#didn't wanna leave it untagged in case it does trigger some folks

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

I would like to revisit my alternate S5 ending...

...to address the villainous aspect of Lena’s character instead of ignoring it, in which case the big reveal leading to the final stretch of episodes being the superfriends finding a hidden server at the DEO that seems devoted to tracking and monitoring a secret convoy.

When they track it down, they crack open a freight truck to find it modified into a prison inside. A prison with a single prisoner. 

Locked in a straightjacket and blinded by a dark hood, they can’t fathom who it might be. But when Supergirl wrenches the cell door off its hinges the bare feet that recoil in fear are delicate and pale.

A woman?

Kara reaches out with wary care, and gently removes the hood.

It takes her an eternal moment before she pieces the dark hair and pale skin and green eyes into the complete picture of Lena Luthor. 

Except this Lena isn’t the one who glared at her from across her desk in the LuthorCorp headquarters not so long ago. This Lena has sallow skin and dark bruises under her eyes and limp hair and flinches away from Kara without looking at her... but it is Lena.

Kara reaches for Lena’s cheek, but flinches away when Lena kicks out, still without lifting her eyes. “Don’t touch me.”

The clink of a chain follows as Lena scoots away-- a repurposed leash that tethers her to the wall of the truck, barely a foot of give. This Lena is small and skittish of the bodies milling in the truck around them, pressing closer with dangerous intent, but it’s still...

“Lena?”

Bruised green eyes snap to Kara, locking on her face for a long shuddering moment before they drift to the symbol on her chest. 

“K-Kara...”

Bruised green eyes fill with tears, and even though it doesn’t make sense, none of it makes sense, because this isn’t the woman who cried in anguish in the Fortress of Solitude, this isn’t the person who turned her back on Kara’s hologram, but it is the Lena who leans towards Kara for comfort as reality kicks in, and the tears spill over. 

It is the Lena who Kara wraps her arms around, and holds her close.

---

In a Tower interrogation room, they learn Lena knows less than they do. 

“I don’t know,” Lena tells them from across the table. “I woke up, in the-- in a lab, and my brother was there. He told me--”

Her eyes flicker to Kara, then away.

“He told me some awful things.”

She’d spent most of the time since exactly where they’d found her. Lex didn’t seem to want anything, except to keep her contained. Contained, and alone. But when they move the conversation to the medbay, where Alex examines her, she locks up, and can barely seem to breathe for all the equipment around her.

When Alex comes in with a syringe, Lena recoils. “No. No, no, no...”

“Whoa, hey,” Kara soothes, “it’s okay. It’s okay.”

“It’s just a booster,” Alex says. “Cocktail shot of some vitamins and electrolytes.”

“See?” Kara holds Lena’s hand. “Nothing to be afraid of.”

Lena’s eyes lock on Kara’s, but she doesn’t pull away when Alex moves back in for a second attempt. Kara brushes the hair from Lena’s forehead, hoping the touch will keep Lena focused on her rather than the needle. It works. 

But when Lena starts to relax when the needle withdraws, it’s not in relief. Lena’s eyes grow wild with panic, even as they start to drift shut. “You said...”

Kara looks to Alex, and finds her sister’s features solemn and unyielding. Sudden anger flares at Alex’s lie, that Alex lied to her, but focuses instead comforting Lena. 

“It’s okay,” she promises. “You’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

---

“We don’t know who she is,” Alex defends herself later.

“She’s Lena, Alex.”

“So is the person who kidnapped J’onn’s brother and stole Myriad,” comes the counter. “Maybe she really doesn’t know anything, or maybe she does. Until we know exactly what is going on, she cannot be trusted.”

And so when Kara next visits Lena, it’s from the far side of the isolation cell glass. Lena sits curled in a ball, head on her knees, shoulders slumped in defeat. 

“They don’t believe me.”

It’s not a question. There’s no doubt in Lena now. No more fear. She’s back in a situation she’s familiar with-- being contained, being controlled. There’s a bitter sense of comfort in it.

“Lex told me they wouldn’t,” Lena continues. “He was right. About them. About you.”

Just as with the Lena who sits at her desk in Luthorcorp headquarters, Kara can barely face the hurt in this Lena’s gaze. She almost looks away, but stops herself. This time, she holds Lena’s gaze, and faces the anguish she’d been unable to face the last time.

But this time, Lena isn’t looking for comfort. 

“Go away.”

It’s not the second chance Kara hoped for. That second chance remains out of her reach as Lena turns away and doesn’t speak for days after. The only further information they get out of her is that her last memory before waking up in Lex’s lab is of her pulling the trigger on her brother. Of killing him.

“She doesn’t deserve to be here,” Kara argues to Alex. “I know you don’t trust her, but I do. I���m not saying we should just let her out on her own--” they have no idea why or how there are two Lena’s, but risking the two meeting would be a bad, bad idea. “What I’m saying is that she come stay with me. I’ll keep an eye on her, and maybe she’ll be able to trust us enough to give us more information.”

And so Lena soon finds herself standing awkwardly in the middle of Kara’s apartment. She looks around like she’s never been there before. Maybe she hasn’t. Or maybe she has, and she’s absorbing the minutiae of differences since her last visit. 

Kara suspects the latter, when she sees Lena’s gaze linger on a photo of the most recent game night that scrolls across her sleeping laptop. It’s one she loves because it includes Winn. That it’s one without James and Lena both leaves her feeling empty. 

But when another photo from that night scrolls across, a close up of Will, Kara, and Nia, Lena’s jaw tightens. When Lena averts her gaze, Kara catches a glimpse of anger, and an old guilt rears its ugly head in Kara’s chest. She should have been quicker to invite Lena into her life. Into their game nights, into her secret, into everything. Will’s quick acceptance of and by the group proves that the only thing that kept Lena at arm’s length was Kara’s own inhibitions. 

Her own fear. 

“Lena, I--”

“I assume I’m taking the couch,” Lena grumbles, forestalling any overture. “Or is this where the chains and dog cage come out?”

Kara swallows thickly, unable to completely deny Lena’s concerns as outlandish, as she’d had to talk Alex out of physical restraints for her guest. 

“No,” Kara replies. “No chains. No cages.” She shrugs. “I trust you.”

A scoff is all the response she gets to that.

---

Lena picks at her dinner, and barely eats a morsel before ultimately putting her plate aside. When Kara clears up, she listens to Lena’s breath and heart rate, finding some semblance of relief when Lena finds a comfortable position on the couch and finally, finally relaxes. 

She takes her time, allowing Lena extra minutes to herself. When Kara finally returns, she does so with a mug of tea in each hand. Lena simply stares at hers when Kara sets it down in front of her. Kara tries not to notice the way Lena’s eyes follow her as she curls up in the chair opposite the couch. She stirs her tea with a pensiveness that’s not entirely genuine.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

The question comes as quiet as a sigh. 

“All I ever wanted was to be trusted, and you let me believe that I was--”

Lena’s voice cracks, making tears spring to Kara’s eyes. 

“Lex really was right. Nothing I did was ever going to be enough for you.”

“That is not true.” Kara sits forward. “It was never about that. Never.”

A shrug lifts Lena’s sweatered shoulder. She still has yet to meet Kara’s eye. “No, it wasn’t.”

Because if it had been, Lena would have been told a thousand times over. Like she should have been. 

“I was afraid, Lena.” Kara curls her hands around her mug. “I know that must seem so foolish to you, and it does to me too, now. But before I told you? The thought of losing you--”

“What have I ever done to make you think I would hate you?”

“Because… you do?”

“I hate that you weren’t the one who told me. I hate that the words came from my brother, as he lay dying in front of me after I shot him in the chest. That’s what I hate. Not you.”

Kara’s throat locks around a sob, her eyes filling with tears. “Lena…”

“I hate that of all the things my brother is, everything he’s done… I hate that he’s more honest than you are.”

In a single blink, the floodgates open. Tears spill down Kara’s cheeks and don’t stop. On silent feet, Kara moves to kneel at Lena’s side. Reaching for Lena’s hand is a risk, but one that rewards Kara with warm fingers in hers. 

“I’m sorry, Lena.” Her voice scrapes and scratches-- there’s no defense in her, no way to hide the raw emotion spilling from her. “I am so sorry. I should have told you. I should have trusted you. Not just with my secret. I should have trusted that you-- that our friendship-- was stronger than that.”

Lena takes a shuddering breath, one that seizes in a sob. When Lena leans towards her, Kara wraps both arms around her. Thin arms hug her back, and bony shoulders wrack with silent sobs.

“I’m so sorry, Lena.”

And just like that-- they start to heal.

---

Their peace doesn’t last long. J’onn can only pretend to be Supergirl for so long before the real thing is needed. Lena’s trust in being trusted is put to the test: she spends Kara’s time away curled on the sofa, eyes on the door, just waiting for Alex’s team to burst in and take her back to the isolation cell. When the only person to enter is Kara six hours later with four pizzas, garlic breadsticks, and a two liter of MelloYello in hand, Lena almost starts crying all over again.

When their paths end up crossing, Kara finds interacting with the other Lena difficult-- she spends the limited exchange searching Lena’s face for any hint that she knows a version of her exists besides herself; that a version of her is sitting in Kara’s apartment, wearing an oversized hoodie and baggy blue jeans.

Kara can’t find any. 

Kara knows that doesn’t mean anything.

She goes home that night and asks her version of Lena for a hug. Her version of Lena gives it-- slowly, but without hesitation.

One night, Kara returns home to a ransacked apartment devoid of any Lena. There’s no question who is behind it the blood Kara finds on her hardwood floors. Only one man knows this Lena exists. Only one man knows where Supergirl might keep a traumatized best friend.

And there’s only one person who can go up against Lex Luthor and have a hope of coming out on top.

So Kara goes to the Lena Luthor whose eyebrow lifts in derision at the sight of her, and tells her everything. She explains the second version of Lena they’d found and lost again, tells her how Lex is behind it all, shares how they still haven’t any idea why.

And that Lena stares at her as though she wants to accuse her of more lies, more subterfuge, but when her lips part, what falls out is “then let’s find out.”

They track Lex to one of his many bunkers that still exist in this reality, and there they find him with the second Lena (or maybe the first, Kara’s still not sure). The Lena’s stare at each other, one with more surprise than the other. Kara supposes it’s hard to be surprised when one is cuffed hand and foot, with a collar around your neck. 

Lex, for his part, only smiles. “Hey, sis.”

The chain connecting to the collar around Lena’s neck retracts into the ceiling, pulling her to the very tips of her toes and leaving her choking for breath. Kara shoots forward, but the area around the dangling Lena glows green with Kryptonite, effectively grinding her to a halt before she staggers back to be caught by the other Lena.

“Why?” that Lena asks her brother. “What good could having two of me possibly be to you when you don’t let one out of your sight?”

“Oh, you sweet summer child,” Lex returns. “I didn’t double you, god no. Why would I double my work trying to control you? No, I reduced you. By half.”

Shock ripples through them both. The sight of it makes Lex chuckle. 

“You always had such potential, ace. But your judgement was always clouded by empathy-- you were always soft. But brilliant. Brilliant enough to figure me out. Splitting all of that between two of you, well… it made you far more pliable.”

“But…” Kara gasps. “How?”

Lex lifts a brow in an expression eerily like Lena’s. “You of all people should have figured it out by now, Supergirl.”

Just like that, the pieces click into place. 

“The harun’el.”

The same mineral that once split Kara herself. The same mineral Lena spent months working with. Rao. 

Lea leans towards her. “He means…?”

“Red Daughter,” Kara confirms.

She can still see her. Sometimes Kara dreams of her, still feels the weight of her body evaporating from her arms as she holds her dying counterpart. 

Kara looks at Lena, sees her eyes dark with thought as they travel from Kara to her dangling twin, then to Lex. Lex receives her silent gaze with an almost proud grin.

“But I gotta say, sis, even I never imagined you’d go as far as Non Nocere.”

Kara staggers to take her own weight, freeing Lena to approach her brother. Whatever Kara expected Lena to say or do in confronting Lex, it wasn’t the sight of long fingers snatching a scalpel from a table as she passed, or for the movement to be so blatant that Lex would see it coming.

“Oh, come now, Lena,” Lex chides. “At least you were smart enough to bring a gun last time.”

Lena lifts the blade towards him, but her features twist into a smirk. “What makes you think this is for you?”

Before anyone has time to react, Lena lifts the blade and plunges it deep into her own throat.

“NO!” Lex and Kara cry in unison. 

Kara moves faster, catching Lena as she falls. She cradles her friend in her arms, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Lena… why?”

“I refuse…” Lena gasps, “to be less...”

“What if--?”

“I’m not the copy?” Lena gurgles slightly through the blood filling her throat. It bubbles to her lips, staining them an unnatural red. “I’m the one he kept around. Just like…”

She coughs, unable to finish. Kara does it for her. 

“Just like Red Daughter.”

Lena features droop, gray with increasing blood loss. “Don’t… let him… win…”

With her last crackling breath, Lena’s form melts away just like Red Daughter’s, misting into a purple ether that lifts from Kara’s arms and chases towards where Lena still hangs on the tips of her toes. The violet energy sinks into her, illuminating her entire frame for a split second before it pulses out of her in a violent burst that disintegrates her bonds and drops her to her knees, choking for breath. 

Kara intercepts Lex when he makes a run for it-- she grabs him by the collar and tosses him back towards his sister, who still glows with unearthly light. He struggles to his knees as Lena climbs to her feet, eyes glowing with power. 

“Okay, Lena, listen to me-- I just wanted the best for you. For us to be working together, just like we used to--!”

Lena roars. She roars so loud that Kara covers her ears under the onslaught, and peers through slitted eyes as the power of the harun’el funnels into Lena’s hands, mouth and hands, firing a single combined blast towards her cowering brother. It consumes him entirely.

When the light under Lena’s skin finally wanes, there is nothing left of Lex-- not even a scorch mark. In the silence that follows, Lena sags to her knees once more, exhausted.

Green eyes meet Kara’s, heavy and full of emotion Kara can’t quite decipher.

“I’m sorry,” Lena murmurs. “For everything.”

Kara staggers towards her, and collapses to her knees beside Lena. She wraps Lena in a fierce hug, tears still damp on her cheeks. 

Lena’s alive. This time, Lena is whole. 

Kara would have asked for nothing else in the world.

---

It doesn’t take long for normalcy to return after that. Lena steps up as the CEO she’s meant to be, and it’s less than a month before she announces her intent to rebrand LuthorCorp as L-Corp. Supergirl resumes her full duties, and this time does so with a true ally in Lena. 

Still, there’s a hesitation in her chest when she arrives at Lena’s office one afternoon as Kara Danvers. She has Big Belly Burger in one hand, and kombucha in the other, the only peace offerings she can think to bring besides her heart, ready to be given if asked. 

She steps into the room with said heart in her throat, and almost swallows her tongue when Lena’s gaze snaps up to her and freezes for a split second before softening in recognition. The smile that follows is as gentle as the first rays of sunlight on an early sunday morning, and warms Kara just as completely. 

“Hey you,” Lena greets quietly. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

It takes a long moment for Kara to realize she means Kara Danvers-- it’s been too long since Kara has been anything but Supergirl in front of Lena, even when she wasn’t wearing the cape.

“Yeah,” Kara agrees. “Sorry about that.”

They stare at each other for a long moment, until Kara lifts the heavy bag in her right hand. “Big Belly?”

Lena’s features warm.

“I knew there was a reason you’re my favorite.”