Author's Note:

Hello, all. I hope you are having an awesome day and that this helped you to smile! Winter Break is coming to an end, which means I probably will be unable to update at the speed at which I wish I could. Sorry! Please enjoy the latest installment of Trade-Off.

Chapter 3

Kara was in so much pain and barely had the strength to lift her head. The room appeared to be spinning around her, and she felt sick to her stomach. Lillian had been causing her unimaginable pain, both psychological and physical, for so long she had lost track of time. It could have been the sixtieth hour Kara had been missing, or it could have been the third week.

Lillian hadn't given her any food or water, but Kara was grateful; she didn't think she woyld be able to stomach anything. Currently, Lillian was cleaning off her blades and giving Kara a moment to avoid killing her, so that she could experience as much excrutiating pain as possible.

Most of the methods of torture involved Lillian somehow stabbing or cutting Kara with a kryptonite blade, yet the measures Lillian went to to make it hurt were vile.

The worst way Lillian hurt her was with her words. She would get inside Kara's head and tell her that the reason no one had come to help her was because Lena had discovered her secret identity and hated Kara for it. Since Kara had no way to tell how much time had passed, she had no reason to disbelieve Lillian's claim.

"Well. All clean. I must go for now to supervise the cleansing of National City, but I will be back, and you will die. The best part of this whole endeavour will be how you will beg for death, Supergirl," promised Lillian, and her voice sent shivers down Kara's abused body.

Kara's vision became blurry and eventually darkened as Lillian strolled out of the warehouse that Kara had begun to associate with suffering and misery. Where was Lena? Where was anyone?

Lena jerked back as she accidently shocked herself with her own technology. She had been working around the clock for seventeen hours in an attempt to adapt her nanosuit to help her rescue Kara. Or Supergirl. Lena chuckled bitterly as she thought about how a few hours ago, her primary concern was getting Kara to trust her. Now, Kara's life was at stake.

Lena was almost done, she just needed to conduct a quick test that the nanited would respond to her thought. After all, if the armour didn't work perfectly, Kara might not get rescued, and Lena's only focus was saving the friend who had saved her. She took a deep drink of the black coffee Jess had given her that was long cold, then closed her eyes and focused. She felt the nanites surround her as she directed their path with her mind. She opened her eyes to see herself clad in a sleek, charcoal outfit that appeared to be made of scales of some sort. . I'm coming to get you, Kara, she thought. And my family had better be prepared to be defeated, once and for all.She took off, delighted despite the circumstances that her suit allowed for flight with conscious thought. She had consulted the papers in her duffel bag multiple times and had determined that Lillian was likely hiding in an abandoned warehouse.

Lena soared across the city, her eyes scanning the dark alleyways and building for her target. It was so amazing to fly that she almost missed it.

She landed in a pitch-black alley next to a large warehouse covered in brick. She felt her way around until she found a metal doorknob.

"Got you, you complete and utter -" her muttered curse was cut short with her own cry of pain as an electric shock traveled up her body, and she felt the nanites drop off, leaving her cold in the fall night. She groaned and rolled from her stomach onto her back. The last thing she saw before she passed out was her mother standing above her, tauntingly holding an electronic disable.