Lena almost sleeps over at Lillian but something, common sense most likely, tells her she shouldn't. Instead, she gets back into her ludicrous sport car, the passenger seat now covered in dog hair, and drives home.
The city feels strange as she wads her way through traffic, the atmosphere is tense, charged somehow. She keeps on getting bypassed by speeding ambulances and in the distance is a thick plume of smoke, dark grey and ominous. She's vaguely aware of the fact that she should be worried, there's probably been an explosion, and the sirens around her don't bode well for the number of casualties ; but she's too tired to give it much thought and anyway, Kara must already be taking care of it.
Her phone, abandoned in the cup holder next to her, lights up with an incoming text and she briefly glances at it, eyes leaving the road for a fraction of second. She's at a red light anyway, it's not like it's really dangerous.
It's from Alex again, but the message cuts off halfway. Stop watching the news. Get to...
There are several other notifications, thirteen calls Lena must have missed while she was having tea with her mother, and too many texts for her to believe the number she's seeing. Someone honks behind her, and putting the car into gear again, making her way through the dense traffic, she grabs her phone and unlocks it, keeping one eye on the road.
LENA PICK UP
Is your phone off ?
LENA
Why is your tracker off ?
She scoffs at that one, the answer is so evident that she's not even going to relay it to Alex. Most of the texts seem to be from her and Lena is forced to admit this might mean that something truly requires her attention. With her luck, it's probably even related to Lex. Perfect, exactly the way she wanted to spend her evening.
She goes to call Alex back, her thumb struggling a little on the slick screen as she drives through an intersection, when the screen goes black. Swearing loudly, she fumbles to turn it back on, and with the kind of horror one only feels once in one's life, most often when death is imminent, she simultaneously realises that her battery has just died, and she's veered into oncoming traffic.
What she needs to do is crystal clear. She needs to shift gear, steer to the right and calm the fuck down. What she does is scream, freeze and hit the brakes ; all in all not the cleverest thing she's ever done, and also the last thing she will ever do.
The collision comes much sooner than she expected, and definitely not with a car ; she hits a body. A tall strong unbreakable body clad head to toe in a skintight black suit, a heavy cape streaked with dark purple billowing behind her. What a heavenly sight to welcome her into hell.
The car is sent spiralling away and out of some freakish miracle doesn't hit anything on its way out of the four lanes avenue. Heart pounding in her chest, breathing laboured, eyes wide open and tearful, Lena finds herself neatly parked in the single free spot for miles on. The car barely has a scratch on it.
The door is ripped open before she can get her bearings and Kara appears before her, a snarls on her lips. "Well now I understand why you've got an army of drivers on call."
"Kara ?"
Kara arches a high eyebrow, cocks her head to the side, her features hardened by the metal piece that rises from her suit to protect her jaw and the back of her neck. "Who else ?"
That simple question seems strangely multi-layered but before Lena can really ponder over it, still reeling from her near death experience, Kara has thrown her over her shoulder and is carrying her away from the car. Her hold is not tender, she's grasping onto her much too tight and Lena can already feel bruises forming around her waist where her body has made contact with Kara's. At least she's not dead, but the coldness emanating from Kara doesn't feel far from it.
They're at the apartment in a flash, too quickly for Lena's brain to process and she finds herself standing in the middle of her dark living room, the only source of light a ray of moon cutting a clean line up to her feet. Kara stands away from her, tensed like a predator. Krypto comes bouncing out of her office but at the sight of her he freezes and changes course to come hide behind Lena's legs, whimpering in fear.
"Kara ?"
Kara sighs, long and exasperated. "Yes. That's my name."
"What's going on ?"
"I saved you from a car accident," Kara replies, looking around with an air of disinterest. She stands in the shadow, but half of her face falls on the side of that single ray of moonlight, creating a jarring contrast on her hard features.
"That's not what I'm asking," Lena says, struggling to keep her tone even. She feels the need to back away, but instead takes two steps forward in a show of trust. "Why are you here ?"
Kara's whole demeanour shifts in the blink of an eye. She seems to melt, her features twisting in pain until she's smiling sadly, tears glistening in her eyes. "Because I love you," she whispers, "and it's what I have to do to keep you alive."
She twists again, her hand slamming hard at the base of her neck like she's trying to squash a bug that would have landed there. She doesn't look sad anymore, but emotionless and unnaturally immobile. It reminds Lena of something, but what exactly evades her and so instead of dwelling on it, she focuses on the more pressing matter. Kara absolutely cannot stay here, because if Lex finds out, they're both doomed.
"You can't be here," she says a bit sharply but not enough that she truly sounds angry. Her willingness to push Kara away is dwindling the more time she spends in her presence. She doesn't want to hurt her again but knows she will have to if Kara doesn't leave on her own.
"I know what you did," Kara says flatly. "You don't have to pretend anymore Lena, I know you love me."
"I-" Lena's heart drops to the bottom of her stomach. She takes another three steps forward ; Kara remains completely still.
"Lex told me. Funny, don't you think, how out of the two of you, he's the honest one ?"
"Lex told you ?" Throwing carefulness to the wind, Lena breaches the last of the distance between them, rushing the last couple of steps until Kara and her are standing chest to chest, the crest on Kara's strange new suit silvery and green. "How did he find you ? Kara please tell me, I need to get you somewhere safe if he finds you here he'll-"
"He whispered it," Kara interrupts in a murmur, tapping lightly on the side of her head, "in my ear."
Lena can barely think, her heart too panicked and too loud. Lex found Kara, Lex was near Kara ; Kara isn't safe anymore.
She takes a step back. Reaches for her phone in her pocket but it's not there and she can clearly picture leaving it behind in the car with a dead battery. "I need to call your sister," she whispers in horror. "We need to get you somewhere safe. We need to-"
"But I am safe," Kara says, finally taking a minute step forward to frame her face in her hands. "I'm with you. I know you can protect me. Can't you ? Can't you protect me Lena ?"
"I- I can," Lena stammers. "I can protect you. I promise I'll do anything to protect you. I'll keep you safe and I'm so so sorry for what I did to you but Kara we're not safe here, we need to go. Get to Alex."
Kara blinks. "Alex ?"
"Yes, Alex," Lena says, repeating the name. "I need your phone. Where's your phone ?"
She tries to step away, no matter how good Kara's hands feel on her face, they can't linger here. But as she tries to do so, she finds herself unable to move, head trapped in Kara's powerful grip. Kara goes rigid again, and her hold tightens to the point that it hurts. She starts leaning in, Lena tries to lean back, and in the motion, Kara's full face falls into the light and she finally gets a good look at her, at her blue eyes reflecting the moon.
But these are not Kara's eyes.
Lena strokes her cheek once, her fingers catching on the metal guard, then wrangles herself away from Kara's grip and takes several steps back. The blue orbs staring back at her are dull, lifeless, a pitiful imitation that Lena has seen only once and that has plagued her dreams ever since.
"What did he do to you ? Kara, what did he do to you ?"
Kara sighs, but Lena sees now it's not of her own accord. "Lena," she says, voice cold and robotic. "Lena. Why do you always have to complicate everything ?" Kara's body moves to her in a flash, a hand grips tight around her throat. "Now be a good girl, and don't make a fuss."
It might be Lex piloting Kara's body right now, but it's still her muscles, her superhuman strength, and nothing can stop Lena from being thrown like a rag by the arm she designed herself. She remains relatively stoic as she flies through the room, wondering where she's going to land, but she can't hold back a pathetic grunt when her head collides hard with the edge of the countertop. She's definitely getting a concussion from this one.
Kara, real Kara, seems to resurfaces for a second, real fear and concern appearing on her face ; but just as Lena, dizzy and slow from the blow, thinks there's an in to bring her back, she shuts down. She freezes again, head hung low, and she starts swaying dangerously. Lena scrambles up to catch her but Kara is quicker and she rights herself with a wide grin.
"You said you wouldn't harm her," she spits, struggling to hear herself over the loud ringing in her ears. Like Kara, she sways precariously on her feet, but she doesn't right herself with as much robotic grace and ends up on her hands and knees on the cold floor.
Lex laughs through Kara's mouth. "I made no such promises. Well I might have implied that I wouldn't kill her, and technically she's not dead, but please, feel free to misbehave so I can reconsider this."
"Please..."
"Don't beg. It's unbecoming."
Kara's body starts pacing the room. Frightened again, Krypto comes glue himself in front of Lena, pressing his warm body against hers until she manages to sit in a less awkward position.
"You have no leverage, nothing you can give to me that I can't get myself. This," Kara's voice says, "is just fun. I could have her jump out the window-"
"She can fly," Lena cuts half-heartedly.
"Not if I don't want her to." Kara's head inclines to the side. "I could have her hurt you, that would be interesting. Would teach you a nice lesson about frolicking with Kryptonians. If you survive the game of course."
"Please..." Lena murmurs again. "Kara please. I know you're in there." Leaning heavily on her dog, ears still ringing and vision still spinning, Lena struggles to her feet. "Please Kara. It's your body. Your mind. You're in charge."
"She's really not."
"Please Kara. Think about us. We were going to get married. Remember ?" She extends her right hand, bringing the ring into view. "Look. I found your ring Kara."
"Gross."
"Think about our family then. Sam. Ruby. Alex."
This time, something flickers on Kara's face. Something real. A brief glimmer lightens in her eyes and Lena dares to hope.
"Alex ?"
"Yes Alex," she presses on. "Come on Kara, please." Feet unsteady, Lena takes a couple of steps towards her. "It's going to be okay. I promise. Everything is going to be okay."
Behind her the door bangs open and she doesn't need to turn around to know who just barged in ; she recognises the voice just fine.
"Get away from her," Alex barks, "now !"
Dozens of red dots outlined with green appear on Kara's chest and she looks down at them, confused.
At the sight, Lena whirls around, a fresh wave of nausea hitting her with the motion. "Alex don't," she says urgently, "she's not herself."
"I know. That's the problem."
There are tears in Alex's eyes, and fresh wet tracks streak the dust on her cheeks. Her helmet is askew on her head, night vision goggle resting on top of it and as DEO agents fill in the apartment, Lena notices a strange green glow to her and all of them ; Kryptonite.
"Alex don't. Please."
"Lena," Alex says slowly, "get away from her."
Lena doesn't. Defiantly, she turns away from the DEO and gets closer to Kara again, hands extended in plea.
"Kara. Please. Come back to me. Please."
Vision blurry, she blinks back tears, and in the fraction of second it takes her to do so, Kara has disappeared, leaving behind a trail of whimpering bodies.
Lena wakes up with the headache of the fucking century. A wave of nausea hits her as soon as she opens her eyes to a bright white room and she closes them again immediately with a groan. Someone, or something, hits her in the shoulder and she opens her eyes again, immediately pressing a hand to them so that she won't be blinded by this weird morning light. Since when is her room this fucking bright ?
"Hey. Hey ! No falling back asleep !"
Lena groans again, the sound reverberating in each and every one of her cell.
"Fuck."
"Try not to move too much, you've got a concussion."
Her ears are ringing, distorting the voice that she thinks might come from quite close to her. She feels like this has been going on for hours.
"What happened ?"
"Fuck," the person mumbles, "I thought you would remember by now." They sound weary, and their voice strangled, a bit like they've been crying for however long Lena has been out.
"Who's talking ?" she snaps to the best of her abilities, which is to say she sounds like a wet kitten trying to play tiger.
"Alex."
Good. That's good. Lena knows an Alex.
"What happened Alex ?"
Alex sighs, and, frustrated, Lena removes the hand that shields her eyes and forces herself to get accustomed to the bright light. White spots dance in her blurry vision but she can at least make out where she is ; the DEO's med bay. She remembers leaving Lillian's home and getting into her car. There were sirens at some point, screeching tires. She remembers hitting the brakes.
"Did I get into a car crash ?" she asks.
"Not exactly," Alex mumbles. "You- Lex-"
Lena snorts, which sends a jolt of pain through her entire body. Fuck. "Lex gave me a concussion ? How fucking typical of him."
"No. Well, not exactly he-" Alex marks a pause then rushes her next few words out at such speed that Lena has to think long and hard about them before she can understand any of it. "He- We think he took control of Kara somehow and she slammed you into a kitchen counter and then disappeared we have no idea where she is and also she wrecked havoc downtown and I almost shot her."
Silence stretches on and on and on to the point of suffocation while Lena processes what she just heard.
Lex has Kara.
She saw Kara and doesn't remember it.
"I'm going to kill him," she whispers, pushing away the pounding in her head in favour of sitting up.
Alex immediately puts a hand on her shoulder to gently push her back against the pillow but Lena shrugs her off with surprising dexterity for someone who still can't see clearly and she swings her legs from underneath the blanket so she can sit on the edge of the bed. To add insult to injury, she instantly pitches forward pathetically and as to rely on Alex to return to her initial lying position.
"I'm going to kill Lex."
"Okay," Alex says, softly brushing a couple of strands away from her sweaty forehead. "Okay. But after you've rested a while, alright ? I won't lose both sisters in one go."
That last part is said in a distressing whisper and Lena blindly feels for Alex's hand until she can squeeze it weakly. "We're not going to lose her," she says. "We can't."
They both know these are empty words, but Alex humours her anyway.
"Brainy is trying to track her but we haven't had much luck so far."
"She's probably offline," Lena says, cringing at her choice of words. "Tell him to use her radiation signature," she continues, closing her eyes to remove one sensory input and focus better. "There aren't that many Kryptonians on Earth and it'll be easy to set her apart from Superman and Sam. If all else fails, maybe I can try reaching her arm remotely."
"I'll let him know. That's a better idea than what we were going with."
"I'm smart," Lena mumbles.
Alex chuckles. Or sobs. With her eyes closed, Lena can't be sure.
"I know you are. Sleep now. I'll wake you up in two hours."
"We're going to find her, right ?" Lena asks, annoyed by the deep fatigue tugging at her already low levels of consciousness. "Right ? We're going to find her ?"
"I'm not stopping until we do," Alex promises fiercely. "I'm not losing my sister again."
Lena can hear the tears in her voice but doesn't mention it. If she points out Alex's distress, she's going to start crying too, and that'll get them nowhere. Instead, she agrees to succumb to sleep for the next two hours, hoping she'll have a clearer mind when she wakes up next.
Alex doesn't sleep at all that night. Lena knows it because she's here to nudge her awake every couple of hours and every time, the shadows under her eyes are darker to the point that comes morning, her eyes have turned into two gloomy windows into hell. With a full check up and about a thousand questions, Lena is finally allowed up, and after boosting herself with two pain killers and a gigantic cup of coffee she strolls out of the med bay in yesterday's clothes ready to do whatever it takes. Or fuck shit up ; maybe they're the same thing at this point.
She's surprised at first that she's not completely paralysed by panic, but much like Alex she seems to have flown straight past anguish to land into a more useful frantic state, one that allows her to keep acting and thinking, maybe because her body knows that if it stops moving, it'll collapse definitely.
And Alex and her aren't the only one. The entire DEO is brimming with agitation, agents running up and down the stairs, tactical teams ready to depart at a moment's notice, technical support bleary eyed in front of dozens of screens turned to maximum brightness. J'onn is overseeing this semi-organised chaos from a post high above on the balcony but when Lena catches his eyes he looks tired, defeated almost. Sam makes a beeline for her but she manages to avoid her overbearing concern by keeping on course to Brainy who startles at her sudden appearance.
"Have you found her yet ?" she asks with no preamble and no concern over how rude she sounds.
Thankfully, Brainy doesn't take offence, simply turns his screen towards her and continues working without even lifting his head."No," he says, "Lex seems to be masking her signature. I will need to know what alloy you used for her prosthetic."
"It's Nth metal. But everything is Nth metal these days, so that won't help."
"Indeed," Brainy muses, "it will not."
Lena combs her hand through her hair. Somehow, in between the med bay and Brainy's desk, most of her ponytail has already come undone. Nia, who's tentatively napping in a desk chair, opens an eye and throws an elastic band her way. It flutters pathetically to her feet, but after picking it up and dusting it carefully, Lena puts it in her hair anyway, doubly securing a tight bun to get all the strands out of the way. With no prompting and the dexterity of a mother, Sam holds everything together for her so she doesn't have to put the foreign elastic in her mouth for lack of a third hand.
"I should have made her wireless," Lena whispers when everything has been tucked back into place. She feels a sad smile stretch her lips as she says so and both Sam and Alex eye her curiously. "She made a joke about it," she explains, looking away, "and I said I wouldn't do it because it was dangerous. Well, look where it landed us."
"You couldn't have known," Sam says gently, laying a soft hand on her shoulder that Lena immediately shrugs off.
"But I should have prepared for it anyway. That's how we can beat Lex, by always being one step ahead. Right now, he's outrunning us. And he's outrunning us with Kara."
"This is on all of us," Alex says grimly. "I let him get to her too."
"We're going to get her back," Sam promises, "I know we are."
She kisses the side of Alex's head and Alex nestles into her, sighing minutely when Sam wraps her arms tight around her. Lena averts her eyes, feeling like she's just witnessed a moment far more intimate than it appears. The way they fit together reminds her too much of Kara and her. Of Kara and her before. Before she caused all of this to happen by pilling stupid action over stupid action. No matter what the others say, she's solely responsible here ; she's the one who let Lex get to her, not them, and she's lost Kara as a result.
"There's a tracker in her arm," Lena says loudly, too loudly perhaps, squashing down every ounce of pesky feeling, "I wouldn't be surprised if Lex is also jamming it, but fortunately, I have my ways." She pauses, taking note of the way everyone, including a couple of agents, has stopped working to listen to her. "We'll need to get back to my apartment because I took everything offline, but we might be able to find her that way."
"I'll go," Sam offers. "What do you need ?"
"My laptop. The black one not the other. And the blue hard drive. It should be in the only unmarked box under my work bench."
"Is that all ?" Sam asks, brow furrowed in concentration as she tries to remember all of the instructions.
"Tell Krypto I'll be back soon ? Make sure he has some food and let him out onto the balcony ?"
"Okay," Sam says, a soft smile lighting her tired face, "I'll be back in a flash." She kisses Alex's cheek again, closer to the mouth this time, and as fast as promised, she disappears.
"Did you keep the android Mercy used to attack us ?" Lena asks, turning to Alex as soon as Sam is out of earshot.
"Yeah. I mean, whatever was left of it is stored downstairs but-"
"Great. I need to build an armour." Alex opens her mouth to interrupt, but Lena doesn't let her say one word. "Last time, Kara almost took out Sam and J'onn. We need back up."
"And you intend on being the backup ?" Alex asks slowly.
"Do you know how to operate the Lexosuit ?"
"Well no but-" Alex starts, eyebrows knitted in a way that isn't unlike Sam and that hurts a little.
"Then yes," Lena snaps, "I'm the backup."
Lena is elbow deep in grease by the time Sam comes back with her laptop, the hard drive, and Krypto ("You should have seen his cute little face when I tried to leave Lena !"). She hands everything necessary to the search to Brainy, and for the next hour or so, delights in the simple work of deboning a war machine to turn it into another war machine, Krypto dozing at her feet. While Brainy searches for any trace of Kara and Nia dreams for any hint of her, Lena works on taking her down.
Noise, worries, everything recedes to the background as she falls into her work, plying, cutting, rewiring, and gaining along the way numerous cuts and bruises that will heal nastily. The taxing work doesn't allow much room for her mind to wander and for the time it takes her to make a rudimentary exoskeleton completed with military grade boosters and a semi-functioning AI interface, she manages not to think about Kara. Her hands busy, her mind manages to free itself from its tether to her and Lena successfully completes her task without acknowledging that she's going to have to hurt the love of her life.
When she finishes the suit and Brainy is still navigating through her files, she sands down the atrocious green and purple highlights, leaving the armoured parts a nice silvery black. Lex is a piece of shit, but his metal is top quality, she'll give him that. The suit fits her like a glove, meaning that if she does survive this but L-Corp goes down, she'll at least be able to branch out into armour designs. She takes a minute to test everything, hovering above the ground with the aid of the boosters under her feet and using the ones on her palms to blast a hole the size of her head in the far wall of the laboratory. There's no Kryptonite in the suit, this, she couldn't bring herself to do ; but it should be enough to keep Kara at bay, a concern that rockets to the top of her list in the blink of an eye.
Because Kara is here.
She appears in a blur, before Brainy can find her, before Sam can talk Lena out of suiting up, before any of them is ready really. She just appears there, in the middle of the DEO, frozen and robotic, frightening. She's there, and they don't have the hint of the beginning of a plan as to how to stop her.
"Don't be afraid," Kara's voice says mechanically, "I just came by to talk. You have something of mine that I would like to get back." Slowly, her body revolves on itself and her eyes scan the room inquisitively, stopping only when they come upon Lena. "Ah. There she is."
Lena focuses on these eyes, because they're not Kara's and if they're not Kara's then that means she can forgets it's her long enough to do what she has to do.
"We're not letting you take her," Alex says, jumping in between them. She doesn't unsheathe her gun, but her hand hovers over it with intention.
Kara's voice scoffs stiffly. "If you could refrain from blabbering on idiotically I would be most grateful. You can't stop me, I'm taking her."
There's not much more warning before Kara's body launches at her.
Alex side steps her out of pure instinct ; Lena is not as well trained. Part of her thinks Kara will take over and stop because this is how true love works, right ? Part of her is simply rooted to the spot in fear, and she owes her life to Sam's superhuman reflexes and her complete lack of hesitation when it comes to slamming into Kara's body sending the two of them tumbling and crashing into a wide square pillar. A shower of concrete falls on the room and Lena protects her head out of habit, raising her arms over it before she remembers her helmet.
Silence follows. To Lena it stretches on indefinitely but it can't be more than a mere second before Kara's body is on its feet again and aiming for her. Somewhere in the large room someone regains enough of their bearing to start shooting at Kara, the regular bullets not enough to harm her but the noise sufficient to alert Lena to the fact that she should perhaps get out of the way.
A Kryptonite pellet joins in and hits Kara's shoulder with enough strength to briefly unbalance her body. Her eyes glance down at it like it's nothing but an inconvenience and her hand rises rigidly to brush it off. "Well, that's not very nice," her voice says.
"We don't want to hurt you," Alex says, gun still sheathed at her side, hands raised in appeasement.
"You don't ? Well I'm going to have to make you want to then."
Bursts of heat leave Kara's eyes, scuffing Alex's hair just over her shoulder.
Kara's head incline minutely to the side, another smile stretching her lips beyond reason. "Do you want to hurt me now ?"
The answer comes in the form of what Lena can only describe as a roar, seconds before Sam jumps on Kara's back, her brute strength momentarily pinning her body to the ground. Sam is nothing but a fly to Kara's cybernetic strength and she's thrown off with less concern than Kara would usually show for the annoying insect. Sam lands at a gaggle of agents' feet who on reflex train their guns on her before they aim back at Kara's body, a constellation of red dots lighting up her chest.
"What do you want us to do ?" a frightened voice calls out. "Director J'onzz ? Agent Danvers ?"
The source of the question doesn't live to hear its answer ; in place of a body, is now a pile of charred meat and Lena retches in her confined helmet.
"So. Can I have her now ?"
Lena raises a shaking hand, mentally readying herself to discharge a burst of energy, but J'onn is quicker than her, morphing into his Martian form and charging at Kara's body with a battle cry that shakes them all to their core. The thunder of the collision sends both Lena and Alex to their knees, the impact painful even through the armour. She didn't exactly have time for extra padding.
J'onn holds Kara's body to the ground with a death grip, slamming her head hard on the floor when she tries to shake it off. "Kara." He slams her down again. "Come on Kara !"
But Kara only laughs. Low, long and maniacal, before she headbutts him with enough force to send him flying through the ceiling. Her body rises again, shaking the dust off with a preciosity that is all Lex and no Kara. Her head tilts to the side again, briefly, and her body charges again.
This time, Lena is ready, and right before impact, she discharges two burst straight into her chest. The shock of the hit sends them both reeling, Lena having absolutely not anticipated the potential kickback but again Kara's body is quickest to recover.
Krypto, who she thought was safely hidden away in the lab jumps to protect her and so does Sam, whisking the dog away and letting Lena shoot Kara again, lower this time, in the stomach.
"Not the fucking dog Kara !" Sam shouts. "I draw the fucking line at the fucking dog !"
Whether it's Sam bluntness or the thought of hurting her dog, something flickers in Kara's eyes, her real, deep blue, eyes, and Lena dares to hope for a second. The following second, Kara's fist connects with her head so strongly that it leaves an indent on her helmet, the metal coming dangerously close from her face underneath. The glass shield cracks, and half of the display turns off.
"Kara no !"
This time, it's Alex who screams and Kara flickers again, appearing for a second too short to be noticeable by anyone but Lena who's now pinned under her weight, the suit creaking enough to make her fear it's going to give out.
"Kara please !" Alex shouts "Please ! Don't make me shoot you !"
The pressure on Lena alleviates briefly, returns tenfold less than a second later.
"Please !" Alex screams. "Kara please !"
She shoots, the burst hitting Lena in the flank when Kara rolls them away.
The display in her helmet is wild with information, bits of numbers and fleeting words going by too fast for her to really act upon them. It's getting hard to breathe already, her lungs crushed under Kara's dense body. In a last ditch attempt at not dying so soon, she pushes on her, overloading her gauntlets with enough energy to make them fatal. She doesn't want to have to, but she might not get the choice. Before she can shoot however, Kara's body is lifted off her by a two pair of strong hands, Sam and J'onn carrying her a few feet away where they slam her into the already precarious pillar. Her body rages against them, heat vision catching J'onn on the shoulder and freeze breath incapacitating half of Sam. It seems pointless, Lex in Kara destined to win and crush them again and again when Nia jumps other Lena, arms extended forward in a strange motion, and she manages to encase Kara's body in dream energy.
The room crackles with it, the weird muted sound it produces briefly covered by Sam slamming her arm next to Kara to get rid of the ice. Kara flinches inside of her blue cage, fear falling like a shadow over her face. The sight is enough to bring Lena back to her feet and she rushes to her, ignoring the way her body screams in pain. She stops short of slamming into the blue energy, unsure of what it would do to her exactly, but comes close enough to Kara to see her eyes.
"Help me," Kara whispers, voice weak and trembling. "Please help me. I don't know what's happening I-"
"I'm going to help you," Lena says, raising her hand slowly, like she intends to touch Kara's face. "I promise. I'm going to help you."
She searches for Kara's eyes again, but they're not here. She's lowered her head much like she did in the apartment when Lena first tried to reach her. Lena takes a small fearful step back, bumping into Alex who's taken a step forward. A split second later, the dream energy cage explodes, the blast sending them both several feet away, tangled pathetically and weighted down by Lena's armour.
For a moment, Kara seems surprised by what she did, before she's not Kara anymore and she flies off, her sudden disappearance followed by a guttural, terribly human scream rising from the street below.
Lena doesn't exactly think before she acts, doesn't even check the boosters are still working after the hits they took. She jumps after her, ignoring the shouts trying to hold her back, knowing Kara will never forgive herself if she kills again.
She lets herself fall for a few blissful seconds before activating her boosters and righting herself, Sam coming up next to her.
"She's flying to our house," she whispers in horror, "Kelly and Ruby are here I-"
"Go ! Protect them, I can hold her back !" Lena shouts with a confidence she absolutely does not feel.
In a gust of wind, Sam is gone, and it's just Lena in her flying suit, trying to keep up with Supergirl. She's not fast enough to get to her, the armour whining and overheating from the effort ; she wonders if it'll hurt if she falls from this high, or if she'll pass out before hitting the ground. On Kara's course, buildings burst into vengeful flames, more and more desperate screams rising from the hell they turn into. When J'onn barrels past Lena, she pushes him back ; someone needs to take care of the civilians. He gives her a boost, grabbing her by the waist so he can throw her forward, far enough that she catches on Kara's feet and bears down on them with all her weight and the strength of the suit.
They tumble down several feet at a speed so great Lena isn't sure whose elbow is hitting whose face and if the burning smell invading her helmet is her suit finally giving up or Kara's circuits overloading and burning her alive. They don't make it all the way to the ground, Kara's muscle memory kicking in around the same time Lena remembers to use her boosters to course correct and they rocket high into the sky instead, so high that the burning wreckage below their feet rapidly becomes nothing more than a sad grey stain on the landscape.
She's got a fumbling grip around Kara's shoulder and Kara's hands are wrapped around her neck, squeezed tight around the metal preventing her from simply snapping Lena in two. Every level her AI still cares to monitor has reached critical condition.
"Kara..."
"Kara can't come to the phone right now."
"Seriously Lex ? Seriously ?!"
She regrets her small outbursts immediately. The suit may be protecting her, but the airflow inside is still perilously reduced and she's just wasted precious supplies shouting at someone who doesn't give a shit.
She takes small rapid breaths, attempting to calm herself with little success. They're so high now that she can see the curvature of Earth and she knows if they fall, her chances of survival are close to none, even with the suit. The view is beautiful, and she finds herself weirdly pissed off at Lex that she can't enjoy it.
"What are you going to do ?" she snarls. "Throw me into space ?"
"I wasn't, but that's not a bad idea."
"Your options are limited."
"Less than yours. You wouldn't kill her," Lex says slowly, managing to drop Kara's voice enough that she really does sound like him, "while I wouldn't hesitate to kill you if needed."
"How did you get into her head ?"
"Wouldn't you like to know ?"
Several barbs are on the tip of Lena's tongue when her helmet crackles loudly and she almost releases her grip on Kara.
"Lena ? This is Agent Dox speaking. I took the liberty of hacking your suit. The army is pointing a missile at you and you might want to get out of range."
"What ?"
"Listen Lena," Alex says, her voice coming in at an even louder volume, "you need to bring Kara back down right now. I don't care how you do it, just do. They're going to kill you. Both of you."
Lena's limited options have become more limited in the span of this one way conversation and with increasing distress she tries pleading once more. She refuses to believe Kara can't hear her.
"Kara. Kara please. I know you're in here."
"She's really not."
"Lex !"
"I'd bargain with you, but I'm not really interested in anything you have to offer. I guess I do have to get her body back in one piece however so..."
Kara powers down. There's no other word for it. Well there is, but Lena refuses to use it. And she can't support her weight, not with her limited supplies of energy. Kara's grip slackens around her neck, and, with Lena's arms still grasping her shoulders, she drops like a stone.
"No !"
For how high they might have been or how high Lena thought they were, the ground is rushing towards them at incredible speed and she's nicely informed by the display in her helmet that their impact with the ground will destroy everything in a hundred feet radius and severely impact infrastructures a further two miles. She herself is just going to die unless she lets go.
"Lex ! Lex ! Do you hate her so much that you would kill hundreds to prove your point ?!"
Her fury is lost to the wind. So is one of her boosters, fried by the effort necessitated to slow their descent.
"Kara please. Kara please wake up. Wake up. Wake up !"
Out of some twisted miracle, Kara does open her eyes, but they're tinged with green, the exact same shade now glowing on her chest because of course Lex thought of everything. She smiles. Coughs a trickle of blood.
"You have to let me go," she whispers. "Please Lena let me go."
"Kara no ! I'm not letting you go !"
"Please..."
"No ! Kara I love you !"
Kara smiles sadly, her body still slack and useless. "I know you do. I love you too. Please, please let me go. It's pointless now."
Lena doesn't dignify her with an answer. She doesn't want their last words to be an argument. She tightens her grip around her, holding on as much as she can, and gives whatever she has left. One of her legs is on fire, but her broken booster is slowly veering them towards the desert. She closes her eyes ; at least there'll be no casualty.