The soothing cool of the color green is in fact the exact opposite of the way it electrocutes every nerve, every cell in her body until she's weak, immobile. Worse, a sluggish pool of freshly poured concrete trudging through her veins and weighing her down. Yet, there is no Kryptonite here. Not this evening. Nothing more than the cold, hard, slab of concrete and rusty metal that blindsides her so severely that she finally bleeds.
Supergirl.
The woman of steel.
Bleeds.
Her head is throbbing, her world a spinning mess, streaking dull colors and echoing sounds she can't quite make out. She recalls a little girl in the horrified crowd and wants nothing more to protect her. Save her. She even thinks for a split second she discovers Lena, hopelessly watching from the sidelines and she'll be damned if she gives up this fight and allows anything to happen to her favorite human.
But she's barely clinging to life.
Even in her last moments when she has never been more sure of her own death, she wills herself to put on that brave face and be more alien than she has ever been before. She doesn't cower, she doesn't beg and plead on her hands and knees for her life. She remembers Alex's words and she forces herself to be the alien hero everyone expects of her. Deny all her human emotions. Reject fear, sympathy, and compassion.
And she vows that she is not afraid of Reign.
Even if she's battered, bleeding, in and out of consciousness, and dangling over the edge of some building that will go down in history as the place Supergirl was finally defeated by a villain.
"And I will reign," she vaguely hears her nemesis gloat before she realizes that she is free falling.
Panic slithers around her heart and squeezes so severely that she cannot possibly take her next breath. She desperately screams at herself to fly, move, something, but her body is nothing more than an empty vessel, her brain no longer in charge of the ship. Her mind becomes foggy as the wind whips violently around her. Her eyelids too heavy to pry open any longer. Her eyelashes flutter closed and the first person she sees is Alex.
The last thing she sees before she crashes brutally to the ground...green eyes, pale skin, ruby red lips, that salacious smirk.
It's as if a meteor violently collided into their busy street and destroyed the city. Lena doesn't think of much. For once in her crazy life, her mind shuts off and her body takes control. Heels be damned, she charges through the crowded street, banging into the strangers that have gathered to gawk at their hero, lifeless on the ground. She feels the rapid winds from the helicopter above but she doesn't hear the propellers. In fact, she doesn't hear anything at all; not the children screaming, not the gasps from every person witnessing their bloody, fallen hero, and she certainly doesn't hear James calling to her.
She mutters, excuse me, as she shoves through every person until she is front row for the ending of a sad movie she most certainly did not pay to see. She pauses for a split second, swallows thickly then rushes forward until her knees smack against the broken rubble all around Supergirl.
Her entire body trembles far worse than the aftershocks of Supergirl bursting through the street. She reaches, and god does she loathe the way her fingers tremble but she needs to touch her.
"Supergirl," faintly escapes her blood red lips but it's swallowed whole by the chaos around them.
"Supergirl!"
She whips around to the familiar voice to find Alex stumbling through the debris. Her heart leaps to her throat when she notices the thick tears streaming down the woman's face. Something suddenly feels completely off in Lena's chest. She can't quite pinpoint it but she knows something is missing and all too quickly, her chest feels hollow, as if someone just carved out her beating heart.
She slowly cranes her neck, analyzing every second, like she does best, watching as Alex sobs over Supergirl's body while her hands work on autopilot to check over their hero's injuries. Kara's sister is very clearly putting on a brave face for the crowd, working diligently until a gurney is near to transfer Supergirl to a hospital. Yet, something is off. She can tell how hysterical Alex is deep down, desperately seeking to cover up...
Lena's neck swivels back to the beautiful broken woman lying before her. She closes her eyes, squeezes them tightly and wills her mind to dig up an old file of Kara Danvers vowing to always be her friend. She quickly slams that drawer closed and searches for a more recent memory of Supergirl, vowing that she won't drop her and pleading for Lena to climb up the broken plane meant to end her life.
Lena's sorrowful green eyes spring to life, doubling in size with each passing second as the realization washes over her.
"Lena, please, we need to get..." Alex begins to explain but her words are singed to a crisp the moment a fiery heat blazes between them.
Alex and Lena jump apart, both women tumbling back, onto their bottoms and vulnerable as Reign's laser vision quickly retreats. Alex is scrambling forward, crawling so desperately to reach for Supergirl but it's all useless because in a blink of an eye, Reign balls the famous "S" into her fist and easily lifts the lifeless body.
Lena watches in horror as Reign shoots up toward the starry night sky, Supergirl beneath her, arms and legs dangling as she is dragged away by the suit upon her chest.
"Supergirl!" Alex bellows in agony but all Lena can think about is a crooked smile and those adorable glasses.
She shuffles upon her knees, tearing right through her black tights, ignoring the jagged rocks puncturing her delicate skin, until she is directly in front of the agent's face.
"It's her," she firmly declares even though her voice is wobbling and thick with bottled up tears.
"Lena, you should get home," Alex dismisses as she clenches Lena's shoulders in an attempt to calm her.
Or maybe it's to steady them both.
Lena digs her nails into Alex's shoulders, holding her into place as she forces the woman to make eye contact with her. "Say it. It's her, isn't it?"
"Lena, I don't-" Alex's words trail off when she realizes she doesn't know what to say until she has Kara home again. Alive.
She roughly fights away Lena and stands tall, ready to run but this woman is a Luther and she will not roll over without a fight.
"Tell me!" Lena explodes, that hot Luther blood hitting boiling point. She angrily latches onto Alex's elbow and violently tugs her back. "If I were to call Kara right now, show up at her doorstep..." she isn't granted the opportunity to finish her question, she already has her answer in a form of a wobbly jaw and salty tears running wildly in pain.
"Oh god," Lena gasps, her chest feeling as though it's caving in on her.
"I-" Alex chokes on her words the moment she is forced to witness the liquid filling those sparkling green eyes. And without a second thought, Alex wraps her arms around Lena's neck and pulls the stiff woman flush against her body. "We will get her back, I swear," Alex whispers into the curve of Lena's bitter cold neck.
Lena doesn't answer. She doesn't even hug the woman back. She just stands there, completely and utterly broken.
XXXX
"Starting tomorrow, Operation Mongoose will be top priority," Emma proudly states with that confident smirk that always seems to settle Regina's anxious heart.
The sheriff even clenches their son's shoulder and shakes him a bit and that alone causes another unfamiliar reaction to Regina's beating organ. She shoves that all away though. She just lost Robin...again, cruelly forced to witness as he stepped over the town line with his family, never to return. She's still feeling the weight of depression and heartache...it was only a few hours ago that she lost her happy ending.
Again.
"So kid, which house are you staying at tonight? I can drive you before your mom and I head back to Granny's," Emma casually explains as they stroll toward her yellow bug, glowing in the dead of the night.
"Why are you guys going back to Granny's?" Henry investigates, his nose scrunching up in confusion as he pops open the door on the passenger's side to climb in the back.
Regina's attention swings toward the blonde, just as curious as their son as to why they would be venturing back to the diner so late. A teasing smirk slides into place, green eyes latching onto Regina's over the hood of the tiny car.
"Shots?" Emma simply shrugs, then yanks open her car door and falls recklessly inside.
Regina bends down, sending a hard glare toward the blonde for suggesting such a thing in front of their child. However, no words have a chance to formulate because the ground beneath her high-heeled boots begins to tremble. Her eyes are immediately drawn to the way long fingers grip especially tight around the steering wheel while her own hand reacts all by itself, reaching for her son.
The violent rumbling only lasts a few seconds but by the time she is gathering her bearings, Emma is already racing around the car.
"Are you guys okay?" She gasps, clenching Regina's bicep to steady her while her free hand reaches for Henry. "What the hell was that?"
"I don't know," Regina growls, already annoyed by the pesky inconvenience that has sure to come and shake up Storybrooke once again.
"Over there," Henry shrieks, his poor voice cracking as he points toward the sky like he's in some cheesy comic book.
Emma and Regina are in sync, their gazes darting toward the twinkling stars above to discover a figure wrapped in all black, floating in the inky sky. Whoever the shadow may be, doesn't seem to notice them. The stranger's sole attention is focused on something more important in the woods but only for a moment before they dash away in the blink of an eye.
"There has to be something out in the woods," Henry ecstatically claims while both of his mothers groan their disapproval. "Come on, what if someone is out there?"
Their preteen is already charging away from them, heading straight for danger into a dark and creepy forest. Perfect.
"Henry!" Regina yells, urging her feet to chase after him like he's a toddler once again.
A part of her finally accepts that she's just too old for these shenanigans anymore.
"Kid, we don't know what's out there!" Emma hollers, easily passing Regina, hopping over a log, and quickly gaining on their son.
Regina scoffs, annoyed that the sheriff is out running her but she convinces herself that it's because she's in heels, trudging through the dirt and sticks spewed about while Emma's in comfy converse.
"Holy-"
"Don't finish that sentence, young man," Regina threatens just as the trees around her seem to vanish.
"Shit," Emma murmurs, finishing their son's thought and earning herself an unamused glare from Regina.
Neither Emma or Henry notice Regina's expression because they are both stunned and gaping at the giant hole carved out of the forest. Old evergreens that have lived to see so many decades have been flatten, knocked over, completely bulldozed out of the way. And of course, their son is already inching closer toward the edge of the beaten path.
"Henry-"
"Henry, wait," Emma sternly orders, taking Regina and their son by surprise. "I will check it out," she announces, stepping closer and hesitantly peeking inside the hole. "Oh my god," she gasps, abandoning all caution and rushing down the slope without a second thought.
"Emma!" Regina anxiously calls after her, feet stumbling closer toward whatever awaits for her partner in crime.
"Regina, I need your help!" Emma shouts over her shoulder and that's when Regina locates Emma hunched over a body.
She can't see much in the dark, just boots beside the sheriff, who is kneeling on the cold, hard ground. In a haste, Regina's boots slide down the dirt and crumpled leaves, while she creates a vibrant fireball to light her path.
"Emma-"
"Regina, please tell me I'm seeing things."
Regina's brows pinch together in confusion just before she leans over Emma's shoulder and all her questions are answered.
There, before her very eyes, a blonde woman with a giant "S" upon her chest, lies bloody, beaten, unconscious and if she hadn't been paying attention to every single one of Henry's comics, she would wholeheartedly believe this woman is dead.
"Supergirl?" Henry's quivering voice whispers into the night, utterly hopeless.
A/N: Welcome back everyone! I know I said I was done but I had some time off so I wrote this crossover. It's a very short story, so I just want to warn everyone now. This was my first time writing a true crossover and having four main characters but I think I did both ships justice. I really hope you guys enjoy!