Chapter 1
Every superhero needs a nemesis.
Batman had the Joker, Aquaman had Blank Manta, and Superman had Lex Luthor. It was the nemesis that gave the hero a purpose- gave them something to fight against. If there was no evil to fight, then there was no point to having heroes in the first place. Kara always told her daughter that she didn’t need a nemesis to be a hero- that doing good wasn’t always about fighting evil. But, Lexa had found hers anyways.
His name was Mon-El.
Sure, he was nowhere near as smart as Lex or as feared as Joker- but he sure was a pain in the ass.
They’d had the situation under control- well, as “under control” as they usually managed to get things. The DEO was a little scattered and the plans were only (as brainy so lovingly put it) 52% likely to succeed. But, Lexa didn’t remember a mission where they did have everything under control.
Then there was dumb Mon-El and his even dumber plan to go back in time. He would take Imra and Brainy- of course he wouldn’t be taking anyone else with him like Alex or Kara or J’onn. “Because it would hurt the timeline- you can’t meet your past self,” He’d explained.
But, being the prodigy daughter of a super and the CEO of a fortune 500 company- Lexa had known her way around the laws of quantum physics since she was a kid. Bringing her parents back to their own timeline would harm it, of course, but it was nothing they couldn’t fix. Not to mention that Mon-El and his little team weren’t the only ones that could have gone back- there was Lexa herself, who (at least to Lexa) was far superior in superhuman ability than the whiny daxamite. He had even managed to avoid bringing any of her cousins, friends or teammates- giving them the excuse that they were ‘too young’ and ‘wouldn’t be able to handle it’. Because Mon-El was so good at handling things.
After many arguments and pleading with her parents, Mon-El had still gotten his way. He, Imra, and Brainy had been sent back in time and she had been left at home- sitting around and waiting for her timeline to change so that the Blight never happened. Her mother insisted that it was for the best- that Lexa was better off there, safe with them. She had always been too trusting, too willing to give people second chances- even if they didn’t deserve it.
And, as much as Lexa hated him- Mon-El did get the job done.
Not long after they had sent him, the timeline began to warp- twisting and turning so that the Blight had been stopped years ago by the team. The people they had lost slowly came back to them, and history began re-writing itself. It would have all worked out perfectly- if Mon-El had actually come back after he was done. If he had fixed the Blight and nothing else.
Lexa didn’t have time to point the finger at her mom and give her the good old “I told you so” before things started disappearing.
It began with her home- the beautiful old Victorian her parents had bought when they found out her mom was pregnant. She had come home that day, tired and ready for the potstickers her mom had promised her at work earlier, when she walked in on a hipster couple who she’d never seen before. Her home filled with foreign décor and a dog she’d never seen barking at her from behind them. She stumbled back down the porch steps, confusion and frustration washing over her. What could Mon-El have possibly done to make her parents move house?
Next, it was her mother’s building- the ginormous glass skyscraper in the middle of the city. It had been there since before she’d been born- her mother’s company occupying it since 2015 (13 years before she’d been born, to be exact). She’d flown there, ready to tell her mother how she’d found strangers in their house- when she saw the logo on the building.
Replacing the large black L for L Corp. was a red “Edge Enterprises” sign. Lexa had never heard of Edge Enterprises, and definitely had never heard her mother talk about selling her entire life’s work anytime soon. Her mother had been given that company in the prime of its downfall, and had worked for years to turn it away from the evil it had been built on. It was her legacy- before that moment, there was nothing in the world Lexa could think of that would compel her to dissolve it.
It hadn’t fully hit her what had happened until she’d seen the statues.
She had been making her way to the DEO - anger and hurt coming over her. Her home was gone, the company she was set to inherit had disappeared. She knew it had something to do with the past- whatever Mon-El was doing had changed her parents' decisions to buy the house and dissolve the company (or maybe move buildings, she thought hopefully). There had been small changes like these in the past few weeks, but never ones this big. Aunt Alex had a different haircut, her mother’s suit was made a different shade of blue. Uncle Winn’s favorite star wars cup had changed from red to green. Nothing major- of course, until now.
They wouldn’t have even noticed the changes if not for each other- those who went unaffected by the change would remember how things used to be. Maggie’s memory had been rewritten to remember taking Alex to get her haircut- but it was new to J’onn. Lena had remembered being stuck in between the two shades when designing the suit with Winn- but Winn had specifically remembered her picking the darker shade. (And of course, Kara remembered Lena getting him the red cup for Christmas rather than the green).
Before the incident, their resident tech genius Claire Schott - an identical copy of her father- had been working with the lab techs to invent a chip. Something that would let them remember what had changed. But, she had only managed to finish a prototype before the changes had begun. They could remember most things- but only as long as they were changes that didn’t directly affect them.
They had tried to keep track of everything that had happened- stored local newspapers and printed out articles that would help them. But, the articles could only keep track of so much. The articles they kept only dated back for the past year- when the Blight had really hit them. Because the Blight was the only thing being changed- they had only had to keep track of the Blight… right?
Once she’d seen the statues- she knew exactly what Mon-El had done.
They stood in the park across from what used to be the L-Corp building, and Lexa had to hold back gagging just at the sight of it. There, solidified in seven feet of bronze, was her mother and Mon-El. They were in their suits, expressions immortalizing what her family had always jokingly called their “hero faces”. Of course, having a statue of the two heroes wasn’t unexpected- her mother and Mon-El had saved the city countless times. It was how they were posed that changed things- her mother clinging tightly to Mon-El, arms around his neck and looking at him like he’d hung the stars.
She needed to talk to her mom.
Lexa was flying to the DEO faster than she’d flown before. The wind whipping at her so fast her eyes began to water (at least that was what she was telling herself). There were a million thoughts racing through her head- if her parents were okay, if they had changed. Or worse, if they were even together.
She found headquarters easily- thanking Rao that it was in the same place as before. She felt like she couldn’t trust her memory anymore, the last two buildings she’d been familiar with having been pulled out from under her. Lexa touched down on the launchpad, descending the dark concrete stairs as fast as she could.
“Auntie Alex,” she sighed in relief, running towards her aunt with lightning speed. Her aunt was the same, clad in her black super suit and a tablet in her hands. Lexa tackled her in a hug, nearly knocking her over and startling the older agent. She knew her aunt would still be there- finishing the reports from the mission they’d only just come back from the hour before.
Alex froze, her hands still and looking down at the practically sobbing teenager clinging to her with confusion. Her whole body was tense, in a deep contrast to the usual warmth Lexa knew her aunt to welcome her with. “What-”
“Please tell me they’re okay,” Lexa sniffled, letting go of her aunt to wipe away the tears at her eyes. She could see the confusion in her aunt’s eyes, hurrying to explain. “I-I went home and there were people in there- mom’s building isn’t there anymore. Auntie th-there’s a Edge Enterprises there? And,” she felt her lip trembling as the agent tried to follow along, “there was a statue in the park and it was mom and….” Lexa stopped in the middle of her sentence, catching sight of the very woman she was looking for.
Kara had only just come out of the debriefing room, headed towards her sister with a sort of determination. Lexa scanned over her, looking for any differences to see if her mother had changed. Her physical appearance was more or less the same- long blonde hair and blue eyes identical to Lexa’s own- the Zor-El eyes. But, her suit was off- a lousy copy of the one her mother and Winn had designed a couple years ago. The colors were wrong, and the material was not something that her mother would ever pick out. She looked….worn out. Sad, even. Nothing like the easy going and happy woman that had raised her.
“Mom,” she sighed in relief, moving her attention from her aunt to her approaching mother. She turned to embrace her, but was stopped by Kara’s hand held out in front of her- stopping her from coming any further. Lexa raised her brows, confused. She searched her mother’s face for an explanation, “mom?”
“Who are you?” Kara asked, her look skeptical as she watched Lexa closely. Her eyes went to Alex, who only shook her head in response.
“She just showed up- called me aunt.”
Lexa’s heart broke in two. It was the kind of sadness you could feel- as if somebody had wrapped their hands around her chest and squeezed as hard as they could. Her home was gone, L Corp. was gone, and now her own family wasn’t recognizing her. The confused look on her mother’s face confirmed Lexa’s worst fears.
He had changed too much- gone too far.
“Mom, it’s me,” she insisted, hoping that if she explained that her family would believe her. She had to force down the tears welling in her eyes, “it’s Lexa- your daughter.”
Kara studied her for a moment, as if considering what the girl was saying to her. There was familiarity in her eyes, and Lexa knew that her mother had to recognize her at least a little bit. “I..” she shook her head, as if she was struggling with the idea, “I don’t have a daughter.”
Alex, always the more skeptical of the two siblings, folded her arms over her chest. “Who are you really?” she questioned, and Lexa could see the gears turning in her mind. She knew her aunt- everyone was a threat until proven otherwise. She turned to Kara, “you need to be careful- Mon-El said that this would happen.”
Kara shook her head, and Lexa grumbled knowing that of course good boy Mon-El had covered all his bases. But, her mother seemed unsure, “I don’t know Alex-” She reached forward, letting her hands fall on Lexa’s shoulders and turning her this way and that. “She doesn’t seem like a shapeshifter.”
“Please mom,” Lexa pleaded, “you have to remember.”