Lena stirred from the bright sunlight coming through her bedroom window and she made the mistake of looking right at it as she opened her eyes. Her head pounded against her skull so hard she had to lay back down.
She only had random flashes of the night before but none of them included a memory of how she got home. She remembered drinking way more than she should've at the bar and she remembered small bits of throwing up into a bucket on her bedside table in the middle of the night a few times, but that was it.
Lena slowly got up to look for anything that could ease her headache right now, already planning to make her way to work. Her lab was all she could think about. She dry swallowed two pills and drove straight to her company's building.
"Good morning, Ms. Luthor." Jess, her secretary, greeted her when the CEO walked past her.
Lena smiled, not really in a mood to talk. She quickly finished some leftover paperwork from the day before and rushed through a meeting, anxious to finish up what she was doing in her lab downstairs.
"Jess," Lena said, heading to the elevator after she finished her day's work. "I'll be downstairs."
Lena pulled out her phone immediately after the elevator door closed.
"Lena, what a surprise." Lillian Luthor's voice came through the speakers, dripping with sarcasm.
She rolled her eyes before replying. "I assume you'd like to see the finished toys."
Lillian didn't expect her daughter to finish her part of the plan so quickly and was slightly taken aback. Lena knew her mother always thought of her as the least capable in the Luthor household, Lex always being the most superior in her eyes.
"Since you want to see me so bad, I'll give you a nice surprise later tonight." Lillian hung up the phone before Lena could respond with her own snarky comment.
At this point, Lena had already gotten to her lab and had started to set up her equipment for the day. Her job was to mass produce a few hundred little robots and she had built her own program to make it for her a little while ago. She had always felt more relaxed in her lab than anywhere else, always having ideas and trying to execute them.
Her lab felt empty today. She wasn't filled with excitement when she looked around the room she had designed herself and she was bored for the first time. It was as if helping her family was physically and mentally draining for her.
Alex had been following her sister around for hours, trying to get her to pause and think.
"I have to tell her, Alex." Kara kept repeating. "She needs to know that she's being tricked!"
"She's mad at you right now." Alex tried not to sound annoyed. "She might think you're lying to her again and she'll fall deeper into the Luthors' trap."
Kara knew she was right on some level but she was willing to risk it. Lena deserved to know the truth and Kara had made the mistake of denying her of it for years. She felt guilty and she desperately wanted to try to make it up to her best friend.
"I have to try." Kara said.
"Her love for her family is so complicated and deep. It's completely different for her." Alex was still trying to protect her younger sister.
"Alex." Kara warned, her voice sounding more desperate by the second. "I have to try."
Alex stopped. Their eyes met and Alex realized she was being too harsh on her sister. She nodded her head, finally letting go of the matter, remembering how much Lena actually meant to Kara.
"Supergirl, Alex." Kara and Alex heard J'onn's voice through their coms. "We need you back at the DEO."
Kara changed into her Supergirl suit quickly but she missed the materializing tech she used to have. The technology was damaged in her fight with Chax and Lena wasn't there to fix it. With one smooth motion, she grabbed Alex and they landed at the DEO in seconds.
"Supergirl!" Alex yelped in surprise.
Kara mumbled a quick apology before reporting to J'onn.
"What's happening?" She asked.
The rest of the team gathered around the circular table and the tension in the air was nerve wracking.
"Psi's back." Nia spoke up.
Kara's small smile faded and an anxious expression replaced it. The last time Psi had been in town, Kara was away in Argo City and the rest of the Super Team had to deal with her. To say the least, Psi took a toll on all of them, more mentally than physically.
"We have a bigger chance of taking her down this time," Alex piped up, hoping to ease the tension. "We have Supergirl."
Everyone nodded in agreement but it was obvious they were still scarred from their last encounter with the criminal. They were right to be worried. Psi had incredible powers that attacked someone's mind, showing them their biggest fears and their worst nightmares.
Brainy cleared his throat. "She was last seen robbing a bank down Main a minute ago. There is nearly a 100% chance that she is still there right now."
Kara was about to take off when a hand pulled her back.
"You'll need backup." J'onn's voice was steady.
Still, she knew her friends couldn't fight Psi again. Their last fight with her was enough.
Kara shook her head. "I'll be fine. Don't worry, I'll call for backup if I need it."
Psi turned at the sound of a cracked floor behind her. Her gaze landed on National City's hero and she grinned.
"I missed you last time." Psi teased.
Kara had easily tracked where Psi was and she made a more dramatic entrance, angry that Psi had tortured her friends. She wasn't there at the time but what she came back to told her enough.
"I can say the same." Kara kicked Psi in the chest in a blink of an eye.
The criminal dressed in black leather flew across the room and slammed into a wall, cracking it in the process. She groaned in pain but she got up almost as fast as she had been hit. She met Kara's eyes and held her gaze, feeling her power surge through her.
Kara knew she had made a mistake. The image of the bank around her faded and an image with Kara climbing into a single pod appeared. She felt as if she lived through her real parents abandoning her again. Kara started breathing heavier, feeling a panic when her younger self looked back at a burning planet before she was hit by an energy wave.
The scene changed and Kara relaxed for a second. She recognized it to be a dream she had had before, remembering she always woke up in a sweat afterwards. It was the dead of night and two fires were strong behind her. The rest of the Super Team and Lena were next to her, preparing to fight their biggest enemy yet. She had never been able to see who the enemy was, but she didn't need to. Almost immediately, her friends started dying around her. Kara looked around in shock and tears poured out of her eyes uncontrollably. Lena was the last one to be killed and Kara collapsed with her best friend in her arms. She would use her super hearing, desperate to find a heartbeat but she'd always fail. The nightmare always ended with her screaming Lena's name in despair, feeling like her whole world had collapsed all over again.
Kara was nearly hyperventilating, unaware that Psi had left her there minutes ago.
"Supergirl!" Nia and Alex ran to Kara.
She was on the floor clutching her knees so tight that her knuckles were white and her eyes were wide with fear.
Alex called for the DEO medics desperately, scared to even think about what her sister had seen.
A woman opened Lena's office door and Jess ran in behind her with an apologetic look on her face. Lena looked up in surprise and gave Jess a little nod to let her know it was fine.
"You know, I didn't doubt that you'd show up, mother." Lena started, shuffling some paperwork around.
"And why is that?" Lillian Luthor mocked.
"You always show up when you need something from me. Imagine our relationship if you'd show up just to be my mother." Lillian smiled coldly in response to her daughter's sass.
"Jokes aside, are you finished?" Lena's mother got straight to the point.
Lena walked out of her office without a word, leaving Lillian standing in the same spot. Lillian Luthor scoffed before following like a needy pet.
The elevator ride down to Lena's lab was eerily quiet, neither wanting to speak. The awkwardness was gone when Lillian caught a glimpse at the finished products.
"You did a decent job." Lillian tried her hand at a compliment but Lena brushed it off.
"Stop acting like you're actually proud of me." Lena felt a pang in her chest. For years, Lena had only wanted her mother and Lex to be proud of what she could accomplish. After moving to National City, she decided their opinions shouldn't matter but she sometimes still wished she was seen as successful in her family's eyes.
Lillian glanced at her daughter. "I am proud."
Lena swallowed back a little whimper and walked over to a table in the middle of her laboratory. She picked up a small, silver remote and handed it to her mother.
"I added some little quirks to make it easier to control. The original blueprints had nothing on how they can move however you want it to." Lena shook her head, showing her annoyance that the blueprints seemed half finished. "I made it better."
Lillian took the remote and looked at it in question. She's incredibly intelligent but she couldn't figure out what the remote had to do with the robots.
"What, you press this button and it does a dance?" Lillian teased.
Lena rolled her eyes. "Don't be an ungrateful bitch, mother. The button is to compact all two hundred or so robots together so it doesn't look like there is a whole army in public."
Lillian noticed a sort of metal wire on the other end of the table that was shaped like a flat crown.
"And that's for controlling them?" She asked for confirmation.
Lena nodded and handed it to her. "Put it on your head and it can read your brain waves to command the robots."
Lillian was silent for a minute and Lena wondered if she was actually going to thank her. She was wrong.
"At least you didn't let me down." Lillian pressed the button on the silver remote and the robots all shrunk to fit into one. She put on the metal crown and the small piece of metal followed her, floating a foot above the ground.
"I hope you know I only used you for these little things." Lillian's voice was hard and she turned to walk out of Lena's lab.
Lena had known deep down that her mother had been tricking her but she wasn't sure how and a part of her wanted to believe it wasn't true. She swallowed hard, turning away so her quivering lips are out of view from her mother. She heard the lab door shut and she let out a sigh of relief. Even though half of her wanted to believe her mother was there for her and not for what she needed her to build, she was prepared. Lena hadn't told her mother that she ignored half of the blueprints, skipping over most of the weapons. The only weapon she had equipped with all of the robots were lasers. There were worse things in the world that she had survived.
Kara was still in a shocked stage for hours after her encounter with Psi. It took all of her strength and energy to push her fear out of her mind but then she began to cry from the pain. She had never told anyone about her greatest fears and nightmares but she almost came close to blurting it all out when Alex squeezed her hand in reassurance.
"Kara, you're okay. You're safe." Alex softly pulled her sister into a hug, feeling Kara sob against her.
She didn't think she was safe anymore. Kara had so much strength and power after coming to Earth and especially after putting on the cape, but she felt completely vulnerable and broken after seeing the things she wanted to see the least. The scenes Psi showed her were too real and it scared Kara more than anything.
She suddenly pulled away from her sister, blinking away her tears. "Alex, I need to see Lena." She sniffled.
Her sister looked at her as if the idea was the most ridiculous thing she had ever said in her life.
"What? No!" Alex cried in disbelief. "You need to rest!"
Kara shook her head and tears welled up in her eyes again. She started shaking from sobbing so hard.
"Oh." Alex realized after a while. "Please be careful."
Kara stopped crying in shock, small hiccups escaping her uncontrollably. Her eyes lit up and she quickly gave her sister another hug before flying out of the DEO, heading straight for Lena Luthor's office.
Kara pulled down her shirt sleeve after quickly changing into regular clothes. She took the elevator to the top floor and smiled at Jess.
"Are you here for Ms. Luthor?" Jess asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah, is she in there?" Kara motioned to Lena's office.
"She was down in her lab before but it's been hours," Jess explained. "I have no idea where she is now."
Kara muttered a thanks and disappeared from sight. She stopped herself from panicking, reassuring herself Lena probably just lost track of time down in her lab, and super sped around the entire building to check for Lena. She mentally kicked herself when she saw her in her lab, muttering "I'm such an idiot" because she didn't think to check the lab first when Jess mentioned it.
Lena didn't even look up when Kara pounded on the door to her lab. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice someone was there until Kara yelled her name three times.
Finally realizing Kara was looking for her, she panicked slightly before opening the door to let her in. She had been thinking about how she was being manipulated by her family again, even though she did prepare herself for it, and she wished she just disappeared from the world. Kara's betrayal on top of Lillian's harshness was too much for Lena and she didn't know how much longer she could suppress the pain.
Kara marched in when Lena opened the door and was surprised to see Lena's puffy eyes.
"Lena, what happened?" She asked with concern in her voice, forgetting why she came here in the first place.
Lena shook her head, refusing to tell her what had happened. She was still disappointed in herself that she let herself open up to Kara so much that Kara's lies affected her so deeply. She refused to do it again.
Kara took the hint and stayed quiet for a moment before she remembered why she was at LCorp at all.
"I fought Psi." Kara tried to meet Lena's eyes. "I mean, I tried to."
Lena's expression was neutral.
"Did you see how she completely screwed me over?" She continued.
Lena glanced up for a second, meeting Kara's blue eyes, but she glanced away almost as fast. She still refused to respond.
"I think you researched her powers out of curiosity last time so you should know what happened." Kara's explanation was slow.
Lena did remember what she had found out about Psi's abilities but she wasn't sure what Kara was trying to say.
"Lena." Kara's tone suddenly became so serious that Lena met her eyes again and didn't look away.
Kara waited for Lena to say something but all she saw was pain and exhaustion written across her face.
"I know you're hurt and tired." Kara said. "I'm so sorry. I wish I could show you how sorry I really am and how much I regret what I did to you. I realize my excuses don't make up for how much pain I've caused you and I'm- I'm sorry."
Lena's eyes were still locked on to Kara's and she watched as two identical drops of tears rolled down Kara's cheeks.
"Why are you apologizing again?" Lena finally said.
"I think you know why." Kara's reply was simple.
Lena did know. She figured it out after looking into her best friend's eyes. She felt her throat start to close up, knowing how much Psi affected Kara but also not knowing what she did to her. A small part of her wanted to hug Kara to reassure her everything was fine, but she remembered what she did for Lillian and she snapped out of it. She didn't want Kara to be disappointed in her. She didn't need that extra pain.
"Kara-" Lena wanted to ask Kara to leave but she cut her off.
"Lex escaped." Kara blurted out.
"What?" Lena's mind froze, unsure whether or not she heard right.
"Months ago. I went to the prison to check and the warden said he paid off the majority of the system to get away and he's been in hiding since." Kara explained. "The DEO couldn't even track him and still can't."
Lena was confused at first. She thought Lillian had used her to get what she wanted to help her beloved son but if what Kara is saying is true, Lillian had something else planned.
"That's impossible..." She whispered to herself.
"Please believe me." Kara nearly begged. "I know I was wrong in the past but I'm telling the truth. I just want to help you."
Their eyes were still locked on to each others' and it had been nearly five minutes. Lena realized she had been used on a deeper level than she originally thought.
"I-" Lena took a deep breath and finally broke eye contact. "I do believe you."
Kara was surprised at her response but she was more surprised at Lena's tone. It didn't sound as cold as before as if Lena was starting to let her walls down for her again. She smiled internally, hoping Lena was truly starting to let her anger go and begin to forgive her. Kara would be happy if Lena ever forgave her, no matter how long it takes.
"You do?" Kara asked.
Lena let out a small sigh. She finally revealed what she had meant a few days ago when she had accidentally told Kara that she was helping the Luthors again. She explained that Lillian was here hours before Kara was and that she realized Lillian was just there for Lena's technology.
Kara's eyebrows were tightly knit when she listened to Lena explain how she realized Lillian was lying to her on a much deeper level than she had thought.
"Knowing my mother, it makes sense, I guess." Lena shrugged. "I was wary of her even from the beginning but I was so..."
Kara nodded quickly, wanting to show she understood. "You didn't know. No one would blame you for having a terrible family."
Lena knew Kara was only trying to comfort her but she felt angry that she was so easily manipulated by the Luthors. She hated that love is her weakness.
"We're going to need to prepare to go against them both." Lena said. "They're definitely going to target all of us, whether they're working together or not."
Kara agreed but before she could respond, J'onn's voice came through her coms.
"Supergirl," J'onn said. "Is there a TV near you? You need to see this."
"Yeah..." Kara trailed off, noticing the mounted television in the back of the room and went to turn it on.
She felt Lena's body heat next to her as they watched the footage of National City going up in flames.
"Is that..." Lena was shocked.
"Now we have four people to fight." Kara said.