Chapter Three: Awakenings
~ Lena ~
For a long time I was floating in darkness. It wasn't frightening, it was nothing. No emotions and no physical sensations. It was empty, and peaceful. Then there was a flash of bright sunlight, and I was suddenly full of thoughts and feelings. Then I began to have strange dreams.
The trees were different, as if grown out of crystal. The white grass was soft beneath my feet despite the fact it looked frozen. In the distance there were towers of white, green, red, black, silver and gold crystal dotted with lights. A city, unlike any I had ever seen. It was a beautiful world, stark and a bit cold, but stunning, and a part of me knew it was dying.
As I grew closer to the city, I was joined by people, first a few, and then hundreds just walking alongside of me, and smiling warmly if I looked their way. In a large city square, with structures more familiar to me, like shops found in Metropolis or National City, a vast crowd was waiting. Upon their faces was a serenity that seemed to transcend the dire circumstances of their world.
At the center, standing apart from the rest were two people who looked vaguely familiar. One was a dark haired woman, flanked by a tall attractive man whose face bore a strong resemblance to Superman. Did I know them?
"Welcome Lena." The man said with a booming voice. "I am Jor-El, Kara Zor-El is my niece."
It suddenly made sense, I was on Krypton. I was seeing ghosts, the parents of Superman. Kara's aunt and uncle. "It's an honor. However, I do not know if it is a pleasant one. Kara betrayed me."
"Kara's betrayal was based on a desire to protect you. When pressed, she risked everything to save you." The woman corrected me with a soft smile.
"Save me? From what?" I asked curiously, although the repetition of Kara's reasons for her secret were a bit tiresome.
"Yourself." She sounded sad, and took a few steps to close the gap between us reaching out and taking one of my hands in hers. She felt cool to the touch, but solid and real. "Your mind has bonded with the memories of Krypton. We are but phantoms of a dead world, and those memories are now a part of you. Kelex didn't fully understand what he was doing. You are now the keeper of the memories of Krypton. I hope in time you can learn from us, and share with us your experiences."
"I don't understand." I said feeling overwhelmed and very confused. I had just been at home, trying to work through my guilt in killing Lex. I was also attempting to sort out my feelings for Kara, when… no that didn't happen. I wouldn't do that.
She smiled at me, and pulled me into a tight hug that felt as warm and loving as if she were my mother. "Your confusion will pass soon, Lena. Please tell Kal-El that we will always love him."
She pulled away, but kept her arms on my shoulders. "You mean Superman. I will if I ever have the opportunity. I've never actually met him."
"Yes you have, but that will be revealed in time." She smiled, and brushed my hair back from my face. It was such a loving touch, and I realized she was treating me as important to her personally.
"Why do I see love in your eyes? Who am I to you?" I asked incredulously, but didn't pull away from her touch. It felt too good to have someone show me such affection.
"A daughter of Krypton." She gave me the sweetest smile, and I couldn't guess what she meant.
"Lora, do not give her a false sense of family. She is not Kryptonian. And her relationship with my niece is tenuous at best." A voice spoke up as someone stepped from the crowd. The face was familiar, but I couldn't place it.
"Astra, stay out of this." Lora said, turning towards her with a frown.
"I have more of a say than you, Kara is my blood." Astra said with wide eyes, her presence reminding me of the news reports of her conflict with Supergirl. At the time I never imagined I would actually meet Supergirl, let alone come face to face with the ghost of Astra.
"You tried to use Myriad to convert the entire population of Earth to suit yourself. Why should I hear anything you have to say?" I spat at her, and she actually chuckled.
"It's complicated. Now I care only for Kara, and I will not accept you unless you do right by her." Astra said, folding her arm and sneering at me.
"Kara broke my trust, and she must have done something to me for this kind of nightmare to happen. Besides that, why should I care about your acceptance?" I wasn't in the mood to be scolded by someone who had nearly committed mass subjugation and enslavement.
"Ah Lena Luthor, sister of Lex Luthor. I have looked at your memories. You have done well, you are a hero in your own right. In a way, you are worthy of my niece, but your final act was so cowardly. Giving in to self-loathing." Astra taunted, but also confused me. She called me a hero, and I couldn't quite understand her reasons. To compliment me, it felt strange but not hollow. There was something to her words that I couldn't push aside.
"Astra, now is not the time. She has no choice in the matter." Jor-El said, stepping between me and Astra.
"What do you mean?" I pleaded.
"Kara will explain, please think before passing judgement. You gave her no good choices." Astra threatened, her eyes hard and unfeeling.
"Ignore her, and just try to listen to your heart. Remember, your walls have only ever brought you loneliness and pain." Lora said, pulling my attention back towards her. She leaned in and kissed my cheek. "We'll talk soon, I promise. This place is a part of you now."
"How did… Why do I feel so weird?" I suddenly felt a bit lightheaded, and just as suddenly the world began to flood back into my senses. I heard a heartbeat, steady and powerful. A scent like walking through a grassy field on a bright summer day, and the pacing of boots. "Where am I?" I said, my eyes fluttering awake. I sat up and looked around, feeling very disoriented. I was no longer home, and my head felt strange.
"Lena!" Kara was there, and she rushed towards me pulling me into a tight hug. I felt myself giving into her, momentarily forgetting that I was angry with her still. After about a minute she pulled away and gave me the brightest smile I had ever seen. She looked so relieved and happy.
"You remember who you are?" She asked, and I just gave her a strange look.
"Of course I remember who I am. What happened, where is this?" I asked, staring around me at the utterly alien structure I found myself in. That just happened to look like Krypton, the world I had just left. I began to think about the argument between Lora and Astra, and wondered what they meant.
"So, this is what Kal calls the Fortress of Solitude. Our little piece of Krypton here on Earth." I nodded, almost letting out a sigh of relief. For a second I wondered if I had gone back in time, but she was wearing her Supergirl outfit, and the tug of gravity was much smaller than what I felt walking on Krypton in that strange pseudo-dream.
"Alright, why am I here? What happened?" The last real memory I had was stumbling towards my bathroom. Half sick with guilt and grief, and drunk beyond reason.
Kara looked down, shutting her eyes in pain, "you called out to me, and I found you in your bathtub bleeding out."
"Okay, but why did you bring me here?" The reasoning made sense, she was trying to help. She looked up at me and met my eyes, and I could see guilt and pain written in her expression.
"Well, that's the hard part." She said with halting cadence, her emotions getting the better of her.
I stood, intending to go over to her, but I noticed what I was wearing. The large black symbol on my chest was a Kryptonian symbol. The material was form fitting but comfortable and very beautiful. I looked back up at her, meeting her eyes. "Kara, tell me what happened!"
"You died." She said through a heavy sob.
"What?" I said in utter confusion.
She began to shake her head softly as she explained, her words coming out in a garbled rush. "I took you to the hospital as fast as I could, but I was too late and you had lost too much blood. They tried so hard to save you. I watched them try. But you were gone, and I… I couldn't handle it. So I took you from them and brought you here. It was the only thing I could think of."
I sat back down, afraid of my next question. "What did you do?"
"There were three options. I could've let you go, which I wasn't ready to do. I know that's horrible, but you didn't seem to want to die so I had to find a way of bringing you back."
"You're right, I didn't want to die. It was guilt combined with alcohol, I wasn't thinking straight." I confessed, remembering my actions in the bathroom. Finding Lionel's straight razor, and that quick decision to end it all. Astra had been right, it was cowardly.
"That left me with two choices. Kelex, can you describe them?" Kara looked towards a floating robot I hadn't even realized was in the room with us.
"Of course Kara. Lena, the first option would have required me to remove your brain and reactivate your synapses one by one. Physically repairing the damage done from a lack of oxygen. There were several risks beyond failure, which was beyond eighty-five percent." He sounded sympathetic, and I had to admit I wouldn't have chosen that route unless it was a last resort.
"Crap odds. So I guess you picked the other option." I was pragmatic enough to know that Kara wasn't a gambler, if she had a better option she would've gone for it.
"This will be hard to hear, and I did not make this decision lightly. Please tell her what we did." Kara said, shutting her eyes tightly, waiting to hear the details of the Frankenstein experiment they had performed on my dead body. A concept that was revolting in one respect, but the scientist in me was deeply curious what they had done to make it work.
"For some species, there is a way of revitalizing dead cells. This re-energization has a high success rate, but it is not compatible with human physiology. The only way for the method to work on you was to alter your genetic code at a subatomic level. This would not only allow for this procedure to work, but now your cells can store massive amounts of energy."
"Wait, you never said we could use a different template." Kara looked at Kelex with a look of anger.
"It was the fastest option." Kelex said with almost no intonation, making it hard to infer if he had held back that information on purpose.
Kara looked upset, and raised her voice at Kelex which was very unlike her. "Human's have a cousin species two systems away that might have worked. You know I wasn't thinking straight, you should've given me all the options."
"I apologize for the omission." Kelex did sound apologetic, but could easily have been a fabrication to make him seem sympathetic.
"You used Kryptonian genetic code to… reconstruct me." I leveled at both of them. I felt a strange mix of excitement and seething anger at being altered in such a way.
Kelex bowed his head once. "Correct. Coupled with a spark from the Birthing Matrix to help solidify the changes so that there wouldn't be any side-effects."
I stared at him for a moment. "How much of me is human?" I could feel the coldness in my voice, which always came out when I was furious.
"Your scan upon emergence gave me a rough ratio of eight-five to fifteen." The figures were just as cold as my anger, and I had to ask which way they skewed even though I was already sure what the answer would be.
"Eighty-five percent human?" As soon as the words left my mouth he was shaking his head.
"No, eight-five percent Kryptonian." This time he left the sympathy out of his voice, and I actually appreciated the more clinical approach. I shut my eyes in frustration, the new existential crisis of my life was no longer my family. It was the fact that I was no longer human. Then I thought about what Kara had said, looking over at her.
"Wait, human's have a cousin species?" It came out a little incredulous, but I asked with genuine curiosity.
"Yes, you'll encounter them in the next hundred years or so. I probably shouldn't have told you, the council feared that the two species would war for centuries once they discovered each other." Kelex rattled off, reminding me of Brainy before Kara could say anything.
I looked at the altar I had just been laying on, and then at both of them feeling overwhelmed. "So let me get this straight, the three options were to leave me for dead, chop up my brain and hope for the best, or turn me into an alien?"
Kara nodded with an uncomfortable frown. "Yeah, that about sums it up. I know this isn't ideal, but would you rather be dead or a vegetable?"
"Kara, don't get defensive. I just need to know why, I don't understand your reasoning. You should've let me go, I mean we were friends but you have lost people before and have never gone to such extremes." I knew there had to be some reasoning, and I knew I meant a lot to her, but the level of personal risk and responsibility of trusting me with powers was a lot.
She hesitated to look up at me. "We were friends… oh god. I mean the why isn't important. All that matters is you're back and you are you." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself. I thought about how I would normally react. Betrayal has always been my trigger, and broken trust puts up my walls. Yet I found I wasn't that angry, even with the violation of my body. So it made me wonder if something else had changed.
"Am I me?" I asked, not sure if there was an easy answer.
Kelex immediately began to respond. "Yes Lena, although I must ask what name shall I…"
"Not now Kelex!" Kara practically screamed.
He nodded at Kara. "Understood, I will leave the two of you to talk. If either of you need anything. I took the liberty of making up a new room for you Lena. The Fortress belongs to you as much as it does Kara Zor-El and Kal-El."
"Mine, how is this mine?" I motioned around at the massive structure in mild bewilderment. Such a place was almost a museum to a lost world, how could it belong to anyone?
Kara sighed, "whether you like it or not, you are now a Kryptonian living on Earth. That means this place can be a second home for you. It is private, and secret. And, we'll probably have to stay here for a little while until you adjust."
"Because I might be dangerous to those around me given the known powers of Kryptonians." I guessed using the information in front of me.
"Exactly, although Kelex isn't sure, the potential is there. Your cells act much the same as mine now. That amount of energy can allow you to do a lot of things." Kara confirmed with a small smile on her face.
"There is a theory among the scientific community that you and your cousin are essentially immortal. That the energy in your cells will support you until the sun expands around this planet." As I explained the concept Kara's eyes widened slightly, as though the thought hadn't occurred to her.
She nodded slowly. "Yes, that's a possibility."
"Immortality, eternal youth and super powers. I'm trying to wrap my head around all this. Yesterday I killed my brother and apparently killed myself. Now I'm here and you're telling me I might have powers like yours. That you did this to me without my consent. It's a violation, Kara. You owe me a reason." I gave her a look that, for me, was pleading.
We met eyes, and I could tell she wanted to just tell me everything, but broke eye contact and shook her head. "At this point, even if you never speak to me again, it would still be worth the price to have you in this world."
"Stop being sweet, it's a nice way of being evasive. You still haven't answered my question. Why did you do this?" I tried to push, but could see we weren't going to get to that point today, she was completely closed off. Which was probably reciprocal, I was still radiating anger and I knew it made me seem closed off and cold.
"I… I can't tell you that right now. It isn't a secret, but it would be catastrophically bad timing. Please understand, I never meant to hurt you or take anything away from you. Hell, you even chose me to make decisions like these. I know it overstepped and it wasn't my choice to make, but I was it, and I had to make a choice." It was easy to read between the lines, but I wasn't willing to accept her feelings until she admitted them. Until then I could distance myself from my own feelings, which were confusing and conflicted and rolled up into the last two days creating a chaos I couldn't even begin to sort out.
Then her words sunk in, she was talking about my choice to give her everything after I died, and power of attorney over my health choices in case of total incapacitation. "How did you know about my will?"
"Kelex found a record of it with a lawyer in National City." She said simply, not offering anything else.
"That is true. Although this does fall quite a bit out of the realm of human laws." I couldn't deny the underlying point, I had trusted her with my life. Even after finding out about Supergirl, that fundamental truth would never change. She would always try to save me, unless it was impossible, even then, apparently she found a way. I smirked at her, "All of this feels a bit overkill, wouldn't it have been easier to go back in time and stop me from killing Lex?"
Kara let out a small sad laugh. "After what happened to Barry, I'm not sure that's a great idea."
I tilted my head in curiosity. "Mister Allen? What happened to him?"
Kara frowned. "Well, he went back in time and saved his mother from dying. Only he also changed his own present, dangerously altering the timeline and causing ripples to this day. Eventually he had to go back and basically let his own mother die."
My eyes widened and I winced in sympathy. "That's awful." I sighed, before looking up at her again. "God this is a mess. I was so close to closing you out of my life forever. Now all of this. I'm angry right now, but I'm going to need your help dealing with these changes. I still need time to think things through. I'm not sure you made the right choice."
"Lena, you condemned yourself to die for your crime, I had to bend the rules of nature to reverse that act. You are the kindest, smartest, most compassionate person I have ever met. You make me better, and you've saved my life so many times. You need to be in this world, and I trust you implicitly without reservation or exception." She sounded so sad, but I couldn't worry about her feelings. I had to make sure I was okay with myself, then I could work on possibly repairing what was left of our friendship or anything else that might come.
"Trust, I guess that's the problem. My trust with you has been shaken, and I don't think we can repair that in a couple of days. But if I do have your abilities, I promise I will only utilize them for the greater good the way you and Superman use them. But for right now, I can barely stand the sight of you. Give me some time to work through everything that has happened, and when I'm ready we can talk about the future." I tried not to sound hostile, but I could see some hurt in her eyes. But she didn't let it show too much.
Instead of arguing further she simply nodded in acceptance. "Of course, take all the time you need."
I started to laugh, and she gave me a strange look. "That means something different today than it did yesterday. Oh, I'll need some way to contact Jess and let her know I'm alright."
She reached behind her cape and pulled out a cell phone. "Here. It should work up here because the Fortress taps into pretty much everything."
"Goodnight Kara." I could see she wanted to rush over and hug me, but I couldn't handle the contact. So I looked around and she pointed towards a hallway to her right. I wandered down and found an absolutely beautiful room with a breathtaking view of the arctic tundra. Aqua blue ice was curved into wavy shapes by the wind yet none of the cold seemed to affect me, despite the window having no glass.
I turned the phone towards me and found it felt fragile in my hands. No longer sure of my own strength I unlocked the phone with a single finger barely touching the screen and found a dozen missed calls from her Jess. I called her back, and she answered on the second ring.
"Lena?" Jess answered with a relieved sigh.
"Yes, I'm okay." I assured her.
Jess paused for a second, to take a few breaths before continuing. "Oh thank god, there have been reports in the news that you were taken to an emergency room by Supergirl and died on the table." Hearing corroboration of that part of the story was painful, Kara really did have to watch me die.
I hesitated to respond, not sure what was the right tone. I settled on my usual biting sarcasm. "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I am unexpectedly out of town though, and I will need a few days. Please forward my meetings to Sam, and have her work out of my office until I return."
Jess uncharacteristically let out a few soft chuckles. "She's already here, although she refuses to use your office."
"Why am I not surprised?" I tapped my fingers on the side of the mattress frame, creating a dull almost bell-like sound. I frowned wondering if Jess could hear it. "I would like to make an offer while she's in National City. Is she available?"
"I'm not sure, let me check." I heard her get up, and her steady footsteps as she moved from her desk down to the other executive office across from mine. But more than that, I could hear her heartbeat and even the sound of her clothes rustling as she moved. I had no idea what shape that office was in, it had been empty since my brother had left, and I had little interest in taking on a new partner. But thinking about it, I would need someone who could handle half my workload from now on. I had no idea what my new obligations would be like.
"She's here, I'm transferring the call now." Jess said after coming back on the line.
"Thank you Jess. Stay around, you'll need to hear this." I knew this would be a bombshell, and Jess was just as integral to my idea and her murmur of confusion made me smile.
"Sam." I said with a familiar tone, we were still close despite having not seen one another in person in over a year.
"Lena, I was worried." Sam was clearly concerned, and I knew I would have to give her some details, but in private and business had to come first.
"It's difficult to explain everything, however, the truth is I do not know in what capacity I'll be returning to L-Corp and I need continuity of leadership." It was hard to say it out loud, I had worked so hard to make my company flourish and to lose control was more difficult than I expected.
"So what are you saying?" Sam asked, prompting me to continue.
"Well, for now I need a partner who can take over in the interim as CEO, I cannot think of anyone better for that role than you Sam." I could hear her take a deep breath, and her heart ratcheted up, beating harder and faster.
"Thank you, and that sounds great, but what do you mean exactly?" She was asking about the future, and as much as I wanted to say more I couldn't with Jess in the room. Instead, I had to detail my plan which was basically taking her on as a full partner.
"I would like to make you a full partner, and I would like you to come back to National City as soon as possible, do you think Ruby would be okay with that?" I made the offer as confidently as I could, despite knowing it was dramatically changing the nature of my business.
"Are you kidding, she bugs me about coming back every day, but I really should talk with her about it before saying yes." Sam sounded excited, hopeful and clearly overwhelmed with joy. It made the decision all the easier.
"I expected as much. Please let me know by tomorrow?" I said feeling relieved and a bit overwhelmed. All my hard work was about to be entrusted to someone else. While I did trust Sam implicitly it was still a non-zero risk of failure.
"Of course." Sam hesitated for a moment. "Honestly, it's a yes but I need to give Ruby some say in the matter."
"Then in that regard, there is another matter. Can you put me on speaker?" I said, the next part should be quite a bit simpler.
"You're on." Sam said, I could almost hear in her voice that she knew what was coming.
"Jess?" I asked, making sure she was in the room still as requested, and could hear me.
"I'm here." Jessica said, her normal professional tone somewhat altered, probably by nerves.
"Wonderful. Jessica Nguyen, contingent upon Samantha Aria's transfer to National City I would like to offer you her position as the Metropolis office Chief Executive and Operations Officer." My formal delivery was intentional, I needed her to know this was an official offer.
"She's actually tearing up, I never thought I would see the day when the unflappable was flapped." Sam said with a small chuckle.
"I'm fine… ah. Thank you Ms. Luthor, I would be honored to accept." Jessica said managing to regain her composure, a bit faster than most other people could recover emotionally in a similar situation.
"Perfect. Then it's settled. We'll draw up the contracts when I get back in a few days. Jess, we'll coordinate the transfer over the next week. Sam, would you fill her in on what you've been working on. Jess can let you know about our National City projects. In the meantime I am just a call away. I may not answer, but I will be checking periodically if you need me." I was starting to feel both a weight lifting off my shoulders, and a new deep worry settling in my stomach. This was a new day in the life of my business, for good or ill I honestly wasn't sure. I had faith in both of them, and I was sure they were the right choices.
"No, don't worry about us. Have a nice time away." Sam said with her usually calming tone of voice, which worked. She was one of my closest friends for a reason, not just because I helped save her life.
"Hardly a time for joy, but yes I'll do what I can. I look forward to coming home as soon as possible." Neither responded, but I could tell they wanted to, but I continued after a second cutting off any reply anyway, "Sam, could we talk in private?"
"Of course." Sam said with a slightly worried tone of voice.
Jess cleared her throat, "I'll get those contracts started, thank you again Ms. Luthor."
"You are very welcome Jess, and please call me Lena." I said for the thousandth time, and Jess made a slightly audible sound before responding.
"I will Ms. Luthor… Lena." She corrected herself again, and then she quickly left the room, her heels clicking on the hard floors.
"Okay she's gone. What did you want to talk about?" Sam still had a touch of worry, so I knew I had to say something. Perhaps the whole truth.
"Go secure." I said with a tired sigh, but I had to talk with someone about all of this.
"Okay." I could hear the line change frequencies, and I took a deep trembling breath. "I need to talk to someone, and you already know a lot."
"That happens when you're secretly a Kryptonian weapon." I could hear a lot of sarcasm in Sam's voice, but also a deep sadness. I knew she still felt immense guilt for the lives she took and the pain she caused to so many during her time as Reign. Even though she had no control of her body or mind.
"Well, this isn't exactly something that I've even had a chance to fully wrap my head around. But the truth is, I died. Not for seconds or minutes, I was gone for hours." Admitting out loud felt surreal, and I knew I would have to explain all of it.
"Oh no, what happened?" Her response was expected, but it took me a moment to figure out what I wanted to say.
"I had been hit by two huge emotional crises, combined with anger and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and betrayal and half a bottle of scotch. I ended up reasoning that I was better off gone. So I took my father's old straight razor to my wrists. If she hadn't heard me calling for help, I would still be dead." My tone was so dripping with snark and sarcasm that to me it felt almost flippant. Sam seemed to have the opposite reaction, and I could hear her starting to cry.
"So that story of Supergirl rushing you to the emergency room is real?" Sam said with an audible gasp, and I felt myself sigh almost involuntarily.
"Yes that did actually happen, although I'm pretty sure our PR department is going to deny it as nothing but rumor. Afterwards Supergirl found a way to save me, but there was a price." I started to feel a bit overwhelmed, my voice cracking when I said the word price.
"What happened?" She said with bated breath.
"I am now mostly Kryptonian." If talking about my own death was surreal, admitting that I was effectively an alien was even stranger.
"Dear god. I have almost nothing left of my Kryptonian strength and I still break wine glasses on a regular basis." Sam's joke actually made me chuckle, as I realized I was taking everything too seriously. From a certain perspective the entire situation was somewhat funny, at least for someone with a dark dry sense of humor like myself.
"From what I understand, it was the best option available. I haven't really come to terms with it yet, but I thought I owed you the truth. Until I get a handle on my powers, there's no way I can work a normal office job."
"From the bits I remember about that power it is breathtaking and overwhelming. If you ever need anyone to talk to about it, please let me know. Also, you might be able to help me with another problem." Sam suddenly sounded different, still concerned but it had shifted from shock and worry to something more nervous.
"Oh? Anything." I said immediately, already feeling indebted to my friend.
Sam hesitated for a moment, "well, Ruby has been hiding things from me. But it's more than the usual teenage stuff. I think… I think she's developing powers."
"But her scans showed no significant presence of Kryptonian genetic material. At least not enough to develop abilities. Although, I suppose it is possible some dormant genes might not have shown up. We can run a full scan when I get back. I wouldn't worry, if necessary Supergirl should be able to help her through any power awakening." I said with more confidence than I felt, but I could sympathize with her on a level I could never have grasped before. I now had to consider what I was going to do with whatever power I had been given.
"After everything, are you sure?" Sam's question brought up a sad truth, while no one blamed her, Sam still felt tremendous guilt and couldn't face the friends she had made while in National City, especially Kara and Alex.
"Supergirl has never blamed you for Reign's actions, and I know both Kara and Alex miss you and Ruby." I wasn't sure how I felt keeping Kara's secret, but it rolled off my tongue effortlessly. Was that what it had been like for Kara? Lying to protect someone else? One lie built on another, until the truth was so buried under deceit that there was no way to reveal it?
"Alright, we'll see you soon." Sam said, sounding better, almost happy.
"Thank you Sam, I truly appreciate you coming back." It wasn't a platitude, I was looking forward to seeing her again for more than an hour at lunch during a visit to Metropolis.
"It'll be nice to come back home again." She said and I could tell it was the absolute truth.
We ended the call, and I moved over to the bed and stretched out. I wasn't sure I wanted sleep but found sleep taking me anyway. I wasn't sure how long I was out but I awoke to something warming my face. Through the large window sunlight was pouring in, concentrated on the bed. The sensations it was filling me with were incredible, and it felt amazing to simply sit in those rays of light, the warmth tingling down to my toes. I closed my eyes and just basked in it until the light eventually shifted away. I got up and looked around for different clothes, finding a small wardrobe of my clothing hung up in a closet with a door that activated as I approached it. I could only guess Kara went to my apartment, and grabbed some of my belongings. Except when I looked at them, none of the outfits were mine, they just looked like items I have worn in the past.
"Kelex?" I said out loud, and the robot came floating in after a few seconds. "Where did these come from?"
"I took the liberty of fashioning some clothing for you using Kryptonian fibers from images of you taken in various publications. Those clothes are much stronger, and will not rip with casual use."
"Interesting, well thank you." I gave him a look and he left the room without another word. I got dressed in a simple pair of pants and a loose fitting t-shirt that was comfortable and padded back over to the bed and picked up my phone. There were dozens of calls, emails and text messages which I answered as well as I could while not breaking the glass on my phone. Then I checked the national news, and eventually turned to the The National City Gazette, their front page had a picture of me with the headline:
'Lena Luthor, Dead at 26.'
The article was the standard trite details about my life, including a section about my brother. My own obituary had to mention him. Further down in the article there was a retraction.
"Dear readers, we are happy to inform you that this article has been incorrectly filed. Lena Luthor is alive and well, but her whereabouts are currently unknown. A spokesperson from L-Corp has issued the following statement:
'Lena is away from town on personal business.
She will make a public statement upon her return.'
I shut down my phone and closed my eyes, drifting back to sleep.
Author's Note:
This was a difficult chapter to write, which is why it took so long. I promise I'll get subsequent chapters up at a faster pace.
Next Chapter: Sister to Sister
