#but illegal medical trials with lena as a guinea pig?

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Okay, so. the people who return on the flight in Manifest experience hallucinations that lead them to being heroic right? Right up supercorp alley. There's one kid character who experiences them more intensely than anyone else, but I'm sick of the chosen kid trope, so I'm going to pluck that condition up and plunk it right down on Lena Luthor, but not right away. At first she's just an average returnee, struggling to pick up what's left of her life and move forward, plagued by these visions she doesn't really understand. But even though she doesn't really understand, I think she trusts them a little more innately. I know it goes against fanon, but I think Kara would be the one who's a little more doubtful, a little more hesitant to obey the random callings, whereas Lena would trust herself and her senses enough to just roll with it and see where it takes her.

What's more, I also think where Kara is uber careful about maintaining appearances and making sure no one suspects anything, Lena is a little more careless about it. And I think that Lex inevitably begins to suspect something is off with his sister, and when her callings begin to lead her towards his black ops study of some missing returnees, he arranges to have her disappeared-- and to have her join her fellow returnees as a lab rat.

Cue Kara having visions of a medical facility and barbaric experiments. At first it's just her, and she knows in her soul it's Lena trying to reach out to her. To warn her, or for help, Kara doesn't know. What she does know is that Lena's in trouble. When she finally tells Alex about her visions, Alex doesn't believe her. It's not until Kara passes out with a nosebleed that it finally sinks in that whatever is happening to Kara, she's in trouble if Alex doesn't help her. So Alex uses her resources as a cop to track down the missing returnees, and when they do, they find Lena and the others strapped to gurneys, nearly dead from lethal amounts of electroshock therapy.

After the rescue, the lab rat returnees are basically catatonic, Lena among them. It's not until Kara touches Lena's wrist that Lena returns to full lucidity. But even then, she's not the same as she was. She suffers migraines, as one might expect, but also callings that are more intense and vivid than anything she's experienced to date. They lead her to learn that Lex is behind her abduction and the unethical experiments on the returnees, but there's little she can do about it without evidence. So there's only one thing she can do.

She's going to take the family company back.