Obsession and Restraint
Lena was pleased to wake up early the next morning and find that Kara was sleeping soundly in bed. She had worried after giving her internet access that the self-destructive tendencies of the girl would win out and she would spend another day sleep deprived.
Instead, Kara would wake up to one of the colorful bouquets from the nearby shop decorating the steel table in her room. Positive reinforcement, Lena smiled to herself.
Last night she had sat at her own desk for a long while, watching the flickering holographic interface of her private computer system.
The moment Lena granted Kara access to the network, she had set up surveillance. Information was power, and power was how Lena had kept control of National City. And now, it was how she would keep Kara.
Kara’s searches were a tangled mess, full of desperate threads that hinted at her longing for home and her unease with this world. Lena watched in silence as Kara dug into old news archives, government records, anything she could find about the city.
Then, the searches had grown a bit more interesting.
Mxyzptlk
Interdimensional Travel
Space imp Mxyzptlk
Alien sightings, imps
It appeared Lena had her own research to do. Mxyzptlk. An interdimensional imp who had dragged Kara here. He was an anomaly, an unpredictable force Lena could neither control nor remove.
Yet.
But she would.
Kara’s world had to be locked away from her. Permanently. If she believed there was a way back, she would never truly belong to this one.
Kara’s searches took on a new track- people. Lena felt giddy, nothing had gotten her as excited as figuring Kara out since her childhood. The little highs she got from looking Kara in the eye weren’t worth all this effort, but Lena couldn’t help but spend her energy on the woman.
FBI Agent Alex Danvers
DEO
Government Conspiracy Aliens
She was shuffling through links rapidly, clearly not finding what she wanted.
Alex Danvers
All the top results were news stories, but Kara scrolled right past them to a Facebook link.
An old account, hadn’t been updated in some years; belonging to one Eliza Danvers.
Kara sifted through it, presumably looking for Alex, and stopped on a picture of a woman in her early twenties, perhaps even younger.
Lena felt her brows draw together. Who was this that Kara was so fixated on? It was a very nice picture, a close up that showed off her red hair and cocky smile. Out of place for the page.
Kara clicked further into the post to read the caption, and Lena saw her mouse freeze when she read it.
Anniversaries are always hard. May we always make the effort to change the world in the ways she wanted. 10 years of missing my Alex seem to have both dragged on and blinked by.
This girl had been dead for around 14 years. Was she alive in Kara’s time? Who were they to each other that she would be the first human’s name Kara searched?
When long enough had passed without the webpage moving, Lena pulled up the security feed to find that Kara was sitting, looking out the window.
It made her heart ache. Lena should be concerned about this girl walking into her life with the inherent ability to destabilize her, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. She carefully avoided any ideas about why that might be.
–
When Kara finally rolled out of bed in the morning to continue her research, Lena received a ping.
She searched all sorts of names, with varying results. Some brought up no results in Kara’s searches, some had obituaries published online, and some seemed like entirely normal people.
Lena noticed that none lived in National City.
Kara returned to her search on Alex, and this time clicked into one of the news articles that Lena now realised covered the young woman’s death. Kara didn’t linger there long.
Eventually, Kara started looking into Lena. There was a lot out there, she wouldn’t be able to even brush the surface.
It was fascinating, really. The way Kara hovered over reports on Lena’s rise to power, the strategic shifts that had consolidated her hold on National City. She lingered on old interviews, statements from scientists, engineers—people who had worked under Lena before vanishing into irrelevance.
Lena smirked, fingers tapping against her desk. Let her try to understand. Let her try to reconcile the Lena Luthor she thought she knew with the one who ruled this world.
She had to admit the girl was thorough, perhaps she was an investigative journalist like Clark. She idly wondered if she was stereotyping kryptonians.
Kara spent enough time online that Lena had to step away and trust an algorithm to flag anything significant. She wouldn’t let another person touch Kara with a ten-foot pole if she had anything to say about it.
After her last meeting, she was itching to check back in.
Lena Luthor, before
Lena Luthor childhood photos
Lex Luthor and Lena Luthor relationship
Lena clenched her jaw. Kara was trying to find the humanity in her. Foolish girl. And yet, something about it made her stomach twist.
She supposed she should Let Kara see it. Let her try to make sense of it. Let her sympathize.
An email from Jess jarred Lena from her reverie.
Ms. Luthor,
Publicity caught this article as it was being uploaded. Do you want it blocked?
Interesting. Usually Jess didn’t require babysitting to do her job, and publicity usually plucked bad press out on their own. No matter how tight a fist you hold over your people there is no way to stop them from trying to gossip.
Curiously, she opened the link.
National City Confidential: The Queen and Her Damsel?
If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the past year, it’s that National City’s iron-fisted ruler, Lena Luthor, is always in control. Whether she’s delivering strategic decrees from high on her tower or stepping out for rare public appearances, our reigning queen never falters—never hesitates. Until now.
Yesterday afternoon, in a rare and electric moment, our leader made an uncharacteristically public display of—dare I say—emotion? And the cause? None other than a blonde beau!
Eyewitnesses say the scene unfolded near the Grand Plaza, where Luthor’s personal security force intercepted the spritely girl in what appeared to be a retrieval mission gone wrong. According to bystanders, the situation escalated when Kara, surname unknown, cried out in distress. Get this, she called our local leader by her first name. Not an honorific in sight!
Even better, our very own Madame Luthor appeared on the scene near instantly.
That is —she descended from the sky in her infamous Lexosuit, its first appearance in over six months. If there was any doubt about the blue-eyed beauty’s standing with our leader, it is gone now.
More shocking, Ms. Luthor didn’t exact immediate retribution; didn’t rain down the swift punishment she is known for. Instead, she let our bright-eyed newcomer stay her hand.
And then? She pulled her close.
Yes, dear readers. Lena Luthor, our steel-hearted ruler, gathered her mysterious damsel into her arms and flew her away.
Our resources are searching for the identity of this so-called Kara as we speak, stay tuned for when we find her!
-CG
Lena’s instinct was to block the obnoxious retelling of yesterday’s events, but instead decided to use every resource in her book. Cat would know that if Lena let this through there was an angle in it for her.
Press Secretary Grant had developed the nasty guilty pleasure of writing as “CG” and publishing to the same gossip columns she had hated when she had controlled Catco. The pair had a mutual understanding, forged by Lena’s generous purchase of the company before the city’s takeover.
When Lena blocked particular bits of CG’s work from the media stream Cat would avoid that subject material in press conferences. In return, Lena would manipulate things behind the scenes to benefit Cat.
Their interactions were for the better part quite political, but every once in a while Cat threw a gossip rich curveball. Lena wondered what she would think when this one actually landed. Only time would tell.
She sent word to Jess to push the article through, and watched as Kara’s next search pulled up the recent upload as a first link.
She smirked when Kara shut down her computer and settled down for sleep after staring at it for a while.
-
She had been slammed with meetings this morning, a result of her new, time consuming hobby having pushed all the other worries of her life back.
The sound of footsteps echoed behind her when she left the last of them. "Ms Luthor, she is causing a scene," Jess seemed panicked. "Should the soldiers bring her in?"
Lena turned her head slightly, gaze cool. "No. She is stronger than any of them and I don’t want my soldiers taken down in public view." Jess seemed surprised at the idea, but she relayed the message through her earpiece while Lena pulled up a live feed.
Lena watched the security feed in silence.
The footage was grainy, the angle slightly tilted, but it was clear enough. It showed Kara, standing in the middle of a crowded square, chest puffed out, eyes burning with something Lena recognized far too well—righteousness.
The corner of Lena’s lips turned down slightly, it appeared one of her guards had been bested already.
Lena had followed through with her offer and granted Kara her superpowers and access to the city earlier this morning. And Kara was already out there in her blue suit, abusing the privilege.
Lena wasn’t angry.
Not exactly.
She had expected defiance—Kara had too much light in her to kneel so easily. But watching her out there, so reckless, so utterly convinced that she could push back against the rules of this world and walk away unscathed—
Kara was so very pure, clearly too pure to have ever come from an Earth as vile as this one.
Lena’s jaw clenched.
Kara didn’t understand.
Not yet.
Kara was drawing a crowd talking about hope, and freedom, and tyranny. She was being a disruption.
Lena decided to make her a spectacle instead.
But, first came Lena’s favorite thing as of late; trying to piece together why Kara behaved the way she did.
Lena should be furious.
Instead she was fascinated.
Kara’s defiance wasn’t calculated. It wasn’t a challenge issued with careful intent—it was instinct. A refusal to stand by and accept what she thought was wrong.
It was almost laughable.
Kara was so blindingly righteous, so determined to believe that the world functioned on the merits of good and evil.
Lena closed her eyes for a brief moment.
The realization sent something sharp curling in her chest.
Possessiveness.
Protectiveness.
Kara naively didn’t understand the world.
But Lena did.
That meant Kara needed her.
Lena stood, smoothing the front of her sharp suit before turning toward the door.
Time for another public appearance.