For The Woman Who's Lost Everything
40 Months After the Destruction of National City
"Supergirl!" Oliver shouted, switching on his comms. "Supergirl can you hear me?!"
Oliver turned his attention to the sky, just able to see the retreating blur of Supergirl climbing higher and higher towards the stratosphere.
"Supergirl, stop!" Oliver called out. "Whatever you're seeing it isn't real!"
Nothing.
"It's Lena, Kara!" Oliver cried out down his comms. "It's Lena!"
No answer came from Kara, the four Leaguers standing in place, staring up at the sky in fear. They had all pieced it together, they all knew what Merlyn had been planning, what had had done.
"Did you know that she was pregnant?"
Oliver's resolve snapped, hands dropping from Merlyn's collar and his bow quickly swiping to strike Merlyn in his face. The blow sent the Dark Archer stumbling, blood slipping from his lips. Barry responded in kind, striking the archer in the back. the blow from the speedster was enough to send Merlyn collapsing to the floor.
A moment later, the whole atmosphere shifted. Oliver looked back to the sky to see Supergirl speeding towards them, a red bundle in her arms. Kara touched down a few feet from them, the red bundle smoking slightly from the heat of re-entry. Kneeling in the sand, Kara placed the bundle down, revealing Lena Luthor, wrapped in Kara's cape.
"Please." Kara begged, her voice a whisper.
None of them could look, the heroes dropping their gaze to the ground.
"Please!"
Then, she stirred. With a weak cough Lena's eyes drifted open. Kara froze, unable to believe what she was seeing.
"Lena?"
"Kara." Her wife smiled thinly.
"I almost…the baby." Kara sobbed, a tear running openly down her cheek.
"I'm okay Kara." Lena smiled. "We're okay."
Kara pulled her wife into a hug. The two holding each other tightly. The heroes breathed a sigh of relief. It took a few moments, but Kara helped Lena to her feet, the two not releasing their grip on each other even for a second. Oliver felt himself tensing as Kara turned, seeing Kara's eyes lock onto Merlyn, who had manged to get back to his feet. He knew what she was thinking, probably better than Kara did herself.
"You!" Kara snarled, turning to Merlyn. "You almost took them from me."
"Now, Supergirl." Merlyn began, blood still dripping from his nose. "Let's not do something violent and messy that we might regret."
"I will not regret this—"
"Supergirl no." Oliver stepped between her and Merlyn, a hand on her shoulder.
"Move aside, Oliver." She spoke lowly.
Oliver ignored her, instead turning to look at the other Leaguers who were surrounding them.
"Flash, Valor. Somewhere in National City, there's a nuclear warhead. Manhunter, return the submarine to the bay and then join the search." He ordered. "I'll take Merlyn to Star City and I'll try to learn the location of the warhead on the way."
"I'll question Merlyn." Supergirl snarled.
"No." Oliver stopped her. "Look after Lena. Let me deal with him."
"Like you've dealt with him before?" Kara glared.
"Supergirl, I promise he will never hurt you again."
I never knew. I never knew what I was missing. How much I wanted this. A family. Someone like me. Someone I could truly hold without hurting. This is all I ever wanted.
"I'm here to see Oliver Queen." Supergirl announced as she touched down at Slabside.
The guards didn't argue as she was led to the visitation wing. Oliver was already sat behind the glass screen when she arrived. He grinned as he looked up at her, and Kara observed him as she took her seat opposite him. He looked rough, a black eye, his stubble heavy. Like he had just gone five rounds with Deathstroke.
"I have news." Kara smiled.
"It's a girl." Oliver smirked.
"Obviously." Kara rolled her eyes teasingly.
Kara looked down, avoiding Oliver's eyes for a moment.
"Why did you do it?" She asked eventually.
"Merlyn…he almost destroyed an entire city. All of those people. And he almost took everything from you. He was…"
"He was going to try again." Kara finished for him.
"Yes." Oliver answered sadly. "And if you'd been the one to…well I couldn't let that happen to you."
"You killed him, turned yourself in, to save me?" Kara asked.
She didn't give Oliver a chance to reply before she got to her feet and stepped forward, tearing through the barrier between them. Oliver jumped to his feet and stepped back to avoid getting hit by the damage. Kara ignored the guards as they aimed their weapons and pulled Oliver into a hug.
"Thank you, Oliver." She whispered into his ear. Pulling out of the hug she continued. "With good behaviour you could be out by the time she's two."
"I'm not exactly behaving well in here, Kara." Oliver grinned wickedly. "I'm beating up a lot of people."
Kara placed her hands on Oliver's shoulders. "Say the word and we walk out of here."
"I killed a man in cold blood, Kara. I crossed a line."
"Merlyn wasn't a man." Kara pointed out.
"I need to do the time. Go, live your lives."
There are moments all parents talk about. The first word. First steps. There are moments you're ready for and some you can't be ready for. First flight. First rescue. The first time she put on her suit.
"Mom?" Lori called out.
Kara was at her side in an instant. Mother and daughter levitated in orbit around Earth, looking down at the planet below them. She had been training for almost as long as she could remember. 20 years of being taught by the greatest heroes to walk the Earth. Caitlin Snow helped her perfect her freeze breath. J'onn J'onzz had taught her to fly. Barry Allen ran with her until she could control her speed. Oliver Queen conditioned her to aim her heat vision with the temperament of an archer.
"What is it?" Kara asked.
"It's everything." Lori answered. "I can see it. The world…"
"Is pulling apart." Kara finished.
"What do we do?"
"We can do what we want. We have the power." Kara answered. "We can stop them from hurting themselves. We can control the destiny of this world."
"Or, you know, we could not sound like B-Grade supervillains?" Lori smiled at her mother. "We can't do this alone. We can't fight all their battles for them. You taught me that. We can't push back rising tides. I can't fight against super-storms."
"You tried, didn't you?" Kara smiled affectionately.
"Yeah, I gave a super-storm such a punching."
"What would you do?" Kara asked after a few moments.
"I think…could we talk to them?"
"I'm not one of them, Lori. No matter what I say, I will always be an outsider to them."
"I'm one of them." Lori answered, looking down at the planet below. "I can tell them what I see."
They called an address at the United Nations. Between the League and their secret identities, they had the influence. Lori stood above them all, looking out at the world leaders that had congregated to hear her speak.
"I am a child of two worlds. I was born on this world, but my mother is a refugee from another. That world is gone. They are gone because their narrow-minded leaders fought against the truth. We cannot allow our world to go the same way. Intelligent people are telling us that our days are numbered. And I wanted to speak to you today to tell you I can see it. When I look at the Earth I can see that we don't have long."
Lori looked out across the audience. Her parents sat in front of her, Kara clad as Supergirl and Lena in a power suit. Heroes were scattered across the audience, some in costume, others as their civilian selves.
"We are out of time. There is no more time for cruelty, for greed, for self-interest to rule us. There is no more time to waste listening to the loud voices of the ignorant. There is no more time to fight each other. There is a better fight. A fight for our survival. I can't do it alone, but I can help. I believe all of us, together, can still save our world."
Lori was met to thunderous applause.
"Well Oliver?" Kara asked once the speeches were through and the audience had moved to mingle and discuss ideas.
"A bit preachy." The archer deadpanned.
"Supergirl. President Luthor." Laurel smiled as she walked up to them. "I hope you don't mind my saying, but that girl of yours just made you both look like mere mortals."
"Thank you, Madam Attorney General." Supergirl grinned.
"Your husband thought it was a little preachy." Lena smiled as she shook Laurel's hand.
"No, he didn't." Laurel threw Oliver a wicked look. "I was watching him. I saw his cynicism crack at least twice."
"Shall we get to work then?" Lena asked them all, and the quartet smiled, none of them seeing Lori looking on in triumph.
XXX
"Why so glum? Bollocks to the Super Regime. She takes an eternal power nap and you get to put the world back to the way it was. Got what you wanted. We won."
"There are no winners here." Alex sighed, staring into the night sky. "This hurts everyone."
Supergirl was in a magical coma. Dreaming of a better life Constantine had promised. The spell he had used would keep Supergirl asleep and dreaming of the perfect life, forever. Not even a 5th Dimensional being like Mxyzptlk could pull her out of it. The war was almost won. Alex couldn't help but to wonder what exactly Supergirl was dreaming about, she supposed that seeing the dream might tell her if Kara was still in there somewhere. There was equal chance though, Alex feared, that Supergirl was dreaming about world domination as there was of her dreaming about a time before National City.
"I didn't have you pegged as a pessimist, Danvers." Constantine spoke through a breath of smoke.
"And you think you're an optimist?"
"Not at all, love. You and me…we're a lot more alike than you want to admit…trust issues, conniving bastards…smartest ones in the room. It's like looking into a mirror. Except for my family jewels, and my charm, and my wit, and my sense of humour…"
"And your chain smoking." Alex jabbed as she turned and headed back towards the entrance to their hideout. "And if you believe Supergirl is down for good, we're less alike than you think."
XXX
"Where is she?"
Kara turned to see Lena walking out onto the balcony of the penthouse, wrapped in a blanket that Eliza had knitted for them nearly 40 years ago. Even with her greying hair, and the wrinkles around her eyes, Kara thought that Lena was still the most beautiful creature she had ever encountered.
"Greenland," Kara answered as her wife came to her side, without hesitation she wrapped an arm around her Lena's waist. "Her and a team of scientists from around the world are literally cooling glaciers."
Lori was doing so much for the world, had become a better Supergirl than Kara herself had ever been. Sure, she had protected the world from monsters and apocalypses time and again, but Lori was truly saving the planet.
"Are you going to join her?"
"No, Lori can handle it," Kara looked up at the night sky. "It's going too quickly."
Lena looked across at her wife. "What is?"
"Everything," Kara closed her eyes. "I wish we had more days together."
Lena took Kara's hand a squeezed. "Is it the voices again?"
"Yes, they're at the edges. They're calling."
"It's okay. Block them out." Turning to face Kara, Lena reached up and cupped her face with both hands. "Stay with me, Danvers. We will have many more days."
As Kara reached in to take her wife in a kiss, something around her changed. The world seemed lighter, as if it were drifting away in some haze of weightlessness. She didn't make it to Lena's lips before everything shifted, her eyes drifting shut momentarily to blink and when they opened again—
"Kara?"
Stood over her, looking with nervous eyes, was Mon-El.
"Mon-El?"
The Daxamite breathed a sigh of relief and dropped his head for a moment. "Thank the Gods you're finally awake. We had no idea what kind of magic Alex used to do this to you." Mon-El took Kara's hand with his own. "Mxy managed to break the enchantment but it…it did something to him. He's gone."
Kara managed to push herself upright, her mind a cacophony of information. She knew where she was, who she was. She remembered Merlyn, and the bomb, losing Lena and National City. The other life, where Lena had lived, it was still rife in her memory, the images there but detail fuzzy, slipping away the more she thought on it.
"While I was asleep I had this dream," She began, swinging around and planting her feet on the floor. "It felt like more than a dream. It was so vivid, so real. Lena was alive. But it was more than that. None of this ever happened. No Merlyn. No bomb. No war. We lived together. Raised a family…grew old together. Everything was the way it was supposed to be." Kara hands dropped to the edge of the table as she felt a rage growing inside her, the heat burning in her eyes. "Now I wake up and she's gone. Taken from me all over again. And it hurts so much worse because now I know what I missed."
"We all dream, Kara," Mon-El spoke. "But this is our reality."
Kara snarled. "I want Alex found. Now."