agentcorp : someone put a spell on Lena, and not in a good way, the Danvers to the rescue!
a/n : Another AgentCorp AU, horror this time (I hope) I got the idea in my head and I just couldn't let go of.
agentcorp : love spell
by XavAcid
"Lena, are you alright?"
Kara frowned at the dark shadow over her friend's face, her normally pale skin, with flawless makeup seems darker, somehow. She'd never seen her friend like this before, even at the end of her very, very long day when her makeup faded and her exhaustion showed, Kara had seen her on some of those days, and still Lena didn't look like she did now.
Physically, there was no different from her normal look, really, but it was the feel of it. Like there was a dark cloud following her friend around, casting shadow over her. And that was not normal, at all. with a start Kara realized that her friend looked worsened overtime and she didn't notice until now. And she was distracted, so much so that even Jess mentioned it to her, it was something that never happened before.
Lena was nothing if not focused on her work. Her being distracted from her work was very much unthinkable.
"I don't know." The answer came in a shaky voice, definitely not something she'd ever heard from her friend. "Kara," pale green eyes rapidly filled with tears, her voice sounded halting, and strangled. "Help me, please."
It was a typical Wednesday, and Kara made her way over to L-Corp building for her weekly lunch with her best friend, L-Corp's CEO, Lena Luthor.
The blonde reporter hummed happily and nodded at the security guard who waved her through. She practically skipped to the elevator, which was conveniently there for her to get on without having to wait. She'd been a bit busy last week, they had to forego their usual get together, and she kind of missed her friend. Lena was always so busy: so it meant a lot to her that she would carved out some time for them to see each other.
She'd picked up some grilled salmon and salad with kale smoothie for the CEO, despite the fact that she just wanted to grab some chocolate milkshake for her for a change. Someday. Someday she was going to get her friend to eat waffles for dinner with a chocolate milkshake chaser.
The elevator was quick and smooth, before she knew it, she arrived at the top floor. The doors slide open with barely a sound. She could see Jess staring at her monitor intendly, a frown marred her face.
Uh-oh, was there some kind of emergency?
Jess was as unflappable, almost as unflappable as her boss, which was probably why she'd survived the move across the country when Lena relocated and came to National City to save her family's company. Kara had seen her handle some very enrage businessmen, and investors with nary a twitch of her eyebrow. So for her to frown like this, it had to be serious. Immediately, Kara was concerned, because it had to be about Lena.
"Is everything alright?" Kara asked even before she said hi.
Jess's head snapped up from where she was staring, this was even more concerning that she didn't realize someone was there.
"Kara, hi."
"Hi, is everything alright with Lena? You looked very stressed."
"Yes- no… I don't know." She sounded very confused, and very frustrated.
"Is she busy?"
"No, she's not busy."
"Oh, is she not feeling well?" Now Kara was alarmed. Lena hardly ever got sick, but when she was, she refused to rest and prefered to just work through whatever it was that had struck. Something that exasperated Kara, and she knew Jess felt the same way.
"She's… she's fine."
Now, Kara was frowning right along with her.
"It's probably stress. She's dealing with several projects right now." Sounded like Jess was trying to convince herself of it. "You can go in, Kara." And she smiled in thanks when Kara put down a paper bag that sported the logo of her favorite sandwich shop.
With one last concerned look, Kara headed for the closed door of her friend's office.
"Lena?"
Carefully, the blonde reporter called out her friend's name as she gently closed the door. The office was as brightly lit as ever, with the wall facing outward made up entirely with glass.
Lena Luthor was at her desk, hair tied up in a ponytail, her makeup immaculate as always, her head bent over the keyboard, but she wasn't typing, it seemed she was only staring at whatever was on the screen. So far she hadn't even noticed that someone had entered her space. Her head snapped up as if she suddenly woke from sleep.
"Kara, hi!"
"I brought you lunch!" Kara held the bags aloft so she could see it. "And a smoothie," she added and turned her hand to show another bag from a different shop, heading toward the couch. They really needed to get a table for the balcony outside for a day like this.
"Kara, you really didn't need to do that." Lena came toward the couch where her friend started to set up their lunch. "I could've had Jess order something."
"Nah," the reporter waved her comment away. "I have the time, and if I let you order, it'd be all kale." She teased.
Lena giggled and accepted her own lunch.
They settled into the meal and chatted about their week, and respective works.
Kara kept a close eye on her friend, and noticed the way she would lose her train of thoughts and vague on the details. Now, being vague on the details wasn't something to be concerned about for Kara, since some of the projects and things that Lena worked on were on the need to know, and a lot of time, the reporter didn't really need to know about all of that, but this wasn't like those times. This sounded like Lena couldn't remember things, which was not normal. Her friend was a genius, certified, her memories were impeccable.
"Lena, are you alright?" Kara was more than concerned now, her friend had never been distracted this badly, even when she was in the middle of the busiest time with investors and head of departments and whatnot vying for her attention, all at the same time. Lena had always dealt with those with such efficiency that Kara was often envious of those abilities.
And the shadow that seemed to shrout her, like something invisible cast over her counternant, pressing, and uncomfortable. She could feel a sort of chill down her spine, and a few times she thought she saw something in her peripheral, but when she actually looked at it, it was nothing. It was like something was watching them.
Lena usually had this healthy glow about her, but that was all absent. Now she was just pale. She also felt - heavy. Like she'd swollen up, not like she gained weight, it was a weird thing, to be seeing one thing and felt something else at the same time, like a double vision.
"Are you sick? Jess was looking worried when I came in, have you been to the doctor?"
Lena paused to put down her salad and took a breath, her pale eyes flicked up, and Kara had a sudden vision of dark, deep eyes and another face superimposed on her. She squeaked and reared back, nearly upending the remainder of their lunch.
"Kara?"
"Lena…" She'd put it together in her head in that moment. She thought she knew what was going on, or rather had an idea, there was only one person she knew that could confirm it. But how was she going to tell her friend this. But first, she had to tell her friend what she just saw. The growing horror on Lena Luthor's face would've been a little comical had it been under other circumstances. But Kara wasn't laughing, wasn't making it out to be some sort of hallucination. "Please, talk to me. Maybe I can help." The reporter took her hands in hers and squeezed gently to reassure her.
After a few moments of hesitation, Lena started telling her what had been going on, what she could see and feel, mostly, some of the things she could not articulate, frustratingly so. She also found that her memories around this were spotty and filled with holes. That she found herself blanked out at times. And nightmares, oh the nightmares. She couldn't make sense of it, and that added even more confusion and fear on top of everything else.
Now the reporter was even more certain that it was not a medical problem, not that it sounded like one before. But after listening to all that was going on with her friend she knew that no doctor would be able to help. But she knew someone who could, and would definitely help.
"Help me, please." Lena pled, her pale green eyes near colorless, and teary. "I don't know what to do."
"I'm gonna call Alex, ok?" She said, finally, after a few moments of holding her friend and assured her that she would do everything she could.
"What is Alex gonna do?" She asked worriedly. "Kara, I don't want anyone else to know. What if I'm going crazy."
"Trust me, Alex is gonna be able to help. This is what she does."
While Lena was beyond skeptical, she did trust her friend. She also trusted Alex, but - she didn't even know what the redhead did for work. They always talked about what Lena did, her projects, and she always enjoyed having a discussion with her. The older Danvers was whip smart, and more knowledgeable than some of L-Corp scientists and researchers. She'd had thoughts about getting Alex to come work with her, a frequent notion whenever they got to talking about any current or past projects.
Lena felt a tinge of guilt now that she thought about how very little they ever talked about Alex's work, which was almost never. The older Danvers didn't seem to be bothered by it, and Lena was too ecstatic to get to talk about her work with someone to even stop herself.
Most people just could not keep up with her, or sometimes their opinion would just go in the complete opposite direction without any ideas or knowledge to back it up, and most just wanted to know how much each piece of technology that came out of L-Corp would be worth.
Alex did none of those things, and oftentimes she would offer some other perspective that Lena could even use. And never once talked about profit, unlike some other people in her circle, profits were all they thought about. There were even times that they tried to get to her for some payout even when they contributed nothing.
Lena vaguely registered her best friend talking to her older sister over the phone. Kara's voice climbed several octaves, and the pure worry in her voice comforted her. At least someone didn't think she was going crazy, even if Lena herself started to think so.
Alex was spending her afternoon working on some of her personal projects, she happened to get caught up with all her other work so she got some free time to spend translating some ancient text.
An obnoxiously cheerful ringtone broke her concentration, with a sigh, Alex reached for her phone, she didn't need to look to know who was calling. Kara'd changed her ringtone again. She made a mental note to change her little sister ringtone to something else; like Pennywise laughing or something. She really loved Kara, adored her baby sister, but that puppy frolicking in the green pasture personality really annoyed her sometimes.
"Alex!"
"Kar… easy on the ear."
"Sorry, but we need your help."
"Sure, what is it? Is everything alright? And who is this 'we'?"
"It's Lena, something is wrong."
"Kara, you know what I do-"
"Yes, that's why we need your help," her sister sounded very distressed. And Alex wasn't going to dismiss it out of hand, even though she couldn't imagine what kind of emergency that could possibly need her type of help. Lena had been friends with her little sister for several years now, and Alex was also her friend by proxy, but they weren't that close, Alex'd like to think that they had a sort of mutual respect going on, seeing how their respective jobs were practically on the opposite sides of the spectrum.
L-Corp was in the business of technology, after all.
And while her job did use technology, the core of it, however, was not something that most people would think could go together. Not that most people believed what she did even existed.
In anycase, Alex had never discussed what she did with Lena, they discussed technology, the current project of L-Corp and even Lena's own personal projects, but never really anything Alex did.
Who - in this day and age - was going to believe that she worked at the organization that dealt with the supernatural? Certainly not Lena Luthor who was so far ahead of the curve of technological advancement. After Alex assured Kara that she was on the way and for her little ray of sunshine to explain to her best friend the purpose of her being there. So there would be no surprise.
Well, not a big one anyway.
Alex grabbed what she thought she might need, and threw them all into her backpack. Some people had a go bag readied by the door for whenever they needed it. They could just grab and go at the moment notice. Alex preferred to pack for the occasions, that way she didn't have to carry a big bag that weighed her down.
Which was not conducive to expediency, she knew, but hers was the job that skills and natural abilities were more important than what tools or weapon she carried. Besides, if she needed something more serious, the back of her SUV had enough to open a hell mouth and summon something out of it.
And ten minutes later, she was out the door.
Twenty minutes later, Alex arrived at L-Corp and went directly to the top floor where the CEO office was located, having been allowed on the list of people that could come and go in the L-Corp building a long time ago. And she visited often enough that the security guards at the entrance were familiar enough with her. It really saved some time.
Alex always admired the building, it was one of the tallest buildings in the National City, and the view from the CEO's balcony was spectacular, as she'd witnessed several times. Too bad this wasn't a social call. She's always enjoyed spending time with the young CEO.
It didn't take her long at all to get to the top floor, the elevator ride was very quick and quiet, even without that annoying elevator music that usually masked the sound of mechanics. She was waived right into the office by Jess, in fact, Kara was already at the door, opening it for her. The security desk downstairs probably called up to let Jess know that she was on her way no doubt.
She sort of had an idea of what was going on, since Kara called her for help. She wondered briefly what her little sister told her best friend, though. But all thought of that left her head the moment she got close to the door. She could feel it radiating out like heat from the oven when you stand too close.
This was not good.
"Alex!" Her sister, ever the excited puppy.
"Hey," she accepted a hug, then looked over her shoulder to find a seated Lena Luthor.
Yeah, something most definitely not quite right, with the darkness shrouded over her like a heavy cloak, and tear stained face. So once she was let go of the bone crushing hug, she went right to her little sister's best friend. "Hi, Lena."
"Alex." The CEO's smile was worn, and she accepted the hug when it was offered, something she did not do with just everyone. "Thank you for coming."
"Of course," the older Danvers gave her a small, gentle smile as they moved into the room. "How are you?"
Nothing was forthcoming.
"Tell me." Alex urged gently, she took to kneeling in front of Lena who sank into the cushion tiredly, she looked up at her, making sure to catch her eyes and focus her attention.
"I…" The CEO took several deep breaths, it seemed to help her gather her thoughts. "I've been feeling a little off for weeks now. I - I thought that maybe I've been working too hard, but then, it's pretty normal." She laughed, it was a dark, wet sound. "Then it was worse, I - my attention was worn, I couldn't focus. And I started seeing things."
"What kind of things?"
"I thought I was just imagining it, then I was afraid I was losing my mind." Lena was close to tears as Alex had ever seen her, her voice halting, unsure. "There were flashes of something out of the corner of my eyes, but when I looked it was gone. I feel like someone was following me all the time, which isn't possible, I never went anywhere by myself, you know. And if the same person kept showing up my driver would've done something already." She swallowed hard. "And no one seemed to notice anything, so, I finally got a checkup, MRI, the works. Nothing's wrong, they can't find anything at all."
Kara moved close and wrapped an arm around her best friend for comfort. She knew how difficult it was for Lena, but she had to let her friend answer her sister's questions. This was what Alex did, she had to remind herself that her big sister knew what she was doing. But she wanted to help, somehow.
Alex placed a hand on her knee and gently squeezed to comfort, and encouraged her to keep going. Normally, the first thing she would do was to send whoever seeked her out to see a doctor, and then a psychiatrist, to rule out any other possible explanation. Same as when they seek exorcism. They had a short list of psychiatrists that worked with them, who would ask the right question to determine if any supernatural help would be needed, or what they suffered from was a variety of mental illness instead. But knowing Lena, she probably did all that already, and probably went through second and third opinions. She was most likely at her wits end, and scared out of her mind to even voice it to anyone. Anyone that was not Kara. It probably helped that Kara was very non judgemental.
And according to her baby sister, it was bad enough that even her assistant noticed. Besides, while Kara wasn't like her, she was still exposed to enough to know all the signs. Right place, right time, and right person, as they say. Which meant that Lena still had luck on her side.
"Then the voice, it kept telling me something, but I couldn't understand it."
"Just one voice?" Alex wanted clarification.
"Yes, just one voice, it sounded like an old woman." Lena nodded. "Am I going crazy, Alex?"
"No, no you're not." Alex assured her before asking if there was anything else, and just as she expected, there were so much more, and it took her asking a few pointed questions for Lena to recall them. They were such small things that normal people would never think twice.
Every little piece created a clearer picture, and she could make a more accurate assessment as to what was being done, and how she could help. Of course that did not mean she could just snap her fingers and make it all go away. And to help, all the dirty work still needed to be done. That was her least favorite part.
"And something else happened," it was a statement, and not a question.
Lena took a moment to breathe, and recalled what happened only the night before, at the time she tried to tell herself that she was half asleep and she was still dreaming. But with the assurance from the sisters, she was now certain that she wasn't dreaming.
"Last night, I woke up and there was someone on the bed with me." Kara held her tighter. "But I can't really tell who it was, it was like a dark outline, and eyes. They were red," Lena shuddered. "Looked like they were glowing. I thought I was dreaming."
Alex nodded, it was par for course for what she suspected was happening. Now she knew what needed to be done. And so, Alex laid out the rough plan for Lena's benefit, she knew the CEO would feel better if she knew what was coming next, and it also gave her the illusion of choice, though she didn't think it was working. The older Danvers stressed that it was best for them to start right away. Any delay could result in them not being able to find the source of her suffering.
"It can move?" Kara exclaimed. "You never told me that!"
"Yeah, it can, and I've told you about it before. You were just too freaked out to listen properly."
"Yeah, I was freaking out, those things are made from yucky stuff, Alex!"
"My sister, the reporter, and you write for a living." Alex rolled her eyes. "Yucky stuff!"
Lena had to smile at their interaction, it was her favorite thing, she loved how the two of them would bicker and play fighting, and sometimes they would include her in their roughhousing. The Danvers sisters could brighten her day without even trying. And this time their usual bicker helped lighten her mood. While she was still a little skeptical, she really did trust Alex Danvers.
"They can grow, too, if you leave them too long."
Kara nearly gagged at that one.
"But how is that possible?"
"That would take too long to explain," Alex held up a finger to stop her from arguing. "But I will try to explain it to you." Lena nodded her acquiescence, and when Alex's grip on her hand tightened, she smiled.
"Now, is there any important meeting that you can't miss?"
"Nothing that can't be canceled," Lena felt that it was coming, her work was never ending, and sometimes she just had to carve out some time if she needed time off. It was a good thing that Jess was the best assistant she ever had, and able to handle anything unexpected.
And nothing more unexpected than what was happening right now.
"Then you're gonna have to cancel the rest of the day, and possibly the rest of the week."
"Do you really need that long?" This time it was Kara with the question.
"Most likely, yes." Then she turned to Lena, who looked stricken. She'd heard about her work ethic, and she knew that it probably made her even more uneasy at the prospect of leaving it for that long. Now came to think of it, she didn't think Lena had a vacation that was longer than a long weekend - and only because someone had to make her - the entire time she'd known her. "We're gonna have to clear it out, and go through this place," she indicated to the office around them. "And your home as well."
"My home, too?" Lena asked in a small voice, she was a private person, and everyone knew this, with the exception of a few people, no one got to set foot in her home. Alex had been there once or twice in the entire time they knew each other. They mostly hung out at Kara's place anyway. She'd specifically bought and renovated the building so that she could be safe, but she'd never thought that there were any other way for people to get to her other than going through brick and mortar.
"Yeah, I know, I know, you value your privacy, but this is essential. It'll be just me, I promise." Alex gave her a crooked grin. "And I'll keep whatever I find to myself." She teased. "I won't even tell Kara."
Lena tried very hard not to blush at the implication, and rolled her eyes. She appreciated the attempt at levity on the older Danvers' part. And before she could say anything else back, Alex continued on.
"And you remembered that time we found a human size clay figure of a woman with all the makeup in someone's ceiling. It just appeared, you remember that?" She said to her little sister. "They went over everything and couldn't find anything, until it just showed up one day."
"Oh…. yeah."
Lena just looked horrified.
Alex took the opportunity to search Lena's office, while the CEO went and talked to her assistant about her schedules. The older Danvers started at the usual places, bookshelves, corners of the room, underneath the couch they were sitting on, and Kara was there to lend a hand while she was at it.
"I'm gonna have to come back and do a more thorough search later, when there's no one else on this floor." Alex explained while running her hand over the spines of various books and folders on the shelves. They both knew that Lena was an avid reader, so the only surprising thing about her shelves was the fact that she didn't have more books on it.
At least the office was pretty open, she definitely was going to need several nights to search through the room anyway, clutters would just make it harder to find what they were looking for.
And on the outside of the CEO office, Jess was a little surprised that her boss came out after telling her to clear her afternoon right after Alex Danvers came to visit. And even more surprise when she was told that the CEO would also be unavailable for the rest of the week. That was entirely unheard of ever since Lena Luthor took over the helm of L-Corp she had never done that. It was difficult enough to get her to leave at the end of the day.
But Jess being a good assistant that she was, she quickly pulled up her boss' main schedule and set to emailing and texting all the appropriate parties that needed to know. She expected some complaints, but they always complained when they didn't get the appointment they wanted, or the time slot that they thought would be beneficial to whatever they were seeking Miss Luthor for.
Personally, Jess was itching to ask what was going on. She'd made all the doctor's appointments for her boss last week, and as far as she knew, or as far as an assistant get to know about her boss's personal details, there was nothing wrong. But something was wrong, she could see the stress manifested on Miss Luthor's face, like a personal dark cloud. And to be honest, there were several times over the past few weeks that she'd heard voices from the office behind closed doors, when she knew that there was no one there with her boss, at first she thought that maybe her boss was on the phone.
But she'd heard someone else's voice, though she couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, but when she entered the room - with Miss Luthor's permission, of course - there was no one else there. She thought maybe her ears were playing tricks on her, or she was on the phone too long and just imagining it. And perhaps, an appointment to an ear doctor was in order as well.
And now this, she was already worried, but now she was even more worried. How did she even ask without overstepping?
"Of course, Miss Luthor, will you be leaving the office, and should I call for Peter?" Peter was her regular driver.
"Not yet, I'll let you know." Lena gave a worn smile. "Thank you Jess."
"Of course, Miss Luthor."
At the same time inside the office, Alex started walking around the room, giving the place a once over, just for overview for right now. Her baby sister was practically attached to her.
Kara leaned over her big sister's shoulder to see what she was doing. She wanted to see, but not wanting to be too close in case whatever Alex was looking for was found. Especially when her sister mentioned that they could move. She kind of wanted to see it move, and yet not.
So far, Alex found nothing, and Kara said as much, right by her ear.
"It's not that easy, Kara." Alex reached back and pushed her little sister's face away with a finger to her forehead. "This is just a preliminary search, in case they are incompetence enough. I don't expect to find anything until I have the chance to do other things first."
"What other things?" Kara pouted and batted her sister's hand away.
"A ritual, to reveal whatever hid itself in the room, and keep it in place while we search."
Alex continued to look around, hand running over book spines and took note of all the titles. Mostly were expected, like Machiavelli's The Prince. Tolstoy's War and Peace, Gone with the Wind, the normal classic that she expected someone as well educated and well read like Lena would read, she decided that it would be really interesting to see Lena's private stash. And maybe gift her a set of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Kara continued to follow behind her sister and watched everything she did. She'd only ever heard about the things her big sister did, because they often unwinded together. At those times, Alex would tell her about the things she did, though Kara had no doubt that she'd toned down a lot of it, and omitted a lot of details, only because she figured that her sister would not be able to stomach more gruesome details.
And while those details would definitely freak her out, she wanted to hear them now. It was those things she heard from Alex over the years that she'd been able to deduce the reason her friend was feeling the way she was feeling. If she knew more, maybe she could help more people by recognizing the symptom for what it was.
She should've insisted on those photos and videos that Alex took during all those times. She wanted to be able to help her friend and not squicked out so much that she was useless. And if she had not known about all the things that go bump in the night, she couldn't even begin to imagine what was going to happen to Lena.
"Alex?" Did she really want to know?
"Yeah?"
Her sister was pulling random things off of the shelves, and so far they didn't see anything out of ordinary.
"What do you think was done to her?"
"Can't say yet."
"But you have an idea, right?"
"Yeah, several, actually."
"Like what?"
"Could be love spell, but even that has a variety of things that they could do or use. Also something to control her, like a puppet, something sent to kill her. The list could go on and on."
Kara was even more horrified. Who would do that to Lena.
"The list of people who were competent at it was not very long, so, if all else fails, we can certainly go after those people." Then she paused as if she thought about something else.
"What?"
Just when Alex was about to answer, Lena came back into her office. She was frowning.
"Is everything alright?" Kara immediately asked her friend.
"Yeah, I just realized how much work will be waiting after this." She paused, "if there is an after."
"There will be." Kara exclaimed with the biggest hug she could give. "We won't let it be otherwise." She was so firm about it, so convinced that Lena felt better just hearing that. Of course, that was probably partly because Kara's belief in her big sister was also unshakable. The CEO had heard numerous times before, how great Alex was, how smart, how she could fix anything, so much so that Lena believed it, too.
So, when she looked over to Alex and received a small, assuring smile in return. She felt tears pricking the back of her eyes. "It's such a silly thing to be worried about right now." She murmured over her best friend's shoulder, then pulled away to wipe the tear that was about to fall.
Then she was surprised when only a moment later she was pulled into another pair of warm arms. It was Alex. Then Kara glommed onto the both of them, Lena let out an embarrassing squeak as the air left her lungs. Oh but she was so, so glad for them.
a/n : So, how's everyone doing? I hope you are all staying safe and healthy. I've been watching a few too many horrors lately, and this idea came to me and I just couldn't let go, so I've been working on this. Something a bit different, I think. Poor Lena couldn't catch a break with me, first arranged marriage, and now... Anyway, I hope someone enjoys it at least. Thank you for reading, all the favs and comments are very, very much appreciated.