Chapter 8
The next morning, the team was still flying aimlessly around space, trying to find the best place to set up a new base.
Alex, Lena and the nerd team had studied the alien machine and they had concluded that Barry would have to stay close to it if he wanted to stay connected to them. It meant they needed a place big enough for their materials and slightly out of town to avoid casualties once they would lure Savitar into their trap.
After a while, the Danvers sisters and Lena took a break in ‘Alex’s room’. Even if Lena had completely recovered thanks to the chair, the agent insisted the CEO didn’t strain herself. Getting stabbed was still a stressful experience for the body and a person, Alex knew that.
“I keep thinking about this building matter.” Lena announced, sitting on a chair next to the desk.
Kara stopped spinning around on her stool and looked at her. “What about it?”
“I know I told everyone my last name and it didn’t ring any bells but what if I have a doppelganger? Do Lex or my parents have different lives? If they have a different name but still have money, maybe I can track down their estates and use it for us to settle in for a bit?”
The superhero frowned, not liking what she was hearing. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why?” Lena looked at her with a frown.
“Kara’s right.” Alex agreed, locking eyes with the woman to make a point. “Some things can’t be unknown. I don’t think bringing the ghosts of our lives into it is worth it. I’m sure we can find another way.”
Lena raised a questioning eyebrow. “Our lives?”
The brunette nodded. “The Luthors, the El, the Danvers, we’re all linked and don’t even try to deny it.”
“I…”
“She’s right.” The blonde rolled her stool closer to her lover, taking her hand. “I didn’t search for the people I know here because what if their lives are better or even worse? What if I have this knowledge and can’t do anything because it would impact the future?”
Lena mused for a moment before replying. “Alright then, I won’t do it. But I don’t think an abandoned building is the best place. We need a lot of electricity to make the alien technology function and we’ll bring attention to ourselves if we keep going in and out of this place. Buying or renting a building while pretending to create a company there is the perfect cover, I can even pretend to be a foreign investor.”
“What? Why you? I can do it!” Kara declared.
“Oh honey,” The CEO smiled sweetly. “No offense but you are as subtle as a brick through a window.”
Supergirl gasped. “I’ve been telling you for years now, I CAN be sneaky.”
“Kar,” Alex tutted. “We love you but it’s time to stop lying to yourself.”
Kara crossed her arms petulantly. “I’ll show you one day…”
Lena chuckled. “Anyway, to answer your question, we’re not from this earth and if something happens they’ll never be able to find me. I’m sure Felicity can forge me a new identity. And I don’t know, maybe if no one blows up the building, we could keep it and we’d have a place to stay when we come to visit.”
“Seriously? You would do that?” The blonde beamed happily but then she realized they didn’t have any money here. “How are you going to pay for it?”
Lena smirked. “Again, I’m sure Felicity can find a few offshore accounts of some more than undeserving people and gather what we need.”
Kara gasped. “That’s stealing.”
“That’s badass.” Alex answered at the same time.
“Alex!” The younger Danvers shouted in disbelief.
Alex looked at her sister. “I mean that’s bad,” then she turned to Lena and mouthed. “No, it’s not.”
“Are you kidding me?” The superhero put her fists on her side and looked at her sister sternly. “You’re a federal agent, I expected more of you.”
The brunette rolled her eyes. “We’re borrowing money from the rich to help the poor or at least, to help a good cause.”
“And who are you? Robin hood?” Kara replied sarcastically before turning her attention toward her fiancée. “Lena, I…”
“Kara,” Lena interrupted gently. “I’m planning on giving the money back once we figure out a way to transfer funds from one earth to another but in the meantime, I’m sure they won’t miss it.”
“Can’t someone else from the gang do it?” Kara asked, trying to find a way to keep Lena safe.
“That’s the point, Kara, we don’t want them to be linked to this if Savitar’s crew is spying on us. They don’t know Lena and she’s used to doing business deals. With the right arguments, she can probably have the building in a day. And if it’s Lena’s safety you worry about, we are too and let me assure you we’ll all make sure nothing happens to her.”
Kara sighed in defeat. “Fine, let me talk to the others but just so you know, I don’t like it.” She looked at them both pointedly before leaving the room.
Once Kara was out of the room, Lena looked at Alex. “Do you think she’s mad at us?”
The agent shrugged. “Probably. But you and I both know that sometimes, you have to swim into gray waters to get things done. That’s why she’s the hero and we work in the shadow.”
“So what are we exactly, her sidekicks?”
“Oh God no, that sounds awfully 90’s.” Alex laughed.
Felicity arrived soon after, her laptop in hand and Kara at her side. “So we went over our options.” She announced without wasting any time. “We thought about abandoned buildings but Lena is right, we need a lot of power to make this alien tech work and not all the abandoned edifices can handle that. We also think a cover story would be helpful if people start wondering why there are some activities in a seemingly empty place, especially if we are on Savitar’s radar.” She took a breath and continued. “So I found a few buildings for sale in different corners of the city but…”
“Already?” Kara seemed surprised at how fast Felicity was able to find the information. She moved to sit on the bed with Lena so Felicity could have the desk.
“Just a few algorithms and a supercomputer, it’s nothing.” Felicity waved her hand and sat on the desk chair. “Anyway, the best place for our cover up story is in the north district. It was supposed to be a big estate project to create a new Silicon Valley but the project sank and people lost a lot of money. It will be easy to buy it fast and cheap.”
Alex nodded, impressed. “That’s good.”
“Now, let’s move to the best part.” Felicity grinned.
“What would that be?” Kara questioned.
“Fake ID!” Felicity squealed. “Nothing too fancy sadly, Oliver’s orders, since he will go with you.”
“Why?” Lena frowned. “I don’t need a chaperone.”
“Because he’s the mayor of his town,” Felicity explained, opening her laptop. “He’ll introduce you as a foreign investor like you suggested.”
“A mayor?” Lena and Alex said in unison.
Felicity raised an eyebrow. “Yes, why?”
The agent cleared her throat. “Well, he’s a bit, umm…”
The superhero shook her head, signaling Alex to keep her mouth shut. “Lena it’s safer to have someone with you and if it can’t be me I trust Oliver to do the job. Now Felicity, let’s do this fake ID.”
“Okay.” Felicity started typing on her laptop as she spoke. “You’re a businesswoman from Ireland so don’t bother hiding your accent.” She glanced at Lena who raised her eyebrow at her but she just shrugged and continued. “You plan to expand your company in the US and you want to invest here in Central City and Star City. You know Oliver through a mutual friend and you sought his advice for your new business.” She stopped typing and looked at Lena. “Now, what name do you want? Do we keep Luthor since we haven’t heard of them, or maybe Danvers, I mean you’ll be married soon so…”
“No.” Kara quickly disagreed.
Felicity looked at her confused. “No… what?”
“I don’t want Lena to take my name.” Kara explained. Three “What’’s” resounded in the room and when she saw a flash of hurt in Lena’s eyes, she rushed to explain. “Wait no, that sounded bad.” She frowned. “Urgh, this is not a talk I wanted to have here.” She growled before looking at her lover. “When we’re married, I don’t want you to take my name because I want to take yours.”
This time, only two “what’s” could be heard in the room, Lena and Alex stared at Kara while Felicity discreetly rolled her chair in the corner to give them more privacy.
Kara moved closer and took Lena’s hand in hers. “I don’t want you to think that I’m ashamed of your name and I know sometimes, you still wonder why I’m with a Luthor. I want to show you that it’s just a name, and it happens to be yours and I love everything about you. You and L-Corp are a force for good, so together we could be a new generation of kind and loving Luthors.” She looked at her fiancée’s face but it was unreadable. Suddenly doubting herself, she added hastily. “I mean, if you want to, it was supposed to be a surprise but we don’t have to, I… you don’t…”
Lena forcefully grabbed her by the collar and kissed her senseless. “I love you and I would be honored.” She grinned brightly, trying to hold back her tears of joy.
“Oh wow, are they always like that?” Felicity asked Alex.
Alex shrugged. “Pretty much.”
The CEO quickly wiped away the couple of tears that had fallen, composing herself. She refused to cry right now, they had things to do but she would make sure to show Kara how much she appreciated the gesture later. “I can be Lena Katie Zorel, if that’s okay? I don’t want to use Danvers, Kara came here a few times already and since we don’t know about the Luthors, it’s best not to use it.”
Kara smiled. “I’d be honored.”
After they agreed on the details, they discussed their cover story with Oliver before going to lunch.
Since they needed to wait for an answer from the real estate agency before landing back on earth, Alex, Lena and the tech team went to study the alien machine while the others were training or resting. Despite the Dominators’ technology, they still needed something to connect it to Barry. To everyone’s surprise, Cisco nonchalantly reached into his pocket and pulled out something that looked like a blue-ish metallic stone.
“What’s that?” Felicity asked intrigued.
“That my dear, is a proof of my talent.” Cisco declared proudly. “One of the dominator scientists seemed intrigued by my phone, so I exchanged it for this. By the way, Barry owes me a phone.”
“Again, what is it?” Felicity repeated, staring at the device intently.
Cisco clicked on a small button on the side of the device and 6 robotics legs came out of it. Alex instinctively reached out for a gun and aimed at it so Cisco quickly raised his hands in front of him. “Whao whao, calm down GI Jane, I tested it earlier to make sure it wasn’t dangerous.”
The agent didn’t lower her gun and glared at him. “If you want me to relax, you better tell me what it is and fast.”
“It’s like a Scarab.” Cisco said matter-of-factly.
Alex blinked. “A what?”
“A scarab? You know, like in Resident Evil, you put it on your chest and it morphs with your body.” Cisco explained.
“Oh,” Lena’s eyes went wide in realization. “I remember that, Winn made me play this game with him.” She seemed to be searching in her memory then frowned at an element came back to her mind. “But isn’t it a chemical compound that controls the mind and makes the subject act hostile?”
“You’re a geek and you should stop hanging out with Winn.” Alex told Lena in a teasing voice before becoming serious and looking back at Cisco. “Now tell me again how this thing is not dangerous?”
“Because we’re going to use it like a Bluetooth device to connect Barry to the machine.” Cisco kept staring at Alex until she slowly lowered her gun.
“That’s….” Felicity started.
“Actually brilliant.” The CEO finished.
“I know.” Cisco smiled proudly, raising his hand. “Give me five.”
Lena chuckled at the silly gesture but returned it anyway. “Maybe we should split into two teams, one on the Scarab and one on the…. machine. We should really find a name for that.”
“Oh,” Cisco jumped excitedly. “Names are my thing, let me think about it.”
“Be my guest.” Lena stood up. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to rest for a while. I’m afraid my soon-to-be sister-in-law would lock me up in a room if I refuse to obey to her order to take it easy.” She joked. She hadn’t gotten much sleep since she arrived on Earth 1 and she knew it would get worse once they would be back on the ground. She needed to be reasonable and take a break, even if her mind kept telling to work, her body was begging for her to slow down.
“You bet your ass I would.” Alex winked before adding. “And a real rest, I don’t want to find Kara around you.”
The others snickered as the CEO rolled her eyes. “Yes, GI Jane.”
The brunette growled. “You’ll pay for that.”
“Bring it on.” The raven-haired woman chuckled before leaving the room.
They finally got a reply from the real estate agency and they were ready to give them a visit. Alex went to Kara and Lena’s room to tell them the news and wasn’t the least surprised to find Kara sleeping there. However, she was surprised by Lena’s absence in the bed. She decided to let her sister sleep a bit more and started looking for Lena. She found her in what seemed to be a small office, staring at something on a laptop.
“There you are, I’ve been looking for you. We have an appointment for the building we…” Alex frowned when Lena jumped in surprise and hastily closed her laptop. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” Lena answered quickly. Alex raised her eyebrow in a ‘don’t bullshit me’ way. The CEO looked at her. “I was… searching.”
“Searching for what exactly?” The agent crossed her arms, not breaking eye contact.
Lena slouched on her chair and sighed. She knew she couldn’t lie to Alex, well no, she could, but the woman would question her until she got a satisfying answer and she was too tired for the little stubborn game they were used to playing. “If there was anything on the Luthors…”
The brunette softened. “Oh, Lena…”
“Please don’t tell Kara.”
Alex sighed, grabbing a chair and sitting next to Lena. “Why? I mean, I thought you agreed nothing good would come out of it.”
“I know but it’s killing me.” Lena confessed. “I need to know.”
“What did you expect to find?” Alex questioned.
“Nothing, something…” Lena sighed and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t even know…”
“Then if it’s so important, why didn’t you ask Kara to search with you.”
“Because the last thing I want to do is disappoint her or even burden her, she has enough on her plate already.” Lena replied, glancing at Alex. “It’s my cross to bear.”
“But that’s the thing, you don’t have to carry it alone, not anymore. Kara would never feel bothered or burdened by you.” Alex nodded in direction of the closed laptop. “Did you find anything yet?” She saw Lena shake her head and bite her lip. “Why don’t you tell me what’s really bothering you?” The other woman looked at her in surprise and Alex rolled her eyes. “Please, I’m a special agent, I know how to read nonverbal communication cues. Your poker face is strong, I’ll give you that, but I’ve gotten to know you and there is clearly something on your mind. If you’re not comfortable talking to me about it, you should at least tell Kara.”
Lena sat silently for a while. “Do you…” She cleared her throat to hide the trembling in her voice. “Do you think I wasn’t adopted on this earth?”
“I don’t know.” The brunette answered honestly. “Does it matter?”
Lena shrugged. “Maybe… maybe my birth parents didn’t abandon me here and I had a nice and loving childhood.” She wanted to kick herself for showing vulnerability like that but Kara worried enough about her already and she knew Alex would listen, even if she expected some tough love from her.
Alex forced Lena to look at her. Once she was sure she had the woman’s attention, she spoke. “Maybe you would have but maybe without all those struggles, you wouldn’t be the amazing woman you are now. As far as we know, Kara doesn’t exist here which mean you wouldn’t be engaged to our little ray of sunshine. Maybe you won’t find the answers to your questions, but I have one for you that you might be able to answer. Would you want a life without her in it?”
“I can’t imagine a life where she’s not in it.” Lena replied without hesitation.
The agent smiled softly. “Then be grateful. See it has a second chance in life, a gift from the universe for all the shit you’ve been through. Thank your lucky star if that helps, whatever, but don’t start with the what ifs, it’s the fastest way to heartache.” She patted Lena’s knee affectionately.
Lena gave her a watery smile. Alex was right, there were no words to explain how grateful she was to have found all these amazing people. She cleared her throat. “Are you speaking from experience?”
The brunette sighed. “When I was younger, I…Kara...”
“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.” Lena reassured her, she knew that like her, Alex could have a hard time showing weakness sometimes.
“Well, it looks like we’re having a mushy moment so I guess I can try.” Alex playfully bumped Lena’s shoulder. “When I was younger, I resented Kara, at least at first.” She noticed Lena raise an eyebrow and chuckled. “I know, seeing how we are now, it’s hard to believe. But I was young and all I could see was that I wasn’t an only child anymore and I had to share my parents who gave more attention to Kara than to me because she had special needs and they expected me to be a good sister and help, which wasn’t bad, but…” She sighed. “In the beginning, I remember thinking, what if she had never been stuck in her pod, what if Clark had kept her, would my life be easier, different?” And then I realized, Kara never asked for this either. Her life changed in a heartbeat and it wasn’t fair of me to blame her because she was struggling too. So I decided to be the best sister in the world and just love her. It wasn’t always easy but I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re a team, we’re family, she’s one of the people I love the most on this earth, well our earth, and she’s living a happy life, that’s all I need to know.” She paused, like she was hesitating to say something else. “Nothing will erase what your family did or how you feel about them, as awful as they were, you never really stop loving them. Kara understands that more than I do but… if you need to know one thing, know that you have new family now, one that cares about you.”
“Thank you…” Lena reached out and squeezed the brunette’s hand. “For trusting me with this and for listening.”
Alex nodded before composing herself. She stood up and smirked, a clear sign the emotional moment was over. “Don’t tell anyone, I don’t want them to think I’m a softie.”
Lena laughed and winked. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Oh and I forgot the best part, if things were different, you wouldn’t’ have met me and our friends, which would be a shame cause we’re awesome.” Alex joked.
“I don’t want to stroke your ego but I have to admit you’re right.” Lena smiled in amusement.
“Go get your girl, we should arrive soon.”
Lena nodded. “Thank you.”
Alex smiled. “Anytime…”