Egypt. Canada had cut off their roads and airspace, as did many countries after them, including the U.S. Europe closed down its borders. Mexico refused to let anyone into the country. Africa’s CDC convened to plan their next steps for lockdown amongst all African nations.

Chicago shut down both their airports. Jazz hadn’t been able to get a flight back to Illinois. Then all the airports started shutting down, quicker and quicker, one by one, before she could even look for a ticket out of California.

And the other cities, the other countries—not all of them closed down in time. Not all of them had superheroes living in their cities to help them. The superheroes that were on Earth were stretched thin around the globe helping out.

Not all of them had the means to control the masses through a global pandemic.

Amity Park, on the other hand, was quick to close down their roads weeks before Gotham and Metropolis did. Phantom made sure of that.

And the fact Vlad didn’t argue with him spoke volumes about the information he was hoarding too.

Yeah, there had been others who knew.

Did they even try to stop it?

Was there anything he could have done?

Clockwork comes to mind and Danny has to suddenly stop himself from running down the basement stairs toward the portal below just to ask him if he knew. He hasn’t spoken to him in weeks. Not since their last conversation when he confided in Clockwork about his fears.

His hands clench and Danny lets out a soft growl. Of course, he knows. He always knows.

Ancients, he’s always known.

But he hadn’t said anything. Not when Danny asked. Not when Danny told him something was wrong. He hadn’t uttered a word. And he had looked fine. His usual self, nothing seemed out of place. So why hadn’t he said anything to Danny?

Well, he couldn’t, could he? The future has to continue, no matter what happens. That’s what Clockwork once told him.

But it can be changed. It’s been changed before. Danny’s seen it. Danny’s done it. So why—

—And if Clockwork sees this, has seen it—how could he not—then it means this is something that was always meant to be. Always growing in the back of this planet’s history.

Impending and dooming. But things can change. He knows that. He does because he’s helped change things in the past before and maybe he shouldn’t have. He’s privileged to have done that but Clockwork must know something else. He just needs to ask. He needs to—

The landline phone rings suddenly and Danny rushes quickly to pick it up before the first ring even finishes. He knows who it is.

“Jazz? Jazz, hello? You there?”

Static fills his ears for a second before he hears her ask, “Danny?”

Relief floods his system. He sighs gratefully. “Jazz. Hey, I can hear you. Can you hear me?”

“You’re kind of breaking up but I can hear you.” Static fills the line again before she says, “Are you okay? Is everyone okay?”

She sounds worried and tired. He rushes to reassure her.

“Yeah, yeah. Everything’s fine here. We’re all okay. Are you okay? Where are you now?”

A rustle of paper. “Nebraska, near the border of Colorado, I think. I’m in Big Springs. I just got out of Wyoming.”

Nebraska. She’s in Nebraska. It’s been two days. She’s just reached Nebraska and it’s been two days. It shouldn’t be taking this long. She’s still too—. Danny rubs the side of his face with his hand and holds back the panic.

“Okay. That’s good.” He lies, “You’re good, you’re okay. You just got to get through Nebraska and you’ll be golden.”

She lets out a small humorless chuckle. “Not just Nebraska, Danny. Iowa and a quarter of Illinois too.”

“Hey, that’s gonna be so easy! Okay, you’re back in the Midwest. You’re already halfway there, you know?”

“Yeah.”

He turns around to face the living room from the kitchen. The TV behind him, muted, shows more scenes of destruction and human desperation he doesn’t want to look at right now while talking to his sister.

“How are you? Really?”

Static for another moment, mere seconds before he hears her again. “I’m…scared and—and worried. This car trip home was not how I expected it to go.” She chuckles.

“No, yeah I know.” He turns to take a brief glimpse back at the TV before looking down again. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay! Really, I’m fine. I should have—I should have planned this better.”

Danny shakes his head. “You didn’t know this was going to happen. You had plans in motion. You—you have goals. How were you supposed to-to—”

“No, yeah, I know. I—” Jazz sighs, exhausted. “I know.” She’s silent and Danny’s heart drops. A rustling sound fills the phone and she says optimistically, “I made it through the worst of it and I’m almost home.”

“How—” Danny clears his throat. “How has the trip been so far?”

Trip. Can he even call it that? It’s more like an escape. She’s running away. She’s trying to get home before—before—

He can hear a puff of air hit the receiver. “It’s been…eventful. There’s a lot happening around the States. I’ve done my best to avoid it all but...”

“Like what?” he asks, curious, worried, panicked.

“I…there’s something I have to tell you. But I don’t want you to worry.”

Too late. Because that statement was ominous. “Tell me. Please. I want to know. I need to make sure you’re okay. Jazz—”

“I’m okay! I think, yeah, it’s, there’s been—”

“Jazz.”

She’s quiet again. Ancients, he hates when she’s quiet.

“Jazz, what’s going on?”

“It’s-it’s bad, Danny. It’s really bad. Everywhere. I’ve had to—” She sniffles. God, is she—? “I’ve had to do a lot to get out and I’m almost home, okay? I’m almost home and then it’s all going to be okay. But you gotta trust me that I’m going to be home soon, okay? Just know that.”

She’s frantic and panicked. He knows she pulled her phone away from her face because her sniffling is distant but he can still hear her. He needs to keep hearing her.

“Jazz? Jazz, hey, talk to me. Don’t stop talking.”

“Okay, no, it’s okay. I’m fine. I’m sorry.” She sobs.

She’s been through a lot. She’s stressed as hell. Who wouldn’t be in her situation? She’s had to do things to get out.

What did she do? What’s happening in the other states?

Without thinking, Danny grabs the remote and flips quickly through the channels but all everyone is showing are either clips of the Justice League or damn commercial ads for fucking prescription drugs and why the hell is that important right now? Right now when his sister is afraid and alone during a fucking pandemic?

He throws the remote down on the table and makes a decision.

“Jazz? Jazz, it’s okay. Listen. I’m gonna come and get you.” Danny rushes through the kitchen, rips open cabinet doors and drawers, and rustles through them searching. He knows it’s around here somewhere.

“What? What, no! Danny—”

“I’ve been so fucking stupid! Why didn’t I think about this before? I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I left you like this. But I can get to you. I can. I know how.” He holds the phone between his shoulder and ear. The coil phone cord wraps around his torso as he rips open a junk drawer and immediately locates the map he was looking for.

“Here it is! Okay, you said you were where? Big Springs?”

“Yeah, but—”

“I can meet you there. It usually takes, what? Eleven hours to get to Nebraska from here? Twelve? I can fly. I can be there in sev—no! Three. I can be there in three hours. Just hold on for me, okay?”

“Danny, no, stop. This is absurd.”

Danny freezes and thinks for a moment. She’s right. This whole thing is stupid. He can get to her much quicker.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m so dumb!” He smacks his forehead. “I can take the Infi-Map.”

“Wh…what?”

“The Infi-Map. I can borrow it from Frostbite and use it to find a portal closer to you. How much ambient ectoplasm is in that area? You know what? Doesn’t matter. I’ll just ask the map to bring me to you.”

“Danny—”

“I can take the Speeder. We’re gonna have to leave your car but at this point, what does it matter?”

“Danny. Wait, stop for a second!”

Danny stops and waits for her to speak again.

“What?”

“Danny…that can be extremely dangerous. I’m not risking your life to come and get me.”

Danny holds down his scoff and rubs his eyes. “What the hell are you talking about?”

She lets out a large sigh, her breath creating a distorted noise on his end. “I’ve been around people. A lot of people. Not on purpose and not because I wanted to be. I just—it’s been a long trip so far. I’ve had to get out of the car. I’ve… had to help some people.”

Danny slumps down in the kitchen chair closes to him and stares at the TV screen. Dragonson is in North Korea. He’s in talks with the leader to help protect his people. Apparently, it’s not going well.

“Of course you did.”

“Well, I do learn from the best.”

“That’s not even remotely funny.”

She laughs anyway. It’s not funny, it’s—this whole situation is awful and it’s not funny but she’s laughing on the other line anyway.

“I’m coming to get you. I don’t care what y—”

“I may be infected.”

His breathing stops. He blinks at the TV and watches Cyborg pull up multiple maps of different countries. Areas of Europe and Asia are pulsing red and growing bigger.

“Are you—” he chokes, “Are you showing symptoms?”

“No. Nothing. But I was around people who may have been sick. I—” She takes a breath in. “I wasn’t sure if coming home was safe. I may infect other people. I may bring this to Amity.” Her voice wobbles on the last word. “And you worked so hard to keep our town safe. I don’t want to jeopardize that.”

“I don’t care about—”

“But I’m still coming home. I have a plan. I can wear a suit, one of mom’s old jumpsuits with the-the helmet. She has a hazmat suit still, right? I don’t have to enter Amity. I can stay outside the border. Wait it out to see if I’m inf-”

“No. You’re coming home. End of discussion.” Danny stands up and tosses the map, useless, onto the table and walks towards the wall cradle, ready to hang up.

“Danny, no. I’m not risking anyone’s health because I was being stupid.”

“You had a mask on right? You said you were able to get a hold of one before you left.”

“Yes, of course, I had one on.”

“And how many hours has it been?”

“It’s been five since exposure.” She’s been counting down. She’s been preparing herself.

“CDC says it takes less than twenty minutes for symptoms to show.”

“I could be asymptomatic. There have been reports of people suddenly dying without any symp—”

“YOU’RE NOT DYING!” Danny shouts. His grip on the phone is tight, almost crushing. He can see his eyes glowing in the metal reflection of the fridge.

She doesn’t say anything. She stays silent and listens to him taking deep breaths to calm himself. She isn’t dying. She isn’t going anywhere. This isn’t her time. He knows that. He knows it isn’t her time. He would feel it, right? He would feel her fading.

Would she stay here, on this plain? Would she accept her afterlife in The Zone? Would she leave him?

He’s not ready to face that yet.

“You’re not dying. Okay? I would know. I know I would know.”

“I…” she hesitates.

“You wore your mask. It’s been more than twenty minutes. You’re sure?”

“Yes, yes I’m sure.” She replies calmly.

“Then you’re fine. I’m coming soon. Give me twenty minutes.”

“Danny! Listen to me! I could infect you! I could be dangerous to everyone back home. Just because I wore a mask doesn’t mean I didn’t inhale it somehow.”

“Did you wash your hands?”

“Wh—yes! Right after and I used hand sanitizer.” Of course, she would. She was always prepared for anything. Why would she falter now?

“Great!” Danny shrugs. “Be there in twenty.”

“Danny—!”

“I love you, Jazz. I’ll see you soon.”

“DANNY!”

Danny hangs up the phone and rushes down to the basement of his house. He ignores the insistent ringing coming from the kitchen phone and races to pack supplies in a backpack he stored away in an unused locker his parents never checked.

They’re out in town, helping Vlad set up tents and other necessities for the denizens during the lockdown. They won’t miss him, not for twenty minutes. Maybe less if he speeds quickly to Frostbite.

He’s going to get Jazz. He’s going to bring her home.

[unknowndrone]

A Lost Memory

Lena Luthor X Reader

Prompt: Lena finds out that you knew about Kara’s other identity this whole time which caused the two of you to break it off. But when crisis occurs, she is surprised to find herself awake right beside you.

WC: 1.4k

“You knew,” she tells you.

Yes, you knew. You’ve known Kara for forever, of course you would know. She had told you the moment she saved Alex from that plane. Now. here you were, facing the consequences of your actions as you stare at Lena, unsure of what to tell her. Slowly your relationship begins to crumble into smaller and smaller pieces exponentially. You felt as if you were being suffocated with every second. 

“Answer me, Y/N L/N!” She scolds as her voice raises ever so slightly. 

“Yes,” you say, barely managing to find your words. 

Her eyes begin to soak with tears and you begin to feel the pain inside of her, too. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“It wasn’t my secret to tell,” you defend. “If I could, you know I would’ve told you right away.”

“Don’t give me that, Y/N. I trusted you with all of my heart. I trusted you with the world. I did not hold back about my mother, I did not hold back on Lex, and I certainly never held back about any of my projects that I would be working on. I made it clear how I felt about Supergirl and this is what you do to me?”

“I know, I know.”

“I killed my brother for you and everyone else! I killed the one other person that showed me compassion.” She clenched her fists as her knuckles go white staring you down. “He was evil, Y/N, but somehow he didn’t have enough strength to even lie to me with his dying breath.”

“Lena-”

“Leave. Get out of here. You do not deserve my love let alone a place in this house,” she says. You try to approach her, trying to mend at least something, but her voice only raises in volume. “Go, Y/N!”

Biting your lip, you make your way towards the door. Your composure fails you as tears begin streaming down your eyes and your fists clench in an effort to stop yourself. “I’m sorry, Lena. I’m sorry for everything.” 

That was the last time you would ever see or hear from her. Her voice screaming at you to leave wasn’t a loving goodbye or a dire farewell. Instead of bullets whizzing past each other’s heads, you got gunshots to your heart. The chapter with you and Lena ends abruptly as the happy ending burns into ashes behind you. You pray that one day she would forgive you and she would love you again, but even then you knew that prayer was never going to be answered.

______________________________

Months Later

She wakes up one morning with no recollection of how she had gotten there. She doesn’t remember going to bed that night nor does she ever remember the drive back home from work. The only thing she recalls is helping Alex and Kara evacuate people by creating a portal somewhere, Somewhere. Was it successful? She thinks it was. It was rare for Lena to forget anything, to begin with.

Slowly, she rises from the bed. Strangely, she notices that there was more room than she had expected, and she noticed that there was a heaviness to the bed that she had noticed right away. When she looks over, she notices a strange lump on the bed, and immediately, she pulls the blanket up. A burst of adrenaline runs up her body when she sees you, fast asleep, dangerously close to where she had been laying before. 

Unable to conceal her emotions, she falls off the bed, landing on the ground with a thud. “Lena?” she hears. Instantly, you had risen from your sleep to rush to her side, “Are you okay?”

“What are you doing here?” she asks, her voice colder than you had expected.

“What do you mean? We live here,” you tell her with a confused look on your face. “You chose the house location and I designed the room.”

She blinks heavily before pushing you away, “that’s not right. What do you mean by-” 

Her words are cut off as she sees a picture by her bedside. Two people, smiling as happy as they could be. One of them was her. She’s never even seen herself smile like that before. That happy, why do the two of them look so happy? Upon closer inspection, she notices a small glistening piece of gold on their ring fingers. No.

“Lena-” you say now, increasingly worried. 

“You and I hated each other. The last time I saw you, you lied about knowing Supergirl and-”

“Woah, slow down,” you start. Grabbing both her shoulders you try to make sense of her words, though they made little sense at all. “Lena, start from the beginning. What the hell are you talking about?”

She searches your eyes for a moment, trying to see if you had a facade against her. Nothing, not even the typical hindrance your eyes had when you knew you were guilty of hiding a secret. You really had no clue. She takes one deep breath to compose herself. 

“I killed Lex and he told me you knew about Supergirl’s identity along with James and the others. I confronted you and we broke up then and there.” She watches as your eyes widen in horror. You let go of her, trying to absorb that small piece of information. “Months later, Kara and Alex ask me to help them create a portal to get the people to safety, and the next thing I know I’m awake in bed beside you. The first time I have ever seen you in months.”

She waits for your response as you recoil back. Now you were hesitant as to whether or not she would even love you the same again. Over a memory that you don’t even recall ever happening. Just like the snap of your fingers, the Lena that loved you fell apart the moment you had woken up the next day. 

“Y/N?” she asks.

Shaking your head and absorbing all the emotions, you turn away to reach for a phone. “I’m calling Alex. I think you and I need to take a trip to the DEO today,” you tell her.

“You really don’t know anything about what I had just said?” she asks.

You hesitate to dial the number on your phone, “Lena, I have no clue what you’re talking about. One moment I’m sleeping peacefully beside the love of my life and the next thing I know she doesn’t even recognize me.”

She ponders for a moment while you call Alex on the phone. The past reality must’ve been erased. She knows she can’t blame this version of you for lying to you since you don’t even know what she was referring to, but that alone was too difficult not to do. Even then in the back of her heart, she knows she still loved you, and watching you break down completely confused killed her slightly. 

You manage to put the phone down after an ‘all go’ by Alex whomst, to your surprise, was well aware of the world that had seemingly shifted around you. It was apparent that whatever Lena had been talking about was true and it killed you inside knowing that you had caused Lena a severe amount of pain. 

“They’ll be expecting us soon. I’ll have Lex run the office for the day,” you tell her.

“Lex?” she asks, “he’s alive?”

“Yeah. Alive and kicking,” you retort with a half smile. “We can go see him later, too. But right now, we should go and get ready. I’ll make breakfast and you can go and get ready.”

“Are you okay?” she asks you.

Fighting the growing lump in your throat, you muster through your words, “Me? Yeah, I’ll be fine. If you need me, I’ll be in the kitchen.”

“That was a different Y/N who betrayed me, I know. I didn’t mean any harm by accusing you.”

“I know. You were just shocked,” you reassure. “I’m not going to hold that against you. Just go and get ready. Breakfast should be ready when you come out.” 

You would’ve added ‘I love you,’ but you fight the urge. She wasn’t your Lena, yet and it was clear as day that she didn’t see you as her Y/N. But you pray the trip to the DEO would get your Lena back in some way and maybe Jon would erase your memory of Lena ever telling you that another reality had once existed before this earth. 

Who knew your prayers were never going to be answered.

______________________

Starting to upload the DC universe now :) Honestly, I haven’t watched a single supergirl episode in a hot minute so i gotta do that shiz at some point. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this. Have a great day/night, and may you always stay safe!

[nitewrighter]

Okay, for the WIP titles meme: Sun Salutation? 👀

Ahhh I'm so excited you asked about that one because that fic is going to be about Kara and Torquasm-Rao, which is basically Kryptonian Tai Chi! I'm sad because I haven't been able to find anything about Torquasm-Rao after the President Luthor run. I have no idea what direction the show is going to take Kara in, but I love using MAWS Clark's complete and utter ignorance of all things Kryptonian as a springboard for how that world is shaped. Also I have some very specific ideas about Kara. She is ANGERY.

“I know you are there, Kal,” Kara’s voice was clear, but she moved through English the same way you’d move through a crowd at the airport when you heard someone coughing: unwillingly, angrily, and a bit hurriedly. She glanced over her shoulder at him, languidly pulling herself up and out of the pose to turn and face him. It took Clark a minute to find much in common between their faces, but Ma said you could see it in the eyes and nose right away. But I don’t look that angry, do I? Clark thought to himself. “I just…” Clark shuffled his feet a little, “Do you do this every day?” Kara just looked at him steadily for a few seconds. “I did not used to,” she said slowly, “I should have.” She glanced down for a second before taking two steps to her right, “Here. Follow my movements.” “Oh, you don’t have to—” Clark started. “I have to,” she said, looking at him with deadly seriousness. She motioned to a spot diagonally behind her, and Clark sheepishly took his place. How could a 15-year-old be so authoritative? Was it some kind of unconscious conditioning of his forgotten infancy on Krypton? She did say she changed his diapers (“Which was stupid and disgusting,” she had  said at the time, “Kelex was more than capable, or it wouldn’t have even been an issue if they put you in a postnatal matrix like everyone else, but Uncle Jor and Aunt Lara kept going on about the importance of physical touch and bonding and they would keep sniffing you. It was weird. They were weird. But you were kind of cute. I guess.” And then she would look at him just a little too long and her face would drop and she would be very quiet for a long time). But then… that authority also felt like something he always scratched the surface of, as Superman. The way people looked at him, looked to him, and all of a sudden he had to rise to that expectation after being so used to eyes glazing past him as Clark Kent. It seemed incredibly natural for her.

My vision of Krypton is mostly influenced by the YA "House of El" graphic novel (which admittedly models itself mostly on Snyder's vision of Krypton but look HEAR ME OUT) and my Kara backstory is pretty much taken entirely from the Tom King Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow run. I like conceptualizations of Krypton that have the capacity to be very warm and human, as we saw in the original Superman TAS, but culturally they're so technologically reliant and so convinced of the perfection of their society that on the whole that you really have more cultural expectation than actual warmth and community, and they don't see the doom that's coming--except Argo City, of course. Also I remember someone commenting on a post of mine a while back that Jor and Lara were perceived as hippie freaks by Kryptonian standards, so I like the idea of playing around with that.

[scribbling-punk]

A Glimpse Of Hope

Lena shivers in the cold air of the early morning as she carefully and quietly climbs off her bicycle and rests it against a nearby fence. She nervously glances around, watching and listening for any signs of them whilst moving though the eerily quiet streets of National City.

What was once a thriving hub of activity is now almost decimated, the streets littered with abandoned vehicles and dried pools of blood that cause bile to rise upwards to scald the back of Lena’s throat.

Smoke billows somewhere in the distance, yelling and gunshots no doubt drawing them towards the outskirts. A small blessing from above for Lena, perhaps, that some of those who had survived are still armed with reckless stupidity.

Maybe it will give her a chance to reacquaint herself with her beloved city without interruption.

Lord only knows how she’d deal with coming face to face with one of those things.

This is the first time that she has ventured outside since all of this began and, whilst a small part of her is filled with fear and regret, Lena knows that there was no other option unless she wished for she and her mother to starve to death. Lillian had told her it would be suicide to leave the house, but with a rumbling stomach and vision that blurs all too often, Lena had ignored her.

It’s not like Lillian actually seemed to care when Lena left, anyway, not when she still has booze to keep her company as she mourns the apparent loss of her son.

Scotch long finished, the vast wine cellar, despite being raised by her mother all too often, still has a few weeks worth of alcohol tucked away for Lillian to turn to. Lena won’t do that, she won’t give in and accept the death that everyone else seemed to think was inevitable. 

At least, not without a fight.

Lionel, her father, hasn’t been seen since the day all of this began. He had left for work as usual in the morning, never to return whilst his daughter had nightmares of what he could so easily have been turned into since then.

A shiver crawls up her spine, unease tickling at the nape of her neck.

Lena never thought the Luthor family could ever be worse than they already are, but now, she accepts that her very worst nightmare could easily come true.

Read A Glimpse Of Hope early on Patreon.

[skylarmoon71]

Lex Luthor (Smallville) - Short Story : Chapter 5

“Are you at least getting fresh air?”

“There’s a lot of windows in the mansion.”

“That’s not what I mean! Go outside!!”

Lex smiled at the thread of text messages. 

He’d been working on a project for the last week, so of course when you hadn’t seen much of him you got worried.

The revelation was nice.

The thought of someone worrying, caring about his well being.

He assured you that he wasn’t completely barricading himself inside his office. He was nearly done. The last parts were coming together and he could catch up on a week’s worth of sleep. Sending a reply, he slid the phone on his desk as he forwarded the last email. Once sent, he closed his laptop, letting out a sigh. All he really needed was a shower and a meal and then he could enjoy his new found free time.

At least that’s what he hoped. The doors flying open assured him that was not the case.

The person standing before him was not who he expected.

Clark Kent.

“Great. What crime is he going to accuse me of now?”

All he wanted was a bath.

“We need to talk.”

Lex just worked up that confident smile.

“I don’t recall us having any meetings scheduled. Let me get back to you when my calendar is free.”

“This isn’t a game Lex.”

Clark’s tone was firm, and he realized at that moment that he couldn’t just brush it off with clever words.

Lex turned his chair, rising to his feet.

“Tell me Clark, what devilish activity did you have me down for today?

“(Y/N)’s secret.”

Lex’s body became tense. Rather than admit that he knew, he decided to play oblivious. That could have meant any number of things. He wouldn’t be the one to accidentally tell Clark about your powers. You trusted him. Clark would literally have to beat it out of him if he wanted to get a word.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

Clark brows furrowed for a second, like he was trying so desperately to read him. But Lex was firm.

“He’s actually protecting her…”

Clark had always been weary telling anyone about his powers. But watching Lex physically and verbally keep your secret, it brought a sharp pang to his chest. Because he couldn't help wondering if he told Lex, maybe he could have saved the friendship and gained a powerful ally.

“(Y/N) is an empath, she can control and read the emotions of those around her.”

His surprise was hard to mask. Lex just turned his back.

“If you’re going to make up stories, you’re going to have to do better than that.”

“She told me everything Lex. She used her powers on those men when they attacked the building. The both of you were hiding in a closet. She told me that you risked your life for her.”

Lex turned slowly, eyes a bit combative. But he knew. At that point he realized that it was obvious you’d told Clark everything.

“I didn’t know..that day I didn’t know she had powers. Even when we were in that closet she just kept yelling at me. I know it was partly your influence. I was pissed that she was judging me even when we were potentially about to die. I was pissed but I..then I looked at her and she was so scared and all I wanted to do at that moment was to save her even if she hated me. She didn’t deserve to die.”

Clark thought he imagined it that day in your house, but now watching Lex, it was hard to hide.

“You care about her.”

Those words felt like knives. Lex raised his head so quickly, and Clark spotted the panic. Like it was a secret no one was supposed to discover.

“You have no right to tell her..”

There was a vulnerability to his words, and Clark felt sympathetic. Because that look on his face wasn’t truly panic. It was more one of fear. Fear of losing someone. He knows because he’s probably worn it a million times.

Lex swallowed, trying to school his features into something that looked less pathetic. Like he wasn’t horrified that the second you learned of his feelings you wouldn’t turn tail and run.

Clark had an entire speech planned. He was about to head over there and tell Lex that if he ever hurt you, then he’d be sorry. But looking at Lex now, a part of him just wanted to offer some reassurance. He understands that Lex has a short list of people he can rely on. Trust isn’t easy. There’s a lot that wasn’t easy for him.

Love was very high on that list.

Looking at Lex, he could easily say it was the first time he’d seen him wear such an expression.

“You should tell her how you feel.”

Those weren’t the words that Lex was expecting. Clark just wore an understanding look.

He’d done his part.

Of course he was going to keep an eye on Lex. But as of right now, the only threat was probably Lex’s conflicting mind.

That wasn’t something Clark could fix.

Lex would have to figure it out on his own. 

[geekcavepodcast]

DC Comics Announces “Superman” News At New York Comic Con

DC Comics has announced three key pieces of info for Superman fans coming into 2023. First, Action Comics is going to feature three stories about Superman and the Super-family. Second, Superman is getting a new ongoing monthly series beginning in February. Third, Jon Kent fans will be able to keep following the character with Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent.

Action Comics is getting a new format beginning with issue #1051, which will offer three Superman and Super-Family stories. Said writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, “We’re giving everyone in the House of El their own role and personal journey while still keeping Superman at the forefront, and tying all the Super-titles together in a way that’s reminiscent of the Triangle Era.” (DC Comics) The first story hails from Johnson, Rafa Sandoval, and Dan Jurgens. The second, “Lois and Clark 2: Doom Rising,” hails from Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks and follows a young Jon Kent on the farm learning about his abilities and battling Doombreaker. The third story, part one a a three-parter from Leah Williams and Marguerite Sauvage, spins out from the Lazarus Planet storyline and follows the return of Power Girl.

“Following the bombshell events of Action Comics #1050, the world’s relationship with Superman is forever changed, the upper limits of his supercharged powers have yet to be reached, and the House of El’s transformation of Metropolis, led by Steel, has begun. But Lex Luthor has found the perfect instrument with which to undo everything Superman is working to achieve: Metallo, whose hatred of Superman is matched only by his hatred for Luthor himself.” (DC Comics)

Action Comics #1051, featuring covers by Dan Mora, Lee Weeks, Rafa Sandoval, David Nakayama, Jack Herbet, Sergio Davila, Jorge Fornes, and Steve Beach, goes on sale on January 24, 2023.

Superman is also getting a new ongoing monthly series from Joshua Williamson and Jamal Campbell. “Superman has returned to Metropolis and his greatest enemy Lex Luthor is finally behind bars. The future of the Superman family has never been brighter! As Clark Kent settles back into his life, iconic and new enemies erupt from the shadows to strike down the Man of Steel!” (DC Comics)

Superman #1, featuring a cover by Jamal Cambell, goes on sale in February 2023.

While Superman: Son of Kal-El is ending with issue #18, Jon Kent fans can rest easy knowing that Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent is on the way from Tom Taylor and Clayton Henry. “Jon will finally get his chance to take on the man who is responsible for kidnapping and torturing him, Ultraman. The Superman of Earth-2, Val-Zod, will also play a major part in the 6-issue miniseries.” (DC Comics)

Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #1, featuring variant covers by Rafa Sarmento and Clayton Henry, goes on sale in March 2023.

(Images via DC Comics - Dan Mora’s Main Cover of Action Comics #1051, Jamal Campbell’s Cover of Superman #1, Rafa Sarmento’s Variant Cover of Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #1)

[darkwingsnark]

I was tagged by @eeveelotions for this challenge. Decided to make it its own post so as to not spam others.

Rules are to share the first lines of ten [though I’ll be doing 5 because this was getting long] of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. As usual, tagging whoever thinks this looks fun and wants to do it.

.:Come Be Lonely With Me:. [Mario Franchise]   

Soft dirt squished between nimble digits, spreading the topsoil evenly around the base of the newest addition to the Mario household. Vibrant red thistles stood out proudly amongst a sea of black-eyed susans and lamb’s ear– the prickly flower swaying gently in the breeze. Luigi couldn’t help but smile fondly at them from under his sun hat, firmly patting the earth as if tucking his children into bed. He supposed in a way he was, with it being a flower bed and all .

The man huffed softly in his own amusement, gently wiping his hands onto his overalls, before surveying his handiwork.

Luigi’s yard was separated accordingly: closer towards their home housed a small closed off plot of land for vegetables– specifically set aside for cooking. While Luigi was perfectly fine with going to the market to pick up most of their needs, he had insisted on a spot for tomatoes and squash– a common ingredient in most of the meals he and his brother prepared. It was a meager selection of crops, but Luigi couldn’t help but smile when remembering the last time Mario complimented how flavorful and ripe the tomatoes were. How he loved how their aroma filled their whole home when he stewed them.

An overall important and fruitful investment.

.:Same Man I Was Before:. [Mario Franchise]

Luigi liked living a quiet life. He wasn’t as gung-ho as his brother, who constantly found himself on the call of adventure– saving other kingdoms from their own tyranny. There was a reason Mario was the hero with Luigi being okey dokey playing his part as sidekick: Mario fit the role. He was outgoing, a real people person in every sense of the word; rooms filled with excitement and cheer the moment he’d enter. Big Bro was also fearless, taking charge and tackling all obstacles in his way. There weren’t problems in his world, only tasks that would be conquered.

Luigi admired his brother, sometimes even wanting to  be him. Luigi couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be able to stare down his fears with nothing but gusto. To live for adrenaline thrills was such a foreign concept– heck, Luigi couldn’t even schedule appointments with Doctor Toad without fighting off a bout of the nerves! A guy he had known for years and still worried about bothering the doctor with his troubles.

No, Luigi simply wasn’t built with courage in mind and that was that.

The Rise and Fall of the King's Court

[DC Comics/Superman; co-written with @bardockarts ]

Decided to use the first line I wrote for the first chapter, since I didn’t want to take credit away from Bardock for their amazing Toyman.

Luthor had always been a man that could see an opportunity when it presented itself, no matter how ridiculous it might seem to most. He saw himself as someone constantly on the move, finding pieces and pawns to place about in his nationwide game of chess. So when Graves handed him a particular file, brow arched in that way that told Lex there was something very peculiar afoot, his curiosity piqued in a way that told him he was holding onto something special. A mere peek at the childish scrawl was enough to break his silence.

“And what do we have here, exactly?” Luthor asked the woman next to him, still reading over the application. Graves slid in closer, pulling up her tablet as she explained.

“Jack Nimball, 26. High school diploma on record, though nothing beyond that. No name or startups that would indicate anything of note for the company.”

Lex lets out a huff of amusement, side-eyeing his assistant.

“But you wouldn’t have brought this to my attention if that was all  there was to it.”

Rumor Has It

[My Hero Academia; cowritten with @swampy-tiefling ]

Shota Aizawa considered himself a very levelheaded man. No matter the aspect of his life, he chose to live it through logic alone. Eri moving in with him once she was released from the hospital had followed this pattern-- Eraser was, after all, the only one who could help manage her quirk. It would have been irresponsible to send the child off to an orphanage, just waiting for her powers to emerge again and cause problems.

Then of course, there was the concern of being a guardian. Which consisted of encouraging a healthy mental development. Eri had already been emotionally stunted from abuse, so it had only made sense to work on setting up a safe environment. Which was exactly why Aizawa’s dorm apartment had slowly, but surely, transformed from a minimalist’s dream, to becoming filled with furniture and trinkets to bring the girl comfort. This too had been logical to him, it was about helping create a sense of want. Children should want things. Toys, affection, to be the one to pick what bedtime story is read--  even if it was one she had chosen every night for weeks on end . Learning one mattered was the first step in the foundation of survival. To want is to not give up, to strive for self preservation. And in turn, to protect oneself.

These behaviors made sense, so the hero never questioned it.

What didn’t make sense was the fact Aizawa was staring down at a black fish that happened to share his name.

Did You Hear...?

[My Hero Academia; cowritten with @swampy-tiefling​ ]

 A sigh of amusement escaped Toshinori Yagi--  better known to the public as All Might--as he allowed himself the opportunity to read over the message again. Sunken eyes fixed to the screen, the skeletal man’s nimble fingers went to grab the cup of tea resting next to the monitor. The warmth, while pleasant, didn’t seem to hold a candle to the feeling he had over reading Mrs. Modoriya’s words. Though Toshinori only had the opportunity to meet the woman in person a couple of times, the hero could still hear her voice. The squeaky pitch it gave when she was floundering for words, the bouncy hum of pleasure that she shared with her son. It was enough to make him smile into the lip of the mug.

 “Hmph. I should think it’s you comforting me this time around, “ the hero whispered to himself, thankful that his mutterings couldn’t be heard by anyone else within the empty teachers’ lounge. “I believe I’m starting to see where Young Midoriya gets it from.”

 It, of course, being their… well, being.   He was alone, he need not explain his thoughts to himself.

[facepalming-since-chernobyl]

Some incredibly funny slash dumb slash pathetic facts about Lena Luthor that prove she is a fucking idiot slash sociopath:

-being pals with Kara for 4 years and still not connecting the dots, but sure, that glasses,

-thinking she could “fix” the world by lobotomizing people without asking anyone if they actually want it,

-bascially, thinking that lobotomizing people was a way to fix world problems, instead of dunno, going to therapy,

-thinking that all people want what she wants,

-thinking that because she was emotionally hurt and could not deal with it, all people should be deprived of making their own decisions and meeting consequences of their actions,

-doing Luthor crap and then being sad people see her as Luthor doing Luthor crap,

-thinking that giving a serum that could make people superpowered to the alienphobic president who suported neonazis is a great idea,

-thinking that injecting a depressed dude with a serum that could kill him in 30% was a good idea,

-being sad that injected dude died but continued the illegal experiments,

-thinking that putting emotions in boxes is a better idea than going to therapy,

-corrupting others with her boxes idiocy because it’s even a better idea,

-shifting the blame on the corrupted dude and saying “THEY were wrong”, because hoy boy, it’s the best idea,

-baking a cold ass revenge on a friend, instead of talking to her and trying to understand her motives and why the fuck she did what she did,

-basically not getting the idea of a secret identity, even after she was rised in a society full of superheroes with secret identities and knew how bad guys knowing you are involved with superheroes shit can end (Reign attacking her twice in her apartment and house),

-co-working with her murderous bald brother and being surprised he kicked her ass,

-looking like a russian mafia boss on a wedding,

-raping people’s brains and putting AIs into them, because bestie didn’t tell her a secret,

-lieing about creating kryptonite and when couldn’t hide it anymore, gaslighting others and making a victim of herself,

-blaming others for murdering bald brother with her own two hands,

-murdering bald brother and thinking it was going to solve problems. Spoiler alert, it didn’t,

-thinking that allowing a legion of monsters inviding NC was something what Kara would approve,

-explaining torturing bestie, raping people’s minds and wanting to lobotomize entire world with “blinded by feelings :(”

-justifying slavery, because she was doing it for a good reason,

-bullshitting about saving and helping the world, while happily not helping companies and factories combined to L-Corp, because money honey,

-creating some big ass portal (that affected poor aliens and made them lose their minds and destroyed a city) to solve hunger problems xDDD while ignoring the financial problems of mentioned companies and factories and allowing them to bankrupt XDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

-putting AI into her ex-friend(ish) body, programming it to be her bestie, and when reminded it’s just AI programmed to be her bestie, being so butthurt that put blame on that AI and sending her to jail,

-basically, thinking she is a god, judge and jury and she can save and change the world while she can’t even help herself.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

The Vow AU (of the AU) (an alternate ending, if you will)

Had a dream last night about the Vow AU and what the Luthor shenanigans would be as the b-plot. And it is characteristically whumpy and angsty.

Lena chooses to go back to living in the city, and arranges a coffee date with Kara to kind of talk through where she's at. But before they can meet up, Lena's met on the street by a burly dude in a suit, inviting her to come with him in an imposing SUV.

When she turns to walk the other direction, another suited thug is there to intercept.

"Your brother would like to speak with you," the first man says.

Weighing her options, Lena ultimately decides to go with them. Maybe, she reasons, this will be the time she can convince Lex to leave her be. As soon as the men climb in on either side of her, they stick a needle in her neck to administer a swift-acting sedative.

When she next regains consciousness, she blinks groggily at the surrounds of her bedroom at the Luthor manor. Lex is there, and Lillian, who offers her a sip of water. She all but guzzles it, her mouth and throat dry as a desert.

"Wha's happening?" she mumbles, struggling to keep her eyes open.

"You had a bit of an episode, ace. But it's okay-- we got you home."

"Rest now," Lillian says softly, brushing Lena's hair away from her flushed and clammy forehead. "We'll explain after you've slept."

Lena tries to keep her eyes open, but she doesn't have much choice in the matter. She slips into an uneasy sleep, unable to shake the feeling that something is dangerously wrong.

---

Meanwhile, when Lena misses her coffee date with Kara, Kara immediately knows something is wrong. Lena might have changed her mind about opening the door between them again, but she wouldn't have done it without telling her. There would have a text, a voicemail, something.

But there's nothing.

Nothing when she calls Lena's cell, nothing when she bangs on the door of Lena's new appointment, nothing when she contacts Jack on the wild whim that he might have heard from her.

Nothing.

But now that Jack knows that something's wrong, they work together to figure out what might have happened. Their first stop is the Luthor manor, but are turned away. Lex isn't there, Lillian tells Kara.

"We're not looking for Lex," Kara declares. "Have you heard from Lena?"

"Yes, she's gone to the Maldives with her friend Andrea, to catch up." Lillian looks down her nose at her. "Please, Miss Danvers, just let her go. You'll only be doing yourself a favor."

Kara leaves. But when she reports straight back to Jack, his features crease into a dark frown.

"Andrea is in Paris," he says. "On business. She's been in closed door meetings for the past three days."

So, it's clear that something is very, very wrong, but Kara isn't sure what to do about it. The next time they go to the Manor, after another two days without a word from Lena, Jack is the one who goes to the door, in the hopes his history with Lena will give him an in.

"I spoke to Andrea last week," he tells Lillian-- and Lex, who's present this time. Under their calculating gazes, he plays his hand. "She was on her way to Paris, not the Maldives. Please-- we just want to make sure Lena is okay."

After a moment, Lex steps back, allowing the door to open wider. "We appreciate your concern, Jackie. The truth is, Lena hasn't been feeling well. She asked us to redirect anyone who comes looking-- she didn't want to worry anyone, after everything that's happened."

He motions Jack inside, and the door closes behind them all, leaving Kara waiting in the car.

"She seems to be on the mend though," Lex continues, leading Jack deeper into the house, "and given your history I'm sure Lena will forgive me for telling you. You already know her migraines have been difficult to deal with, even before the accident."

His voice lowers as they near Lena's bedroom door. Lex motions for Jack to remain quiet, then carefully opens the door to reveal Lena sleeping in her bed. Her cheeks are flushed and heated, but her chest visibly rise with steady, even breaths.

"Lena?"

A heavy hand clamps down on Jack's shoulder, silencing him. Lex shuts the door with a quiet click, but not before Jack can see that his call does nothing to rouse his friend.

"It'staken her forever to get to sleep," Lex suggests, though his tone drops danerously low, taking on a threatening edge. "We don't want to disturb her, do we?"

Jack weighs his options carefully. "No," he agrees finally, carefully. "I suppose not."

"Of course, we'll send word as soon as she's able to accept visitors," Lex assures him, leading him by the shoulder back to the front door. "I know she'll be grateful for your concern, but I assure you she's receiving the best of care."

After exchanging curt goodbyes, the door shuts in Jack's face. He makes his way back down the long drive, to where Kara is waiting for him.

"What happened?" Kara demands. "Is she okay?"

"She's breathing," Jack says with a dark scowl. He's known Lex all his life, and knows that the man's congeniality could hide a multitude of sins. "That's all I can say for sure."

---

Their next step is to call in a wellness check, hoping that the arrival of a police officer to determine Lena's status would result in further information being gathered. But the officer comes back with the same spiel Lex gave Jack: recovering, but resting.

When Kara asks whether the officer spoke to Lena directly, the man shakes his head. "No. Her brother indicated that the medications she takes knock her out hard. But they assured me that Lena would touch base as soon as she was able."

Over drinks at a dingy bar that night, Kara scowls. "Something's wrong, I can feel it," she growls. She shares a long look with Jack. "That's two times Lena hasn't been awake."

Jack's eyebrow lifts. "You think they might be drugging her?"

"Is it really outside the realm of what they might do to keep her?"

Jack gazes at her for a long moment, then blinks. "No," he admits. "It isn't."

Shit. Shit shit shit.

"I just don't know what we can do about it," he continues.

As he watches, Kara's features harden. Whe looks at him, lifting one shoulder in a determined shrug.

"Desperate measures."

---

It doesn't take Lena long to catch on to what's happening. She wakes up, her drinks her water, she falls back asleep-- even when she tries her hardest to stay awake. The fatigue that weighs her down is different from that of a migraine, and when Lillian insists she drink even when Lena refuses, Lena groggily realizes the truth.

She's being drugged.

As soon as she realizes it, Lena uses her scant waking moments devising a plan. When she wakes, she's careful to remain still, and buy herself extra moments. Then, one time when Lillian comes to give her more water, Lena sleepily turns away, squirming onto her opposite side.

It's not much of an act-- sleep truely takes her moments later-- but it's enough for Lillian to pause. Then, miraculously, her mother does nothing but release a quiet sigh.

The last thing Lena's aware of before dropping back into slumber is the touch of her mother's hand stroking her hair.

---

That single missed dose proves to make all the difference. The next time Lena wakes, her mind is sharp, and she's able to move like she has control of her body. So when the mattress next dips beside her hip, Lena acts.

Flinging the blankets from her body, she rolls out of the bed and dashes towards the door-- only for a hand to grab her by the hair and fling her back onto the bed. She lands with a cry, and then her vision fills with her brother's face, contorted with rage.

"Lex!" she yelps, struggling to push him off of her. "Get off me! Lex!"

She fights with everything she has, until Lex's palm cracks against her cheek with stunning force. Lena groans, seeing stars. Her brother uses the opportunity to squeeze her jaw open and pour the contents of the water glass into her mouth.

Sputtering, Lena chokes, struggling to spit it back in his face, but soon his hand seals tight over her mouth and nose. Lena desperately lashes out, fingers hooking into claws to swipe at his face. Lex's arms are longer; he simply locks his elbow, pushing against her mouth and nose to pull out of reach.

"Swallow it." Lex's voice is unlike anything Lena has ever heard from him before. It's dark, dispassionate-- cruel. "Or drown in your own bed. Your choice."

Lena holds out as long as she can. But when her breath runs out, and her lungs start to inhale the water trapped in her mouth, reflex takes over. She swallows.

Only then does Lex release her, shoving away from the bed to leave her choking and sputtering to clear her airway between gasps for breath.

"You brought this on yourself," he informs hed. "If you had just stayed the way you were, and done what you were told--"

"Fuck you--!"

Another blow catches Lena across the face. Stars dance across her vision. When she groans, blinking quickly to clear her vision, she hears Lex sigh.

"Now look what you made me do."

Lena looks at him, saying nothing, suddenly very afraid of her brother. She recoils when he steps closer, but can't avoid the hand that grips her chin tightly, forcing her to meet his gaze.

"Will stay here until you learn to behave. After everything this family has done for you, you at least owe us this."

With that, he lets her go and stalks towards the door. Lena scrambles after him, but her legs don't seem to work right. She slams to her knees, the world warping around her.

"Lex, no! Lex, please don't do this!"

The door closes before she can crawl to stop it. She hears the lock click from the outside. When she turns the knob, it doesn't budge.

"Lex! LEX!"

---

Kara's plan is simple. Wait for Lex to leave, storm the manor, and haul Lena out of it.

Jack has a tad more finesse.

When they see Lex's car peel out of the drive, Jack and Kara slip in past the closing gates. Jack pounds on the front door until it opens to reveal Lillian's cold countenance.

"You know this is wrong," Jack tells her, his tone beseeching. "Lena doesn't want this, and you know Lionel wouldn't either."

Lionel had doted on his daughter before his death-- a death that occurred in the five years Lena had lost-- and loved her with every fiber of his being. He would be outraged to know his wife had been party to Lex's mistreatment of Lena.

Calling on her late husband does the trick. Lillian finally steps aside, allowing Jack and Kara to dash inside, thundering up the stairs to Lena's bedroom door, which they find locked with no answer from within when they call for Lena.

"The key," Kara demands, rounding on Lillian when the woman catches up behind them.

Lillian shakes her head, her hands trembling. "I don't have it. Lex--"

With a roar, Kara turns away, throwing herself against the door. The barrier is solid oak, too heavy to result in anything but a sore shoulder for Kara. She kicks at the doorknob, but all it does is create a racket.

"Together," Jack prompts. Kara nods. "Three, two, one!"

Together, they drive their shoulders into the door. This time, the jamb gives way, splintering to send the door caving inwards.

Just inside, the door butts against the bare skin of Lena's legs.

"LENA!" Kara slides to her knees next to her (ex)wife, gently cupping Lena's face in her hands. "Lena, please..."

Fumbling for a pulse, Kara almost sobs when she finds one, strong and steady. One side of Lena's face, however, is swollen.

"He struck her," Lillian whispers. "He's never done that."

Kara stares at her, this woman who had allowed such treatment to be visited upon her daughter. Her anger wilts when she finds confusion mingled with concern as the Luthor matriarch stares at her daughter.

"If she had just obeyed him. If she had just done as he said. It all would have been fine..." Before Kara could fire back a scathing response, Lillian continues. "But I know my daughter... she would never stop fighting."

"Kara, we have to move, now," Jack urges. Kara nods.

Scooping Lena into her arms, Kara pushes to her feet. For all that Alex has teased her for the time spent in the gym following the divorce, Kara is now grateful for it. With Jack intercepting the doors in their way, they make their way back downstairs and to the front door.

There, Kara stops, and turns back to Lillian.

"If you love Lena," she says quietly. "Don't tell him where she is."

Lillian lifts her chin, but in the end it won't matter. "Lex will know where to look regardless."

Kara already knows. They'll have to leave the city, go somewhere far away where Lex would never think to look for them. Kara will uproot every facet of her life to protect Lena, and do it gladly.

With a final nod to Lillian, Kara and Jack make their escape. Jack floors it from the drivers seat, with Kara cradling Lena in the backseat.

Whatever came next, they would face it headon. Together.

[void-writing]

If you want to share, I'd love to hear more of your Rise TMNT and DCU crossover, please!

I am so so glad you asked : D

I've been trying so hard for so long to think of how the Rise boys misadventures would align with DCU, mostly because I was thinking about post-movie JL investigations into the Kraang Invasion. HOWEVER, I was rewatching the series with a friend semi-recently and we hit the "Battle Nexus: New York" episode and it abruptly hit me that Superman--who is in the state of New York (bc in my version of canon, Metropolis is in New York and Gotham's in New Jersey, as god intended)--would probably be high-key alarmed about the City That Never Sleeps going completely silent except for four teens and five adults, one of which being clearly the one behind it all (that one being Big Mama).

That line of thought honestly made me entertain the idea of Superman being like...the Turtles' weird uncle figure who checks in occasionally like "you good?" but I don't know all of where I'd want to take a story like that.

This honestly kind of spun around in my head for a while until I was hit with a lightning bolt of genius in the form of a very vivid daydream about Daily Planet Intern April O'Neil absolutely tearing into Lex Luthor because he had the sheer audacity to compare Superman to the Kraang in her presence, and a befuddled (and slightly flattered) Clark Kent holding her back from bodily attacking Lex like:

The fic that I'm writing is going to be a mega long one-shot of April being an absolute menace to the supervillain population of Metropolis. She's basically going to be a mini-Lois Lane but like five times more feral because this girl won't so much as flinch at the nonsense Supes deals with on the regular.

On the hero side, April kind of Tim Drakes her way into becoming Superman's unofficial-official sidekick on account of how she just forcibly inserts herself into dangerous situations and refuses to leave.

Hilariously, April doesn't put together that Clark is Superman for a while because her threshold for what constitutes as weird is so messed up that anything that Clark does that might flag as suspicious doesn't even ping for April. Lois and Jimmy have a bet in the background over how long it will take for April to figure out Clark is Superman.

Some other highlights knocking around in my head include:

April babysitting Jon for Clark and Lois so they can go on a date night. April cements herself as the coolest babysitter ever in helping Jon defend the Kent House from an incursion viscous tiny alien critters that Jon brought home from space on accident. Both are trying their hardest to not use powers in front of the other with mixed success.

On a similar note, April cultivating a big-sister relationship with Conner because you cannot tell me that he wouldn't fit right in with her collection of genetically engineered super-soldier brothers born from unethical experiments by a man convinced doing this will save his people, using DNA stolen from a powerful warrior he has homoerotic tension with (from a certain perspective regarding Lex and Clark, lol). Like seriously, Conner's backstory fits the Rise boys' so well. I can't not make April adopt him as little brother #5. Maybe for the hell of it I'll turn Conner into a turtle mutant and have him dick around with the Hamato boys, mostly in making Splinter question if he's been miscounting how many sons he has this entire time. Ah. Fic for another day.

The triumphant return of April's crane license (with bonus forklift certification)

Clark being a living jungle gym for this 4'10" menace to his confusion and everyone else's delight.

The Hamato boys making a surprise visit to the Daily Planet as April works with Lois on an article (because she missed their weekly call and the boys immediately assumed the worst) and April trying desperately to keep her dum-dum little brothers out of Lois's sight as they scamper around the office like it's a playground.

April unknowingly endearing herself to Wonder Woman when she stops by in civilian form to meet up with Clark for JL business.

April getting herself in way over her head trying to do a bit of investigative journalism alone and the Supers coming to bail her out (as a reminder to everyone--including myself--that April is not invincible).

And, of course, the reference to the Batman vs. TMNT movie that I mentioned in the last ask I did on this where the boys break into the Bat Cave and Donnie calls April to gloat that he was right about Batman's secret identity and meanwhile Clark gets a call from Bruce about the four teenage mutant menaces running around his lair and how they're connected to a specific Daily Planet intern Clark knows.

It's just really funny to me to imagine Rise!April being unleashed on Metropolis because Ninpo or no, I don't think anyone there would be prepared to handle the powerhouse that is April O'Neil. The villains of Metropolis quickly come to know and fear her because she will more often than not charge them with the nearest blunt object and somehow--despite not having a meta gene (they have checked)--she hits like a freight train and can keep up decently well with Supers (writing this out now makes me realize that it would be plausible that a conspiracy theory starts floating around Metropolis' criminal underground that April O'Neil is secretly Kryptonian in some capacity, only for it to be swiftly disproved when she grand-slams a chunk of Kryptonite into the Atlantic. Somehow this makes her more terrifying).

But yeah, April is just having the time of her life at this internship, blissfully unaware of how many minds she's breaking just being herself.

[ao3feed-supercorp]

Fall Or Rise

by Dudewithapen

Much to Kara’s shock, Lena returns to the side of good to finally end Lex and Levithan. Knowing the threat is too big to handle on her own, Kara asks the newly formed Justice League for aid, to finally take down Levithan. But during their visit, Barry, Oliver, and Sara notice something between Kara and her so-called friend. Meanwhile after finding out all Lex has done to his cousin, Clark Kent has decided to finally end this war between Lex Luthor and the House of El.

Words: 1247, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Supergirl (TV 2015), Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Black Lightning (TV), Wonder Woman (TV 2011), Superman & Lois (TV 2021), Batwoman (TV 2019)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: F/F, F/M

Characters: Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor, Alex Danvers, J'onn J'onzz | Hank Henshaw, Clark Kent, Lex Luthor, Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, Sara Lance, Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince, Jefferson Pierce, Thea Queen, Wally West, Ray Palmer, Nate Heywood, Andrea Rojas, Eve Teschmacher, William Dey, Rama Khan, Gamemnae (Supergirl TV 2015), Tezumak (Supergirl TV 2015), Sela (Supergirl TV 2015), Original Hank Henshaw (Supergirl TV 2015), M'gann M'orzz, Querl Dox

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen, Querl Dox/Nia Nal, J'onn J'onzz/M'gann M'orzz, Barry Allen & Kara Danvers & Sara Lance & Oliver Queen, Clark Kent/Lois Lane, Russell Rogers/Andrea Rojas, Clark Kent & Bruce Wayne, Lena Luthor & Bruce Wayne

Additional Tags: Earth-Prime (Arrowverse), Arroverse Justice League, Arrowverse Crossover, Clark Kent & Bruce Wayne Friendship, Barry Allen & Kara Danvers Friendship, Lena Luthor Needs Therapy, Past Verbal Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm

from AO3 works tagged 'Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor' https://ift.tt/sXtDqRF via IFTTT https://ift.tt/sXtDqRF

[formsofcontinuity]

Where the Light Leans Past Our Shadows

Summary: Kara takes a part-time job at the Luthor estate for the summer, hoping to use her down-time to finish writing a tell-all memoir of her tragic childhood. Lena is a reclusive genius trying to lay low in the aftermath of her brother’s trial. Neither of them are looking to fall in love.

Supercorp AU, no powers, rated T for now but will likely be M later

* * *

Chapter 1

June

Well, thought Kara.  I guess I’m really doing this.

She rolled down her car window and quickly typed in the gate code she’d been sent by Ms. Luthor’s assistant. The wrought iron gate, comically oversized but beautifully crafted, parted with a smooth whir that belied its heft. 

So, there really are people who live like this just an hour outside National City, on a hundred acres of countryside, behind stone and iron on a grassy hillside that only they can access, Kara mused. 

After a moment of eye-widening hesitation, she ducked her head back in the car. As she waited for the gate to open fully, Kara chanced a glance down at her outfit–a light blue button-down tucked into belted jeans and a pair of paddock boots, her hair pulled back into a neat, practical bun. She felt outclassed, and she hadn’t even set foot on the property yet. 

No, no. It was fine; she wasn’t here to make any kind of impression other than being as useful and unobtrusive as possible. Giving herself a little shake, Kara nodded once and gripped the wheel tighter as she began to pull up the long, winding drive to the Luthor estate. 

When Cat had made the arrangements on Kara’s behalf for her summer—what was this anyway: a job? A writing retreat? A foolish arrangement she might regret?—and told her that the house was “set back a ways from the main road,” she hadn’t properly conveyed that it would be almost a half mile before Kara would be able to see the roof and upper stories of the stately mansion rise out of the surrounding countryside. 

And all around was green, idyllic and lush, lined with fences but otherwise seemingly untouched–trees comfortingly large with reaching branches, and long grass shifting restlessly in the early summer breeze.

Kara’s phone buzzed in her pocket just as she was navigating the roundabout in front of the house and turning left toward the road around back where she’d been given explicit instructions to park. Rolling to a stop next to a red pickup truck already parked in front of a long, freshly painted row of dark green stables that looked more pristine than the interiors of most people’s homes, Kara glanced at the new message from her sister.

So, you’re really doing this, huh?

Kara rolled her eyes and smiled at the mirroring of her own thoughts. Alex knew her a bit too well. She glanced around to make sure no one had come to greet her and then tapped out a quick response.

I really am. It’s beautiful and quiet. Perfect place to write.  

An almost instant reply:  It’s not the writing I’m worried about.

Kara bit her lip. To say Alex had been skeptical about Kara’s rambling explanation of Cat’s proposition would be an understatement. According to Alex, it was a  terrible  idea. A distraction. A ridiculous lark. Maybe even a stain on her integrity as a writer. Kara had laughed out loud at that one. Alex had her best interests at heart, sure, but who would know—or care?—where she spent a summer writing the book her boss (now also officially her editor, Kara reminded herself giddily) thought might actually put her on the map, might actually make a difference? The book she’d been working herself up to write ever since she’d closed the chapter on that other long-lost life of hers, the one where people cared very little about what she thought and only about what she could do.

She’s not like the rest of her family, Alex. I know what that’s like better than anyone.

I know. I’m sorry. Is it nice there? 

Kara stepped out of the car as she typed out a quick response, anxious to explore:  It’s gorgeous. Call you tonight? 

Of course. Love you. 

Fifteen years ago, when Kara had come to live with the Danvers as a terrified thirteen-year-old, she’d known, even then, that she had a story to tell. A story about how good deeds are more often punished than not. She didn’t have the words then, but she had them now. After years of flying under the radar, dodging true crime aficionados and reporters looking to make a name for themselves with a tell-all from the last daughter of the Krypton cult, Kara was finally ready to talk. But it would be on her own terms. Her story, in her words. She hadn’t spent the last decade and a half living like a ghost, with a last name that wasn’t hers, only to turn back now. 

Kara shook her head, surveying the stables and barn with her hands on her hips for a moment, before texting Alex a quick heart emoji, pocketing her phone, and turning towards the car’s trunk. Now wasn't the time to reminisce. Before she could speak her truth, she had to finish the book–and wasn't that why she was here? 

That, and Kara didn't have the luxury to take time off just to write. The Danvers' were comfortably middle class, but they weren't wealthy. A steady income was absolutely necessary, and while she loved her work as an editor for Catco Publishing, it was draining, leaving her unable to write more than a paragraph or two when she got home at night. That’s how she’d eked out the first hundred pages, though, paragraph by paragraph. But if she really wanted to finish this book, she needed time. She needed this summer.

So, here was the perfect solution, Kara reminded herself with a smile as she shook off the contagion of Alex's worrying, and popped open the trunk. She pulled two suitcases free and placed them on the packed dirt of the drive. She had a free place to stay for three months on a gorgeous estate. She had a part-time job keeping a stable full of likely very high-end horses exercised. And she'd have the rest of the time to write, free of distractions. Cat had hinted that the enigmatic Lena Luthor–who now owned the manor and all of her family's assets after her murderous brother had been arrested and sentenced, and her mother, no doubt an accomplice, had vanished–probably wouldn't make much an appearance. 

"She's very private," Cat had scoffed, disbelievingly. "I think it's playing a little too perfectly into the 'evil genius in her lair' trope or, you know, the madwoman in the attic, but what do I know? That girl has the perfect makings of a bestseller, and she won't say a word." One of the other junior editors, Nia, later told Kara that Lena had refused no less than a dozen of Cat's offers to publish her memoirs of growing up in a household of megalomaniacal murderers. 

Still, the Grants and Luthors had run in similar circles, and Cat was one of the few allies Lena had left. When Lena had complained she didn't know who of her mother’s staff she could trust, it was Cat who'd made the suggestion of a mutually beneficial, temporary arrangement, just for a few months until Lena could figure out next steps.

Kara had heard all this from Cat’s gossipy assistant, Eve, of course, not the woman herself. Cat had only told her that she had the perfect solution to Kara's "inane" dilemma that she couldn't take an unpaid leave for three months just to write ("I mean, really, Kara, writers have to suffer for their art, and you'll still have health insurance because I'm nothing if not generous, but if you  insist on having a job, I have an idea for you."). So, here she was.

Lena hadn't even come out of the house to greet her, and Kara had been on the property for at least fifteen minutes, so she probably wouldn't be seeing much of the mysterious heiress. And Cat had said Lena wasn't much of a rider, that she was planning to sell the horses at the end of the summer once the hubbub of the trial had, hopefully, died down. So it would be just Kara with her thoughts, the occasional visit from Alex. Riding and writing. It was going to be a good summer. 

Read the rest of the first chapter on AO3!

[scienceninjaturtle]

ACTION COMICS #1051

Written by PHILLIP KENNEDY JOHNSON, DAN JURGENS, and LEAH WILLIAMS

Art by RAFA SANDOVAL, LEE WEEKS, and MARGUERITE SAUVAGE

Cover by DAN MORA

Variant covers by STEVE BEACH, JORGE FORNÉS, SERGIO DAVILA, RAFA SANDOVAL, DAVID NAKAYAMA, and LEE WEEKS

1:25 variant cover by JACK HERBERT

1:50 foil variant cover by DAN MORA

1:100 embossed variant cover by STEVE BEACH

$4.99 US | 48 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)

ON SALE 1/24/23

ACTION COMICS REBORN!

Action Comics #1051 begins a new format for DC's most action-packed title, offering not one, not two, but three epic adventures of Superman and the entire Super-Family! Following the bombshell events of Action Comics #1050, the world's relationship with Superman is forever changed, the upper limits of his supercharged powers have yet to be reached, and the House of El's transformation of Metropolis, led by Steel, has begun. But Lex Luthor has found the perfect instrument with which to undo everything Superman is working to achieve: Metallo, whose hatred of Superman is matched only by his hatred for Luthor himself. Then, in "Lois and Clark 2: Doom Rising," Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks return to tell the tale of young Jon Kent on the farm with his parents, learning about his abilities, coming of age…and battling the Doombreaker?! And finally, Power Girl returns in part one of a three-part story spinning out of Lazarus Planet! This issue marks the first appearance of new characters, new costumes, and a new era of Action Comics! It all starts here!