#lexo suit

[jazzums]

if we get to play as silk in the next game i can’t wait for all the girl suits

[uselesseaweedbrain]

Supercorptober - 14. Chill

Lena had knocked on Kara’s door, begging for help, and Kara had opened. Lena had stayed, and Kara had listened.

They had made a plan, to corner Lex and Leviathan - it would work, this time, and then maybe they could, too.

Lena had toiled in her hidden laboratory, away from Lex’s prying eyes, and she had built herself an armour - nano-bots, the swarm enveloping her in a full body-suit that rivalled (eclipsed) the Lexo-suit.

When Kara and the Super-friends confronted Lex, Lena was there, clad in her armour. 

When Nia’s gun sputtered, Lena was there.

When the Kryptonite fell out of its chamber, and Kara’s veins filled with green, Lena was there.

Lena was there, too, as Alex stood, loaded it in her own gun, aimed, and fired at Lex.

Lena was there as her brother got hit and Kara got up, Kryptonite still pulsing in her veins. 

Lena was there when Lex got up, unharmed but no longer immortal; and smirked.

Lex, who had been shot, and utterly beaten, was smirking, one arm hidden behind his back.

Lena knew her brother better than anyone. He was hiding something, another trick up his sleeve, something they hadn’t seen coming-

Lena didn’t blink.

Lena didn't blink, but somehow she missed it - the moment Kara stepped in front of her.

Supergirl was just there, suddenly, without warning, a shield and a buffer, between Lena and whatever Lex had planned.

But then again- hadn’t Kara always done that?

Oh.

Realisation hit Lena like a knife in the chest.

No. No, no, no- 

"Goodbye, Supergirl.” Lex’s smile widened. “Good riddance!”

Lex pressed his thumb against the side of his latest toy.

Lena lifted her arm to fire.

Too late.

The Phantom Zone Projector whirred to life, Lena’s laser still captive in her suit.

Time slowed to a stop as the Projector cast an eerie azure light on them all, pointing directly at Kara, everyone else frozen still-

Lena wanted to scream, to move, to push Kara out of the way- but none of her members were responding, and all she could do was watch, in slow-motion, as the chill and the blue retreated and sucked Kara away with them.

Not Kara, not her, not Kara, please-

The superhero was already becoming translucent, intangible and out of reach, soon forever lost to the world, soon prisoner of her worst nightmare-

And Lena couldn’t move.

Not her, not again-

It should have been me.

“Kara!” Lena yelled; all that came out was a murmur, her vocal chords numb.

Still, Kara heard. Kara turned, her muscles struggling as she fought to resist the pull, a resolute smile painted across her lips-

I love you, she mouthed. The sound didn’t reach; the words did.

Assuredly, this wasn’t real- Time wouldn’t have stopped just for them, just for Lena, and Kara wouldn’t have fought just to say that, and, most importantly- Kara didn’t love her.

But if this was real- 

Lena wasn’t taking any chances.

“Take me with you”, she demanded, because they couldn’t end like this, wouldn’t, when they hadn’t even started.

Lena could see Kara’s neck muscles, taut with tension, her jaw clenched and her tendons strained, yet Kara managed a slight shake of the head and the beginning of her signature smile before she turned back, visibly trembling from exhaustion-

“Kara!” Lena screamed. Her voice worked this time, golden tendrils in her throat and a pulsing light in her veins.

Lena reached out, and the gold stretched out as if to hold Kara back, wrapping around her hand like an intangible lifeline.

Too late, again.

Time had resumed, and the portal had closed, severing all ties between Kara and Earth forever - all of them, but the golden string still tied around Lena’s finger.

***********************************************************************************************

Ever since, Lena had worked relentlessly to bring Kara back, barely sleeping, stopping only on the verge of exhaustion.

The Super-friends thought it was her guilt, prompting her, and it assuredly played a part, but-

There was this stubborn pull on her index finger, this golden string that no one else could see-

And ever since Kara had been sucked through to the Phantom Zone, Lena could hear her in her head.

Hear her in snippets, hear her beg for mercy, hear her yell her name, and Alex’s, and others’, in a desperate cry. 

Hear Kara talk to her directly, sometimes.

It should have been impossible. It was driving Lena crazy, crazier- 

It's cold, Lena. So cold. I didn't think I would ever be back here.

And sometimes Lena would catch herself answering back, because- if she couldn't soothe Kara, the real one- maybe she could at least make do with the imaginary voice in her head. 

You'll be okay, Kara. I promise. I'll bring you back, whatever it takes. I'll bring you back.

I believe you, imaginary Kara would say. 

Why? Lena would ask, foolishly - wasn’t she just talking to herself?

I’ve always believed in you, Lena.

How could it be exactly Kara's voice? Exactly Supergirl's shade of hope?

Lena didn’t know, couldn’t explain it, but if every Luthor was destined to go mad, Lena decided - Kara’s voice damning her was a mercy.

***********************************************************************************************

There were dreams, too, or- nightmares. 

Lena had had nightmares through the years, Lillian's cold smiles, Lionel's drunk tantrums, Lex going mad, Eve's betrayal, Adam's death, Kara wearing Lex's smile as she came clean, her mother dying-

She'd had nightmares through the years, but none like these. None where the emotions felt foreign but all the same familiar, none where she was extraordinarily affected yet not at all in control.

None where she watched herself die.

Lena feared many things - hubris, madness, abandonment -, but death wasn't one of them.

Yet there was a new voice in her head, and a new pull on her finger, and a newfound terror in her heart as she watched herself from the eyes of another, dying, over, and over, and over again. 

Lena had never cared about her own safety before. This time, though, unexplainably, watching herself die was like being skewered through the heart-

She just wanted to make it stop.

She saw her own lifeless body on the floors of CatCo, saw herself be carried in strong arms, saw Alex try to revive her, felt her own (was it her own?) despair and fear as the-one-who-was-her-but-wasn’t blowed gently on her limp body to lower her temperature.

She saw herself again, be thrown against the ground by Metallo, felt green creep into her (not hers, but then why did she feel the burn so clearly?) veins, her helpless, agonising body too weak to move.

"Don't hurt her!”, she-who-wasn’t-she screamed - her voice foreign, yet all too familiar. Kara. Why do I have Kara’s voice?

Lena saw herself in situations that seemed invented, too- she gazed at herself in a Metallo suit, her heart beating green and her face expressionless as she - as Lena - blasted the-body-she-shared-with-dream-Kara  with concentrated Kryptonite. 

"I'm sorry", their body said in Kara’s voice again, still gazing at unforgiving green, but they didn't fight, didn't try to get up, relief and pain overwhelming them before unconsciousness took over.

She saw herself with blonde children with green eyes, high cheekbones, running on the shore of a planet that was decidedly not Earth, saw a statue of herself in a lab coat on the main plaza - Lena Luthor, saviour of Argo, the plaque read.

Saw the planet erupt into flames and their world dissolve into nothingness and heard Kara’s voice-

Not again, please, not again- Rao- not them- not Lena, not them-

And then Lena inescapably woke up with a gasp, a scream stuck in her throat and her heart beating into overdrive-

A voice in her head calling her name.

Lena? Lena! Lena, please tell me you’re alive, please tell me this wasn’t real, Lena-

I’m here, she’d inevitably answer. This wasn’t real, Kara. It was just a nightmare.

This wasn’t real. This was just a nightmare, Kara, I promise. And Lena would repeat these words like a mantra, on a loop, forever, if it meant imaginary Kara would believe them.

Eventually, imaginary Kara did, the ache in Lena’s chest subsiding - and the throbbing on her index finger fading away.

***********************************************************************************************

It took Lena a while to figure out that the dreams weren’t hers, the fears weren’t hers, the voice in her head wasn’t hers.

Regardless, the realisation hadn’t helped.

Lena didn’t understand and didn’t want to try, lest she discovered that there was nothing to understand but obsession, guilt, and her slow descent into madness. 

So Lena doubled down on the science, working restlessly until she finalised the Q-wave detector and called Alex to her side. 

“Alex. I think I found a way to bring her home.” 

Hope filled Lena’s voice as she exposed her strategy to Alex, minutely explaining every detail with more enthusiasm than she’d shown in months. Her plan could work. It could work - it was the only tangible plan they’d had in weeks, and Lena was ecstatic. 

“There’s just one thing,” she finished. “I am going to need a piece of Kara to bring her back. Something to trace her, to identify her, to calibrate the Q-wave detector.”

Wordlessly, Alex handed her the crystal she’d been toying with for weeks.

Lena gawked.

“This crystal contains Kara’s digital signature. I want you to use it to find her.”

Alex’s hand was still hanging in the air as Lena shook her head in disbelief.

“I’m hopeful I can find her, but, there are no guarantees, Alex, and, if I use it- you’ll lose the recording forever-“

Alex presses it into her palm, and Lena gapes at the certainty in the agent’s gaze.

“I trust you, Lena.”

Of course she does, Kara’s voice echoes. I did, too. Even if I was terrible at showing it.

***********************************************************************************************

Lena’s success had been short-lived, Alex tearing her heart - both their hearts - to shreds before Lena could even celebrate.

Because the city was in danger. Because “Kara would have picked others before herself“. Because Alex wouldn’t do that to her sister, letting thousands die to save her. 

But Lena wasn’t Kara, Lena wasn’t Alex, Lena was selfish and she would-

The device flew out of her hand and into Alex’s, the agent’s guilty eyes her only apology.

I’m sorry, Kara, I’m so sorry, she took it, and now- 

Lena’s despair must have seeped through the cracks because imaginary Kara’s elusive voice answered immediately.

It’s okay, Lena. It’s okay. You did the right thing, you both did the right thing. 

But you- you’re still stuck there, Kara! While we’re saving thousands of people we’re letting you suffer in this horrible place-

I’ll be okay, Lena. Just- please, don’t leave me. Don’t leave me again.

Lena doesn’t have any idea how she could be leaving a voice in her head behind, but even if she could-

I wouldn’t dream of it.

***********************************************************************************************

Alex had saved the city, with Lena’s creation and Kara’s last hope.

“There’s always another way, Lena. Kara taught us that”, she’d lectured - Lena had scoffed at the empty reassurance and raged at the denial, resentment burning like acid in her throat at the utilitarian choice, because- 

Lena had looked for seven weeks, and- 

There was no other way.

***********************************************************************************************

Imaginary Kara had been almost silent since then, her voice growing weaker in Lena’s head, and it felt like she was giving up, but she couldn’t give up. Lena wouldn’t let her.

Except that Lena and Brainy, together, had not come up with anything new in days. 

“It’s not working, Lena! It’s not working! We’ll never find a way to localise her, because science cannot make miracles, and we just burnt our last trace of Kara so we could save people who will never even be grateful to her! We don’t have anything- anything, you hear me, nothing linking us to her, and- it hurts, it hurts so much, Lena, I miss her, I miss her-”

Brainy’s tirade ended in a desperate cry, echoed by the tears on Lena’s cheeks and the agonising cramping of her lungs.

Lena didn’t believe in magic. She didn’t believe in magic, but Kara’s voice rung out in her head and Kara’s pain squeezed her heart in her chest and a golden string was wrapped around her finger-

You really don’t believe in magic? Imaginary Kara chose this precise moment to pipe up, curious and alert for the first time in days.

Lena’s relief was palpable, her reply instantaneous. 

I believe in you.

Lena could feel imaginary Kara smile at her answer; in her head, from another dimension. Impossible. Crazy. 

But in the end- what did Lena have to lose?

“Brainy, do you believe in magic?”

Brainy wiped away his tears, taking a moment to compose himself before answering. 

“Do you think it might help?”

“I- You think it’s real?”

Brainy nodded. “It is. Magic has been referenced and studied and wielded by dozens of thousands of civilisations along the years. Humans seem to have unfortunately forgotten it, but it certainly exists. Magic permeates the very air around us - however, only a select few individuals are blessed with the ability to perceive it, and manipulate it at will. I believe Earthlings call them witches.”

“I think a link was created between Kara and I before the portal closed. And- if it’s real- do you think we could use it to find her?”

“What kind of link?”

Lena extended her right hand for observation. Brainy simply frowned.

“Why are you showing me your hand?”

“Around my pointer finger, there’s- never mind. It’s probably stupid.”

“Tell me, Lena.”

Lena took in a deep breath, her eyes lifting daringly to look straight at Brainy.

“There’s a golden string tied around my pointer finger. And I think it may lead to Kara."

Brainy cocked his head, a curious glint in his still wet eyes and the beginning of a smile on his lips.

“In that case- I have something that just might work.”

A few seconds later, Brainy was whipping out a leather-bound grimoire that looked like it had transcended millennia.

“Is this a magic book?”

Brainy smirked. “What better tool for a witch?”

***********************************************************************************************

It took a few hours for Lena to wrap her head around the notion of witches - the shock lessened by Kara’s voice in her head, providing trivia about the first line of witches on Krypton.

After, Lena had to dedicate a few days to complete her reading of the book, filled with various amounts of dramatic statements and warnings, interspersed with what seemed like truly valuable information.

Lena pointedly ignored the flowery language and the cautionary injunctions, focusing instead on the information the book held on magic control, magic manipulation, and the art of finding. 

The first step was obvious, described unambiguously in the first pages of the book: Lena needed to learn to access her magic.

Clear as the process may be - whichever instructions Lena followed, whatever many hours of meditation she subjected herself to- nothing seemed to work.

I’m sorry, Kara. I’m so sorry, I’m stuck, and I can’t- it won’t come- I can’t control it.

You don’t have to. Just- have you tried trusting yourself? Letting it come to you?

I- But what if it blows up? What if I can’t control it? What if I go crazy and my powers go rogue?

You won’t. They won’t. These powers are part of you, Lena. They won’t betray you. I know I- An immaterial self-deprecating laugh. I know I did, but- you never deserved it. You deserved to be trusted and loved and cherished and I’m sorry, Lena, I am so sorry, but this was always my fault. My own fears, my own insecurities, my own shortcomings. Your powers are a part of you, and they are good, and kind, like you. I know I have no right to ask this of you anymore, but- trust yourself for me?

***********************************************************************************************

When golden smoke finally materialised and shimmered over Lena’s hands, she didn’t dare breathe for a handful of seconds, afraid the illusion would dissipate and take their delusional hope with it.

The smoke persisted.

“I did it”, Lena whispered, her voice tainted with disbelief.

I did it, Kara. I did it! I did it. I will bring you home.

“I did it!”, Lena yelled out loud, in relief and exhilaration, her own voice startling in the emptiness of the Tower.

She hadn’t noticed how late it had gotten, the hands of the clock ticking dangerously close to three A.M.. 

Alex had long given up on trying to coax her into going home at a decent hour.

As a matter of fact, Lena’s nightly stays had gotten so frequent that J’onn had set up an actual bed in the Tower for her after she’d fallen asleep at her desk one too many times, and woken up with agonising neck pain.

I did it, Kara, Lena repeated in her head.

Never doubted you, Kara’s voice answered, quietly, but with such conviction that Lena felt her chest grow a little fuller.

Lena didn’t know when she’d started believing that the voice in her head was really Kara (maybe she always had). 

Lena didn’t know, either, when what she would have dismissed as empty reassurances had  once again become her primary source of comfort.

***********************************************************************************************

The location spell, facilitated with the string still stubbornly tied to Lena’s pointer finger, only took her the better part of the night.

When the sun rose, waking Lena from her accidental slumber, and Alex came in, bearing coffee and her signature worried frown, she was met with a radiant smile and the mark of the leather’s carvings on Lena’s cheek.

“I did it, Alex. I found her.”

Alex quirked a sceptical brow, an incredulous look on her face. Lena just raised her hand in response, palm open.

There,  inscribed in golden light, dancing on the inside on her palm, was a set of four unstable coordinates.

Alex traced them with her finger, a disbelieving smile painted across her lips. “You did it, Lena”,  she murmured. “You really did it.”

***********************************************************************************************

Boarding J’onn’s ship and guiding it to Kara turned out a surprisingly easy task, the coordinates acting like a beacon, the golden thread like a compass. 

The sunlight grenades that Lena had designed but never gotten to make - finished by Brainy a few days after the witch discovery - illuminated the ghastly plane in vibrant yellow as Kara regained the power of flight, and rose majestically to the space-ship.

Lena watched in amazement - her best friend returning to her - the thread around her finger thrumming as Kara got closer.

Alex was the first to be hugged, Kara’s head burying in her collarbone. Then came J’onn, his fatherly embrace drawing tears, then Brainy, oddly in tune with his emotions, then Nia, the long lost daughter, then-

Only Lena was left.

She hadn’t noticed she was crying until she felt wetness on her cheeks. Imaginary Kara was silent, the phantom pain in Lena’s chest soothed somewhat, and Kara- Kara was looking at her.

Lena felt the tug again - in her chest, this time - and she complied, putting one foot in front of the other until-

Kara must have felt the tug, too, but she remained still, only opening her arms. Lena’s choice. It was always Lena’s choice, with Kara. Maybe it would be with Supergirl, too.

Lena took the final step, Kara’s arms closed around her, and the tug relented, something ancient and powerful singing in Lena’s veins as she melted into Kara’s embrace.

She could feel her body light up at Kara’s contact, indescribable warmth coursing over her skin as she revelled at the presence of her best friend.

Kara had closed her eyes contentedly, Lena’s head buried in her collarbones, so none of them saw- but the others stared in amazement as impalpable gold swirled around them like a consecration.

Gold was still settling when Kara opened her eyes.

“Oh”, she said, and Lena reluctantly lifted her head from the crook of Kara’s neck, particles of light dancing and shimmering around her.

“Oh”, Lena echoed in turn.

Her cheeks burnt at the involuntary display, and Lena promptly hid her blush by dropping her head against Kara’s shoulder.

I was just happy to see you, I think.

A wet chuckle, then:

“It’s only because you’re on the team that I’m here.”

I was so happy to see you, too.

Lena sniffled, and tried to silence imaginary Kara - You’re not real, she thought. You’re not real, and Kara is back, so let me-

Real Kara broke their embrace, her hands finding Lena’s like opposite magnets, her tantalising gaze fixated on Lena-

You think I’m not real? 

Well-

“Wow, talk about out-staging us, Lena.” Alex’s voice cut them — Lena and her lively imaginary friend — off; and Lena felt, more than saw, Kara’s hands slide out of hers at the interruption. 

“The gold was a bit much, don’t you think?”, Alex teased, a knowing smirk on her lips.

For the second time in a handful of seconds, Lena felt blood rush to her face. 

Luckily, Alex didn’t dwell on the subject, apologising to Kara instead for Kelly’s absence.

***********************************************************************************************

The rest of the afternoon passed in a whirlwind of emotional reunions and necessary catch-ups.

Lena assisted to most of it, electing to take the backseat as a silent observer. 

Because the Super-friends were a family, to which Lena didn’t belong. 

Kara had hugged her, sure, but they had so many unresolved tensions, so many grievances, so many wounds, that- Lena wasn’t sure she would ever be part of Kara’s family again (had she ever been part of it in the first place?).

It happened once, then twice, then a dozen times- Kara searching for Lena’s eyes across the room, the intensity of her gaze enough for the insistent tug on Lena’s finger to let up for a moment.

And then, as Lena was about to leave, making eye contact with Kara, who was in a deep discussion with Nia about her growth as Dreamer:

Meet me at my apartment, in an hour?

Kara hadn’t spoken but Lena had heard her, clear as day, Kara’s eyes bearing the silent question like an unspoken challenge.

Kara’s gaze is still on her, so Lena nods imperceptibly.

I’ll be there, she thinks, and she can swear that she sees real-Kara smile. 

***********************************************************************************************

You’re just a figment of my imagination. You’re not real. 

Lena is waiting in front of Kara’s apartment. She’s ten minutes in advance - not wanting to take chances with imaginary-Kara’s demands. Sue her.

You’re not real, you’re not real, you’re not real-

“What if I am, Lena?”

It’s real-Kara’s voice, spoken out loud in the open air of the corridor, that startles Lena out of her thoughts.

“Kara! You scared me!”

Kara smiles slightly, brushing past Lena as she makes her way to her door, unlocks it, pushes it open.

“Sorry,” she shrugs sheepishly.

Only after the door closes behind them do Kara’s words finally reach Lena’s brain.

“Did you- Kara, what did you just say?”

What if I am real? Imaginary Kara answers, and Kara simply watches, silent, one expectant eyebrow raised.

“But you- you’re not- you can’t be-“

“I am. And I can hear you, too.”

Lena only notices her hands are shaking when Kara takes them into hers, her voice soft, so soft, as she inquires:

“Alex told me how you found me. How you crafted the spell. Don’t you have to believe in magic for your powers to work? Didn’t you have to believe that it was real for you to rescue me?”

“Yes, but then- all the dreams- the conversations-“

“They were real, for me. The nightmares- that’s what the Phantom Zone does to its prisoners. Torture them with their deepest fears, forever. But I was supposed to go through that alone, Lena, and somehow- I could feel you there with me. So. I wanted to say that I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you had to go through that, too, because of me. Rao knows you didn’t deserve any of it.”

Neither did you.

Kara’s throat bobs and Lena steps closer, burrowing herself in Kara’s arms, her own arms sealing their hold on her ex-best friend as if she’s liable to disappear any second.

Did it help? Lena thinks. Being bound to me?

“Yes,” Kara whispers. “So much. I- I don’t think I would have survived without you. Not the second time around. Having your voice in my head, being able to hear it, it tethered me to reality, to you-”

Kara’s voice breaks.

You have no idea in how many ways you saved me.

“You saved me, first,” Lena murmurs, her nose pressed against Kara’s neck, her lips almost brushing Kara’s skin.

I love you, too, she thinks, too chicken to say it out loud; but if Kara’s smile against her collarbone is any indication, Kara heard. I’m sorry I didn’t say it back.

S’okay. I didn’t deserve it.

Lena has heard imaginary-Kara being self-deprecating before, but this is real-Kara, and-

Lena breaks the hug to look Kara in the eyes, tone serious and focused as she states:

“You did deserve it. You deserve the world, Kara, but I- didn’t see any of it until you were ripped away, and sent on your own to this God-awful place-”

I wasn’t on my own. I had you.

Lena’s breath is a shudder.

You always have me, Kara. 

For how long?

However long you want me.

Lena thinks whatever spell ties them together must have suddenly stopped working. Seconds elapse like an unstoppable flow, yet Kara doesn’t answer, gives no indication that she’s heard besides the barely noticeable tremors of her shoulders against Lena’s - is Lena imagining them?

Lena’s hold tightens on Kara and Kara’s trembling must be real, because her voice is unsteady, and so small, when she says:

“I’ve always wanted you, Lena. I don’t think I could ever stop.”

“I’ve always wanted you, too.” Lena confesses in Kara’s ear, and Lena feels the dam break in her own chest as Kara’s tremors morph into sobs; big, ugly, irrepressible ones.

Lena is holding her, so Kara can break. After all- Lena has always been so good at putting the pieces of her back together.

************************************************************************

Edit:

NSFW ending here!!!!!!

Second edit:

Part 3 (a light, funny, fluffy spin-off) here!

[ao3fics-lost-and-found]

Looking for a Supercorp story. Lena has re-purposes the Lexo-suits as sort of an emergency medical responder. Lena is hurt and before she passes out has her AI start the program for the suits to go and rescue people. After treatment the suits move people to a warehouse with cots to recover.

Fandom: Supergirl

Pairing: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Please, help us find these fics! Leave your suggestions in the comments. Thank you! 🙏😊🦸‍♀️

Edit:

@chapel728 has found their fic. It's chapter 2 of "Uncertainty Principle" by ThiaKerrigan.

[jesncin]

I’d really like to hear your thoughts on MAWS characters alongside Lois, if you want to do that of that’s entirely up to you but it would be really interesting ^_^

I've written about maws a fair bit on this blog! You can find my general thoughts on the jesncin talks maws tag and my massive maws Lois essay here for my thoughts on her. Suffice to say I'm not a fan of this show, lol. I haven't been able to stomach watching season 2 so my entire knowledge is limited to season 1. With that said, roundup of my thoughts on maws characters:

Clark Kent: boring. Vanilla. Critical lack of hero motivation and idealism outside of "people are getting hurt!" as a platitude. Just some guy who does chores because that's the nice thing to do. Not defeating the Superman Is Boring allegations- just has an uwu cute cinnamon roll himbo filter on it.

Lois Lane: xenophobic asian lois lane is the worst crime ever committed to me. A historically jaded, award winning, accomplished career woman fighting against work place misogyny is now a cutesty uwu girl-failure who needs the help of two men to get hired. Barf.

Jimmy Olsen: I get the attempt at making him a conspiracy theorist as a means of tapping into Jimmy's wacky silver age antics and to bounce off of Clark for shenanigans, but it doesn't meaningfully interrogate how that is at odds with his job as a journalist. Also he was sidelined hard in S1- more than he was in CW Supergirl.

Perry White: I was hoping that unlike STAS and if MAWS was going to pull from anime, that this meant strong relationships with Superman's cast system. But nope. Perry is just a running gag. I was hoping for a Snapper and Kara dynamic like in CW Supergirl.

Scoop troop (Cat Grant, Ronnie Troupe, Steve Lombard): Superfluous characters, easily delete-able. All of which have been reinterpreted as anime stereotypes. Yawn.

Newskid Legion: Also delete-able and a waste of my time. They should be called newsies. They make no sense as outdated characters placed in a futuristic setting. What is child labor doing this late in the game. Be more creative with modernizing outdated characters.

Pa and Ma Kent: Boring. The biggest problem you can have with the Kents is making them generic supportive parents like they're sentient Hallmark cards. Pa Kent got the bad end of the stick as the clueless parent, while Ma Kent was pushed as the heart of the family to Clark. Not that she did much.

Vicki Vale: Absolutely insane of this show to add another Asian xenophobe woman journalist. The MAWS crew love gloating about how they're not going to include Batman in MAWS, but they can't resist putting a Gothamite in their show and stealing rogues from other heroes. Could've brought Angela Chen (a canonically asian Metropolis reporter) from STAS but I guess she's not as big a name as a Gotham character, eh?

Livewire: the glowdown of a century. DCSHG continues to outperform every modern version of this character. Why make her a generic smuggler when her original job as a shock jokey is far more interesting?? Podcaster or influencer was right there. Her motives make no sense too.

Intergang crew: Why. Did they consolidate. Banshee with two random rogues (Mist & Roughouse) and call them Intergang. That's so many glowdowns at once. I've never seen someone look at a hero's diverse rogues gallery and say "let's consolidate all these characters so we have less material to work with in the future". I hate how the rogues are all tech based, and share the same origin. These baddies kickstarted the show's "villains with petty crime motivations": no ideological or thematic draw to them.

Ivo/Parasite: Another villain with nonsensical motivations. His business is going bankrupt so he sets up an investor event party to show off his Black Panther Lexo suit (which was apparently a response to Superman! A stranger that we can't trust! And somehow these expensive suits are more trustworthy) only to attack his investors and get owned by Superman. Then he just has a hateful vendetta against Superman. People who think this is a good Parasite interpretation because they projected vague Elon Musk are kidding themselves. I could clown on MAWS' Ivo all day. He is so badly written.

Heatwave: Why genderbend a Flash villain when Superman already has a Fire Woman in his rogues gallery? Volcana? Remember her? She's from the same show yall got Livewire from? Praise this show all you want for "reigniting interest in Superman", it's clear they're willing to toss away actual Superman cast characters for more popular characters from other heroes when it suits them. What's Heatwave's motivations? Petty crime.

Slade Wilson/Deathstroke: Imagine building this character up to be a big threat only to do nothing with him lol. I can't take him seriously, his voice acting is the worst and I hate his design. This show is so desperate to make attractive villains for fangirls it's frankly pathetic. How did people even mistaken him for Superman? He doesn't FLY.

Mallah and The Brain: This is what happens when you revive gay villains and put them through the HarlIvy Respectability Beam on fast forward. The gay villains aren't villains anymore! Because that would be bad representation! They're now cute cuddly domestic dads who want to raise robot children and run away together!! How TRITE. Mallah has "american faking a french accent" syndrome but bad voice acting is the norm in this show.

Mxy: The one time they include a villain that Lois and Jimmy could easily help Superman defeat (Mxy's whole deal is that you can send him to his dimension by tricking him to spell or say his name backwards) they opt to make it even dumber by just "removing his hat". Because the MAWS crew aren't smart enough to think of ways Superman and his pals can trick Mxy. For the record, CW Supergirl got this right in comparison.

Legion of Loises: It's the way this show can't write competent women even when that's the goal. All the characters act so stupid and that includes the Legion of Loises. At least MAWS!Lois learns the important lesson that even though she's not as accomplished as these career focused versions of her, at least she can keep her man. Misogyny in a cute package.

Alex/Lex Luthor: Go away. Ugly design I can't stand him. Miserable voice acting as usual.

Amanda Waller: She's pretty generic here. Playing second fiddle to Sam Lane for the most part, but this show has a problem with fleshing out Black characters in general so.

Sam Lane: We now have up to THREE asian xenophobes in MAWS season 1. The crew did not think their diversity through because at the end of the day S1 was really about a White Guy Alien getting oppressed by mostly people of color. Without a hint of irony.

Jor-El: I thought the language barrier between him and Clark was an inspired choice and clever as a means of postponing Clark learning about his heritage. But nope. Jor-El just starts magically talking in English later on. Otherwise boring and generic!

Brainy: I know he's prominent in S2 so I can't speak much for his character from the small impression I got of him in S1, but I can say that he looks mad ugly <3 truly horrible rogues designs in this show.

PHEW!! That's my roundup of MAWS character opinions! Wild how I can't even pinpoint a character I like on this show, lol. I know Kara's in S2 as well, and what I've seen of her sounds awful. Her design is bad too. I'm just not ready for the heartbreak of meeting that version of her because I love Supergirl so much :((

[chaotic-super]

Joining The Superfriends - 25

Read Joining The Superfriends on AO3 here!

Kara gasps at the sight of the suit Lena is proudly standing beside, a positively attractive smug look painted across her face.

“Lena, it’s incredible.” She moves closer tentatively with her arm outstretched. The moment her fingertips brush against the fabric, she starts grinning. “Can I try it on?”

Lena shrugs. “Well, it is yours so it would be rude of me to say no.”

Kara’s face is the picture of wonder and Lena just can’t take her eyes off of her, not having it in her to get her to hurry because the team is still out there fighting against the Lexo-suits. Kara takes her time in looking the suit over, her hands running over it several times over as she takes in every tiny feature of it.

“I have no idea how you found the time to do this but it’s incredible. You’re incredible.” Kara takes the helmet in her hands. “You do realize that I have a head of steel though right? I don’t think I need a crash helmet.”

“It’s to lock in the suit because when you have the helmet on, you’re in an environmentally controlled space and that means that you are protected from Kryptonite as long as the helmet is on with the suit,” Lena explains. “Now, are you going to try it on? I think that there are a few people outside that would love to see your new look.”

In response, she gets another grin and then Kara speeds away with the suit in tow. She returns not two seconds later wearing the suit with the helmet tucked beneath her arm. “How’d I look?”

“Positively incredible,” Lena answers, her eyes taking in the assets in front of her…the assets of the suit that is. Totally.

Kara nods. “Awesome. I’m gonna go test it out and get the others back here. Back in a jiff!”

As she practically skips away to leave The Tower, Lena has to resist the urge to roll her eyes at Kara’s choice of words but it would be a shame to break eye contact with the curve of her ass and her thighs that are no longer being covered by a pesky thing like a cape.

Kara rounds the corner and just like that, Lena snaps out of her very obvious gawping and kicks herself back into gear. There’s a war raging outside and she can’t just waste time staring at a very attractive ass rather than working.

With a bit of pep in her step, Lena makes her way back to the monitors to see what is happening outside and keep track of where the team is before she goes and starts working the synthetic Kryptonite so she can destabilize the cores of the Lexo-suits.

Kara’s tracker moves quickly, Lena’s eyes following the little blue dot that marks Kara’s location as she soars across the city. Through the CCTV footage, Lena can see the Lexo-suits aiming for her with their kryptonite blasters which have little effect other than a slight impact from the force of it. The suit is absorbing it all though, just how she designed it.

Supergirl lands with her hands on her hips, her helmet shielding her face and stopping Lena from being able to see what her expression is but she’d say that it’s a fair assumption that she’s probably looking either like an excited puppy or an overly confident, smug alien with one hell of an ego boost. It’s probably somewhere in between though.

Alex is looking up at her from her hiding spot with a shocked expression. That’s a feat in and of itself because Alex isn’t one to wear her emotions on her sleeve, especially in the middle of her fight, always keeping as much of what she’s thinking to herself as she possibly can just in case it can give her an advantage.

Her eyes drift up and down the figure in front of her, the glyph on their chest giving away their identity right away.

“Supergirl?”

“That’s me! Look at the awesome suit Eagle One made me, it’s anti-kryptonite!” Kara gushes, doing a little spin that is definitely not how she should be acting whilst there are Lexo-suits still actively seeking to murder her.

Alex’s head bobs up and down, mostly just because she’s in shock because they have been trying to figure out a way to protect Kara from kryptonite for years and have never managed to come anywhere near as close to protecting her to this level before. The best they did was when Winn made her a kryptonite shield that gave her some protection from it and Brainy later boosted its power of it but it never stopped it from hurting, not the way this suit must be because she’s watching Kara be pummelled with blasts and she’s not so much as flinching.

Alex ducks back down where she has been taking cover behind a truck and urges Kara to come and join her. When Kara slides next to her, she grabs her wrist. Do you have contact with our friend in The Tower?”

Kara nods. “Yeah, the comms in my helmet work.”

“Cool, then Eagle One, I’m totally buying you a bottle of something good for making this suit for this dummy.” Alex leans closer to Kara and raises her voice to make sure that Lena can hear her.

Lena chuckles to herself. “Supergirl, please tell Sentinel that she’s very welcome and I will gladly accept that bottle.” She laughs harder when in response she hears Kara whine in annoyance.

Kara bumps her shoulder into Alex’s. She said she wants the bottle and that you’re welcome.”

Alex grins. “Tell her—”

“No!” Kara holds up a hand. “I am not doing this. We have to get to the others and we have to get back to The Tower. We have to make a plan because this is all a mess.” She gestures up to the Lexo-suits that are still blasting away around them.

Alex looks up at the sky and then at the destruction left behind by the Lexo-suits, the rubble of what used to be important buildings. It’s sad to see and it tugs at her heartstrings but there’s no time for that right now. “I know where Kelly is, she’s a couple of blocks away, she was helping people trying to escape.”

“Hold onto me and tell me which way,” Kara demands while wrapping an arm around Alex’s waist and shooting up into the sky before she can fully register what just happened. She gains her bearings rapidly once they are in the sights of the Lexo-suits that immediately start firing at them, Kara turning her back to them and taking the brunt of the blasts.

She points Kara in the direction of where she saw Kelly last before they were forced to split up so they could try and get any civilians that have changed their minds and want to leave after earlier refusing to out of the city, or at least out of the city centre where a lot of the destruction is being targeted towards.

Kelly is found really quickly, her gold suit helpful for spotting her, something that’s a good thing when they are the ones trying to find her but not so good when it’s enemies trying to target her. They land right beside her and she looks at them with a face full of relief. The civilians are nowhere to be seen so they either took off or are hiding again and taking cover.

“Nice suit, Supergirl.”

“Thanks!” Kara grins beneath her helmet and offers her a hand. “We’re reconvening at The Tower so grab hold and then I’ll head out to find the others.”

Kelly finds herself quickly scooped up by Kara with a hand around her waist and Alex in the same position opposite her. Even though she knows that Kara has got her and that she couldn’t be in safer hands, she still keeps a good grip on Kara’s shoulders, her knuckles whitening from how hard she’s holding on.

Kara drops them off just up the block from The Tower. “Here, head right on up and get filled in on what we know. Any idea where the others are?” Kelly shakes her head just as Lena comes in through the comms, telling her exactly where to find Nia, Brainy and J’onn because she can see them on the CCTV footage. “Thank you, heading out now.”

Alex and Kelly figure out who she’s talking to right away and wave her goodbye whilst heading for the entrance to J’onn’s PI office since they have to get inside through the ground floor since it’s on lockdown. It’s a good thing really because the second they are inside and the elevator doors shut behind them, they feel instantly safer and can actually catch their breaths without being shot at.

Kara, on the other hand, is actively being shot at whilst searching for the others. She finds them dutifully fighting away across town, Nia creating a protective shield out of dream energy whilst Brainy uses physics in a very odd yet effective way to lure the Lexo-suits in closer to him so he can study them for any signs of weaknesses. It’s not great news though because he has yet to see anything.

J’onn is flying high above them and using his pure strength to rip them apart. It’s somewhat effective but it’s a slow process and with the sheer number of them, he would be here for months trying to rid the city of them if he was to stick with this method.

Kara aims for him first and she takes him by surprise enough that he grabs her by the shoulders with a decent amount of pressure before pausing when he realizes that she’s not an enemy.

“Sorry.” He apologizes right away, releasing her.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re heading back to base to make a plan. I’ll get Nia, you get Brainy.”

J’onn nods resolutely. “Got it.”

Kara doesn’t give Nia any warning before flying down and scooping her up, laughing when she squeals softly and drops the badass persona she was donning just a moment ago.

“Hey, Dreamer. I got a new suit!” Kara boasts.

Nia recognises her voice and relaxes into her. “Holy shit, you scared me. Jerk.” She swats at Kara’s helmet with the back of her hand.

“Hey! Don’t hurt my totally cool helmet.”

As she’s flying, purposely flying high up in the clouds to try and avoid as many of the Lexo-suits as possible, she turns her head to see J’onn and Brainy flying just behind them, very obviously using Kara as cover for when they occasionally get shot at. Kara’s not sure if she’s offended by being used for cover or not but she’ll figure it out once they are safe and the fight is over.

She flies right into the office and heads for the wall where the elevator is hidden, only setting Nia down when they are all inside the tiny space and on their way up to the others. The rest of the team is waiting for them when they arrive up into the main part of The Tower and they all share a brain cell for a single moment when they roll their eyes at Kara’s dramatic hair flip after pulling her helmet off and tucking it under her arm the same way she did earlier.

“Show off.” Nia mumbles.

Kara, having heard it thanks to a little thing called Super hearing, smiles at her with a shrug. “Sometimes you’ve just got to.”

Nia can’t help but agree with that. Sometimes she just has to have her diva moments too and if she didn’t then she’d be the most boring person on Earth…or maybe the grumpiest. Sort of like Oliver Queen.

Lena fills them in on her plan to create synthetic Kryptonite and has them all clean up and fuel up while she makes it. Alex insists on helping her so it’s done quicker and also bans Kara from entering the lab whether she has her new suit on or not because it’s so unstable that she doesn’t want to take any risks with her little sister.

Since the others have been left to their own devices, they decide to try and come up with their own plan to stop the Lexo-suits but there’s not much they can do because they don’t know exactly how Lena is going to merge the kryptonite cores of the robots with the synthetic kryptonite.

Brainy just can’t stand not knowing something so he ends up heading off to the lab to join Lena and Alex so he can help out and get answers to all of his questions, in complete awe of Lena’s handiwork and thrilled that he gets to work with a human that can almost compete with his twelfth-level intellect.

J’onn and Nia end up going and doing what Lena told them to do, taking it in turns using the bathroom to clean themselves up of all of the dust and grime they have been covered with, or in J’onn’s case, oil. He’s gotten himself covered in it because of the way he was tearing the Lexo-suits apart.

Nia goes for a nap too, very fitting of a woman called Dreamer. J’onn doesn’t do that but he does go and meditate afterwards.

Kelly stays with Kara though. They find themselves sitting on a couch just staring ahead into space whilst trying to come up with solutions they know they won’t be able to come up with but try nonetheless.

A whole lot of staring and silence goes by before Kelly flops her head back into the couch cushions and turns it to face Kara. “I really like the new suit by the way.”

“I do too. I don’t know if I’ll use it for day-to-day stuff because it’s very high-tech and well, as cool as it is, my other suit is a bit more casual for everyday usage, or as casual as I can get with a superhero costume anyway, I really love it though, I’ll have to come up with a way to thank Lena for making it for me.”

Kelly snorts. “I can think of a way she’d probably like to be thanked.”

Kara’s head whips around to look at Kelly and she actually gasps at the devilish glint in Kelly’s eyes. She doesn’t often see this side of Kelly and when she does, it’s usually at the same time Alex has her disgustingly dirty mind out to play and she ends up being traumatized right after. This is different. This is Kelly teasing her about Lena, this is new.

“Kelly!” Kara’s mouth is dropped open in shock. “I cannot believe you just said that.”

Kelly just shrugs, “Oh come on, Kara, we both know that with how much you’ve been showing off that suit, the one that Lena made to show off your ass by the way, and you’re totally going to show her how much you appreciate it later on. She is your girlfriend, it’s not like it’s a shock to anyone.”

The last sentence makes her splutter the most and she shakes her head furiously. “She’s not— She’s not my girlfriend. We’re not at that point.”

Kelly snorts again, an undignified sound that rumbles dep from her chest. “believe me, Kara. She is. You might not have made it officially official but you are. You’re exclusively dating each other and eye fucking every moment you can, that’s not even counting the physical aspect of your relationship.”

“Am I being psychoanalysed right now?”

“Nah, I’d charge you if I was doing that. I’m just pointing out that the pair of you are idiots because you’re dating without making it official because you’re too scared of having too much on your plate when really, you’d have the same amount because you are actually together in all but the name of it. You should fix that, she seems to do her best work when she’s happy, just look at the calorie powder she made you and the suit. She has a soft spot for blondes.”

Kara’s cheeks flush but Kelly’s words do make her think. There is definitely some truth to her words and really, it wouldn’t hurt to just have the conversation with Lena once the fight is over and if she’s in a good place afterwards because they are fighting her brother so it’s not exactly the best time to be asking her to be her girlfriends. Or maybe it is. Maybe it is a good thing. She’s not sure but right now is not a good time.

“I’ll think about that. For now, I just want to stare at that wall a little bit longer until my head is blissfully empty.”

“Now that’s a plan I can get behind.” Kelly stops looking at Kara and refocuses her eyes back on the spot she was staring at mere moments ago. “Just don’t think about it for too long, you’ll think yourself in circles and never actually do anything.”

“I never do that.”

“You always do that.”

-

If Lena weren’t so good at what she does, it would be a hard task for her to make the kryptonite. She’s lucky enough to be blessed with the skills it takes for her to be able to create it with ease, almost like she had done it a thousand times before. In fact, the entire time she’s been making it, Alex has been watching her with thinly veiled intrigue because this is the first real time she’s seen Lena in her element like this, working away with quick hands that couldn’t be surer in each action. It’s fascinating to see.

Despite Lena’s speed and expertise, making the kryptonite isn’t as quick as she would like it to be. She’s just barely finishing up now and it’s been two and a half hours. Two and a half hours in which the Lexo-suits have been methodically destroying the city and based on the way masses of them are all swirling around the sky over on this side of town, it won’t be long until the fight is brought to them.

Kara and J’onn have tried to buy them more time by drawing the suits away, flying over to the docks and then doing what J’onn was doing earlier, manually destroying each suit by ripping them apart. Slowly but surely, they get covered in oil just the same way J’onn did earlier and that makes him puff in annoyance since now he’s going to have to shower again to get all of the grime off of him.

It does give Kara an idea though and she started using her freeze breath to try and freeze the oil inside the suits that is essentially lubricant so the Lexo-suits become unable to move and it makes them easier to handle.

The problem she found is that the suits are rigorously temperature controlled, that is unless they take a good whack to the left side of their chests, that must be where the regulator is so they end with J’onn punching and then Kara freezing. When they do this when they’re flying, it stops the suits from moving and flying too so they drop to the ground and essentially destroy themselves.

It’s not something that they can do for every suit, there are simply too many of them, but it’s a great way to buy Lena some time and it works well.

Lena calls them back in once the kryptonite is ready, a plan of action in place so she can get it out into the Lexo-suits, one that includes the pair of them wrangling an arrant Lexo-suit back with them, a bag is thrown over its head. They know it’s risky because they are essentially giving away their location by doing that but this is their best shot and they trust Lena.

Kara is shooed away and J’onn is left to struggle to hold the suit alone, Nia uses her dream energy to help as much as she can when she spots his battle. Lena doesn’t want Kara in the room when she does this, even with her new suit, she just doesn’t want to risk it, so she’s sent off to go and take cover in another room.

With the kryptonite heart exposed so that it can shoot beams of energy at them, destroying a good portion of the room’s décor in the process, Lena simply jams the new kryptonite into the old one, the two moulding together quickly because she has created the new, artificial kryptonite to bond with original kryptonite, making it unstable but also making it become drawn to each other.

This is how it will spread. They will release the infected Lexo-suit out into the streets again and the artificial kryptonite will draw other suits near and infect them too. Within a few pulses of their blasters, the kryptonite will be so unstable that it will blow up and take out any Lexo-suits in the surrounding areas with it. It’s a win-win.

That’s one problem actively dealing with itself now, there’s one very big problem still lurking over the city. One that is a ship with spider legs that is still somehow pumping out new Lexo-suits, probably to replace the ones being destroyed. At least they aren’t coming out in the same influx as they were originally though, that would be a mess, now it’s just a few every now and again. It’s…manageable.

“Kara, it’s best you stay here until the majority of the Lexo-suits have destroyed themselves. We don’t know what that kryptonite could do to you, it was already synthetic and weird before I got my hands on it and changed it up, I didn’t have time to test it so there’s no saying what effects it could have on you. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Lena spouts out, her hands on Kara’s shoulders as she blocks her path to the elevator as though she could actually stop a Kryptonian if she really wanted to.

Thankfully for Lena, Kara stops when she feels the pressure of her hands and stops trying to make her way out so she can join the fight at this stage. Lena is grateful for that because her shoes are nowhere near grippy enough for her to not just go sliding right across the floorboards with Kara’s powerful strides.

“I trust the suit you’ve built me, Lena. I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Kara argues gently, her voice soft. Earnest even. Lena shakes her head. “I built that suit to protect you against pure kryptonite, not whatever weird form of kryptonite I’ve just created. It could affect you for all we know and we don’t know what it could do to you. How it could hurt you or change your psyche or a whole laundry list of other options. You need to stay here for your own sake as well as the team’s sake.”

Kara knows Lena has a point and she really managed to deliver it home with the point about it potentially changing her psyche. Red kryptonite was one of the worst things she’s ever had done to her, not because it caused her physical pain but because it made her hurt the people she cares about the most.

Her shoulders drop and the tension lifts from pretty much every muscle in her body. Lena feels the change beneath her palms and finds herself relaxing too.

“I’m sorry. I know you have a good point; I just can’t stand sitting on the sidelines, not again, I already did that earlier and I wasn’t expecting to be benched again so soon after getting the new suit.”

Lena smiles at her, her hands moving to gently rub from her shoulders down to her biceps soothingly. “I know. I’m sorry to be making you sit it out again but it’s just for a while. I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long anyway because the kryptonite infection is spreading rapidly and the Lexo-suits are being destroyed at an alarming rate really, you will be out there in no time. Until then, you’ll just have to put up with me for a little longer. Think you’ll manage?”

That makes Kara crack a smile. A reluctant one, but still a smile. “I think I can suffer through it.”

“Good.” Lena smiles back at her, all teeth and softness. “Want to come and watch some footage of robots blowing up with me?”

“Sounds like one hell of a date, I’m in.” Kara offers her hand and Lena takes it, pulling her instantly in the right direction.

Kelly sits across the room, her hand curled around her mug of tea and her guardian helmet and shield abandoned next to her feet. She shakes her head at the pair of them. “These absolute idiots.”

The others just keep doing whatever it is they’re doing to prepare for the fight to come, the one where they figure out how to fight an absolute unit of a ship. They’ve seen enough of Kara and Lena together at this point to know that they probably don’t want to know whatever it is they’re talking about because it’s either something they don’t want to hear because it’s traumatizing or it’s something they don’t want to know because it makes them facepalm because they are so oblivious to the ways they are just completely obsessed with each other at this point and yet unwilling to admit it to the other.

They can’t wait to get out of here and get stuck into the fight just to get away from their pining. Well, that and to save the city but tomato, tomato.  

Standing side by side, Lena and Kara lean into each other slightly as they watch Lexo-suit after Lexo-suit get blown to smithereens with each blast from their kryptonite hearts, the unstable kryptonite taking much less time than the original synthetic kryptonite before it explodes.

Because they are so grouped together, when one goes, at least three more are taken down with it and in one lucky chain, Kara and Lena find themselves enthralled and grinning as they watch a chain of about two dozen exploding one after the other, the flames filling the sky and the broken pieces left from the robots raining down onto the city like a mechanical rain.

“Well, that’s something.” Kara marvels, the sky clearing faster than she imagined it would.

“It certainly is.” Lena agrees. “And I think that we should start planning to take down the ship because it won’t be long before we are set to head outside.”

Kara nods happily, glad that she won’t have to wait long before being able to join in the flight. J’onn, Brainy and Nia have already started out towards the ship, scouting it from both the ground and the air whilst being very careful to not get caught up in any of the blasts.

“So, have you figured out where we can get inside the ship?” Kara asks Lena when the woman leaves her side to go and survey the board where the drawings of the ship are hung.

Lena’s eyes flick over the drawings, her brain going back and forth because she just can’t decide, Lex is a smart guy. She’s smarter but she’s smart enough to know that at some point in every smart guy’s life, he has a genius idea so she can’t just assume that she knows best.

The part of the ship that she assumes is just a dud filtration system makes her panic a little because while she has a strong feeling they are just that, dud, she can’t help but get a strong feeling in her gut that just maybe, it’s not and it’s made to look that way and the ‘real’ filtration system is actually the dud. Either way, they have to aim for them to get inside.

“No, I need to see if for myself to know.”

Kara’s head shoots up. “You mean in person?”

Lena groans. “Unfortunately. Would you mind flying me over there so I can take a closer look? After that, I will happily come back and take cover and let you people do what you do best and kick ass, I don’t want any part in that nonsense.”

“It’ll be really dangerous.” Kara simply replies, her eyebrows pulled together in concern. “You could get really hurt out there and who knows what your brother would do to you if he knew you were out there?”

Lena shrugs. “I know. I would rather not go out there either but I can’t know for sure what is happening without being able to see it with my own two eyes.”

Kara turns away from her and for a second, Lena thinks she’s going to refuse to take her and waste time they don’t have to argue with her and come up with another plan but she sees Kara’s shoulders sag and her head tip forward. When she turns back around towards her, the bridge of her nose is pinched between a finger and a thumb.

“Ok. I’ll take you but first, I’ll go and get the spare body armour we have from storage. If you’re going out there, you’re being as protected as we can get you and I’ll grab Dreamer too on the way so she can create a shield around you guys should the need arise.”

Lena’s eyes twinkle in delight. “Sounds awesome.”

She really wasn’t expecting Kara to go along with it but a little childlike part of herself is thrilled that she’s about to go and fight with superheroes, even if she’s not doing the fighting. She’s not particularly excited to be in danger but knowing that Kara and Nia will have her back along with the rest of the team, that eases her mind greatly and she just knows that she’s not just going to remember this day for the terrible destruction that has occurred and probably still will occur.

It’s going to take a long time for the city to recover from the damage, both physically and mentally, but they’ll get there. She knows they will because looking around at Kara and then at Kelly and Alex across the room, she knows these people are the best in the city and with them in the corner of National City, they can only thrive.

Lena’s eyes meet the sharp blue of Kara’s. “Alright, you get the armour, I’ll make a plan. Let’s get ready to take Lex’s ship of horrors.”

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[jennyboom21]

Kara in the Lexo suit!!

[protectlenaluthor]

[comic-watch]

REVIEW: Supergirl S3 Ep12 “For Good”

Lena Luthor questions who she really is, while Sam tries to figure out who she becomes during her blackout spells.

Lena Luthor questions who she really is, while Sam tries to figure out who she becomes during her blackout spells. Supergirl – “For Good”, Season 3, Episode 12 Airdate: January 29, 2018 Writers: Cindy Lichtman and Alix Sternberg Production Company: Berlanti Productions / Warner Bros. Television What You Should Know: Financial cut throat Morgan Edge swore revenge on Lena Luthor when she attempted…

[whythinktoomuch]

ii. apocalypse now & again

(pt. i)

Kara woke up and realized that she was going to die.

Too many of the drones had survived the explosions and were still closing in on her. What little strength she had left after quite literally digging her own grave was presently and painstakingly strained just from her efforts to climb onto her knees. And on top of all that—of everything that possibly could have gone wrong for her in this moment—her helmet was cracked.

The abstract red numbers warning Kara of the kryptonite levels in the area seemed redundant now, what with that unmistakable chill already flooding her bloodstream.

“… Alex,” Kara gasped out, barely able to hear herself over the ringing in her ears. “Hey, Alex… Are you there?”

Her words were met with not one whisper or even a crackle of static, and for once, Kara was inconsolably disappointed to hear no one yelling back at her. With her teeth gritted, she shoved herself off the ground as hard as she could, drifting barely a foot into the air before the first drone crashed into the back of her head.

Kara toppled back onto the ground, knees skidding across the rubble in a shower of hot sparks. The impact had her head reeling, her mouth filling with a taste that she was now idly recognizing as blood. But there was no time to consider any of that as the drone doubled back. Kara scrambled out of the way, narrowly avoiding another collision, only to be struck by a second drone smashing right against her ear.

Out of breath but swearing, Kara whirled around and snagged the fast approaching drone into a bear hug, squeezing and squeezing until it crunched in her arms with a frantic whir. Then with a burst of heat vision, she shattered the other as it came straight for her face.

Kara used her heat vision to pick off several more drones from a distance, but of course, more and more just showed up to take their place, never wavering, never slowing… and eventually, Kara just had to laugh. Because her exhaustion was catching up to her. And Alex was hundreds of miles away. And to get out of here alive, Kara would have to somehow defeat the entire horde of drones, while all they had to do was wreck her suit a little more.

Though admittedly, it’d be overkill at this point, given the crack now spiderwebbing across the glass visor of Kara’s helmet.

Either way, it was over.

--

So, Kara laughed, grabbed at her chest in a reflexive gesture only to meet the unforgiving metal of her suit, then dropped to her knees. “Alex!” she shouted herself hoarse, because maybe if said loudly enough, the words would still be lingering in the air by the time her sister arrived. “Alex, I’m sorry, okay? You were right, and I’m sorry!”

Then she just waited—chest heaving, eyes narrowed but never blinking despite the heat pricking at the corners—because she definitely had to see this through to the bitter fucking end. That much, she owed everyone, including herself.

Except the end didn’t come.

Not this time anyway.

No, instead came a silver sphere, emerging seemingly out of thin air to hover right before Kara’s face. It flashed a blinding white just once, and everything fell absolutely silent and still. Kara’s suit powered down completely, the drones collectively dropped from the air like marionettes with cut strings, and all the lights in the immediate vicinity blinked out.

Laughter welling up all over again, Kara could only collapse onto her side in something akin to sheer relief.

The first person to occur to her, of course, was Alex, who had already saved her ass from similar scrapes on many occasions. But that couldn’t be it. Alex was too far away. It’s why Kara had to take on this mission on her own in the first place.

Then she considered maybe Winn or James, which made even less sense, given how the deceased hardly ever came back to do things like save people’s lives. Not even hers. Not even in the most dire of situations. That’s, unfortunately, just not how life worked these days.

Then she considered Alex again because the kryptonite was clearly bleeding into her brain now, and it was getting rather difficult to remember why it couldn’t have been Alex who’d just saved her. Maybe Kara did shout loud enough after all…

But then, a set of footfalls drew near, metal scraping against metal at a steady pace until a heavy boot struck Kara firmly in the chest, flipping her onto her back where she settled with a grunt.

“So glad I got to you first,” came a self-assured drawl, and Kara promptly found herself face to face with a handheld cannon of sorts. “Would be a pity to come all this way and not get to kill you myself.”

And… Kara’s jaw just dropped.

Not because of the words, nor the intentions behind them—though perhaps they both merited some attention as well—but that voice.

Kara gaped up at her supposed knight in shining, lead-lined armor because her voice—that low, husky tone paired with that very specific lilting cadence—was making her reconsider some very fundamental things about how the world might work.

Namely, that people wouldn’t come back from the dead just to save her life.

Mind still reeling away, Kara tried to sit up, only to be slammed back into the ground, hard.

“Down, girl,” Lena said, grinding her boot into Kara’s chest, the weight of her entire body behind the gesture. But that was fine.

It was fine because Kara could still draw some breath into her lungs, could still use some of that breath to talk, and she could certainly still say some things that she hadn’t uttered aloud in many a year. Like her late wife’s name, for instance.

The cannon in Kara’s face wavered, but didn’t lower. “Shut up,” Lena hissed down at her. “Don’t talk. Don’t even think.”

“So… it is you…” Kara said, and she gently wrapped her fingers around Lena’s ankle—the only part of her that she could still reach from her position—and just cried.

With a startled gasp, Lena stumbled away, wrenching herself out of Kara’s grip. “What the fuck…? What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Kara sobbed out, trying not to choke on her own tears and snot and the slight taste of blood still lingering on her tongue. She suddenly, irrationally, wished that she could just take off her clunky suit. Just to eliminate some of that distance between her and Lena. Just so she could touch the chain hanging around her neck without any hindrance. “Just… just wanted to say, hi.”

Lena kept her distance, studying Kara in a stony silence, and Kara started to see things that she should probably would have noticed sooner if her body weren’t actively shutting down on her. Like the green glow of Lena’s weapon and the kryptonite cartridges strapped to her belt. Or that she was clearly wearing a lexo-suit. Or how the swirly edges of her own vision were starting to darken, and how the chill of kryptonite was currently all she could feel.

“Hey,” Kara called out, sniffling only slightly now. “Am I dreaming?”

“… No.”

Kara nodded thoughtfully to herself. “Okay, cool, cool… So, I think I might be dying then.”

“Yeah,” Lena said, after a brief pause. “Probably.”

“Cool.” Kara tried to flash a thumbs up, but no part of her body wanted to cooperate anymore. Her exhaustion had eaten up all her drive. “Hey, can you tell Alex something for me?”

Lena sighed, but she finally stepped closer, practically in reach. “Okay, sure.”

Kara fumbled for some words and the correct order that one might put them in, but then Lena took off her helmet, and nothing else mattered anymore. Because Kara was perfectly content to just watch that ripple of dark hair, streaked with a light gray that was just… nice to look at.

She never got to see her Lena’s hair do that.

//

Kara’s shoulder was being shaken so violently that she had no choice but to open her eyes and see Alex’s worry-creased face peering down at her.

“Dumbass…” Alex grumbled, releasing Kara’s shoulder with a dirty scowl. “That’s the last time I let you go anywhere without me.”

“Whatever you say, director.” Kara laughed, but it hurt. She then tried to do a salute, but her everything was still too weak to move apparently. But at least she was still alive.

… Wait.

Kara repeatedly tried to sit up on her bed, and Alex repeatedly shoved her right back down until she gave up. But still, she had to check, had to know that it wasn’t all just a dream.

“Where’s Lena?” she demanded, and the look that Alex gave her in response was so deeply pained that Kara almost felt pathetic for asking.

“… Kara.”

“No, I saw her, Alex,” Kara said, shaking her head, then immediately stopping when her entire body somehow got dizzy from it. “Shit. Ow, ow… But wait, no—But seriously, I saw her, okay?”

“I’m not surprised that you did. You almost died, Kara. Actually, I’m pretty sure that you were dead for a few minutes back there. Again, I say, you fucking dumbass.”

“But I didn’t die. Because she saved me,” Kara insisted. “No, seriously! She took out all the drones with some sort of EMP device, and, and… we talked! And she had gray hair, and I think maybe laugh lines? And yeah, I almost died because my helmet got cracked and stuff. But now, I’m here and I’m fine, so… everything’s fine, right?”

Alex frowned, then somehow settled on the least important part of Kara’s briefing, “You cracked your helmet?”

“Ugh, yeah. The glass visor part. When I fell,” Kara said, waving her hand dismissively. “So sorry about that, by the way.”

“Suit looked fine when we got to you,” Alex said with a shrug, before irritably exclaiming, “Jesus christ, Kara, enough! I’ll just have a guy get the helmet for you, okay? So, just stop trying to get up already.”

Huffing, Kara fell back onto her bed with her arms folded and waited. But when someone eventually showed up with her helmet in tow, she was surprised to see that it was somewhat worse for the wear but perfectly intact. Even up close, with the helmet out the tech’s hands and in her own, Kara couldn’t detect even the slightest blemish in the glass.

Pouting ever so slightly, Kara shoved the helmet back into the tech’s arms.

“… Satisfied?” Alex asked, rolling her eyes when Kara just shrugged one shoulder. “Great. Listen… You just need to get some rest, okay? Once you’re back to full strength, we can work through your… you know, memories together. And hopefully, it’ll make more sense by then. Sound good?”

Kara just nodded, suddenly all too willing to be left to her own devices in the relative quiet and darkness. She accepted a gentle shoulder squeeze and the promise of another session with the sun lamps within the hour, and just curled up under the sheets.

It’s not like she hadn’t conjured up images of Lena before. Kara had been close to death enough times that it was only inevitable that she’d fall back onto memories of her dead wife at some point or another. But this was different. Whenever her brain was just playing tricks on her, Lena appeared to her the way Kara remembered her: warm and loving, bright green eyes, long dark hair smelling of lavender, and alive and young.

Never before had Kara encountered an appropriately aged version of Lena, with creases gathered around her eyes and forehead, hair gloriously faded into the most lovely blend of light grays and white amongst all that black… The Lena that could have been if only she had lived out all these past years alongside Kara.

And she was never in a lexo-suit, of all things. Lena was always wearing one of her classic pencil skirts or Kara’s NCU sweatshirt, or something. Oh, and of course, her wedding band.

Instinctively, the same way she always did when it occurred to her, Kara reached for the chain around her neck, seeking out the familiar weight of the rings that hung from there… only to jolt upright with a gasp that dried up her entire throat.

She ripped the necklace off her head, almost snapping the chain, which in and of itself was telling. Because her chain had been forged out of an extraterrestrial metal amalgamation that not even the Girl of Steel would have been able to break. The one now clutched in her hand, however, was just plain white gold.

Heart pounding in her ears, Kara stared down at an engagement ring fitted with a modest cut of diamond, somehow occupying the very spot where two simple wedding bands—hers and her Lena’s—should have been. Then something drove her to check for an inscription, and sure enough, engraved on the inside of the ring was a series of kryptonian characters, denoting a term of endearment that Kara had never used, but apparently could have in another world altogether: my dearest heart.

[cinaja]

Before the Wall part 49

Masterlist

A/N: This took forever to write again, but I just had such a hard time with some of the scenes. I hope it all turned out okay.

Tw: Mentions of torture in the scene 6 and mutiliation in the scene 7 (towards the end). Also, scene 1 is Amarantha's pov, so it's a bit messed up as usual.

----

Amarantha ordered her soldiers to have their captured enemies screaming day and night, but even the screams now ringing out over her camp day and night fail to ease her fury. Not even imagining that it is Jurian screaming helps anymore, because she knows it is not and she knows that chances of her capturing him soon are low.

She lost her most valuable hostage, her direct path towards revenge. Like some new recruit with only a handful of battles under her belt, she let herself be outsmarted by Sinna of Erithia. Fell for a stupid diversion set with some idiot commander from Prythian as bait and didn’t notice the true plan until it was already too late.

On another day, she might have admired the ruthlessness of Sinna sacrificing hundreds of her own allies to save her new Princess. On another day, she might have been excited, might have started looking for an opportunity to pit herself against the Seraphim general, see which of them is truly better. But today, she is far too angry to be thrilled at the possible challenge.

It doesn’t matter how much she has the soldiers who served as a diversion tortured. Doesn’t matter that she ordered them all killed slowly and had ash bolts spiked through the commander’s wings. All that matters is that she still hasn’t gotten her hands on Jurian.

The very thought has anger flaring through her. Restlessly, Amarantha paces through her camp, looking for something to take her mind off the man who murdered her sister. Her soldiers, sensing her anger, shrink away from under har gaze.

A day spent on the march didn’t serve to improve her mood. But losing Miryam forced her to abandon her position at the Heseia Fort. Now that she doesn’t have a hostage, Jurian would never be stupid enough to attack her at such a secure position. So she had to give up some advantages, make Jurian think he has a chance to push him into attacking. And once he does, she will crush him.

Only she still needs a plan for that. She doesn’t doubt her army’s ability to take on that ragtag group of humans Jurian leads and win, but she can’t take any chances. Not when Jurian has proven more than once that he is clever, and surprisingly resilient for a human. If Amarantha wants to be entirely sure that she will defeat him, she will need some tricks up her sleeve.

“You,” she snaps at the nearest soldier, impatiently waving him over. “I’ll be gone for the next hour. Tell Lexo he’ll head the camp in my absence.”

Without waiting for a reply, she winnows away. She lands in the courtyard outside of the royal palace in Hybern. Distantly, the sound of waves crashing against the cliffs is audible, a seagull screams above.

Without pausing to look around, Amarantha stalks off towards the palace. People move aside to make space for her as she walks past. The slaves especially tremble and shrink away from her, knowing fully well that it is best not to cross Amarantha when she is this angry. On another day, Amarantha might have stopped to have her fun with one or two of them, but today, her goal is a different one.

The guards standing in front of the throne room step forward as she approaches, as if to intercept her. Amarantha doesn’t stop and at the last moment, they seem to think the better of it and jump aside. Amarantha pushes open the high doors leading into the throne room and stalks in.

With her arrival, the room falls silent. The courtiers standing throughout the room pause their chattering and stare at her, then quickly avert their eyes. On the throne, the King turns his dark eyes to her. He watches her for a moment, as if considering.

“Everybody out,” he orders without tearing his gaze away from Amarantha.

The courtiers follow the order hastily, shuffling past Amarantha out of the door as she slowly walks towards the throne. Ten feet away from it, she stops and bows.

“Your Majesty,” she says and offers him a small smile as she straightens again.

“So you deign to answer my summons at last,” the king says. There is anger in his voice, and only now does Amarantha remember that he did send her letters over the past few days. Letters she threw into the fire unopened.

“I apologize,” she says smoothly. “I was preoccupied.”

“So I heard,” he replies. “Ravenia is furious with you for refusing to hand Miryam over, and then allowing her to be freed. She demands your head.”

“What do I care about Ravenia of the Black Land?” Amarantha asks. “A woman who can’t even win a war against one of her runaway slaves has no business telling me what to do.”

“The Black Land is our most important trading partner,” the king hisses, “and you aggravate its ruler with your impertinence.”

He can truly be short-sighted, that king of hers. Does he ever look beyond what’s right in front of him? “The Black Land is done for,” Amarantha says. “It won’t recover from this, and indulging Ravenia’s wishes would have been folly. If we play this smart, though, we might be the ones who gain the power Ravenia won’t be able to hold after the way she embarrassed herself in this war.”

In truth, Amarantha doesn’t care about power, and she doesn’t believe that Hybern will ever become the new Black Land. They simply aren’t powerful enough to actually carve out a position for themselves on the Continent. No, all they’ll ever be is a country of mediocre importance, nothing more. But Amarantha doesn’t care about that, anyways, as long as she gets Jurian’s head.

Her gaze travels to the throne her king is sitting on. It is made from human bones, brown and withered with age. A charming idea, she thinks. Maybe she will make herself something from Jurian’s bones, too, after she killed him. A crown, perhaps, or a collier. Certainly something she will be able to carry around with her, so that she might always look at it and remember her victory.

“My defeating Jurian,” she says, “will benefit us far more than playing nice with some doomed queen.”

The king leans forward ever so slightly. Amarantha can see it in his eyes – he wants the power he is talking of. “Alright, then,” he says slowly. “Tell me what it is you have come here to say.”

Amarantha’s smile broadens. Of course he knows that she only came to ask him a favour. She wonders, sometimes, if he also knows that she doesn’t care at all about his orders and only plays along with his game for the power the position in his court gives her. Perhaps he does. But she is his best general, and he needs her as much as she needs him.

“I can, of course, easily defeat Jurian on my own,” she says. “But I thought it might suit your interests if I made it impressive.”

His eyes narrow. “And for that,” he says, “you need my spellbook.”

Amarantha nods ever so slightly. He allowed her to use the book once before already, during another war a century ago. But witchers are careful with who they allow access to their knowledge. Hoping that he will give it to her now is a gamble, but one she needs to take. Even without being able to use third grade spells, the book’s spells will open possibilities.  And she needs those for more than just the battle.

“I would just need to look through it once,” she says.

For what feels like an eternity, the King is silent. Then, he slowly rises from his throne. “Alright, then,” he says. “But be warned, General: If you ever disregard my orders again, I’ll see to it that you regret it.”

----

Jurian has grown tired of waiting.

It’s been almost a week now since he killed Clythia, yet Amarantha hasn’t shown her face around his camp yet. On the contrary, she seems content to do anything but deal with him. From the reports he receives, she seems entirely focused on the war effort, capturing Miryam to get Drakon to give up an important strategic location, then capturing Rhysand and his army. If Jurian didn’t know better, he would think that she doesn’t care at all about him murdering her sister.

With each passing day, he grows more restless. Killing Clythia, especially the way he did it, was meant to put an end to that horrible game of cat-and-mouse him and Amarantha were playing, but if it doesn’t…

Jurian can’t wait anymore. With every day that Amarantha still lives, he feels whatever composure he has left cracking further. He doesn’t know for how much longer he will be able to hold it together, so he has to act now, even if being the one to attack will cost him some advantages.

At least Amarantha left her position at the Heseia Fort. Jurian isn’t sure why, and giving up such an important strategic location seems stupid, but he will take whatever advantage he can get. All that really matters is that Amarantha no longer holds Miryam prisoner, which means that he can attack without having to worry about her.

But at the same time, the situation with Miryam is the one thing that makes him hesitate. He desperately wants to talk to her before he goes to face Amarantha. They said they would talk, before she got captured. Jurian still needs to explain what he did to Clythia, before she gets a wrong impression of why he did what he did. And there was something she wanted to tell him, too, but he didn’t listen to her. Maybe they should have talked then, instead of waiting.

Unfortunately, Miryam is still unconscious. Jurian supposes he could visit, but that would require seeing Drakon, and that’s something Jurian doesn’t feel like doing at all. (He doesn’t understand why they brought Miryam to the Callian Pass, anyways. They should have taken her to Telique.) If he wants to talk to Miryam before killing Amarantha, he’ll have to wait for her to wake up, and he can’t stand to wait any longer. Besides, it’s probably easier if he kills Amarantha first and then talks to Miryam. Having Amarantha’s death to show for will make it far easier to explain why killing Clythia the way he did was necessary.

So Jurian comes up with a sensible strategy. He gets his maps for the area where Amarantha’s army is usually stationed and sits down with his captains to discuss. All of them get strict orders not to tell anyone about their plans, since he is sure Andromache would stop him if she knew.

Five days after Miryam got freed, Jurian is ready. The only thing he still hasn’t figured out is how to get Andromache out of the camp so that he can take his army and go without her interfering, but as it happens, fate is on his side. In the early afternoon of the fifth day, Andromache gets called away to an Alliance meeting, leaving him as the one in charge of the camp.

Jurian allows himself a moment to contemplates whether or not to take Andromache’s soldiers along with him. He could use the additional support, but in the end, he decides against it. Stealing Andromache’s soldiers away from under her nose would be bad form, and her captains would only raise a fuss should they realize that their queen didn’t agree to this sudden change of plans. No, if Jurian wants to go after Amarantha, he’ll have to do so with his own army.

His soldiers, fortunately, are well trained, and in spite of some of his past mistakes, they still trust him blindly. It takes only a few quiet words to his captains and they are off, readying his army for the march. Unfortunately for him, Andromache’s captains are far less willing to simply accept his word.

“And you received your orders from the council?” One of them, a woman named Demetra but whom everyone calls Dem, asks. She doesn’t even bother to hide her doubt.

“Are you accusing me of lying?” Jurian asks pointedly. Sometimes, to attack is the best defence strategy.

“No, General,” Dem says. She scrunches up her nose slightly. “I still need to know if the council ordered this, though.”

“I am a member of the council, and I am ordering this right now.” Jurian says. “And you really don’t have the rank necessary to stop me.”

That’s the funny thing about being on the council: No one can really forbid him from doing things. Even Andromache, in spite of being a queen, has the same rank as him and cannot technically tell him what to do. He reckons Miryam could – or would find some other way to stop him from going after Amarantha – but she isn’t around to do so.

Dem watches him for a moment, brow furrowed. She isn’t easily cowed, neither by his rank nor his reputation, and on another day, Jurian would admire that. Today, though, it’s rather inconvenient, so he is glad when she finally inclines her head.

“Then I won’t keep you,” she says.

“Good,” he says. “I want you to stay here until your Queen returns. She will give you your next orders.” He just hopes those won’t be to chase after Jurian and drag him back.

----

“Shit,” Andromache mutters, letting herself drop onto the cushions in Nakia’s suite. “What a complete and utter mess.”

After three hours stuck in a council meeting, trying desperately to appease the other members and spending each moment hoping that Miryam would be back soon, she finally returned to her camp to find Jurian and his army gone. She had just readied her army to chase after him – either to drag him back or to help him – when she received a directive from the council that her army was to hold positions under all circumstances.

The message didn’t specify why, but it sounded serious enough that Andromache could not risk to disobey. After eight hours of sitting on her ass in the camp, not an enemy to be seen, she finally had Yanis winnow her over to Telique to find out what it was all about, only to hear that the entire message had been caused by some administrative error. Naturally, Jurian’s army was far beyond her reach by that time.

“It’s almost like those bastards did it on purpose,” Nakia grumbles.

Andromache is inclined to agree, but instead says, “Still, please be nice when we meet with Zeku.” She hates having to urge for diplomacy when being diplomatic towards these people who do nothing but make her life more difficult is the last thing she wants right now. How does Miryam manage to do that without hitting someone? “If we want to reach Jurian in time, we’ll need Alliance support.”

Annoying as it is, but without the Fae, they’ll never catch up with Jurian before he attacks Amarantha. Human armies simply aren’t fast enough to reach him in time, so they will need the council to dispatch a Fae army. For which they will need Zeku’s support.

Normally, that would be easily arranged. Zeku is, after all, one of their closest Fae allies, which generally includes mutual support. But lately, he hasn’t exactly been accommodating to his allies’ requests and Andromache doesn’t know why. Six years of working together almost seamlessly, but now, Zeku seems to have decided to be just as difficult as most of his kind.

As if on cue, a knock sounds at the door. A moment later, Zeku enters.

He inclines his head. “Your Majesties,” he says.

“Your Grace,” Andromache replies, inclining her head as well.

“Have you heard anything from Princess Miryam yet?” Zeku asks, gracefully sitting down on the couch opposite them.

Hearing Miryam referred to as Princess is still strange, but Andromache will probably have to get used to it. “There has been no news,” she says. “Anyways, it is not Miryam but Jurian we asked you here to discuss. I assume you already heard?”

Zeku nods. “I have. And what is it you want me to do about this?”

“Get us an army,” Nakia says, which really isn’t the pinnacle of diplomacy. But considering how the Fae, Zeku included, have been acting lately, it’s probably better than he deserves.

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” Zeku replies. Nakia looks positively murderous at that, and he quickly amends, “I am truly sorry, but I couldn’t convince the other Fae to send aid to Jurian if I tried.”

“And why is that?” Andromache asks, trying desperately to contain her rising temper. Seriously, how does Miryam do this? In her place, Andromache would probably have committed murder more than once already.

Zeku sighs. “I understand that you humans care a lot about solidarity and loyalty, and it is something I admire about. Still, you will have to understand that many people will rightfully have a hard time understanding why they should risk their lives to get him out of a mess of his own making.”

“Because we are allies?” Andromache suggests.

“Well, there are more and more people in this Alliance who consider whether they still want to be allied with Jurian,” Zeku says. “There has already been talk of having him removed from the council, and the only reason the issue hasn’t been pushed yet is the human side’s continued support for him.” He sighs. “In all honesty, I have long since been having doubt about General Jurian’s ability to lead, and I only kept them to myself out of courtesy to Miryam. But I simply cannot warrant putting my name down for him any more than I am already doing.”

Andromache crosses her arms. Nakia scowls.

“It would be political suicide,” Zeku adds with a rueful smile. “I’m sorry.”

----

“Alright,” Jurian says, standing in a hastily-erected tent an hour away from Amarantha’s camp. “Here’s the plan.”

His captains, standing around the camp, look back at him expectantly. After more than a day spent on the march, they all seem worn out, but there is a light in their eyes like they, too, can’t wait to finally end this. Jurian likes to imagine that they sense the importance of killing Amarantha, that they are driven by the same frantic energy that keeps him from feeling any tiredness.

“Amarantha likely knows we’re coming,” he says. Her spies must have reported to her the moment their army left its camp, and Jurian didn’t have the magical means to cover their march. “Still, I would like to have gain some advantages for the attack, so we split our army up.”

He points to the map that lies on a makeshift table between them. Amarantha’s camp is marked, as well as all the information their scouts could gather. Amarantha made camp by the spring of a small river at the side of a hill. The position is good, but not all that strong, its biggest advantage lying in the fact that any enemies will have to attack from below, leaving her soldiers the high ground.

“Xeni, you take half my army and stage an attack from the front,” Jurian says. “You do not need to engage in battle, just make enough noise that Amarantha thinks you are the main attack. Meanwhile, I will take the main part of the army around the hill, and then, we will attack Amarantha’s forces from behind. That way, we’ll force Amarantha’s army to fight on to fronts, and we’ll gain the high ground.”

Xeni nods, surveying the map. “Amarantha will notice if my part of the army is smaller, though.”

She’s a good soldier – smart. Jurian would have made her his second months ago already, but he could never quite bear to give Tia’s position to another. Maybe after the battle is over, he will finally do it.

“The trees will provide cover,” he says. “Ideally, Amarantha won’t be able to get a solid count of our numbers during the battle, and my part of the army will only start moving once yours attacked and Amarantha is distracted.”

That means there will be a dangerous moment where Xeni’s army is forced to hold Amarantha off on her own. It’s a risk, but it will likely take a while for the battle to truly get heated, and by then, Jurian’s army should be there to provide reinforcements.

The battle will without doubt end in a duel between him and Amarantha. This will be the fight that decides the outcome of the battle, Jurian is sure of it. And he is equally sure that he will win. Amarantha will be driven by fury, and angry people tend to make mistakes. Jurian will use that. The only thing that might become a problem is that she has magic – however little it might be – and he does not. But Jurian picked up a few small tricks from Miryam over the years, and he wove spells into his armour that should be able to ward off most attacks.

It will work. It has to work.

----

Drakon genuinely hates the Callian Pass.

Everyone always talks about how hard it is to take it, but no one ever mentioned to Drakon that once you have taken it, it is near-impossible to get away from it again. Jurian is facing Amarantha in battle, he might be dying right now, and he is stuck in this cursed castle, unable to do anything. Miryam is still unconscious, and while the healers assure him that she will be fine, they aren’t entirely sure when she will wake up. (Apparently, there is some difficulty with estimating how quickly her body heals, given that she is neither fully Fae nor human, and half Fae healing abilities might fall anywhere in between.)

Drakon feels stuck in some never-ending nightmare where the people he cares about are always facing some kind of danger, and he is stuck here, unable to help. To make matters worse, Artax now has his soldiers probing the walls day and night. They still haven’t attacked outright, but they certainly have a knack for making everything more stressful.

Right now, Artax just finished his sixth pseudo-attack on the castle for the day. Drakon is standing on the battlement, flanked by Sinna and Helion, and looks down at the retreating soldiers below.

“What is he playing at?” Drakon asks. “Why won’t he just attack, put an end to this?”

“Because he is smart,” Sinna says. “He is trying to wear us out, make us expend our resources and keep us on our toes so that when he finally attacks in earnest, his own casualties will be lower.”

“That’s stupid, though,” Drakon says. “He only has the advantage as long as Miryam is out of the game.”

“I doubt the possibility of a human woman ever being a danger to him so much as crossed Artax’s mind,” Helion says, smiling slightly. His smile fades, though, as his attention returns to the enemy army. “And much as I admire Miryam’s abilities, I honestly cannot say his assessment is wrong. I doubt she would stand much of a chance against him.”

Drakon looks down at the army camping below, at the red flags flying in the wind. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” he says quietly.

Artax is, without doubt, the most skilled witcher of their age. He has centuries of practice on Miryam. But Drakon has seen the way she looked at him during their last meeting, eyes burning with so much hatred that they seemed to glow from within. Drakon may not know what Artax did to her, but he knows that Miryam hates him just as much as Ravenia.

So far, they never faced each other in battle. Should it ever come to that, they might just rip apart the world between them. But in the end, Drakon doesn’t think that Artax will walk away triumphant. Or walk away at all, for that matter.

“Let’s hope you’re right,” Helion says. “Because I certainly can’t take on Artax, and I don’t know anyone else on our side who can.” He pushes off the stone railing he was leaning against and inclines his head to Drakon. “I’ll go inspect the wards again,” he says, winks at Sinna and walks off.

Sinna rolls her eyes at his retreating form. It’s not that her and Helion don’t get along – as far as Drakon knows, they work together quite well – but they are simply very different people with very different styles and preferences. Helion realizes early on that it is very easy for him to get on Sinna’s nerves, and he seems to enjoy occasionally poking fun at her. Drakon finds the entire matter amusing, and he suspects Helion does, too.

Down below, the retreating soldiers have now reached their camp again. Drakon leans against the stone balustrade and stares down, but his mind is on a different battlefield, a different army. He hates that Jurian is facing Amarantha without either him or Miryam around to help him. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Jurian’s abilities, but lately, he has been reckless in his decisions, especially when it comes to Amarantha.

“You’re worried,” Sinna says. “About Jurian?”

Drakon nods. “I feel like I should be doing something to help him. It isn’t right that he has to fight Amarantha on his own.”

“You want my opinion?” Sinna asks.

Drakon hesitates, then gives her a half-smile. “Actually, probably not,” he says.

Sinna has the tendency to be honest about things, and in this specific case, Drakon doubts her honestly would be particularly pleasant to hear. After all, Sinna told him over a year ago already to press for Jurian’s removal from the council and the war, likely to avoid precisely this outcome. Besides, she doesn’t like Jurian, which is likely to make her judgement of his actions rather harsh.

“Probably smart,” Sinna says.

Drakon is almost tempted to ask her for some reassurance, but in the current situation, that would basically come down to asking her to lie to him. Which is something he definitely does not want. Besides, reassurances are never quite as convincing if you have to ask for them.

----

Rhys doesn’t know how long it has been since he got captured. Days, weeks, months. It all blurs together. All he knows is that he’s in pain, so much pain that he can’t even think straight. The constant screaming of his dying soldiers rings through the camp, piercing his head like knifes.

He can’t take it anymore. All he wants is for it to end. But there is no end. The soldiers who are torturing don’t even ask questions, so there’s nothing he can do, nothing he can says, to make them stop. If there was anything they were asking, he knows he would have given it by now, if only to buy himself a moment of peace.

There’s only one thought that ever manages to pierce the haze of pain in his mind, and that is the thought of revenge. He will kill Amarantha for this. Kill her for what her soldiers are doing to his, to him, and for the fact that she doesn’t even seem to care. He will kill her. And if it’s the last thing he does.

They tied him up between two trees and spiked ash bolts through his wings. He’ll have to tear them free if he wants to fight, destroy his wings in the process, but that doesn’t matter. If he does manage to kill Amarantha, he will be killed soon afterwards, anyways.

As long as he just manages to take her with him, it won’t matter.

Still, he hesitates. Again and again, he tries to summon the courage to tear his wings free from the spikes, but his muscles refuse to obey his commands. He can’t. He loves his wings, loves the sky, and he can’t bring himself to destroy this.

And then, suddenly, it is too late. A horn blast rings out, followed by a second one, then a third, louder than the screams. Slowly, painfully, Rhys looks up.

From where he is chained up, he has a clear view over the camp, so he can easily see the army that is stepping out of the forest in the valley below and approaching.

Distantly, Rhys is aware that he should be glad. If Jurian and his army has arrived, if they are going to defeat Amarantha, he will be saved. But all he can think is they are stealing my revenge.

----

Sneaking through the forest with a thousand soldiers in tow is precisely as challenging as it sounds. It is made harder by the fact that there are magical traps and wards throughout the entire forest, and they keep having to stop and wait for the few Fae or humans with distant Fae ancestry in their group to disable them. They do their best to hurry, but they can’t risk setting off an alarm, so they are still slower than Jurian would like.

It takes them precisely fifteen minutes to walk around the hill and another five to climb up again on the other side. It isn’t much, but still, Jurian’s stomach clenches with worry with every moment they waste. With only half of his army, Xeni won’t stand a chance against Amarantha. They need to hurry.

Finally, they make it to the top of the hill. Jurian holds up a hand, commanding his army to stop, and steps forward until the edge of the forest. From there, he gets a good view of Amarantha’s camp lying a bit below, and the battle that’s raging at its edge.

Jurian can make out Amarantha amongst her soldiers. Her red hair is like a flag in the slight wind, clearly marking her where she stands, dressed in dark armour, at the centre of her troops.

Further down, he can see Xeni’s part of his army. They keep their position at the edge of the forest like he told them to. Jurian is about to give the order for attack to his army when Amarantha suddenly turns around towards him. Jurian freezes, sure that she has seen him, but Amarantha merely surveys the trees they are hiding in for a moment before turning back to the attacking army. Jurian could have sworn she smiles before she does, though.

A shiver runs down his spine. His gut tells him that something is wrong. It is too late to go back, though, and anyways, Jurian didn’t come this far only to turn back at a mere feeling.

He turns around to the soldiers waiting behind him. He opens his mouth to order the attack, but before he gets a word out, a slight tremor runs through the ground below. Jurian spins back around to the battle. His eyes immediately find Amarantha, who has raised her hands high above her head and appears to be chanting something.

Another tremor runs through the ground. But that isn’t possible. Amarantha isn’t a witch, and none of Jurian’s reports on her hinted at her having any affinity for spells. Her king is a witcher, but Amarantha, as far as he knows, rarely ever relies on magic in battle. Still, she is clearly casting a spell now. Jurian takes a step forward, as if he’ll be able to stop whatever she is doing.

Just below Amarantha’s camp, the ground bursts open. Behind Jurian, someone gasps, and he takes another step forward. But there’s nothing he can do as a fountain of water shoots out of the ground. Drops glitter in the moonlight, and for a moment, it almost looks pretty.

Then, the water goes crashing down into the valley in a giant flood wave.

Jurian is distantly aware that he screams something, but the sound is drowned out by the roaring of the water. The wave is high enough that he can’t even make out the tips of the trees anymore.

“No,” Jurian whispers. He can’t believe what he is seeing. There’s no way Amarantha just summoned a flood wave from nothing, there’s no way she… “No, please.”

His fingers begin to tremble. Below, the water recedes slowly, rushing further down into the valley. In its wake, it leaves trees torn from the ground, bent over and broken. There is no sign left of the army that was standing there until a moment ago. Jurian’s entire body is shaking now.

Amarantha turns back around, and this time, Jurian is sure that she smiles at him. He realizes that he is no longer hidden behind the trees, that he is standing in plain sight, but he can’t bring himself to care.

No. No, this can’t be real. His soldiers are fine, they will be fine. They didn’t… Half his army. He can’t have lost half his army in under a minute. It simply isn’t possible. And yet, his soldiers are gone, and he knows, deep down, that they won’t have survived this.

With shaking hands, Jurian reaches for his sword. As soon as his fingers close around the hilt, his mind stills. His senses seem to sharpen, and his focus zeroes in on Amarantha. Slowly, he draws his sword.

“Attack!” He shouts, raising his sword into the air.

 Around Jurian, the battle rages. He is only distantly aware that his side is losing, that they are sorely outnumbered and don’t stand a chance. In his mind, he still sees the wave rushing down into the valley. He lost half his army in under a minute.

Amarantha. He needs to find her, needs to kill her. As soon as she is gone, it will… it will all be fine, then. He knows it will be. But the battle is so chaotic, and he has no idea how to find her. He simply keeps fighting, killing his way through the enemy soldiers, hoping he will find her somehow.

In the end, he isn’t sure if he finds Amarantha or if she finds him. But suddenly, they are standing mere feet away from each other on the battlefield. Around them, their soldiers part, as if to make space for them. Jurian barely notices. All he can see is Amarantha, standing there, mere feet away from him.

He thinks of his soldiers, mutilated beyond recognition and left for him to find. Of the flood wave crashing down into the valley and killing half of his army. Of all the pain and guilt and suffering, all caused by Amarantha. It will end today. He will end it all, here and now.

“I’m going to kill you,” he says very softly, not caring if she hears him or not.

A smile twists Amarantha’s mouth. “You are welcome to try,” she replies.

They both attack at the same time. Blades flashing in the air, they circle each other, jump forward and back as if caught in some twisted form of a dance. Amarantha is faster and stronger, but Jurian knew that in advance. She is also undoubtedly good, her technique nearly flawless, but like he estimated, she fights angry instead of smart.

Anger seems to dictate her every movement. She puts too much force behind her blows, and takes nearly every opening Jurian gives. She’s like a wild animal, eager for his blood, and it makes her reckless.

In the end, it is him who lands the first blow, a slice across Amarantha’s shoulder. She snarly at him for it, as if she is truly more animal than person, and Jurian grins.

Amarantha raises her hand and sends a flare of dark power shooting towards him. Jurian dodges, but not fast enough to avoid the entirety of the blast. The fringes still hit – and bounce off harmlessly at the ward that jumps to life around Jurian. His entire body seems to vibrate under the power, but the ward holds.

“Learned some tricks from that witch-friend of yours?” Amarantha hisses. “Maybe she should have taught you how to counter my flood spell.” She laughs. “But wait. You’re human – you couldn’t have.”

Jurian charges. This time, he is the one whose attacks are fuelled by anger, and he forces Amarantha back a few steps. The laugh vanishes from her face as Jurian’s blade slices through her armour and into her arm.

In answer, she sends another wave of power shooting towards him. His wards crack under the assault, and he can almost feel them splinter. Amarantha might not have much magical power to call her own, but it is more than Jurian can counter with the few tricks Miryam showed him. Under her next attack, his wards shatter entirely and he gets thrown to the ground. He only barely manages to roll aside in time to avoid Amarantha’s sword shooting for his head, and jumps back to his feet.

“Are you so pathetic a fighter that you need magic to defeat me?” He shouts at her.

“I’d defeat you even unarmed,” Amarantha snarls back at him.

“Go ahead, then.” Jurian laughs. “Drop your sword.”

She doesn’t, of course, but she doesn’t use her magic again, either. For a moment, they simply circle each other. Jurian looks at Amarantha and sees his own anger reflected on her face. She loses her patience first and charges. Jurian manages a slice to her cheek, although she moves aside quickly enough to keep it shallow.

But to his dismay, Jurian notices that he is beginning to tire. Amarantha is faster, stronger, and with each moment the fight lasts, he is finding it harder and harder to keep up. He needs to end this before he becomes too exhausted to keep fighting, but while she makes more mistakes than he does, she doesn’t give him to opening he would need to win.

They break apart again. Circle each other before attacking once more. This time, Jurian is a bit too slow in his reactions, and she manages a cut to Jurian’s side. Her sword slices through his armour and bites into the flesh below. He barely feels the pain, but the blow still makes him stumble.

Amarantha is already moving again, so quickly Jurian can barely follow. She brings her blade down in an arc, metal glinting in the moonlight. Jurian jerks his own sword down in an attempt to counter the blow, the movement far too sloppy. He only barely catches the blow, and with his sword’s hilt instead of the blade. It isn’t a clean parry, and Amarantha’s blade slices his leg as she swings it around.

Jurian changes his grip on his sword to meet her next attack, but the hilt is suddenly slick in his grip and the sword almost slips out of his fingers. He looks down and finds his hand drenched in blood. It is running all over his sword’s grip, dripping down the blade. So much blood… Jurian blinks down at his hand, suddenly dizzy. It looks wrong, under all that blood. Almost like…

Jurian stares and stares at his hand. The hand that is now missing three fingers. His index finger is gone entirely, and from there, the slice goes diagonally over his hand, severing most of his middle and ring finger. Then, as if it had been waiting for him to realize what had happened, the pain hits. Jurian gasps, tears making his vision go blurry.

A movement at the corner of his eye catches his attention. At the last moment, he jumps back, only narrowly avoiding being beheaded by Amarantha’s blow. He nearly drops his sword in the process, though.

Amarantha bares her teeth in what might have been a smile. “Already done?” She taunts.

Jurian grits his teeth and changes his sword hand, doing his best to ignore the pain, and the blood still gushing from where his fingers used to be. The sword must have gotten heavier in the last moments, though, because he can only barely lift it.

“Not yet,” he manages through gritted teeth.

But he is done. He feels it with every blow he manages to execute only sloppily, with every too-slow reaction. His body is trembling and he can only barely hold onto his sword. He does not land a single hit, and with each moment, his vision swims more and more. As Amarantha continues to attack, he has to yield step after step.

Amarantha smiles at him. “Oh, I think you are done,” she says.

The force of her next blow knocks Jurian’s sword straight out of his hand. He stumbles back, loses his balance and falls to the ground. The impact knocks the air straight out of his lungs and for a moment, Jurian simply blinks up at the dark sky above, unable to so much as move.

Amarantha’s face appears above him. She still has her sword, and its tip is now hovering only an inch away from his throat.

No, Jurian thinks, this is all wrong. This isn’t how it was supposed to be. But he can’t even summon the strength to move. His mind is moving too slowly, he has a hard time holding on to individual thoughts. He is strangely cold, and everything hurts. Maybe he will die from blood loss before Amarantha manages to kill him.

Slowly, he tears his gaze away from Amarantha and towards her sword, its blade painted red with his blood. If he is going to die, her face isn’t going to be the last thing he sees. His thoughts drift to Miryam. He should have waited to speak to her before rushing off to face Amarantha. Now, he won’t get the chance. And his soldiers… he led them to their deaths, all of them, and then, he didn’t even get the chance to avenge them. When it came down to it, he failed. He failed all of them.

His vision blurs further, but still, he keeps his eyes trained on the sword, waiting for the blow to come. What is she waiting for?

“I won’t kill you,” Amarantha says.

Jurian refuses to look at her, won’t give her that satisfaction. He keeps his eyes trained on her sword, still waiting for it to fall in spite of what she said.

“No,” Amarantha says softly, almost gently and moves her sword up towards his face. “I won’t make it that easy for you.”

The sword comes down and Jurian screams.

----

Jurian faced Amarantha in battle and lost. Most of his soldiers were killed, he himself captured.

The news arrived two hours ago, brought by one of Grand Duke Zeku’s spies, and the Alliance has been in an uproar ever since. It is almost worse than when Miryam got captured, although this time around, most people seem more concerned with the lost battle than the fact that a member of their council got captured by the enemy. In fact, most of the Fae don’t seem to care about Jurian’s fate at all. At least that’s the impression Andromache got after listening to the council’s endless arguments for the better part of an hour.

Only a week without Miryam around to deal with the council, and she already feels like she is slowly losing her mind. With every passing day, she hates the council more and more. Their endless quarrelling, the needless arguments, the fact that they never ever do what it takes without at least an hour of arguing in advance.

But what annoys her the most is the lack of loyalty, of principle. Andromache is human, and if there is one thing she learned, it’s that you always stick together. You have each other’s back. Most of her Fae allies seem more inclined to put a knife in her back the moment she lets her guard down, though, and loyalty seems to be a foreign concept to them as they prove again and again.

“Amarantha is no longer at the Heseia Pass,” she says slowly, trying hard not to let the annoyance creep into her voice. “An attack could be executed with little risk, especially with Amarantha so focused on Jurian that she likely doesn’t pay attention to anything else.”

She tries very hard not to think about what Amarantha’s focus likely looks like. She has seen what Hybern does to their prisoners, and Amarantha will likely think up something especially gruesome for Jurian. Andromache needs to get him out somehow, but the council is blocking her at every turn.

“How many times do you wish to go over this, Your Majesty?” Shey asks. He actually has the nerve to sound like she is the one who’s being difficult. “We do not risk lives unnecessarily to free captured commanders.”

And this is exactly Andromache’s problem. These are their allies they are talking about. It is their duty to do everything in their power to free them, and even though Andromache isn’t in favour of sacrificing many lives for one, this is hardly the case here.

“It isn’t just about Jurian,” she says. “It’s also about all the soldiers that got captured with him, and about the Night Court soldiers.” She hesitates. “Rhysand,” she adds, because it is entirely possible that the Fae will care more about one of their own than about a human and because she knows Mor cares. “And about the chance to win a big victory against Hybern. Why are you so opposed to this?”

She looks around the table, desperately searching for support. But the only Fae who seems to be on her side is Drakon, who winnowed over from the Callian Pass specifically for this meeting. (Unfortunately, he didn’t bring Miryam along, which would have made things easier for everyone involved.)

“We simply cannot spare the troops right now,” Shey says. Complete and utter bullshit, of course. The war is going well enough for them that they would have the troops to spare, and easily.

Andromache shoots a helpless look at Drakon. He just lifts his shoulders slightly and turns to Zeku with a pleading look on his face. The Grand Duke ignores him, as he ignores most of their problems lately. Andromache will need to have a word with him. Or better yet, she will ask Miryam to have a word with him once she returns, since she will probably be more diplomatic about it.

Andromache considers calling for a vote, but what use would it be? She already knows the outcome. She probably shouldn’t have hoped. If their allies weren’t willing to save Miryam, odds of them moving a finger for Jurian, whom most of them don’t even like, were slim at best. Still, Andromache had hoped… But she should have known better.

Abruptly, she rises to her feet. “If you insist,” she says, and now, her voice is sharp. “I certainly won’t forget your generosity.”

With that, she stalks out of the room. She only barely manages to keep from slamming the door.

By the time she reached her room, she at least managed to calm herself down far enough that she can offer the guards a smile. Inside, Mor is waiting sprawled on the couch in the drawing room. When Andromache enters, she straightens.

“Anything?” She asks. Andromache knows that her concern is probably more about Rhysand than Jurian, but that’s only fair, since Andromache is certainly more concerned about Jurian than about Rhysand.

“No,” Andromache says, letting herself drop to the couch next to Mor. “Fuck each and every one of these bastards.”

Andromache’s calling, she decides, does not lie in diplomacy. She thought she was good at it, and before this war began, she never had any trouble, but these days, she feels more like screaming at Shey with every passing moment.

“Shit,” Mor says and buries her face in her hands.

She worries about Rhysand, enough that she barely sleeps anymore. Andromache cannot claim to care a whole lot about the heir to the Night Court, but she cares about Mor, so she keeps reminding herself to also care about Rhysand.

“We’ll figure something out,” she says and puts an arm around Mor’s shoulders. “Rhysand is still alive, I’m sure he will be fine.” Even though he’s currently being tortured, as both of them know. It makes her reassurances far less convincing.

Andromache’s thoughts drift back to Jurian. The report they received said nothing of what state he is in, only that he’s alive. Andromache privately thinks that it might have been better for him if he hadn’t survived the battle. Now, he will still die, but Amarantha will likely find a way to make it slow and painful. And Andromache won’t be able to stop it. They got lucky with Miryam, but Andromache isn’t stupid enough to believe anything like this will happen again. Not when Amarantha has likely been planning Jurian’s death without pause for weeks.

A knock sounds at the door and one of her guards pokes his head in. “Your Majesty?” He asks. “Prince Drakon is waiting outside, he wants to speak to you.”

“Sure, let him in,” Andromache says.

Drakon enters a moment later. Both his feathers and hair are slightly ruffled and he looks about as tired as Andromache feels.

“Hello Only Fae Council Member I Can Currently Stand,” she says. “Could you pass me the wine from the cupboard?”

“Sure,” Drakon says. He walks over to the cupboard and searches around a bit before fishing out a bottle of wine. “I can’t find glasses,” he says.

“Doesn’t matter,” Andromache says.

Drakon sits down on an armchair opposite them and hands the bottle to Andromache. She takes a swig, then passes it to Mor. They end up passing the bottle around, although that strategy is hardly very effective since neither Mor nor Drakon can actually get drunk on human drinks. Andromache for her part could theoretically get drunk, but she takes care not to drink too much. There might be developments at any moment, and she needs to keep a clear head.

“I keep feeling like we should have done something,” Drakon mutters. “I mean, we all saw this coming, we should have…” He shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“We should have taken away his command position,” Andromache says. “Months ago already.”

Drakon wraps his wings around himself like some kind of blanket. Andromache wonders if it’s as comforting as being hugged. If it is, she finds it extremely unfair that she doesn’t have wings – she could certainly use a hug right now. As if sensing her feelings, Mor moves closer to her and wraps an arm around her. Andromache leans into the embrace, immediately feeling better.

“I tried to talk to Zeku after the meeting,” Drakon says. He sounds miserable. “But he wouldn’t listen to me.”

“He doesn’t listen to me either,” Andromache says. “You wouldn’t by chance have any news regarding Miryam?”

Drakon shakes his head. “Still unconscious.”

“Damn,” Andromache mutters. Miryam might have been able to somehow turn this around. And if she would have had to cleave the world apart to do so, she would have found a way to save Jurian. Andromache rubs her hands over her face, sighing. “One army. We’d only need one army and we could free them.”

One army capable of travelling more swiftly than humans are able to, unfortunately. Andromache could take her own army and go – considered doing just that more than once already – but Amarantha’s spies would see them coming from miles off, and any chance they might have had of freeing the prisoners would vanish. Even if Andromache should win, chances are Amarantha would kill Jurian and Rhysand before she allowed them to be freed.

“I have an army,” Drakon says, “but…” He shrugs helplessly.

“You can’t, I know,” Andromache says. “There’s nothing any of us can do. We’ll just have to wait.”

----

A/N: This chapter was originally meant to go longer, but I had to split it up for pacing reasons (and also because of the length). This means that the next chapter is already mostly written, though, so I should have it done within a few days.

Tags: @croissantcitysucks @femtopulsed

[nieladasdenani]

All right. Thanks to @Wolfsbane-illustrations for the prompt.

However, I’m going to take some liberties: I don’t think Lena would have the same “motivation” as James to be Guardian. She wouldn’t disregard her role as the CEO of one of the most influential and powerful companies in the country. I also believe she would do it after knowing Kara’s identity as Supergirl and only after knowing all the times she was so close to dying and how many dangerous people are after her with the right weapons. So, either this story will ignore the fallout between them after the reveal, or it will be set after they move past it.

I’m also picturing her Guardian suit as a mix between Lexo-Suit and the Iron Man suit. Practical, light and functional. And obviously very high tech. Also her bike would be something like Batman would have. 

And finally, I’ve decided to include the scene with Livewire from season 2 (I think?) when James was starting as Guardian and gets kidnapped with Man-hell trying to “save” Leslie. Because I miss her. So, she tried to sacrifice herself to save Kara, but they saved her somehow. I just love the idea of Livewire and Supergirl being sort of friends.

Anyway, here goes nothing. You can read it on AO3, if you rather.

-----------------------------------

Kara’s been having a month. The monster-of-the-week has become a monster-of-the-day kind of scenario, and she’s starting to feel like she can’t keep up, even with all her superpowers. Even with all the appreciated help: there’s Nia, Dreamer, who’s a fantastic mentee, both in the journalist way and in the hero way. Obviously, there’s Alex and the DEO, and J’onn and M’gann. She can always ask for the help of her other hero friends like Barry, Sara, Oliver, or Kate. And then there’s Guardian.

Kara frowns. She’s not sure how she feels about Guardian. The newest National City vigilante. She’s also not sure why she refers to them as “vigilante” and not hero. Maybe because she doesn’t know anything about them. Just that they seem to show up just in the nick of time to save the day if Kara finds herself overwhelmed. She’s suspicious of how they seem to be so evasive. Of course, she understands the need to privacy and keeping a secret identity. But they barely interact with her, or anyone, for that matter. Just the occasional witty or flirty comment before they leave. Don’t forget their suit is lead-lined, which makes Kara’s frown deepen. It seems a rather specific detail to conceal their identity from Supergirl.

So, imagine her surprise when she gets to the place where they have Leslie, sorry, Livewire strapped to a torture chair and finds not only Guardian incapacitated, but Brainy.

“What the heck!” She says, because, seriously? “Brainy!?”

“Ah. Supergirl. Greetings.” He says, and he’s smart enough to look apologetic.

“What are you doing here? Are you hurt?”

“No. I am at optimal performance. We just thought we could lend a hand and help miss Livewire here.” He nods towards the space behind Kara, from where she can hear a sardonic snort.

“Sure, champ. Good job” Leslie snarks. Kara turns to look at her over her shoulder because she sounds pained. She looks like she sounds, too. So Kara starts to make her way towards her, while she addresses Brainy again.

“We? As in, you and Guardian?” He looks at the mentioned vigilante sideways, straightens his spine, and then:

“Indeed”

So Kara takes a deep, deep breath, holds it in for 10 seconds like Kelly showed her. And exhales slowly through her mouth, while she checks on Leslie’s injuries. She smirks at Kara, Leslie. They share a look. 

“Are you all right?” And she knows Leslie’s answer before she even finishes her, admittedly, silly question

“Peachy, blondie. Take your time.” And Kara sighs, again.

“Please, don’t zip away just yet. I’ll like for Alex to check you out before you leave.” She warns, begs? Leslie after releasing her.

“Hot older sister. Kinky.” And Kara can’t help but roll her eyes at her. Then she turns back to Brainy, who apparently is the sidekick for Guardian, which... Is Kara too old for this, already?

“Brainy, why are you working with Guardian?” She rubs her forehead as she can actually feel a headache starting right above her left eye.

“Well...” He clears his throat and then Guardian takes the chance to finally speak.

“How about you free us, Supergirl? Or are we under arrest?”

“I really don’t think you are in any position to talk to me like that... dude?” It comes out as a question, and Kara frowns, again. She actually has no idea if Guardian is a male or a female or something in between. They use a voice distorter, and it’s not like their suit has a reflection of their anatomical gender representation, like breasts, because what’s the functionality of that anyway?

... unless. Unless is like that old cartoon with Japanese robots and the female robot’s breasts are actual missiles? What was its name? Kenny used to nerd over it when she was a new kid on Earth.

“Yeah, you tell them, Sups!” Leslie is laughing, but it sounds a little breathless. And Kara is about to turn her attention back to her, but Guardian is not letting Livewire’s snark interrupt them from defending their case.

“Listen, we were just trying to help. We just did not expect them to be so prepared for a rescue mission.”

“Why wouldn’t they be prepared for a rescue mission? Livewire is a high profile metahuman, and they kidnapped her!” This was shaping as a useless discussion, but apparently, Leslie had enough of that.

“Awesome. Look, Sups, I am flattered that you think of me as a high profile metahuman and all. But what about that hot agent checking me out, huh?”

“Oh! Les... Livewire! Of course. Uh. I’m, I’m gonna pick you up, all right?”

“Yeah, yeah. You have my consent, babe.” And Kara can feel herself blushing deeply. So she picks her up and flies her fast to the DEO med bay. Leaving behind the outraged yell from Guardian. Which she promptly ignores.

·

“I could zap into their suit. You know. Sneak around a bit. If you want.” They’re almost at the DEO when Leslie breaks the silence.

“What?”

“Guardian. I could get into their circuits or something.”

“No. No, that’s... nice of you? But no. It could be dangerous.”

“Come on, Sups! I’m a high profile metahuman.” And she has the audacity of grinning up at Kara.

“Shut up. I don’t want you to do it. It’s such a violation of their privacy. Thank you, though.”

“Whatever.” And then: “Are you ever going to let me see the tentacles?”

“Leslie.”

“Ooh! Is it teeth?”

“What?”

“Do you have teeth down there?”

“I swear to Rao I’m going to drop you.”

·

When Kara gets back at the scene where Guardian and Brainy are still restrained at, it has been barely five minutes. She did not drop Leslie. But Guardian is grumbling and huffing, trying to break free. So she’s anticipating more snark, and she’s seriously just too tired for this.

“I’m taking you both to the DEO” She says, resolute, in her most authoritative voice, with her Supergirl hands-on-hips pose.

“With what charges? With what authority?” It’s like she was expecting the person behind the armor to agree, but she kinda wishes they were unconscious to avoid all this bickering.

“I just want to make sure you’re alright.”

“No. You just want to make sure you know who I am, so you can put a DEO lash on me.”

“Well, why are you so against working with us?”

“I work alone”

“Do you, now?” And Kara lifts an eyebrow pointedly looking at Brainy. And Guardian clears their throat.

“I mean, I don’t affiliate myself with shady government organizations.”

“He works for the shady government organization, though.”

“Not when he’s working with me.” There’s a distorted sigh. “Can you understand the need for keeping my identity secret? I would think you’d understand that, Supergirl.”

“I do. Look, I just want to make sure you’re not hurt.”

“I have people who can take care of that.”

“Fine,” Kara says after a tense stretch of silence. And proceeds to free them both. Guardian takes off immediately after a quiet thank you. So Kara is left with a sheepish looking Brainy.

“So.” He says, “uh. Could you not tell Nia about this.”

“Oh, I am definitely going to tell Nia about this. I’m going to tell her so hard.” She says while she’s starting to walk outside to take off.

“Are you not going to give me a lift?”

“No. Tell your new buddy to give you a lift. Oh, right! They left you here! Bye!”

She knows she’s being petty. But she really has had enough of people acting like dummies. She just wants to get home and eat pizza and potstickers and ice cream. So, she does. She did text Vazquez to pick up Brainy once she’s finished clearing the place, though. But he doesn’t need to know that. Let him squirm.

·

She was hoping for a few days of peace. But it’s only two days later when crap happens again.

“Supergirl.”

“Director.”

“We’ve detected a powerful electric signal near the Central Bank, on Main.”

“On my way”

“Supergirl. It looks like Livewire’s signal. Please, be careful.”

“Of course”

When she arrives at the scene she’s prepared for powerful electric weapons. Criminals. Even hostages. But what she’s not expecting is to find herself in a partially empty parking lot with a couple of Livewire clones and an unconscious Guardian laying on the ground. Fortunately, the real Livewire shows up a couple of seconds after her.

“Did you fuckers thought I would let you torture my powers out of me and let you chill?”

And between them both, they manage to incapacitate the bad guys with minimal damage to themselves. So now Kara’s focus is on the unconscious vigilante. She shakes them a little at first.

“Guardian” No response. So she shakes harder. “Guardian, can you hear me?”

“I don’t think they can, babe. You’ve gotta get the helmet out.” And Kara knows Leslie is right. But, it kind of feels like breaking a promise. She sighs, really didn’t want this to go down like this.

With a deep breath and an encouraging nod from Leslie, Kara rips the helmet from Guardians head. Carefully, but resolutely. And... What the actual...

“Oh, shit! Is that your girlfriend, Sups?”

Kara is so angry she can’t even correct Leslie on the fact that no, Lena Luthor is not Kara’s girlfriend. And Kara is probably going to strangle her before she can be. She scoops Lena into her arms and takes off warning Leslie to get to the DEO to get checked.

Kara lands with a crack to the landing balcony and a shake to the DEO building. Alex is approaching with a reproach dying in her mouth when she realizes that Kara is furious and the reason why laying unconscious in her arms.:

“Follow me.” Is all she says. No one else dares make a peep. Kara lays Lena softly on the bed and stays there, crossing her arms over her chest. “No. Get out.” Alex's words leave no room for argument, but Kara takes a breath to try anyway. “Kara, out. Please. Wait outside. I need to work and I can’t with you fuming down my neck. I promise you will be the first person in when I’m done. Please.”

Kara huffs and floats out to avoid destroying the room by stomping. It’s less than an hour later when Alex steps into the hallway with her. Her arms up, like she’s trying to calm down a wild animal. Which, rude, but fair.

“She’s fine. Got a good shock from one of the clones. A mild concussion, too. But nothing’s broken. Just a little rest and she’ll be good as new.”

Kara takes a deep breath to steel herself for the confrontation. But a strong hand in the middle of her chest ask her to stop.

“Kar. You should get checked, too. I know you received a couple of zaps yourself.”

“Later”

“Kara. You shouldn’t storm in like this. Maybe cool down a bit first.”

“Alex, let me through.” And she does.

Kara storms inside the room Lena’s lying in like a tornado before touching down.

“What were you thinking?” 

“Kara”

“I thought you were done doing stupid things”

“Kara”

“Aren’t you supposed to be a genius? What. Were. You Thinking, Lena?”

“Will you calm down, Supergirl?”

“Don’t you dare! I will not calm down, Lena. What do you think you’re doing?”

“You don’t get to monopolize the heroing in this city, Kara”

“What are you talking about? What does that mean?”

“It means how dare you to question my decision to use my resources to help.”

“I am not questioning you using your resources to help, Lena. I am questioning your mental health while throwing yourself at danger!”

“You do it all the time!”

“I am a superpowered alien!”

“You are not invincible!”

“I kind of am!”

“No. No, you are not! I’ve seen your records. I’ve seen the files. You’ve been on the edge of death several times! You’ve died Kara!”

And Kara pauses, because this, this is something she has not yet come around to talk about in therapy. And this is something she’s not expecting to have to counter-argue right now. Lena’s breathing hard. So is Kara.

“You... I... Yeah, yeah ok. So imagine what could happen to you, then.”

“Kara”

“I can’t lose you! I can’t. I can’t keep losing people, Lena, please!” And a sob escapes without her permission, so she covers her face with her trembling hands,

“Kara... Darling, please. Come closer.” She does. She does because that’s enough. She just really needs a break. Kara feels Lena’s hand tugging at her wrist, pulling her closer still. “Will you lay with me?”

“You’re hurt”

“Not enough to prevent you to lay with me”

“Ok”

She drapes herself over Lena, like a blanket. Resting her head right over Lena’s heart. And closes her eyes.

"Kara, my suit is very, very high tech. It’s very good at protecting me from external threats. I’m not doing this thoughtlessly.”

“Why did you hide it from me?”

“I’m not sure. I guess part of me knew you’d try to dissuade me. Maybe it was thrilling to have this secret. I certainly didn’t want you to worry so much, or distract you from your fights and put you in any more danger.”

“We could work together”

“Really?”

“I mean, I really wish you’d stop. But I know you. And I... You must let Alex train you, though. I know one of your arguments is going to be that I am ok with Alex putting herself in danger all the time when she’s as human as you. But Alex is an elite special agent, Lena. She doesn’t only rely on the weapons and tech the DEO provides. You need to train.”

“I really don’t want to get tied to the DEO.”

“I don’t think you have to.” At Lena’s skeptical murmur Kara insists: “Alex is the Director, she wouldn’t force you to work with them. You could have your own base with your... wait. Wait! You said you have people who can take care of you! What does that mean? What people?”

“Well, there’s Jess, of course.”

“Of course”

“Sam...”

“Isn’t she in Metropolis?”

“Not for long”

“Ok, but how can she helo with your injuries?”

“She doesn’t.”

“Then who? Jess?”

“Not her, no.”

“Lena. Who?”

“All right, don’t get upset...”

“Oh, reassuring”

“You really have nothing to be worried about. I promise.”

“Lena. Who?”

“Lilian”

... “Who?”

“My mother, Lilian”

“Oh, oh I think I should definitely go get checked out. Because I could have sworn I heard you say that Lilian Luthor, a notorious terrorist, not only knows about your stint as a vigilante, but you’re saying you’re trusting your safety, your health, to her!”

“Well, that’s a bit of a dramatic summary, darling.”

“Is it, though? Which part, exactly?”

“I know there’s no excuse for what she’s done. I’m not trying to make little of her crimes. But there’s also no excuse for what I’ve done, and you seem fine with giving me second chances. And, frankly, Kara, I don’t think it’s right of you to imply I’m dumb enough to put my health in the hands of someone without making sure I can trust them” Lena huffs, and when Kara keeps quiet, contemplating, she insists: “She has no access to the missions, or any information that can compromise you, or myself., or the DEO. I’m making sure of that. She just occasionally helps in the lab or patches me up.”

“I understand. She is one brilliant scientist, after all.”

“Oh, if she hears you praising her like this you might win her over. Not many people acknowledge her achievements as more than the Luthor Matriarch.”

“Well, many people are dumb. Besides. She is your mom. And she already knows my identity, my weaknesses my address, kidnapped my foster father, tried to recruit my sister, kidnapped me, harvested my powers...”

“All right, all right. I get it!”

“I will give a second chance to anyone who loves you.”

With that, they stay cuddle in silence for several seconds, minutes, even. Until:

“Maybe we should let Alex in to check you up, huh?” And Kara groans, while burying her face in Lena's chest, which makes her blush and swallows hard.

“She’ll make me lay in the sun-bed.”

“I could go with you?”

“No, you’ll get burned under the radiation. Plus you need to rest.”

“You smell like fried pork, Supergirl.”

“Wow! That’s so rude, Guardian”

“I’m not in the business of sugar-coating truths, darling.”

“No, you’re in the Supergirl business now!”

“Are you two done? I’m kind of scared to come in and find a murder-suicide scenario... or worse, a both-naked scenario” Alex does sound disgusted at the end. Why are people in her life so rude? Kara sighs, but it’s Lena’s smiling voice that becomes Alex inside.

She’s not forced to lay in the sun-bed, but she is forced to lay on a bed under a sun lamp. Next to Lena’s bed, at least.

“Lena?”

“Yes?”

“How do you feel about missile breasts for your Guardian suit?”

... “Excuse me?”

“You know, your suit. ou could make it with breasts. But they’re actually missiles! Imagine the bad guys checking you out and them, boom! Missile to the face!”

“I don’t know how to respond to this”

“Just think about it”

“Sure.”

“Lena?”

“Yes, love?”

“I love you”.

[ruffiorocks]

Kara "Alright gang! It's time to suit up!"

Nia *suits up!*

Jonn *suits up!*

Lena *has her own nano suit or Lexo suit*

Kelly *has a guardian suit*

Brainy *suits up*

Alex *has her suit*

Kara "we're all ready? Good let's g....erm Alex?"

Alex "Hold on Kara! I have to get this winged eyeliner just right!"

Kara "but...But Alex? Danger? Bad guys? "

Alex "Do you WANT me to be recognised?!"

Lena "I could just make you a mask?"

Alex "why would I need a mask when no one will ever recognise me with a hood and blue eye shadow?"

Nia *sniggering and eating pop corn*

Kelly "babe? Maybe you should 're think the mask?"

Alex " Oh no!! I'm out of the right shade of blue!! Kara where's your make up bag?!"

Kara "are you serious right now? Alex!! Danger? Bad guys? Nefarious plots?!!"

Brainy "i don't understand this need to cover ones face with powder? I can still see that this is Alex'.

Jonn 🤦‍♀️ "if anyone needs me I'll be stopping the bad guys!'

Lena "Ill join you, come on Nia".

Nia "but it was just getting interesting!"

Lena *grabs Nia "come on Brainy" and flies off*

Kelly "i love you babe, but the city calls! Jonn?"

*flies off with Kelly*

Later and the gang return to Kara's loft

Kara and Alex are still arguing over eye shadow and playing rock, paper, scissors to see if Kara will give Alex blue eye shadow*

Lena walks over to Alex and slaps a mask on her face!

Alex "what the hell Luthor!?"

Lena "the eye shadow sucks as a disguise Alex, deal with it".

Kara *grinning like a little shit*

Alex *turns to the rest of the gang* "you guys think my eye shadow works right?"

Everyone *erm.. ......"

Brainy "yes, I conclude that the use of coloured powder on ones face is as Lena so elegantly puts it "sucks".

Nia "Pizza anyone?"

Alex "babe?"

Kelly "you're not going to win this one Alex, best stick with the mask. The eye shadow can be just for us" 😉

Alex *grinning like an idiot*

[vegaluthor]

Supergirl in Lexo Suit

[karalovesallthegirls]

this post discusses a killing eve spoiler

anyway thinking about a fight between a super-enhanced lexo suit lena and supergirl and sg getting her on her back only for Lena to suddenly lean up and kiss her for four blissful seconds before rearing back and head butting her clear across the room

[lexotanmerlin]

Lex # 5259

Suit up, gear on, and ready to conquer the cliffs 🧗‍♀️✨ Lexo’s adventure mode is unstoppable! 🖤🔥  In the rugged terrain of Second Life, Lexo had transformed into her daring alter ego—a fearless adventurer. Dressed in a sleek black suit that hugged her every move, she looked like a character straight out of an action movie. Her helmet glinted under the sunlight, shielding her identity and adding…