'I keep myself busy with things to do, but every time I pause, I still think of you.'
Supergirl landed on the stone balcony of the DEO and stepped through the glass doors the instant they moved open to admit her. Agents turned to look at her more than they usually did when she walked in but she passed it off as some of them having to be new to these offices.
J'onn and Alex both stood watching her with arms crossed as she approached, her boots clicking on the floor, and Kara noticed Winn watching on from behind his computer.
"What's going on?" Kara asked, primarily assuming they had called her in so quickly (and rudely) due to some issue however there appeared to be nothing going on in the department; everyone was watching Supergirl. "Has someone escaped?" She added, looking between two of the people she cared about most. J'onn was the first to respond by shaking his head before making a gesture with his hand. Kara raised a brow in confusion.
"J'onn?" She barely got the name out before, while she was distracted, she felt cuffs clamp down over her wrists and her power drain into the Kryptonite. "Alex!" She looked at her sister in distress but the woman just looked away. "Alex! She screamed, twisting to try and get away. She didn't understand, what was happening? She hadn't done anything!
"Supergirl, calm down." J'onn ordered as the agents struggled to keep hold of the Kryptonian by her arms despite the Kryptonite.
"We are just taking precautions, Kara." Alex told her sister gently, moving forward to grasp Kara's wrists around the cuffs which she regretted letting J'onn convince her were necessary. "We think you've been exposed to red kryptonite, just let us run our tests."
"I thought Superman had taken all the Kryptonite?" Kara demanded, betrayal setting into her. She wasn't under the influence of Red Kryptonite she knew she wasn't so why were they doing this? She was angry that they had lied to her cousin, especially after he had spent so long trying to convince J'onn to give him all the Kryptonite so situations like this wouldn't happen.
"I kept one or two pieces." J'onn admitted. "It's not strong enough to hurt you, Supergirl, I promise." He gestured for the agents to take her away to the lab and waited before she was out of sight before turning to Alex. "We have to be one hundred percent sure, you understand that?" He asked her. Alex nodded but still sighed, feeling upset with herself for condemning her sister so quickly to the green iron cuffs.
Both of them knew that Kara had been snappy with them, and others and overall she just didn't seem right. Yet, Alex had seen Kara up close while she was under the influence of Red Kryptonite and she didn't believe that this was the same but she couldn't argue with J'onn's argument that they needed to be sure.
"She's going to be so angry with me." She sighed as she sat down in the seat beside Winn. Coming to work after Maggie had left was supposed to make her feel better but it only seemed to be bringing her down. Glancing at Winn's computer she was disheartened even more.
"They are still going?" She asked, pulling her chair closer to observe the anti-alien, anti-superman and supergirl protest that was taking place over in Metropolis.
"Yep." Winn said shortly. "Doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon, I'm just hoping Kara doesn't see anything." He sighed, lolling his head back to look at the ceiling. "She literally saved the world, do you know how hard it is shut up about that when there's people like this around." Alex nodded in response.
"Believe me Winn, I know." She sighed, pulling out her phone. There was still nothing from Maggie despite Alex having attempted to contact her many times since arriving at the DEO. It was evening and she wanted to be at home with her girlfriend. "Shouldn't you head home to be with Lyra?" She asked Winn with a raised brow. He shook his head.
"She's left town for a few weeks to go and spend some time with her brother, you remember him right? I decided to give them space for it." He smiled, clicking through a few more live feeds of the protest on his computer boredly. Alex nodded, at least one couple was happy. She placed her phone down on her desk with a sigh, apparently she needed to take a leaf out of Winn's book and give Maggie some space.
"Danvers," Alex looked up when J'onn called her name from the balcony of the floor above. "Get up here." Waving goodbye to Winn who wished her good luck when she asked for it she headed upstairs and into the medical lab where Kara was on the table. There was nothing Alex hated more than seeing her sister chained down like a dog and each and every time it happened she was only reminded of the first time the DEO captured Kara, just after she began her work as Supergirl with Winn, and the way Kara had refused to even look at her. Now, her face shadowed in blue from her suit, Kara did the same and twisted her head to look to the side and away from her friends in humiliation and upset.
"No traces of Red Kryptonite. She's fine." J'onn stated, looking at the young woman for a moment before releasing her hands from the cuffs. "We misjudged you, Kara, I apologise." He added, looking between the two sisters. "I'll leave you two to talk this out."
Alex approached her sister and despite the absence of red kryptonite she couldn't help but feel mirrored to when she spoke to Kara after she had recovered from that horrible period. The younger woman was lying on the table watching the ceiling with wires attached to her just as before; what comforted Alex was the vision of red and blue clothes she wore as opposed to the black and red suit that she had before.
"Kara." She whispered, reaching out to hold her sister's hand and feeling her heart sink further down when she didn't clasp hers back. "Please, tell me what's going on." Kara turned her head away from her sister for a moment, blinking her tears away.
"I'm angry." Alex sighed when the response came, what else could she have expected from her.
"I know you're angry with me Kara, I'm sorry me and J'onn misju…" She was cut off by Kara shaking her head.
"Alex, I'm angry about Mon-El." She stated. "I'm angry that he had to leave. I'm angry at Rhea, and Lillian Luthor, even Lena, and everyone on this earth that I had to give him up for and don't care for what I did. I'm just...angry." Kara ground out with tears and exhaustion. She carried anger and always had from the moment she had arrived on this earth but, even for someone as kind as Kara, it was becoming far too much to hide.
"And I'm sad, Alex." She said, finally squeezing her sister's hand. "I miss him and I miss how normal he made me feel." She opened up, shaking her head as she blinked against tears.
"You have every right to be, Kara. To be angry, to be sad, there is every reason for you to feel that way." Alex replied. "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked. Kara shook her head as she sat up.
"I don't know." She said honestly. "Supergirl has to be strong." Alex nodded, moving to sit beside her sister on the table, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. Supergirl always had to be strong, people looked up to her and Alex understood but even Kara had to learn that being Supergirl didn't mean anything when she was with her friends.
"But Kara Danvers doesn't have to be." Alex whispered, pushing hair from the other woman's face. Kara slumped against her sister with a sniff as tears rolled down her cheeks and Alex instantly pulled her close. Just as Alex was Kara's comfort blanket, Alex needed to be there for Kara as a way as feeling validated, useful and needed. Yet, in the back of her mind was the fact that the whole reason Maggie had left earlier was due to Kara and now, here she was sitting with her sister instead of her girlfriend when both of them needed her comfort and both were just as alone.
"The anger will fade." She chose to continue comforting her sister. "You just have to give it time, Kara, I promise."
The two young woman sat there for a long while, in each other's arms. To the outside, it was a beautiful and peaceful happy ending but it didn't last. A screeching alarm tore through the building with flashes of red and the two of them jumped up, averting back to Supergirl and DEO agent in a second, before heading down to the central area.
"What's the alarm for?" Alex demanded as Winn frantically brought up camera feeds.
"There's been a prisoner escape at the other DEO quarters." He replied, adrenaline fueling his body with the sparks of excitement he always got when something happened.
"Get up the camera feeds, Agent Schott." J'onn ordered, agitated. With some frantic clicks and tapping on the keyboard the correct feed came up but at the sight of the person enlarged on the screens he was in no mood to celebrate his success.
"Is that..?" He didn't finish his sentence but instead looked back at Kara who looked at the screen with a look pitched between shock, fear and angry.
"Non." She finished the sentence. "I have to get over there." She stepped away from the screen but Winn shook his head.
"The feed isn't live, this happened a few minutes ago at best, he's already gone." He paused. "Kara, I think you should listen." He stated, turning the sound up. "He's speaking to you."
Kara crossed her arms as she watched, first of all flinching as he threw the people but then...she felt the anger of earlier burning inside her as earlier. How did this happen? How was he allowed to escape? She should have been there, she had failed all those people that were in there, all those lives that Non could have destroyed through death or otherwise; she hadn't been a good hero.
"Kara," Alex saying her name made her lift her bowed head sharply. "Listen." She ordered, she didn't want her sister to be the only one who didn't receive the message that was clearly for her.
"Let me do this and then, Kara Zor-El, we will return home to Krypton."
That was the final sentence before Non smashed his way through the ceiling and the room became still aside from the fire burning around the computers. Everyone looked at Kara.
The Girl of Steel had tears on her face which was etched with with pain and vulnerability. The words of Non scalded her mind as she considered if what he spoke was true. She could hardly even breath as she watched the screen and the now empty room that Non had been standing in. DEO agents watched her in shock. She was supposed to be invincible and yet here she was frozen like a statue at the angry monologue of a man.
"Don't you all have something better to be doing!" J'onn roared; the central area cleared out immediately. "Supergirl, let's go somewhere more private." He added but she was practically unresponsive. In the end, Alex and Winn took each of her arms and helped her follow John into the back training room and locked the door behind them to stop prying eyes and ears from agents.
"Kara." After a long while, Alex was the first one to speak. She looked across to J'onn and Winn with concern before back at the curled up figure of her sister on the stairs. The young woman didn't even look up at the sound of her name, instead her head was bowed and her eyes steely with focus, on what the three couldn't understand.
"She's in shock, maybe?" Winn asked. "Maybe you should take her home Alex?" He added, pushing off from leaning on the wall. "Unless she needs to stay here for safety?" He looked over at J'onn hoping Kara would be allowed the comfort of home.
"It doesn't look like Non is going to make any attempt on her life." J'onn stated. "What we need to work out is what he knows about Krypton being alive." He paused. "Alex take Kara home, Agent Schott, are you willing to stay here and do some digging with me?"
Soon they had split up into two groups with J'onn and Winn disappearing off to investigate leaving Alex with Kara. She sat down next to her sister, pulling the limp superhero close to her. She couldn't even try to comfort her sister, she had just been told she had betrayed her family and that her world was possibly still in existence and how on earth would Alex ever make her feel better following that.
"My world is alive." Kara growled out. She felt angry with herself. When she had landed here she was so adamant that her world was gone that she had done nothing to contact home. Compared to Mon-El, with his distress calls home many a time, her reaction to the end of her world was pathetic. Standing up, she stormed to the centre of the training room.
"I should have done something!" She screamed, lashing out and making a punching bag soar across the room.
"Kara, you were twelve, you were scared." Alex whispered, standing up to try and get close to Kara.
"That isn't an excuse for not trying!" She sobbed, her angry mutating into tears of lasers from her eyes. Alex jumped back from the beams of light that made a metal door drip to the ground.
"Kara!" She protested. "Calm down!" She could only barely understand what her sister was experiencing. When she had found out her father was alive, she had blamed herself but he was within reaching distance of her help but Kara's family...if they were still alive...were a universe away and not even Kara herself could remember exactly where the planet was in relation to earth which brought her chances of ever getting home down to impossible.
"My entire world!" She roared. "I didn't think to try and contact them! I didn't think to try and turn my pod around! All for Kal-el!" She sobbed, until finally her lasers retreated and she dropped to her knees.
She tore at herself in her mind, Non may have been her enemy but she still knew that at least some of what he said was correct whatever the reasons behind it. She hadn't respected traditions, she hadn't cared for her parent's wishes, she had hardly been able to recite the Prayer of the Dead for Astra. Whether Krypton was waiting for her or not, she had not abided by how she had lived on her home planet.
Alex watched; her heart shattering as she watched her sister. She felt powerless and wished that Kara would understand that if Alex could turn back time so Kara never lost her world she would have. Approaching cautiously, for she was still aware that the young woman could cause damage, but it appeared to be in vain as she was soon able to slip her arms around Kara in a hug.
"Let's get you out of that suit." She mumbled into Kara's hair. "And then we'll go home, I'll get Potstickers." Winn was right, Kara had been in shock and now was once again and not even the mention of her favourite food got a reaction from her. Despite this Alex quickly found that with a little leadership Kara would walk without support from someone and they ended up in the locker room grabbing Kara's clothes.
"Put these on for me." Alex coaxed Kara, finally getting a slow nod from her sister. Stepping away to give her space Alex pulled out her phone; she stood straighter when she saw the missed call from Maggie. Glancing over, she saw Kara was making slow progress on the transformation from Supergirl to Kara Danvers: she had time to call Maggie.
"Alex?" Alex breathed a sigh of relief at hearing Maggie's voice. "Where are you? I can't find you in the apartment." A stab of upset passed through Alex as she imagined Maggie arriving at the apartment to look for her but finding the place abandoned.
"I'm at the DEO." She replied, keeping her eyes on Kara who had finally peeled the Supergirl suit from her body, clearly she wasn't up to using her super speed right now. "Something's happened with Kara." A deep grunt came through the phone, one of irritation.
"What building did she fly into?" Alex winced at the bitterness in her girlfriend's voice towards her sister.
"Maggie, she just found out her world might still be alive, cut her some slack." The phone line was silent for a few moments and by this time Kara was finished changing but her hair was still down around her face. Walking over Alex sat her down, standing behind her and placing the phone on speaker.
"Kara hold this, say hello to Maggie."
"Hello." The whispered voice came. Alex hadn't seen Kara like this since the months following her arrival on earth. She could remember that girl, the one who hid away in her bedroom when her determined nature for surviving the school day had dwindled.
"Hello Kara." Came the short reply. "So what's going on?"
"I'm going to sleep at Kara's tonight, you're welcome to join us." She added, hoping Maggie would take up the offer because she knew Kara needed her help but she also wanted to smooth things over with Maggie. She threaded her fingers through Kara's hair, brushing it up to style it as close to Kara's normal style as she could.
"I'll meet you two there." Alex sighed in relief, gently wrapping Kara's hair into a bun.
"Potstickers?" Kara asked, seemingly able to converse with only a single word at that moment. Alex chuckled softly, it was a step towards normality.
"Will you bring Kara Potstickers?"
"Sure thing, Danvers. I'll see you soon." Alex finished up Kara's hair as the call ended, holding her sister's glasses out for her to place on her face and finally the Kara Danvers the outside world saw was back.
"Let's go home."
Non grunted in irritation. There had been no message from Supergirl, no sightings of her, he couldn't even be sure that she had received the message. The hours since his announcement to her felt like months and he had to hold onto the vision of stringing her along with hope to her death to stop him from venturing out to kill her that night.
Taking a deep breath, he paced a little bit. He knew that everything Kara Zor-El desired was to go home...there was no hint of consideration in his mind that there were aspects in her life here that she loved just as much as Krypton...that she loved more than Krypton: he couldn't comprehend any Kryptonian enjoying their time on this primitive world. That was why Supergirl confused him even more than Superman did, she had experienced their world, she could remember home and yet was still content here.
It hadn't been hard to find himself a place to formulate his plan further. An abandoned warehouse, full of technology, seemed too good to be true yet Non was still happy to take residence inside.
He had to find a way to convince Kara that Krypton was alive and furthermore he needed to way for her to 'get home' that would ultimately kill her but he knew that it would take time. Perhaps, he considered, he didn't want Supergirl on his doorstep right at this moment so instead he would have to keep her busy. How?
What he needed was to break her down until she begged him to let her come home. She needed to realise what little she had on this measly planet before she came crawling to him. However he knew he couldn't do it alone. Someone, somewhere had to want Supergirl off this planet as much as he wished for her to be dead. Non tried to recall any person him and Astra had observed disliking Kara, there was too many...he needed to narrow it down.
Think...THINK!
It couldn't just be someone who hated Kara, it had to be someone who had already taken action to try and stop her before.
Non glanced around the room he had adopted for his purpose. Shiny human technology gleamed in every inch of it and yet it seemed to be disregarded here at the edge of the city with no use. Then...as he looked he noticed something written on the wall and a grin overcame his face. Supergirl's worst human enemy in National City, someone that could help and the writing on the wall had lead him right too them. Cut precisely into the metal wall, the two words that had made him hopeful;
Lord Technologies
Sorry for the lack of a chapter last week, it was 'Creation Week' on a forum I am on and I wanted to put all of my attention into that, the quote at the top was actually one of the prompts for the tasks :)
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please leave a review if you have the time :)
~Eli