Hank Henshaw sends another kick to her stomach. Usually fighting left her unharmed, but this was something different; each hit left her with less strength. She got on to her knees but was grabbed by the throat. He raised her high into the air, her legs kicking trying to find solid ground. She could feel her consciousness slipping and in desperation she kicked out at Hank's chest. He released his grasp and she fell to a heap at his feet. While she tried to collect herself she saw a fist come flying at her and before she could react all she saw was black.
Mon-El saw Cadmus drag Kara into the adjacent cell, he rushed to his feet and got as close to her as possible. He watched her sleep, hoping she would wake up. He knew he was bait to get to her and could not live with himself if anything were to happen to her.
"Supergirl?" Mol-El spoke softly as Kara stirred awake
"Mhmm" Kara groaned as she felt the impact of her fight hit her.
"Are you okay?" He said, his words laced with worry.
She turned over to face him and saw the worry on his face. She knew that face, she was that face. She had Alex when she needed it, and now Mon-El needed an Alex.
She straightens up, her ribs protest, but she pushes that pain away and puts a strong front on for him.
"Yeah," she throws in a laugh to get the worry to fall from his face, "no big deal. How are you?"
"Oh you know me, I'm fine." She gives him her best Alex glare "Okay, in freaking out here."
"Everything will be fine, I promise."
"Don't make promises you cannot keep Supergirl." A voice said from the shadows.
Supergirl and Mon-El turned to see a tall blond women step into the light.
"Kara stares at the women, a knowing familiarity nagging at the back of her brain. "I know you, you were in Lena's office."
"And how do you know my daughter?" Kara's eyes open in shocked. How could someone like Lena, so nice, sweet, pure, and innocent, have a monster for a mother.
"I'm her friend." Kara spoke in a defiant tone.
"Hmm. I don't know if i like my daughter being friends with your kind." She says as she eyes Kara in disgust. "Supergirl, I need you to do something for us."
"Doubtful." She said as she slowly rose to her feet
"I had a feeling you would say that." Before she could even blink Ms. Luther pulled out a gun a shot Mon-El right above the knee. "See the thing is, you do not have to do anything, but if you choose to do nothing, then you will stay here in this cage and watch as your friend dies; apparently the poor thing has a bad lead allergy."
"Mon-El dropped to the group in a heap clutching his bleeding leg. Kara was at the edge of her cage trying desperately to help him.
"Please just stop!"
"That's cute, but it is not enough, perhaps I will just end him right now." She says as she raises her gun to his head.
"Okay okay stop!" She yells in a strong, but defeated tone. "What do you need me to do!"
"No Supergirl!" Mon-El pleads
"I won't let you die." Kara comes face to face with her capture.
"We need you to exhaust your powers."
She looks at Lilian confusing written across her face. "Why?"
"You don't need to know that." They open Kara's caged and escort her to a spot. People come around her and place a helmet over her head. "This will take in all the energy from you using your heat vision."
Kara looks over to Mon-El seeing him trying to cut off the blood flow to his leg and knows she needs to do this.
"AHHHH!" She yells as she pushes her body to the limit. Each passing second she feels her body becoming looser, becoming weak. Her knees shake, and her body feels her powers fading. She screams and and scream, finally it all ends. She falls to the floor, and her fight with Hank starts to weigh on her even more. As a person with powers that fight took a toll on her, but now without those powers, she could hardly breath. She tries to get on her hands and knees, but even that sends waves of pain all throughout her body.
Lilian walks over to her, each step she takes with pride as she looks at the weak parasite. She grabs her chin and forces Kara to look up.
Kara moans in pain, but has no other choice, she looks into the eyes of the woman she hates. Before she can say anything a fist strikes her square in the nose. She topples over to her side and grabs at her face. She tries to ease the pain, but her body is pushed back to facing Ms. Luthor.
"It worked." she smiles a toothy grin that leaves Kara scared. Her attention goes over Kara's head to someone standing behind her. "Bring her to room 13."
Two men from around the room haul her up by her shoulders and drag her out of the room. Mon-El stares on in horror as he can do nothing but watch all the events unfold.
"Where are you taking me, you said you would help Mon-El!"
"Shut up 'Supergirl'. Honestly it is embarrassing how much trust you put in people."
"Like how Lena trusts her mother to be a decent human being."
Another strike comes to hit her. She knew she would get hit for her comment, but she could not bite her tongue.
Lilian walks over to Kara, since Kara is now laid back in a chair Lilian towers over her. "It is having Cadmus that makes her a decent human being my dear."
Kara sees bags placed beside her on the floor. "Why do you need my blood?"
"I thought we already established that you do not ask the questions, nor will you hear the answers."
A handful of needles are stuck into Kara in different places. A couple of them extract blood, while other large needles go further into her body to scrape up against her bone. Her body shakes in pain as her forehead drips with sweat. The pain of fighting, and frankly getting her ass kicked by Hank, watching herself get toyed with to give up her powers, losing her powers, and the needles is too much for her; her head lulls to the side and a warm black shadow creeps over her eyes.
When Kara wakes up again, some of the needles are gone. There is still one collecting her blood, by now she can see that they have taken just about three pints of blood from her. When the number reaches three an alarm goes off and two men drag her back into the room with Mon-El.
When Mon-El sees Kara he drops his shirt from being pressed to his knee and rushes to the edge of his cell to get as close as he can to her./p
The guards open her cage and roughly throw her into it so that she hits the bars and crumbles to the floor.
"Supergirl!" Mon-El tries to get his hands through the bar to offer support, but she is in the middle of the metal, and his attempts are futile. He watches the guards leave her cell and the room.
"Kara, Kara, Kara!" Her whispers in a desperate tone.
She hears the plea in his voice and rolls over to face him.
"Are you okay? What did they do to you?"
"I'm fine, Mon-EL, they just took some blood." But she wasn't and they hadn't.
"You look pale, how much did they take?"
"Wanting to steer him from worrying and being scared Kara lied, "It's just from them taking my powers, I had this happen once before, don't worry, this is normal."
His eyebrows unfurrow and that's when his knee sends a sharp pain up his leg, he gaps, momentarily forgetting he had been shot.
Hearing his pain Kara quickly goes into Alex mode.
"You need to put pressure on that." Before he can ask Kara quickly adds "You are going to be fine Mon-El, everything is going to be okay."
"The lead." He replies meekly
"They didn't give you anything yet?" His eyes say it all, in an instant Kara is quick to her feet screaming and banging on the bars.
"You promised! Help him!"
After a couple minutes her voice starts to become hoarse, but it is not in vain, she can see men walking toward her.
"Would you shut up in here."
"Help him and I will." The men look at each other before opening the cage.
They rush over and two grab her arms leaving her body open and unprotected as the third man hits her over and over. He leaves no part of her unmarked. After what feels like hours to Kara she is released. Her knees smack on to the cold hard floor and pain runs up her body.
"You are not in charge here, you are not some prodigy, you are scum. The faster you learn that the better."
Her eyes feel swollen, her knees hurt, her face bleeds, but the worst of it comes from her stomach. She knows somewhere in that beating a rib or two cracked.
It was times like this she wished she had built up some form of a tolerance to pain, but having only lost her powers a handful of times it was as if she was a baby, vulnerable to everything.
She tried to hold on to consciousness, for Mon-El's sake, but her body had gone through too much and she could do nothing to fight it off.
