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lena-in-a-red-dress · 2 years

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Lena somehow expects the shadow in her apartment less than she expects the fist that collides with her temple. Honestly, it's been a while since her last assault so really, she had it coming. But what shocks her the most when she comes to bound to one of her kitchen chairs is the face who stares back at her.

Well. Glares back at her, anyway.

Her own eyes study her from her doppelgangers position by the windows, hard and calculating. Jesus. Lena can only hope she herself doesn't go that heavy on the eyeliner.

"So you're the one."

Not-Lena's voice is low, almost gravelly. Lena recognizes it as the tone her own voice sounds when she's about to cry, but the dark eyes regarding her are dry.

"Excuse me?" Lena clips back.

"You're the one she wanted to save."

Lena doesn't need to ask to know who 'she' is. Who else on this planet has had a recent encounter with a duplicate of herself? The knowledge burns low in Lena's chest.

Supergirl. Somehow, it's always Supergirl.

"You don't seem surprised to see me," her counterpart says.

Lena doesn't deign to answer, instead posing a question of her own.

"Did Lex make you too?"

In a flash, her double's features harden to ice even as sudden rage burns in her eyes. She marches towards Lena and grips Lena's jaw tightly, hard enough to bruise. Lena fights back a whimper of pain.

After a moment, Lena is released with a small push, nearly tipping her chair backwards. With a measured step her counterpart retreats a single step, head tilting laconically to one side.

"You have Mother to thank for this." With her free hand, Lena's counterpart reaches up and pulls down the collar of her sweater-- one pilfered from Lena's own closet-- to reveal the polished surface of a kryptonite shard buried in her chest. Lena's own chest tightens at the sight. "Though Lex played his part getting me under her knife."

"Metallo," Lena breathes. Her mind races to put the pieces together. Manufacture isn't out of the question, but Lena senses there's more to it than that.

"You've encountered something like this before," her double observes.

Lena nods. "Yes-- but not me. The assassin Lex hired to kill me."

Finally, Not-Lena's features twist into a morbid smirk. "So she already did save you. Supergirl."

Lena gives a single nod. As bitter as she is that her supposedly best friend got one over on her, Lena can't deny the many times Kara has saved her.

She watches her counterpart turn away, returning to her stance in front of the windows, this time gazing out at the cityscape beyond.

"It's different," Not-Lena observes. "I hardly remember what it was like, before..."

Curiosity piques, tickling Lena's brain. "Before what?"

A sigh answers her. "The end of the world." Not-Lena turns back to face her. "I brought it back from the brink-- along with a team of carefully selected allies. But the damage was already done."

An alternate reality then, Lena surmises. If she herself was so changed by changed events, then Lena could scarcely fathom what her doppelganger's world might look like. Despite her desire to learn everything about that distant world, Lena forces herself to return to the matters at hand.

"Will you let me loose?" Lena twists her hands against the duct tape pinning her wrists to the chair she's sitting in. "Or are you planning to single white female me?"

A satisfied smirk curls her double's scarlet lips. With deliberate strides she closes the distance once more, this time to bend and reach for the tape binding Lena to the chair. Before she can rip the tape away, Not-Lena freezes, her ear cocking towards the open balcony.

"She's coming."

Shit. "Quick, let me-- hey!" Lena protests as her counterpart grabs the back of the chair and drags her effortlessly towards the nearest closet. Lena is shoved in among the coats, chair and all.

"Stay silent," her doppelganger warns. "Or you'll both die."

The door closes before Lena can issue a retort. Not that she's sure she'd have anything to say-- she wants to know how the impending confrontation is going to play out.

She hears the muffled whoosh of Kara's arrival, the thud of heavy boots on the concrete balcony. If Lena's counterpart says anything, Lena doesn't hear it. But she hears Kara loud and clear.

"I know you don't want to see me, but I have something to say."

Oh. Oh. That's not Kara-- that's Supergirl, all pompous authority and brassy command. The fact Kara doesn't even have the courage to come and speak to her as Kara Danvers makes Lena bristle with anger. It reminds her of the way Supergirl condemned her for the harun-el research, and the memory of Kara Danvers' smiling visage through all of it feels like sandpaper on an open wound.

"I made a mistake," Supergirl delivers firmly. "I was wrong to keep the truth from you. I know that. But the past is the past."

Lena scowls in the dark shadows of the closet. The past is the past. Funny how it's always the offender who says that first, rarely the victim.

"I made my choice," the hero continues. "And you're making choices of your own-- to not forgive me, to work with Lex... I'm done blaming myself for your bad decisions--"

The monologue pauses sharply. Lena waits for it to resume, as does her counterpart.

"You were saying?"

Not-Lena sounds almost exactly like Lena. So like her, in fact, that if she weren't the one in the coat closet Lena might assume the woman on the balcony were the real deal.

"Is someone here?"

"What makes you say that?"

In her mind's eye, Lena can almost see the crinkle between Kara's eyebrows.

"N-nothing. Just-- something seems... off."

"Well, if you could wrap up whatever you came here to say, I'd like to get back to my evening."

"R-right. I just--" Pieces of Kara Danvers peeks through Supergirl's facade as she stumbles to get back on track. "I came here to tell you that from now on-- you're accountable for your own actions."

Lena's stomach drops out from under her. It seems a part of her had still clung to a shred of hope that Kara would somehow know the magic words to heal them, to make everything right. Instead, Kara is washing her hands of it all-- washing her hands of Lena.

"If you continue to go down this path, if you go through with whatever you and your brother are planning-- I will do everything in my power to stop you. Just like any other villain."

Villain.

Lena can barely breathe. Her chest is tight with undefined emotion, the shadows blurring the tears in her eyes. To hear that word from Supergirl's-- no, Kara's-- lips, after everything that's happened.... Lena doesn't know whether to feel angry or heartbroken, and so she feels both together, intermingling in a twisting mess of rage and anguish.

How dare she--

"Is that all?" Lena's double drawls, a far cry calmer than Lena ever would be. If nothing else, meeting her doppelganger is worth it if only to save face when Lena herself wants to lash out at anything within reach.

"You're not Lena."

The accusation comes so sharp and so suddenly it nearly gives Lena whiplash. In the midst of eavesdropping, she'd forgotten the ruse of it all.

"Excuse me--?"

"You don't have a heartbeat." In an instant, Supergirl's voice had dropped into a threat, danger dripping from her words. "What did you do to her?"

Lena doesn't see her counterpart's reaction, but her next words are calm and slow, no longer Lena's own cadence.

"Do?" Ah. Lena hears another smirk. "Why don't you ask her yourself?"

The closet door is thrown wide, and Lena blinks briefly against the light as her double easily drags the chair back into view. Lena is plopped down in front of the balcony doors and a Supergirl whose anger quickly shifts into concern.

"Lena--!"

"Stay away from me."

Supergirl halts, hands outstretched. She retracts them hesitantly. "Lena, I--"

The hero takes a conciliatory step forward.

"Take a single step past that threshold, and I won't be responsible for the consequences."

A warm hand settles gently on her shoulder. Lena doesn't have to look up to see her counterpart pull down the collar of her sweater again. She can hear the crackle of energy sparking to life in the kryptonite, feel the faint heat of it charging. She sees the way Supergirl physically recoils.

"Lena..."

Lena squares her shoulders as though she were sitting on a throne, not bound to a chair.

"As you said," she issues past the lump in her throat. "You made your choice. It's time I make some of my own."

Supergirl draws herself up, regaining her composure. She made her bed, and it seems she's willing to lie in it.

"If you choose to forgive me, I will be here for you," Supergirl delivers firmly. "But if you--"

"Yeah. Villain. I heard."

Kara at least has the decency to blush, hopefully in shame.

"Leave," Lena delivers firmly. Her jaw firms resolutely. "Don't come back."

Supergirl gives her a final long look before lifting off into the night sky. Lena waits a beat, then two, before turning her attention back to her counterpart.

"Now let me go--"

Before she knows what's happening, a hand is around her throat. It squeezes, not enough to choke, but enough to let her know it's still an option.

"What could possibly compel you to work with Lex?"

Lena swallows thickly. "He's a means to an end."

"You're a fool--"

"I've been telling myself that for months." Lena glares at her doppelganger. "I have my reasons. It doesn't mean I trust him."

Yet again, Not-Lena releases her with a small shove. This time the feet of the chair squeal sharply against the hardwood. But she does reach down and rip through the duct tape with ease, freeing Lena and allowing her to rise.

As she stands, peeling the remaining tape from her skin as she regards her double. "What are you planning to do?"

"I have no intention of staying here, if that's your concern."

It is, but Lena is careful not to let her relief show. "With more information, I can get you home."

Her double scoffs. "So can I. But first..."

"What," Lena prompts.

Her counterpart turns, revealing a dark glint in her gaze that makes Lena's blood run cold.

"First, I'm going to kill our brother."

#supercorp #metallo!lena #100th episode au #ficlet #its a little long #not sure if its done or not #but here it is anyway

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