Chapter 39
Her eyes were crusted over and swollen from spending half the night crying, even as a Kryptonian, she still dealt with puffy, red eyes after a night of tears. The swelling would go down after sometime in the sun, but Kara was reluctant to leave her bed. Her groaning stomach drove her out of her cozy sheets and into the kitchen to look for food. When her fridge proved lacking in anything interesting to it to eat, Kara closed the door with a sigh and set her head against the cool stainless steel. She settled on going out for breakfast to get take-out, and drop in to see Lena. She hadn’t heard from the brunette in the past few days, and she wanted to talk to someone about everything that had happened the previous day. Normally Kara would go to Cat when she had relationship problems, but the woman had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with her because she turned down Adam and ‘caused him to leave.’ Kara snorted at the thought, it was the stupidest thing she had ever heard, and she couldn’t believe it came out of her mother’s mouth.
She sped through a quick shower and pulled on a fresh set of clothes before gesturing Krypto over to her. Clipping on his leash, Kara let him tug her out of the apartment building, and down the street, a bounce obvious in his steps. She stopped at the nearby Barkery to get him a pet friendly breakfast before heading to the park to walk him around. Letting him off the leash, Krypto loped around the dog park, greeting all of his friends and sniffing around to see who else had visited while he was away. Kara let him run for a while and do his business, before her stomach fully demanded sustenance. Whistling, she called Krypto back to her and he bounced over, his tongue lolling out.
“Did you have fun with your friends?” Kara asked, kneeling down to scratch his head. He nodded his large, black head and snuffled against her face, poking her with his nose. “Alright, alright, I get it, if I give you your leash, can you manage to get yourself home without any trouble? You could go out and make appearances as Superdog if you want?” Krypto nodded and gently took the leash in his mouth before running off again, disappearing in the trees before a white and red blur streaked out through the air.
Kara walked out of the park and headed towards her favorite breakfast haunt, Dally’s Diner, and ordered a tremendous amount of food, even for her. Once her food was ready, she gathered all of the bags and toted them to Lena’s building, waving at the doorman as much as she could with her hands full as he buzzed her into the building. She took the elevator to the top floor, and rang the doorbell for Lena’s apartment. Her keys were stuffed in her back pocket or she would try to open the door herself. Kara heard a frantic thud from inside the apartment and muttered curses, and she focused her hearing on the rooms behind the door, picking up something unusual.
“Hey Kara,” Lena greeted as she pulled open the door. It was obvious that the other woman had just gotten out of bed with the way her hair was strewn around her head and her makeup was smudged under her eyes. Curiously enough though, her clothes were mostly wrinkle free. “What are you doing here?” The brunette continued, moving out of the doorward to let Kara in her apartment.
“A lot of stuff happened last night, and I needed to talk to you about it so I brought breakfast,” Kara explained, setting the food down on the counter. “I tried to call you last night, but you didn’t pick up.”
Lena laughed nervously as she helped Kara unpack the food, “Yeah, I, um, was busy working. So what happened last night that has you here before eight in the morning on a Saturday with more food than even you can eat?”
“Just basically my life ending,” Kara groaned before cocking her head. “You know you can tell Sara to come out of the closet right? She doesn’t have to hide.”
The brunette blinked stupidly for a moment before groaning and walking back to her bedroom, returning a few minutes later with a sheepish Sara Lance in tow, sporting a similar look to her best friend. Kara was giving them both an unimpressed look as she forked pieces of a waffle into her mouth. “So,” she started, looking between both of her friends, “Is anyone going to tell me how and when this started.” She waved her fork at both of them, “I mean, Rao Sara, I didn’t even know you were in town.”
“Yeah, um,” Sara rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “I got into town yesterday.”
“And you just happened to fall in bed with my best friend?”
“No… Well yes, but it’s not like that,” Sara started before Lena put her hand on her shoulder.
“Just stop talking,” Lena whispered in her ear and sat across from Kara at the counter, glancing through the boxes before locating one she wanted. “The sleeping together thing is new,” she explained after a few minutes, “As in just last night new, but I’ve had feelings for Sara for a while and lucky for me, she returns them.”
“Intelligent, tough, smoking hot brunettes were always my type,” Sara winked, sliding onto the bar stool next to Lena.
Kara obviously rolled her eyes and the overly sweet looks the two were giving to each other, but bit back a small smile. She was happy for her two friends, really, they deserved each other, but just because she approved didn’t mean that the two were off the hook for not telling her. “So when you got back in town,” Kara started again, drawing their attention. “You just decided to seek Lena out, blurt out your feelings, and one thing led to another…”
Sara shrugged, “Well, kind of…” She paused as she thought about how to deal with the topic at hand. “I’ve learned in the last few years that life is too short not to go after what you want.”
“Where have you been the last few years?” Lena asked, turning to her lover. “You were a bit cagey about that last night.”
“Yeah, you’ve been in contact, but it’s been pretty sporadic.”
The shorter blonde hummed and stood up, moving around to locate the coffee and coffee filters to make a fresh pot. She needed a strong cup to get through this conversation. “It started when we were in college,” Sara said after a few minutes, picking at the eggs in front of her. “The summer after our freshman year, I encounter a mysterious group of… vigilantes I guess, though they’re more than that. They’re a secret society that cover the globe, right wrongs, dish out justice and vengeance, or that’s what they do now anyway since they’re… under new management. I started working with them, helped with the whole languages thing, and I’ve been running around the globe ever since basically.”
“So you’re what… like a vigilante spy?” Kara asked.
Sara just shrugged again, “They’re called the League of Assassins, so more like an assassin, though I left the league a while ago, so I’m in between careers right now. Though I did work as a mercenary for them for a while, and I made a ton of money, so I’m not hurting for funds.”
“A mercenary assassin,” Lena purred, leaning closer to Sara. “That’s all kinds of hot.”
“You think so?” Sara smirked, turning her attention to the brunette.
“Most definitely.” Lena was going to do something to wipe that smirk off of Sara’s face when the sound of a throat clearing lifted the haze of lust surrounding them.
“Yeah I’m sitting right here,” Kara said when the two of them turned to look at her. “Try to control yourselves.”
Lena rolled her eyes and continued eating while Sara just looked at her curiously, “Are you, are you okay with this, with us?”
Kara snorted, “Are you kidding? Of course I’m fine with it, though it’s none of my business either way. You guys are my friends, and I want you both to be happy.” She reached across the counter and pulled them both into a strong, nearly bone-crushing hug. When she released them, she looked Sara in the eyes, “If you ever think about hurting my best friend, I will toss you into space, got it?”
“Got it space girl, now why don’t you spill, what’s up with all the food?” Sara asked, “This is impressive even for you, which leads me to believe that you’re stress eating.”
“I do not stress eat,” Kara retorted, stuffing an entire pancake in her mouth.
“Yes you do,” both Lena and Sara replied, staring at each other in surprise before Sara continued. “You ate about ten pizzas the night before your senior critique, you stress eat, so spill blondie.”
Kara glared at them halfheartedly for a moment before tears started to fill her eyes and fall down her cheeks. “Oh no sweetie,” Lena rushed around the counter to embrace her best friend while Sara took her hand. “What's wrong?” The brunette murmured, “Here, have some bacon.” She shoved the food in her friend's mouth, and wiped at the tears on her face.
The whole story spilled out of her mouth before Kara could even register what was happening, starting with finding out that Cat was still sending Adam money, being forced to go on a date with him, Cat being mad at her, and then ending with Alex finding out the truth and demanding an annulment. “That,” Sara started, taking in the story, “That bitch!”
“Which one?” Lena asked wryly, fury building within her at what her best friend had been through. “I can’t believe that Ms. Grant would say things like that, she basically picked Adam over Kara.”
“Adam has always been her weakness,” Kara said, wiping at her own eyes. “She feels she failed him by not fighting for him, for just giving him up to focus on her career. I hoped that by contacting him, she could start building a relationship with him, and yet this happens.”
Lena shook her head, “But still, she basically placed the responsibility of keeping Adam here on your shoulders, knowing that you didn’t want a relationship with him, and couldn’t have one with your issues with Alex still unresolved. And then she blamed you for him leaving instead of seeing Adam for who he is, a man-child who can’t handle rejection. He’s probably one of those people that would use the term ‘friend-zone’ to describe when someone doesn’t want to be in a relationship with him.”
“I didn’t even really want to be friends with him,” Kara groaned. “I mean, he was nice, and I thought maybe, but I can’t forget everything that he’s said to Cat over the years. It’s not like I can just unhear all of those conversations.”
“Your mom is one problem that will need to be sorted out but what the fuck is up with this Alex person?” Sara asked, “What’s her deal?” Kara gave her a brief rundown of her history with Alex and the interactions she’s had with the agent in the past few months as both Kara and Supergirl.
“So does she hate aliens or does she just work for an agency that hates aliens?” The shorter blonde questioned, trying to reason this unknown woman out.
Kara shook her head, “I don’t think she hates aliens, that wasn’t what it sounded like to me, though initially I thought that she did. I think she was more pissed off that I didn’t tell her… Any of this earlier.”
“Well, yeah, that was pretty shitty of you not to tell her that you met her before, and that you were married, I feel like that is pretty important information to share with someone,” Sara told her.
“Go ahead and just make me feel terrible about this,” Kara grumbled.
Sara shook her head, “I’m not, but you have to admit you messed up on that front, but I get it, you were scared, I wouldn’t know what I would have done in your situation.” She shrugged, “I really don’t know, but you’re in this situation now. But still, what this Alex person did, that was uncalled for, yeah she was pissed, but what she did, how she handled this, that wasn’t cool or fair to you.”
“Thanks Sara,” Kara reached across the counter and squeezed her friend’s hand. “So what happens now?”
“Now I figure out a way to toss her into space,” Lena growled, her eyes narrowed as she stared resolutely at the wall. “Or I can just make her vanish off the face of the Earth, yes, that’s better, I’m sure Lex stashed away some of his more interesting weapons… Or I can develop my own, even better, a vaporizer or perhaps something that will toss her into another dimension…” The brunette moved away from the table towards the large white board she kept in the living room and started sketching out plans for whatever device she had in mind to ‘deal’ with that ‘upstart agent.’
“Think she’ll actually figure out a way to make this Agent Danvers disappear?” Sara asked, adding a snap of her fingers at the word ‘disappear.’
“Probably,” Kara nodded, “But hopefully we can stop her before she goes too far and descends to the role of supervillain. I’d have to come up with a good excuse not to lock up my best friend.”
“You wouldn’t lock Lena up if she became a supervillain?” At Kara’s answer shake, Sara continued, “Why?”
Kara thought for a moment, nibbling on a piece of toast. “My cousin and Lex Luthor were best friends once,” she said finally, “But there was so much left unsaid between them, lies, distrust, it drove them apart in the end. Lena and I don’t have that problem, and I know Lena, if ever she did walk down that path it would be for a good reason. Probably not a villain, at most an anti-hero.” Sara nodded thoughtfully at her answer and they glanced back at the brunette who was still plotting out notes on the board.
“Oh,” Kara said, remembering part of their earlier conversation. “You said you were a type of mercenary/vigilante/assassin person, does that mean you have a suit and cool name?”
“I have a suit,” Sara grinned. “Lots of leather, and I go by White Canary so if you see me around town beating up thugs you can stop and say hi.”
“White Canary?” She questioned.
Sara shrugged, “Family thing.”
“So you're just giving a common courtesy that you're going to be running around full vigilante garb?”
“I'll get bored not doing anything and every city has low level thugs the police can't deal with.”
“Well if the league is as good as you say, I would love your help with the problems I run into,” Kara told her. “I'm sure you'd be able to handle rogue aliens, or racist, xenophobic jerks.”
The other blonde grinned, “If you ever need help taking out the trash, just give me a heads up.”
Kara laughed and agreed before both of them glanced back at Lena who had progressed to a full model on the board with long equations explaining how the device worked. “I think we need to stop her now,” Kara sighed, standing up to fetch her friend from the board.
“Probably a good idea.”
“Wake up Danvers!” Maggie’s voice yelled as a beam of light suddenly assaulted Alex’s face, causing her to groan in discomfort.
“Go’way Sawyer,” Alex grumbled, burying her face in her pillow to block out the intruding sunlight. She pulled a blanket over her head to hide from the incessant probes of the detective as the woman poked at her shoulders and her sides.
“Come on Danvers, time to get up, after last night, your liver needs food and sustenance to recover from what you put it through.”
Alex peeked out from under the covers, glaring at her friend, willing her to vanish from her sight. “How’d you know what I did last night?” She grumbled, trying not to slur her words.
“Kara called me,” Maggie replied, earning a dark look from the agent. “Don’t make a face, she was worried about you, worried about what state you’d be in this morning.”
“She doesn’t have the right to be worried,” Alex told her, pushing herself out of bed.
Maggie just hummed, “Little bird told me that she does have a right to be worried, and that now you know this detail.”
“You knew?!”
The detective held up her hands, “Whoa, easy Danvers, easy, I didn’t know until shortly before we broke up.”
“Is that,” Alex started, “Is that why we broke up?”
“We broke up because we are in love with different people,” Maggie said, gesturing between them. “You being married didn’t have anything to do with it, the way you look at Kara like a dying man in the desert and she was a beautiful oasis-”
“You can stop now,” the auburn haired woman grumbled, rubbing at her face.
Maggie held up her hands, “Look, my point is that Kara really didn’t have anything to do with us breaking up, that was all on us, better as friends really. And besides, I figured you would be happy to find out about your attached status with Kara.”
Alex sputtered a bit, “Happy?!”
“Yeah, I mean, you have the hots for her, a blind man could see that, and you know being married to Kara basically guarantees fidelity. Plus, have you seen her? She’s gorgeous, always a good thing to be attracted to the one you’re married to, not to mention she’s loaded…”
“Wait what?”
“You figured out she was Cat Grant’s daughter but you didn’t really put it together did you?” Maggie mused, “She’s basically going to inherit part of Cat’s estate, meaning a multi-million dollar media company, along with whatever she has in her trust fund right now. Though, that girl can eat, so wouldn’t surprise me if she’s already eaten through most of it.”
“It’s too early for this conversation,” Alex sighed, standing up from her bed to shuffle towards the kitchen, though she didn’t know if she was looking for coffee, food, or beer, maybe all three.
“I just don't get it Danvers,” Maggie said, following after her friend. “You like Kara, like really like her, so why are you pushing her away? Why ask for an annulment?”
“I can't do this with her Mags, not now, not now that I know… everything.”
“It's not that she's an alien, I know you better than that,” Maggie hummed. “Is it because she didn't tell you?”
“She lied to me Sawyer, she deliberately held back this information, something that impacted both of us, not just her.” Alex drained her cup of coffee and quickly refilled her mug, “It's more than that though…”
Maggie waited while Alex gathered her thoughts, wondering what the real problem was. “Kara said we got married in Vegas two years ago during a drunken one night stand. It's a time period in my life that I am trying to forget. I wasn't… I wasn't in a good place, it wasn't a good time for me. Kara, knowing that I married her, it would just be a reminder of the worst point in my life, and I just, I can't.”
“Alright Danvers, alright, I won't ask you about it anymore.” The detective looked at her friend thoughtfully, “Though, for what it's worth, I think that Kara really likes you.”
Alex didn't respond, but the traitorous part of her couldn't help but warm at the words and her heart skipped a beat. “I really like her too…”
Kara felt her pen flex and bend in her hand as she stared at the desk across from her in annoyance. Though empty due to the simpering occupant of said desk being in Cat’s office at the moment, she still directed her anger and irritation filled glare towards the empty desk. Siobhan Smythe, the name sounded like a comic book character and she acted like one too, smiling, giggling, sucking up to Cat at every turn. Her mom just ate it up, smiling pleasantly at the brunette and having her sit in meetings with her, while giving grunt work to Kara.
It had been over a week since the fiasco with Adam and the words Cat said to her that couldn’t be unsaid. It had been over a week since she really talked to her mother, though Carter still called her and came over like everything was fine. It had been over a week since she last heard from Alex, though she waited all the time for papers to show up in her mailbox stating that the woman wanted to terminate their marriage. It had been over a week since she found out that two of her best friends were dating, and she couldn’t have been happier for them.
And it had been exactly a week since Cat had hired Siobhan Smythe aka Executive Assistant number 1, while demoting her to Executive Assistant number 2. She couldn’t believe how petty Cat was being, hiring someone else to put distance between them, picking at her, calling her every name ‘K’ name under the sun but her own, she even heard Linda or Lee slipped in there a few times. It was petty and Kara couldn’t believe this was the same woman who raised her, and she was tempted to ask Lena to run scans on Cat’s brain to see if she’s been taken over by a parasite.
The creative and colorful names that left Cat's mouth though could only have been thought up by her.
She knew she didn't have to put up with the verbal abuse, she knew that she should either quit or confront Cat about her treatment, but she couldn't do either of those things. Her paintings were doing well, especially since her lawyer negotiated a deal with a toy company to also offer them as puzzles, and then later on bags, mugs, calendars… She hadn't really noticed, but they were pulling in a lot of money, people enjoyed seeing the ‘fantasy' worlds she painted, or constellations up close with kaleidoscopes of color around them. They would never guess the worlds were real, or paintings of stars or clouds in full color were done from memory rather than fantastical imagining.
Kara also wanted Cat to acknowledge that was she was doing was emotional abuse, verbal abuse, because Cat had always told her the last to consciously acknowledge the abuse were the abusers. She knew that she had more worth than to let her boss degrade her, yell at her and call her names not her own. Logically, realistically, mentally she knew this, but when said boss was also her mother, the one who had raised her for the past eleven, twelve years, it was complicated.
Hiring Siobhan though was low, even for Cat. The woman was a snake and everyone could tell, she was only out to further herself, whether it was at CatCo or another company. She had to constantly fix the other woman’s mistakes, and make reservations she ‘forgot' about last minute. It was a complete waste of her time, having to do the filing work Cat assigned her along with the work that Siobhan screwed up. If Cat wasn’t bad enough, Winn was following the woman around like a lost puppy, and she has heard them taking far too many ‘breaks’ in the supply closet.
She was rethinking quitting every day since the harpy had been hired, and it had only been a week.
With her Supergirl duties on top of basically doing two jobs at CatCo and the stress from her non-existent relationship with Alex, Kara was exhausted. Cadmus was lying low ever since the failed plot of sending the aliens of National City away to the other side of the universe. She worried that it meant that they were plotting something more nefarious in the shadows, but with Astra and Non stepping up their plans and taking more aggressive actions, dealing with Cadmus has been put on the backburner.
Kara let out another aggravated sigh as “Karen” left Cat’s mouth and she slowly stood up, shuffling into the office.
“Yes Ms. Grant?” She asked, her hands folded in front of her.
“Ah, Assistant Number 2, good, I need these files taken back down to records,” Cat said, pointing to the file boxes that Kara had brought up just that morning for a meeting Cat was going to have later that afternoon. “Turns out I don’t need them after all.”
The younger blonde grit her teeth together but smiled brightly despite the smirk present on Siobhan’s face and the dismissive look on Cat’s. “Of course Ms. Grant,” she replied, hefting the two file boxes off the ground and out towards the elevator. They weren’t heavy, but the cumbersome size made them awkward to hold as she stood there waiting for the elevator to reach her so she could haul them back down to records.
Cat hated wasting time, especially her own time, which is why Kara continued to wonder what happened to her mother and who was the vengeful, spiteful woman that replaced her?
The rest of the day passed relatively peacefully, crime was quiet in the city for once, nothing that required Supergirl’s attention, and she was stuck on the 36th floor with the team in charge of CatCo’s social media presence since Siobhan messed up again and Kara was required to fix it, again. It was after eight by the time that Kara made it home, slumping into her apartment with a loud sigh. “I’m home Krypto,” Kara called when the dog didn’t immediately greet her as usual. Her brow furrowed in confusion, he always came home when he heard her coming except for when Carter took him out, but he usually texted her when he was leaving to take Krypto out.
Kara pushed herself off the door and glanced around her apartment, looking for her missing dog, before spotting his tail poking out from the other side of the counter. “Krypto?” She called again, walking towards him only to find the massive dog collapsed on the ground. “Krypto!” Kara cried, falling on the ground next to her friend, her hand brushing through his fur and along his head. “Krypto?”
She heard a loud sound behind her and whirled around, but before she could face who or what had hurt Krypto, a force knocked into her chest, pushing her back. Kara fought to escape whatever had knocked her over, but her vision quickly faded to black and she was pulled into the deep recesses of her mind. Her worry, fear and irritation from the past week quickly gave away as she succumbed to the darkness.
Cat stood on her balcony overlooking the city, an untouched drink clutched in her hands. It had been over a week since her family fell apart, mostly by her own doing, and rather than try to fix it, she continued to make the problem worse. She didn’t know why she pushed Kara and Adam together, other than she saw Adam’s interest in her daughter and she immediately jumped on the opportunity to keep Adam in National City longer. In a life filled with decisions and regrets, not fighting for Adam after he was born was her greatest regret. Had been her greatest regret. Now, Cat’s greatest regret and biggest mistake was ruining her relationship with her daughter, basically throwing her away for a son that neither wanted her nor cared about her.
Kara never cared for Adam, Cat knew that, not with how he had reacted the last few times that she tried to reach out to him. The younger woman held her tongue when she saw her words upset Cat, but even disliking him, she still chose to contact Adam, to try and get him to National City for Cat to make amends. She blew it though, she put all of her eggs in one basket, without consulting Kara about her plan or taking her feelings into consideration, and Adam was gone before she even realized what had happened.
The more rational side of her mind wanted to roll her eyes at how Adam just fled the city because he was rejected, but she was a mother first and foremost and all she saw was someone hurt her child. Her claws were out looking for blood and unfortunately they set on her other child, Kara, her daughter whom she adopted and loved as much as if she had given birth to her herself. Her child that had already lost so much in her life, her family, her culture, her planet, broken and yet made stronger by the comfort of a new, loving family and home.
She wondered if this was what she was waiting for her whole life, anticipating with dread the moment when she would eventually turn into her mother, utter sharp, degrading, scathing words to her child, a quick sharp slap against their cheek to teach them a lesson. Cat had been dreading the moment when she would wake up and see her mother staring at her in the mirror, and she had seen that very thing every day since emotionally cutting Kara out of their family and hiring that useless, vapid woman as her new assistant. She could see Kara suffering, every day she saw the anger and hurt in crystal blue eyes as she chose the other woman over her again and again. She knew that she needed to apologize, to swallow her pride and tell her daughter that she was wrong, that she loves her and didn’t mean to hurt her or treat her as if she were less than Adam, less than Siobhan, she knew this. Pride had always been her downfall though, and apologizing had never been something she learned how to do.
A soft thud reached her ears, but Cat didn't stray her eyes from the scene in front of her. “I'm not in the mood for one of your chats Astra,” she bit out, glancing towards the woman. The stricken look on the brunette’s face gave her pause. “What's wrong?”
“I didn't,” Astra stopped, shaking her head. “I didn't think he'd do something like this, something so drastic…”
“Who?” Cat demanded, “General! What is wrong?!”
“It's Kara…”
“What's wrong with Kara?” Cat felt her heart rise to her throat.
Her phone started buzzing on her desk, and she rushed for it, hoping to see Kara’s face on the screen, a frown crossing it when she saw Lena’s number instead. “Lena?” She answered, “I can't talk there's-”
“Cat,” Lena’s voice was strained when she spoke. “Cat it's Kara, there's something wrong with her, she's… you better get to L-Corp.”
Lena hung up and Cat stared at her well unseeingly before turning to the Kryptonian woman in the room with her. “One of your men did something to Kara,” Cat stated.
“Non, my… my husband,” Astra replied looking down. She couldn't believe that he would stoop so low, do something so terrible to her niece.
Cat nodded absently, grabbing her phone and purse on autopilot before turning out the lights. The brunette watched the woman in confusion before Cat turned a determined glare on her, and walked up to her, grabbing the front of her uniform and yanking her down to her level. “You are going to take me to L-Corp,” she said, her voice even. “And you are going to explain whatever it is that your husband did to my daughter, and you are going to help fix her.”
Astra nodded and carefully picked the woman up, flying towards L-Corp as fast as she dared to travel. They touched down on Lena’s balcony on the top floor and the CEO rushed out to meet them, anxiety and fear written all over her face. “Cat, thank goodness you’re here… though did you have to bring her?” Lena asked, gesturing towards the tall woman behind her.
“She is partially responsible for whatever is wrong with my daughter and she is going to help fix it,” Cat growled, her hand clutching at Astra’s wrist. The general knew that if she were human, the vice grip on her arm would probably have broken her wrist, though she did wince slightly at the feel of nails digging into her arm.
Lena gave the woman an unimpressed look, “Well, alright, come on Santa, maybe you can explain this to us.” Astra rolled her eyes but followed her niece’s best friend into the office as Cat yanked her on, her grip never wavering. Lena gestured them into the secret lab she kept just outside of her office, and Cat nearly collapsed when she saw Kara lying on a table, a large wriggling mass attached to her chest. She barely acknowledged Lucy and Sara in the room as well, Sara keeping watch over Kara while Lucy checked on Krypto who was still recovering from the kryptonite darts that knocked him out earlier that night.
“What is that thing?” Cat asked, turning to the woman whose arm she held captive.
“A black mercy,” Astra replied, a grim look on her face. “It’s a type of parasite, trapping the victim in their ideal world as it slowly feeds off of them. If you don’t find a way to break her out of the fantasy, she’ll die.”
“So what do we do?” Lena questioned, one hand clutching her best friend’s hand, the other holding onto her girlfriend. “How do we break her out of the fantasy?”
“You have to remind her about what is real,” the general said. “You have to make her choose this world.”
Cat growled, “That doesn’t explain how we’re supposed to do that when she’s… when she’s like this!” She was set to go through another tirade when a hand fell on her arm and she glanced over, her eyes connecting with Lucy.
“I think,” the lawyer started, her eyes shifting from Cat to Kara, and then back to Cat. “I think I have an idea.”