#lurking in the depths before he surges up and strikes you when you least expect it

[sillygoofyqueer]

Modern AU streamer He Xuan whose handle is Ming Yi and nobody sees his face, and he spends most of his time finessing legal systems while calling out the corrupt with mountains of evidence at hand.

When he sends out a warning announcement that he's posting, everyone watching his social media pages lights up, some with fear and panic, others with delight and excitement. All anybody knows is if Ming Yi mentions your name in one of these announcements, there is no hope for your survival.

He's a silent predator, a creature crawling from the underwater abyss and when he's on your radar, it's likely you've been on his for far longer.

[kpgleek13]

Angels To Fly - Chapter 2

Chapter 1, Chapter 2 on ao3

Could not have done it without @supercorpppp‘s great feedback :)

Trigger warning for suicidal thoughts at the beginning of the chapter.

Kara glides through National City, slightly enamored with how modern mankind has become. She’s still taken aback with everything, to say the least. Namely, how can she have an adult charge? Why has this woman not been given a new Guardian when her previous one died? She listens intently to the woman’s thoughts invading her mind. Lena Luthor, that’s her name.

In a flash, Lena’s thoughts become louder as Kara finally descends towards her destination. She stops as soon as her eyes focus on a lone brunette standing and contemplating life and death by the suspension bridge, looking beyond the sea.

“Wow.” Kara mutters to herself upon getting a good look at Lena Luthor, a bit starstruck at that. She knows her charge is beautiful, she just didn’t expect for her to be this humanly stunning.

Kara closes her eyes for a few seconds, trying to calm down the cluttered thoughts of her charge in her head. She flies slowly and closer towards Lena, finally settling almost a hundred feet from her. The Guardian tries to find a center and hopefully get through the main dilemma so she can find a proper solution to talk her charge out of harming herself.

Soon enough, Lena settles herself on the outer side of the railing, her hands tightly gripping the steel behind her. Kara’s eyes widen, almost panicking at the scene before her. One wrong move and her charge will plunge towards her death in the depths of the ocean.

“It has to end now. I can do this.” Lena’s thoughts echo in Kara’s mind. A rush of incoherent thoughts follows along with the conflicting emotions that she felt awhile ago.

Kara looks back on her various trainings, thinking of the appropriate action to the situation. She’s tempted to go down and pose as a human but that could have dire circumstances. Besides, this is her first time on the job. Rao knows what could happen to her if she took matters into her own hands.

From Kara’s vision, Lena sighs deeply. Lena extends her body with her tight grip on the railing as the only thing preventing her from falling. Her limbs are shaking, lips quivering, palms getting clammy. The brunette’s breathing picks up intensely when the powerful wind breezes, making her stance falter.

Kara closes her eyes and tries to pierce through her charge’s emotional defenses. As part of her powers as a Guardian, Kara can convey her thoughts by talking directly to Lena through their unique connection. However, Lena can only hear them under the guise of having ‘nagging thoughts’ alongside her own.

“I can’t take this anymore. Goodbye, Lex. Goodbye, Mom, Dad. I love you.” Lena takes one deep breath and prepares to release her hold on the railing.

“Don’t do it.” Kara mutters, eyes focused on Lena who freezes in her spot. “Please don’t. You really don’t want to do this. You have so much left to live for. You are capable of so much more. Whatever it is you’re going through, you will overcome it. Taking your own life is not the answer to your problems. The world can be unfair but I swear that life gets better. I believe in you.” She adds in a whisper.

Lena’s forehead creases, looking conflicted all of a sudden. Kara pushes it a little more by displaying comforting images in Lena’s mind. She throws in all of Lena’s happy memories she can access as well as hopeful thoughts and dreams that the brunette has.

“Please don’t do it, Lena.” Kara trails off once again, hovering closer to her charge this time. “Someone still cares for you. I will listen to you. I will do anything and everything I can to protect you. You are worth more than the world thinks of you. You are more special than the world makes you out to be. You matter, Lena. We’ll get through this together, I promise you.” Kara adds, giving out a small smile.

Lena takes a deep breath, finally letting herself cry. The tears come free falling, emotions pouring in. The brunette tightens her grip on the railing once again as she comes to realize what she’s about to do. Without thinking twice this time though, Lena moves away from the outer railing and carefully sets foot into the bridge again. She gathers herself by squatting on the pavement, covering her face as she wipes away the tears.

Kara lets out a deep sigh of relief. It was quite a close call even for her. She shakes off the heavy feeling then turns back her attention on Lena whose chest is still heaving from crying, the trembling feeling still coursing through her body.

“Kara? Kara, can you hear us?” Alex’s unmistakable voice utters from somewhere around Kara, startling her.

“Alex? Where are you?”

“I’m still in the command center. We’re telepathically connected to you via the control panel. We can see you and Lena Luthor right now.”

“O-Okay. Have you finally figured out how this happened?”

“No, Kara. That’s why we need you back here right now. We’ve never had a case like this, we need to work out just how big of an impact this is to us.”

Kara purses her lips, preparing to fly away but not before sneaking a look at Lena who has finally calmed down. “Will she be alright?”

Silence greets her until J’onn speaks up. “We can keep an eye on her from here while we figure this out. You can always go back in a flash if need be.”

Kara hesitantly nods at no one in particular. “Alright. I’m on my way back.” She utters and swiftly travels to headquarters.

However, when Kara comes close to reaching headquarters, another surging uncomfortable feeling strikes her again making her stop in her tracks. It’s more profound and distressing this time around. She tries to feel for Lena’s presence, listening more intently if there’s any call for help or lingering thoughts that would give her an idea but alas, nothing.

“Alex, something’s wrong again. I can feel it. What’s happening?!” Kara exclaims to herself. She hears slight murmur in the transmission between her and headquarters until Alex speaks.

“Kara, what you just received is an alert.” Alex starts. “It’s Lena’s imminent death.”

Lena Luthor wanders back to where she parked her car with a heavy heart.

She had a plan. She told herself that all her misery was going to end tonight. That all those cooped up feelings she tried hard to keep inside would come barreling down the depths of the ocean along with her. But at the last second, everything dawned on her. She felt a veil of protection she hadn’t felt in a long time, a voice inside her head telling her not to jump followed by a surge of treasured memories as well as dreams she has yet to fulfill in her life. It was an unworldly feeling but somehow, it was certainly what she needed.

Lena sighs deeply. She crosses the dark street and rounds the corner where she parked her Aston Martin. However, from afar, she sees three men and a woman inspecting the vehicle. Her forehead creases, sensing that they aren’t lurking around for friendly relations judging by the metal rods and sledgehammers in their hands.

She immediately stops in her tracks and hides behind a wall, feelings of intense nervousness creeping upon her once again. She fishes out her phone from her coat pocket to dial 911 but unfortunately, the gadget slips out from her grip and falls into the ground in a loud manner.

“Shit!” Lena hisses to herself. She subtly peeks behind the wall and sees the group whispering among themselves, pointing to her direction. Almost immediately, two of them take out their guns and start making their way towards her.

Lena’s eyes widen, her senses going into overload. She hastily walks the other way, trying to figure out a solution while sending – or rather, praying – for some kind of miraculous help to intervene from the potential danger she’s in.

“Hey, baby! Where ya going?” Man #1’s voice calls out behind her. She disregards it and keeps her head down, hands in her coat pockets as she crosses the block.

“Girl, wait up! You forgot your phone!” The woman voices out.

“Pretty girls like you shouldn’t be alone at this time of the night!” Man #2 chimes in.

She glances quickly on her shoulder, a mere split second. But upon looking back in front again, she bumps into a man emerging from the street corner, making her jump in surprise.

“Hi there, darling. You seem to be in a hurry.” Man #3 utters with a smirk, trying to get a good look on Lena’s face while effectively blocking her way.

Lena nervously looks around her, swallowing the lump in her throat. She keeps her head down and tiptoes around the man but to no avail when the other three catch up to her.

“Hello there, sweetheart. I can’t help but notice that you look expensive. You own that pretty looking car, don’t you?” Man #1 grins devilishly, looking her up and down.

“L-Look, you can have my wallet, jewelry, even the car. Just don’t hurt me. I won’t even go to the police.” Lena declares, trying to sound confident.

“Oh, she’s generous.” The woman chimes in, joining in the others’ laughter as they start to circle Lena. “That’s a nice offer but I’m afraid we can’t have that, right, boys?”

“Yeah. You people always say that but when you go scot-free, the first thing you do is call the police.” Man #2 says spitefully. “We’re on probation, lady. The moment you call the cops on us, we’re going back straight to prison.”

Lena glares back at them. “W-What the fuck do you want?”

The quintet breaks into mocking laughter. “Wow, you’re still feisty, huh?” Man #3 trails off. “You already offered everything and we could let you go if we want to. But the thing is, you’ve already seen our faces and we certainly can’t have that. Don’t worry, it’s not our first rodeo.” He seethes while taking out a small knife, all of them inching closer to her.

Lena looks down on the ground. With how close they are to her, she has only one chance for an escape. She turns towards her intended direction and tightly closes her eyes as she takes a deep breath, tucking herself in the crook of her elbow. She holds on tightly to the armed pepper spray inside her coat pocket and in one swift motion fishes it out, deliberately aiming for their eyes and nose as she proceeds to generously discharge it.

“Fuck!-“ One of them groans out in pain. Lena doesn’t let them move as she clumsily knocks them over to the ground.

Lena hastily and almost blindly goes off towards the direction back to her car. She runs like she’s never run before as the adrenaline pumps in her veins, only looking back every few seconds to check if they are still following her. A slight burn brushes in her eyes making her squint every now and then as well as some painful gushing in her throat that she tries to ignore. She’s about to round the corner when a gunshot echoes in the background.

She cowers immediately, looking back to see them still disoriented but slowly catching up to her. Lena proceeds to run faster when she feels her right leg slightly dragging. She looks briefly at it and sees blood gushing down her right calf with the actual pain only setting in upon looking.

“Come back here, you bitch!” A manly voice angrily exclaims behind Lena followed by three consecutive gunshots, luckily missing the brunette. The bullets hit a car’s windshield and somehow a fire hydrant that explodes, blocking the path and giving Lena a generous leeway. She places both hands on the back of her head and neck as she flinches, finally turning the corner.

“S-Shit!” She exclaims to herself, fumbling with the keys of the Aston Martin while running. She’s only a few feet away to her car when she trips on her feet. The pain of having been shot on the thigh finally catching on when she feels a great deal of difficulty getting back on her feet.

“C-Come on!” Lena whispers angrily to herself while dragging her body closer to the driver’s side. From afar, she could hear several footsteps becoming louder by the second. She sighs deeply, knowing that if she doesn’t try, she could very well be dead anyway. In one quick motion, she places all the pressure on her left side and uses the leverage to carry herself in an upwards manner while leaning on her car. Lena takes a peek down her leg and for some miraculous reason, the bleeding has stopped and the pain is almost gone. Her forehead creases as she catches up on her breathing, proceeding to slide down towards the car door while trying to open it.

“Hey, bitch! Don’t fucking move or I fucking swear we will blow your head off!” One of the men declares a few feet away from Lena, making her instantly freeze in her spot.

“Holy shit! I know this chick! It’s that Luthor girl with the insane brother!” The woman chimes in.

“Yeah. That delusional brother who tried to kill the families in this town. I guess it’s about time we return the favor then.” Man #3 trails off with a smirk, sharing a look with the other three and motioning for them to fire at will.

Lena’s breath hitches as she closes her eyes with the knowledge of what’s coming next. She takes a few steps back while holding up both arms in front of her like reflex. She waits for the torment to come as simultaneous gunshots go off, the stinging pain of what would be her slow, painful death. But nothing comes.

Curious, Lena slowly opens her eyes to unveil an otherworldly sight. A flash of blinding light greets her vision at first. When her eyes start to adjust to the brightness surrounding her, the image almost gives her a heart attack.

A woman exuding an ethereal glow with huge wings shielding them from the bullets.

“L-Lena’s death? What do you mean, her death? I just saved her from taking her own life, Alex!” Kara exclaims, confused upon arriving at her designated control panel room.

“Yes but this is a whole different thing, Kara. Guardians get that sort of notification when their charge’s imminent death is coming. Of course, this kind of alert normally comes days before but seeing that the predicament and the general mess of all things right now, it makes sense that we’ve only gotten Lena Luthor’s death warning a few minutes ago.” Alex utters sympathetically.

“You cannot be serious with this, Alex! I haven’t been her Guardian for more than half an hour and now you’re saying she’s going to die in less than ten minutes?!”

“Kara, we cannot do anything about this. We can’t interfere with anyone’s intended death.” J’onn interjects with a warning tone. “What you can do is guide her to the beyond once she dies. It’s your job.”

A stream of thoughts and Lena’s voice suddenly interrupts Kara. “Walk faster! You need the police, Lena. Don’t hesitate to use the mace in your pocket. They’re going to kill you. You need help.” Lena’s desperate voice proclaims.

“She’s calling for me. She’s in trouble and she needs my help.” Kara mindlessly reiterates, still focusing on Lena’s thoughts.

“Kara, you know the rules. Don’t meddle with this, okay? You can’t-“ Alex trails off.

“I know the rules, Alex.” Kara warily responds. “There’s billions of control panels here and just my luck, I get the clunky one. What I don’t get is why I’m being subjected to all this trouble right now? First, I get an adult charge. Second, I almost botched trying to save her from jumping off a bridge. And now, you’re telling me she’s going to die after all that? She doesn’t deserve this. She’s a good person!”

“Shit! Shit! Shit! Calm down, okay? You need to be on your toes if you want to get through this.” Lena’s thoughts ring in Kara’s head.

“Kara, there’s nothing you can do. We’ll have this sorted out and get you another charge. You did your best to save her earlier but her death is an entirely different thing that is out of our hands.” J’onn interjects.

“But she heard me when I talked to her! I-I don’t know how but it was uncanny. It’s as if she heard me-“

“It’s probably in the link-up, Kara. Yes, it’s unusual but maybe you have a strong connection with her because she’s an adult? O-Or it's your powers. You're one of the most powerful Guardians around. Look, we’ve yet to figure this out so please, let this go.” Alex rambles.

“She’s my charge!” Kara raises her voice. “She needs my h-help- I can’t let her die just like that! Lena has been through so much. There has got to be another way!”

“There isn’t unless you want to lose your Guardianship.” J’onn utters sternly. “Revoke her pass.” He orders Vasquez, referring to the Kara’s authority to go through the portal between the human world and theirs.

Kara’s forehead creases at the notion. Knowing how stubborn she can be, Kara supposes that J’onn and Alex can’t certainly risk any chances if she were to pull something unpredictable.

Alex sighs, cautiously approaching Kara. “This is your first time on the job, sweetie. It happens to the rest of us. We know that it’s difficult but you’ll get through this-“

Kara doesn’t let Alex finish speaking. She abruptly spreads her wings and flies off into the human realm once again, barely missing the gate closing in on her by the feather of her wings.

“Kara!” She hears Alex’s voice calling out after her a little too late.

Kara locates Lena’s whereabouts by following the sound of her charge’s thoughts as she nears National City, soaring at the speed of light. Momentarily, she arrives to see Lena looking absolutely terrified while being hounded by strangers taunting her with their weapons.

“Kara, she’s meant to die! Don’t interfere or I will send out the other Guardians to come and get you, that’s an order!” Alex’s faint voice telepathically echoes in her mind through the control panel.

Kara grits her teeth, torn between following her superior or protecting her charge at all costs. She gets distracted when she hears a gunshot from the ground below her. Upon surveying the scene more closely, she sees that Lena Luthor had been hit by a bullet on her right leg. Kara swallows the lump in her throat and ultimately makes a decision upon herself, disregarding all protocols.

Just when the dangerous strangers fire off their weapons once again, she uses her powers to deflect the bullets from hitting Lena as she’s about to round the corner. Further, Kara blows up the fire hydrant in a bid to stall them from catching up to her charge.

Kara catches up to Lena incapacitated and bleeding on the ground, trying to crawl to her car. Without thinking, she hurriedly goes to the brunette’s side and heals the wound by placing both hands above it. She knows that she’s not supposed to but it wouldn’t be possible for Lena to make her escape if she can’t drive at all.

Suddenly, the attackers catch up to Lena almost when she’s about to make her escape. They point their guns at the brunette while Kara can only helplessly look on as she hovers above them. She’s sure now more than ever that this is how Lena’s intended to die. If she interferes with this event, it’s highly likely that she’ll lose her Guardianship and even Lena as her charge. She’s already in big trouble as it is with all the obstruction she did in the past few minutes. All those years of Guardian training ultimately yielding no fruit. All her dreams of becoming a model Guardian will essentially cease to exist. If she’s in the least bit lucky, maybe she could get her job back of delivering news to the angels.

She glances back at Lena, watching how the brunette’s expression contorts to that of terror and fear. Kara tries to look within her charge’s thoughts. Several flashes of family memories, milestones, and regrets come to light. It must be her compassion or sympathy of having to feel for her charge or being generally unexperienced on the job but regardless, she feels a rare connection with Lena Luthor that makes her question her choices.

Guardians are by nature, invisible to humans. Unless they choose to voluntarily release themselves from such, they will remain so., Alex told her during their first Guardian training session.

If Kara were to hinder Lena’s death, she’ll have to voluntarily reveal herself to protect her charge. Granted that humans are not susceptible to beings like her, it will also definitely lead to disastrous consequences once she goes back to Heaven. Never mind not entirely being sure just how much vulnerable she will become once she brings herself to light. However, without thinking it through, she takes it upon herself to ignore reason when the men start to shoot at Lena, completely disregarding the thought that she’ll be seen in her true form by mere mortals.

Kara swiftly lands in front of Lena, creating a crack on the ground. She holds out both of her arms in a cross manner, using her huge wings to cover herself and Lena from the line of fire while employing her powers to block out any other damage that could possibly hurt them.

“What the-“ One of the men exclaims in horror, all of them proceeding to shoot Kara and Lena with all they have got.

Kara glances behind her to see her charge looking back at her in a dumbfounded manner, not entirely believing what’s happening. When Kara hears the gunshots rapidly decline, she abruptly flutters her wings in a wave-like gesture to bring out a powerful gust of wind that knocks out their attackers far off into the street.

Kara sighs deeply, carefully gazing down on the immobilized attackers. She surveys her wings and body for any wounds that may have escaped her but thankfully, there’s none. She slowly turns around to face Lena, checking any visible injuries when the expression on the brunette’s face catches her attention.

“W-What are you?!” Lena exclaims as she takes a step back, scared out of her wits.

Kara’s eyes widen, the image of her being an angel with gigantic wings and glowing in plain sight escaped her for a moment. She tries to come up with something, holding both of her hands up in a calming manner.

“I’m Kara. I’m your-“ Kara utters and barely takes a step towards Lena when she hears another gunshot.

Lena can’t quite believe what she’s seeing right before her eyes. She’s not high nor is she drunk as far as she can remember. But for the love of all that is good and holy, it can’t be possible that a beautiful angel in what looks like a white jumpsuit is standing in front of her.

Lena takes another step back, bent on getting into her car to drive away as far away as possible from all this madness when the sound of gunshot erupts again. She cowers in fear just as Kara the angel hastily hovers into the air towards the woman attacker holding up a gun. In the blink of an eye, Kara clasps her hands together and emits a powerful shockwave in an almost concussive force. The woman flies off into a car’s windshield, unconscious but barely alive much to the angel’s horror.

What the fuck is this shit?, Lena thinks to herself in a panic. She takes this moment to get into her car, taking off the other way in a hurry while clumsily finding her spare phone in the glove compartment. She catches up on her breathing when she notices the mysterious angel slowly and almost lifelessly falling into the ground with force from her rearview mirror.

Lena contemplates whether or not she should stop. The attackers could still very well be after her but whoever that winged woman is, she still saved Lena’s life. She couldn’t just leave her there. Lena takes a deep breath and opting not to think anymore, turns her car around and drives towards the angel lying motionless on the ground.

She slowly gets out of her car and carefully trudges towards the woman. Lena kneels beside the angel, not entirely sure what to do to an otherworldly being. She’s about to take a stray hair out of Kara’s hair when the angel’s ethereal glow starts to disappear.

Lena falls on her butt, crawling backwards in fright. She keeps her eyes on the woman and watches how the angel’s wings begin to vanish in an illuminated pixel-like fashion towards the sky. As soon as the angel’s wings completely disappear, Lena notices a stream of blood coming out of Kara’s torso.

She surveys the lifeless body before her looking every bit the human one can possibly be.

“Kara! Kara?!” Alex angrily screams. “What happened? Why can’t she hear us?! Why can’t we see her?!”

“W-We don’t know, ma’am. This has never happened before.” Vasquez utters with confusion. “We can’t reach her. She’s nowhere to be found in the directory. It’s as if she doesn’t exist.”

“What?! That’s it! I’m going to come and get her back here!” Alex declares, materializing her wings.

“I’m afraid you can’t, Alex.” J’onn calmly interjects.

“What do you mean I can’t? Open the gate and call the other Guardians-“

“You won’t be able to get Kara even if you tried.” J’onn points to the static screen in front of them. “That’s not normal. All Guardians are always at our beck and call. Kara not being able to be found anywhere is a first for a Guardian.” He adds. “Vasquez, show us Lena Luthor.”

Vasquez nods. Shortly, Lena Luthor is shown to be surrounded by emergency medical staff and police apprehending her attackers. Looking closely on the side, they notice what seems to be an unconscious and bleeding Kara being loaded into an ambulance.

Alex’s eyes widen in shock. “N-No. It can’t be. How is that possible?”

“I have no idea. I didn’t even know it was possible until today.” J’onn responds, fear in his eyes. “It takes a lot to be stripped of being a Guardian. Kara’s must have done something beyond belief to trigger this phenomenon.”

“S-So, she’s-“

“Yes. It's not just that she's no longer a Guardian or even an angel.” J’onn declares. “Kara is now mortal.”

It’s going to be light-hearted from here on out. You’ll also get all the answers to everything as we go :)