God, were your hands trembling while writing my fate? Why else is my heart grieving, my eyes weeping, my face soaked in tears and my entire being sobbing? Teach me how a drop could soothe the ocean. Teach me how I could place my little hand upon yours to assure you that I'm fine. Whatever you've written so far has been the finest - the sweat, the blood, the tears - they were needed for the alchemy. So complete it, whatever tale it is that you have intended. I'm waiting with all my thousand eyes upon you to see how you conclude my story...
"Flora dear, come here for a moment." Layton waved her over to the couch where he sat. Flora set down her sewing and hurried over, perching on the cushion beside the professor. She tilted her head and asked what it was he called her over for. Layton adjusted his hat.
"I feel as if I owe you an apology my dear girl."
"Whatever for, professor?"
"For leaving you."
Flora's eyes widened. She glanced to the side and scrunched the skirt of her dress. So he did notice. Flora was hoping she hid her hurt and....she hated to say it but, resentment better. Apparently the professor caught on. Or maybe Luke or uncle Randall caught on...or-
"I..." Layton began. He sighed, reached for his hat and placed it on the table. He turned to sit sideways and took Floras hands into his.
"...Professor I'm so very grateful to you for taking me in....but your right. You leave me all alone when Luke gets to go along and it feels like- at least in St.Mystre I had the villagers and-"
Flora cut herself off. She didn't mean to go off like that. She knew Layton cared for her and he must have his reasons, but why was it only her that got left behind? It wasn't fair-
"Ever since Claire.....I need you to understand that...I lost much in my youth and as a result I suppose I can appear quite...distant. And I fear you may be feeling neglected." It was Layton's turn to glance away. He let go of Flora's hands and reached for his hat, forgetting he placed it on the table.
"You are incredibly precious to me Flora. If anything happened to you I-"
"What about Luke? Why does he get to go along with you all the time? Do you think I'm to weak? Too much of a burden?"
"Heavens no!" Layton cried pulling Flora into a hug. "No, dear heavens above no. You are never a burden and I cannot apologize enough for making you feel like one."
"Then why?" Flora asked into his chest. Layton sighed. He gently placed a hand on top of Flora's head.
"...You and Luke are both important to me. He's always running into danger and I need to keep a constant eye on him. If you were to come along and I wasn't paying attention..." Flora could feel Layton tremble slightly. It was odd seeing him be so raw and open. It was almost scary.
"I can't go through any more losses, Flora. But that is no excuse to abandon you at every turn. I shall endeavor to include you more on our adventures-"
Flora was about to cheer when Layton added, "After some lessons from Randall that is. I can't have both you and Luke running around."
During their next adventure it was Flora keeping Luke out of trouble.
(AKA the reveal fic that no one asked for but wouldn’t leave me alone and so here it is. tagging @ohhsoadorkable and @storyiicharacter because I’m pretty sure you two like this sort of thing??)
They grabbed her in the carpark. Lena was tired, and rushed, and either of those would be excuse enough for letting her guard down. But truth be told, she'd gotten complacent. She simply hadn't thought to be on edge.
So she didn't expect the hands that grabbed her from behind, and had no defense against the prick of a needle against her neck, or the darkness that swiftly followed.
She woke in a pale room, wearing clothes that weren't her own. Her arms were locked over her head, held in place by heavy manacles sealed to the wall she rested against. Sitting as she was, she had full view of the room before her-- and the pair of men grinning down at her.
"What do you want?" Her voice remained steady. This part was familiar at least.
"Information," came the gruff response.
Lena eyed him, unafraid of the unspoken threat of how he intended to get that information. "L-Corp doesn't negotiate for information. Money, we can talk. Anything else, you're wasting your time."
The man smirked, and crouched beside her, leaning in to peer eerily into her eyes. Lena pulled back, until the back of her head smacked the wall behind her.
"Relax, beautiful." Rough fingers chucked her under the chin. "You're not the target."
Suddenly, the room plunged into an unnatural red glow. A door opened in the far wall and two new men entered, dragging a third body between them. Lena's heart lifted to her throat when she saw the cape and boots and long blonde hair of Supergirl.
Manacles matching Lena's already adorned the hero's wrists. All the goons had to do was press them against the wall until they beeped, and there they stayed, leaving Supergirl slumped against the wall, as pinned as Lena.
Lena stared, her hope dwindling as the unconscious hero, red light, and her own presence came together to form one chilling picture.
"You're leverage."
Kara came to slowly. When she finally had the strength to raise her head, she made out blurry figures on the far side of the room-- two men, one beefy and muscled, the other wearing a cruel smile. A third figure sat shackled to the wall between them, and with a jolt Kara realized it was Lena.
Long banks of lamps sat deep in a ceiling high overhead, bathing them all in a sickening red glow.
Kara focused on the smirking man across the room. "Let her go."
"No," he replied. His smirk grew.
"What do you want?"
"The location of the Fortress of Solitude."
Kara's mouth ran dry. The Fortress-- her people's entire knowledge. Their culture. Their technology. Its location was secret not just to remain a refuge for her and Kal, but also to keep Krypton's science out of the hands of those who would abuse it.
She looked to Lena, who shook her head in warning.
Silence hung between them, eerie in the red light of the lamps. When no answer was forthcoming, the man broke into a full smile.
"I was hoping that would be your answer."
With a snap of his fingers, his muscle man withdrew a hinged hoop of metal. Crouching next to Lena, he snapped it around her neck and once closed, it flashed with a slow pulsing light where the connection was made.
"Your friend's new necklace is going to cause her a great deal of pain," the man said. He lifted a remote, and waggled it tauntingly as he held Kara's gaze. "It won't kill her, though. Not yet. So I'll be back in the morning to see if you've changed your mind."
He pushed to his feet, and the two men on Kara's side of the room filed out.
The man who had spoken before pressed a button on the remote he held. There was a beep, and Lena's wrists were free, and she surged to her feet. Before she could take a single step, the man tapped the remote a second time.
The pulsing light at Lena's throat flashed bright and solid. Lena dropped like a rock, every muscle snapping tight as her entire body seemed to spasm at once.
"LENA!"
"We'll be back in the morning," the man sneered, passing Lena's seizing form without a second glance. "Enjoy the show."
The three men exited through a door in the opposite wall, while the two still hovering near Kara silently filed out through another. A soft beep sounded once the doors closed, releasing the magnetic seal between her cuffs and the wall. With manacles still latched around her wrists, Kara darted across the room towards Lena, only to bounce off a pane of reinforced glass at the halfway point.
"No, no, no!" Kara pawed at the partition, looking for a seam, a weakness she could use to break it. But the red light had already dampened her powers: her arms felt leaden, her legs like wood. Driving her shoulder against the window did nothing but hurt her.
"Lena!" she called. Lena didn't, couldn't, respond. With her eyes squeezed shut and fingers twisted into tight fists, her body arched against the floor involuntarily, and the only sound Kara could hear was the shallow, strained breaths of a woman in agony.
"Lena, I'm here. I'm right here," Kara promised, struggling to keep the tears from her voice. "It's going to be okay. I promise, I'm right here with you. I’m right here..."
What felt like hours later, the solid light of Lena's collar flicked off and resumed a lazy pulse. In an instant, Lena slumped, gasping as the torment abruptly eased. Kara straightened from where she'd been leaning against the pane between them, and pressed her palm against the glass.
"Lena? Can you hear me?"
After a long moment, Lena's eyes opened blearily. When they finally focused on Kara, her face twisted into a grimace. Clumsy fingers reached for the collar around her neck, seeking to break the seal and remove it, but it remained locked no matter how she pried and pulled.
Kara watched helplessly, until Lena gave up.
"Lena, I'm so sorry..."
"Don't you dare give them anything," Lena ground out, her voice rough.
"Lena--"
"The second you give them what they want, they'll kill me and try to kill you. Or sell you to Cadmus." With a grunt, Lena managed to roll herself over and push herself to all fours. Her arms shook with the strain, and her head hung low, the effort to lift it too great. "They can't get their hands on whatever you keep there."
Kara stared at her, desperate to protest but unable to ignore the truth of Lena’s words. In the silence, Lena managed to sit herself up and lean one shoulder against the glass, not unlike Kara had done. Bloodshot green eyes met hers through the partition.
"Promise me."
Duty settled heavily on Kara's shoulders, its mantle greased by Lena's resolute acceptance of whatever fate awaited her.
"I promise."
"Will you tell Kara what happened?"
"You can tell her yourself," Supergirl retorted.
Lena tried to smile, but the muscles in her face didn't want to respond. As confident as Supergirl sounded, as much as she vowed she had people looking for her, people who would find them, Lena knew she couldn't afford to be naive.
Not when her hands shook, and every new session left her muscles tight and twitching longer and longer, even after the hum of electrical current went silent.
After four days, Lena barely had the strength to hold her head up. In the sickly red glow, she was sure she looked a sight, but couldn’t bring herself to care. An open bottle of water sat clutched in both hands. On Supergirl's side of the glass, two sandwiches sat on a paper plate beside her knee.
That was the way of things here, apparently. Lena received only water, every other session, and Supergirl received only peanut butter sandwiches. Lena's stomach growled at the sight of food, but the thought of eating only added to the nausea that had taken hold after the first round of spasms.
As it was, she could barely bring the water to her mouth to sip. The cuffs still locked around her wrists were solid, and heavy, adding extra pounds for her to lift. Sometimes they were activated when the collar was, but more often than not they left her unrestrained. Somehow, that was worse. When the collar clicked on, Lena's own body became her prison, and through it all Supergirl remained just out of reach.
Supergirl looked about as rough as Lena felt. Haggard and drawn, her features only hardened with every round of pain. But she was always there when Lena opened her eyes, pressed as close as she could get through the glass that separated them.
Looking at her now, Lena swallowed against the lump that rose to her throat. "Will you tell her I'm sorry?"
"No."
Lena almost laughed.
When the man with the remote returned, he tore the untouched bottle from her weak grasp, and backhanded her across the face.
"Stop!" Supergirl commanded, rising to her feet.
"The location!"
Lena didn't see what happened next. All she knew was the pain the swallowed her a moment later. As her muscles locked tight around her bones, contorting her spine and limbs, relief mingled with agony.
Supergirl had kept her promise.
Kara stared at Lena through the glass. The light at her throat had returned to a placid pulse nearly two hours ago, but her limbs still remained locked in rictus. The last session, one arm had refused to unclench, leaving the limb curled tight against her shoulder in a macabre spasm.
Tears glistened at the corners of Lena's eyes, slowly trailing down to get lost in long, tangled hair.
Kara had never felt so powerless. Not when she'd solar-flared, not even on Slaver's Moon. Nothing compared to the helplessness of seeing Lena in so much pain, and being unable to even touch her. She had to give them something-- anything to give Lena more time to recover, for Alex to find them, to escape.
"Su--supergirl..."
Her name came grunting from Lena's grimacing lips, ground out behind clenched teeth.
"I'm here! Lena, I'm here..."
"Y-you-- pr'mised."
A sour taste curdled Kara's already dry tongue. This wasn’t the first time she’d considered giving in. Every time their eyes met through the glass, when the man returned with remote in hand, Kara had to fight to keep from spilling her entire life story. Each time, Lena somehow collected the strength that drained from Kara and shared it back. With only a glance Lena reminded Kara of the vow she’d made.
Before Kara could respond, a pained groan worked its way out of Lena, sharp with agony. But at the end of it, the spasms released. Lena lay there, trembling, gasping for breath. A sob of relief pulled from her chest, mingling with the gasps that returned air to tortured lungs.
"You promised."
This time, Lena made no move to sit up, or maneuver herself closer to the barrier. She simply lay there. Tremors traveled through her, and her hands clenched and unclenched as the aftershocks continued to work their way through her nervous system.
"You asked me to apologize to Kara Danvers," she said, pulling Lena's teary gaze to hers. "Why?"
For a long moment, Lena said nothing. Her eyes pressed shut, but from pain or regret, Kara didn't know.
"She's already lost so much," Lena rasped. She blinked, dislodging more tears to course down her temple as she turned her gaze to the ceiling.
"I never wanted to join the list of her dead."
Kara lost track of the days. All she marked was Lena's decline, as her friend grew weaker. Now, the spasms barely ended before the man came back for the next round. Their conversation dwindled to nothing, and Kara could barely manage to catch her eye between Lena's agony and the unconsciousness that now chased on the heels of the convulsions.
"She lasted longer than the boss said she would," the man said, as Lena writhed at his feet. He met Kara's gaze. "But her body will give out, and soon. I give it another day."
"Let her go," Kara spat from the far side of the glass. "Use that thing on me."
"You're willing to die for your secret, and maybe your friend is too. But are you willing to let her die?"
He flashed her a disarming grin.
"See you tomorrow. Same time?"
He disappeared with the hiss and click of the door locking behind him.
Kara's night passed slowly, as she counted each and every ragged breath that strained against her locked jaw. Painful whimpers escaped with every shallow exhalation, stabbing Kara's ears and scraping the inside of her chest.
She only found some margin of relief when Lena's body finally went slack, long after the solid light at the base of her throat had returned to a slow and steady blink.
Their peace didn't last long.
Barely five minutes later, the cuff on Lena's left wrist beeped loudly, then shot towards the wall, dragging Lena with it. Lena cried out when it slammed into the wall, then slid upwards, pulling her to the tips of her toes.
"Lena!" Kara pounded against the glass, kicking and clawing at the barrier as alarm crawled up her throat. A beep was the only warning she received when her own cuffs activated, slamming her against the far wall and pinning her there as the door to Lena's cell opened.
"LENA!!"
Lena tugged weakly at the manacle with her free hand, only to fall limp when the man with the remote twisted his fist in her shirt and pressed her sharply against the wall.
"Last chance," he called over his shoulder, turning his chin. "The location of your Fortress!"
He lifted the remote. Lena's gaze followed the device for a long moment, then slid across the room to lock with Kara's. Kara stared at her, heart lurching when she saw weary acceptance in her glassy eyes. This was it, and Lena knew it.
The man waited another moment, then shrugged. "Fine with me."
His thumb lifted over the button, and--
"WAIT!"
The call pulled from Kara's throat almost unbidden. Once it started, she couldn't stop.
"I'll tell you. I'll tell you where it is, please, just stop. Don't hurt her. I'll tell you."
"Supergirl, no..." Lena groaned. She reached for the man's hand, as though to press the button herself, but he dropped her, leaving her to sag against the wall unsupported.
He crossed to the partition, taking a pen and notepad from his pocket. "The coordinates?"
Kara froze. "I-- I don't know."
She didn't use coordinates. She found her way by landmarks, and the sun and her keen eyesight. She never had to know the coordinates. She never learned them.
The man sighed in irritation, flipping the notepad shut. He rose, turning back to Lena.
"No!" Kara cried. "Please I don't know! I can show you. I'll take you there myself--!"
"You’re not going anywhere near the sun," the man cut her off sharply. "Either you give us coordinates, or you both get to sit through another round."
"I don't know the coordinates! Please, leave her alone, she didn't do anything!!"
"Supergirl..." Lena met her gaze, blinking heavily. "It's ok--”
Lena's head snapped back the second his thumb tapped the button. Her spine arched against the wall, her free arm locked tight in spasm. Her entire body strained against the single point of restraint in gruesome contortion.
"LENA!! NO!" Kara bellowed and thrashed against her bonds. She called on every ounce of strength still in her, straining to break free. But the locks held, and she could do more than watch as blood slowly trickled from Lena's nose, and her eyes rolled back in her head.
Kara roared, straining with all her might. The room went silent as fear and rage washed over her, and her vision narrowed to Lena and Lena alone.
Suddenly, Kara's cell erupted into chaos. For a split second, she thought her heat vision had momentarily sparked, but no-- the sudden explosion of debris and smoke came from the new hole where the door had been, admitting a flood of bodies clad in familiar DEO-black.
She caught sight of J'onn and almost sobbed right then and there. "Help Lena!"
The strike team fired at the glass, only for the bullets to bounce off ineffectually. That didn't stop J'onn. Without hesitation he phased through the barrier and engaged the men on the other side. Agents converged on Kara, pulling on the cuffs locking her in place, but even their combined strength couldn't budge them.
"Oh, for fuck’s sake."
Alex's mutter sounded low in Kara's ear. She pulled back, and plucked a grenade off her belt.
"Eyes!"
The agents instantly recoiled, throwing an arm across their eyes as Alex pulled the pin and lobbed the grenade at Kara's feet. A brief flash of synthetic yellow sunlight filled the room, and flooded Kara with strength.
She snapped her cuffs before the agents could blink the stars from their eyes. Freed, she dove at the pane of glass and punched through like it was tissue paper. As J'onn restrained the last of the men, Kara snatched up the abandoned remote deactivating both the collar and Lena's restraints.
Kara caught her when the cuffs went dormant, and gently lowered her to the floor. Lena jerked and strained in her arms, as Kara held her as tightly as she dared.
"Lena, it's okay. You're going to be okay..." Kara told her, her voice high and stuttering. With a shaking hand she cupped Lena’s cheek, smoothing long hair away from sweatstained skin. When the spasms didn’t ease, Kara lifted her head, searching for her sister. "Alex!"
"I'm here."
Alex knelt beside her, clasping Lena's rigid wrist to feel for a pulse. Kara looked up at J'onn, already feeling her returned strength dwindling once more.
"She needs to get to the DEO, he-- he said it'll kill her. This time... she won't survive it. Please, I can’t--"
"I'll take her," he promised. He scooped Lena into his arms, and phased them both straight up through the ceiling to the sky beyond.
Kara gasped as Alex's arms wrapped around her, and she was suddenly aware that tears were pouring from her eyes and her chest heaved with sobs.
"It's okay," Alex promised, holding her close. "She'll be okay."
"They wanted the Fortress," Kara told her. She couldn’t stop. "I would have given it to them. I tried-- they wanted the coordinates, and I d-didn't know, Alex! I didn't know the coordinates..."
Alex simply held her tight. It wasn't until the tears ran out and Alex helped her to stand on shaking legs that Kara realized the strike team had already evacuated. Kara sat next to her sister in the back of the van, taking the long way back to National City. Halfway there, Alex received a short phone call.
"Lena's heart stopped before J'onn made it back to the DEO," she told Kara after she'd ended the call. Her voice was soft, but Kara was numb. She simply sat, and waited for the news that was sure to follow.
Lena was gone.
"They got her back. She's going to make it."
Kara didn’t have the strength to smile. She didn’t feel relieved. She felt nothing at all.
Kara recovered faster than Lena. The first day back on her feet, she sat at Lena's bedside as her friend slept. Holding her hand was enough, after so long being able to only watch, but on the second day she couldn't sit still, couldn't watch Lena one more second even with the benefit of physical contact.
"They were working for someone," Kara told J'onn that morning. "We need to find out who."
"We’ve interrogated the prisoners at length,," he told her. "None of them knew the identity of their employer, but I was able to pull a meeting location from one of their minds. We're already preparing a strike team."
"I'm going with them."
"Are you sure?" Alex asked, watching her carefully. "Lena should be waking up soon."
Kara swallowed against the sudden sharp ache in her throat. She couldn't stand to be there, with the real culprit still at large. She couldn't stand to be there period.
"I'm sure."
J'onn and Alex exchanged a look, before J'onn nodded. "Okay. We're rolling out within the hour."
Supergirl could have traversed the distance in a matter of minutes, but instead traveled with the strike team. Just to get there took nearly twenty four hours, only for the warehouse in question to be completely empty. They waited several days, just to see if anyone showed up, but no one did. It was a dead end.
She traveled back with the strike team as well. By the time Kara returned, Lena's bed in the infirmary was empty.
"She went home yesterday," Winn told her. He swallowed, clearly uncomfortable with whatever expression he found on Kara's features. "She asked for you."
"I know."
Kara turned and walked away. She headed for the sparring room, but when she found herself facing a motionless concrete block, she didn’t have the energy to strike. It stood as silent witness as her tears started to fall.
As much as Kara couldn't be there when Lena woke up, she couldn't stay away for long. After her third night back without sleep, Kara flew across the city, and pulled to a stop when she spotted a familiar figure on the L-Corp balcony.
She set down on the opposite end of the platform, wrapping her arms around herself. Lena had to have heard her, but she didn't look up from where she stared at her hands. It was a long moment before Kara realized they were trembling.
"They won't stop shaking," Lena said, her voice low. "Never imagined I’d be one to pray for shellshock, but when the alternative is nerve damage..."
The city was quiet tonight. No sirens, no calls for help. Kara’s senses buzzed with the sounds of low conversations, placid with mundanity. Laughter and television and low, gentle music all tickled the periphery of her awareness.
"I'm sorry." It was all Kara could think to say. All she’d wanted to say since waking up in that room, all she’d wanted to say since escaping it, and upon finally saying it she knew it wasn’t enough.
"What for?" Lena finally straightened, turning to face her. "Breaking your promise? Or avoiding me?"
Kara didn't answer.
Lena shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I understand Supergirl can't have friends, so the distance wasn’t unexpected. As for your promise... well, it worked itself out, I guess."
Kara's throat locked. Her vision fogged as tears filled her eyes. In the dark, Lena's features were heavy and expressionless. Kara recognized the same weariness that had stared at her over the remote, just before their captor had pressed the button for the final time.
Before she knew what she was doing, Kara surged towards Lena, and wrapped her arms around her. The gesture surprised Lena, as it always did, but then she relaxed into the embrace, as she always did. Kara tightened her arms, then, as she always did.
Lena stiffened. "Kara?"
Kara froze. Lena pulled away sharply, leaving Kara's arms cold with her sudden absence.
"Lena, I--"
"All this time..." Lena's lips screwed up as tears filled her eyes, but held on to her composure. "You're Supergirl. Oh my god."
One hand came up to cover her mouth, as Lena turned away, facing the rail instead of Kara. A tightness gathered in Kara's chest, and she struggled to speak around the lump in her throat.
"I should have told you a long time ago," she ground out, wiping her eyes. "I'm so sorr--"
"Kara, what I said--" Lena choked, tears spilling down her cheeks as she turned to face Kara once more. "In that room, I-- I never meant for you to hear that. I'm so, so sorry!"
Kara reached for her, seeking a hand, or a wrist, but Lena threw her arms around her, and clung to her as the sobs started coming.
"I'm sorry..." Lena murmured, over and over. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
Holding Lena tight, Kara couldn't find the words to respond. Her own tears tracked down her cheeks, getting lost in Lena's hair. When she ran out of steam, Lena pulled back wiping her eyes.
"I would never have asked you to make that promise, if I’d known-- Kara, I am so sorry..."
"Please, stop apologizing," Kara hiccuped. "I should have-- I shouldn't have let it go so far. I would have given them anything to save you, and now... all I can think is that I should have given them what they wanted sooner."
Lena sniffled, her eyes bright with a fresh round of tears. "Kara--"
"I love you, Lena," Kara blurted. The words poured out of her, and though she hadn't meant to say them tonight, she didn't want to take them back. "When he pressed that button, before the DEO came, it felt like I was watching my world end for the second time. I can't-- I can't do that again," she confessed.
This time, when Lena embraced her, her arms were gentle, and it was Kara who clutched at her.
"I couldn't lose you too."
Lena nodded against her in quiet understanding. They stood together for long minutes, until Kara felt Lena fighting a yawn. She pulled away, only to reach out and dry the tears still damp on Lena's cheek. Now that the truth was out, Kara couldn't keep her hands to herself. She craved the contact, the proof that Lena was okay.
"Have you been sleeping?"
It’s a question she doesn't need answering. Even in the shadows, she can see the exhaustion.
Lena shook her head. "No," she said, cracking a wry grin. "Turns out it's just not the same when I don't have a Super watching me sleep from the other side of the glass."
A bark of laughter bubbled out of Kara, and Lena smiled to match it. "I think I can help with that." She held out her arms. "Care for a lift?"
Lena paused only long enough to smile softly before stepping into her embrace. Kara closed her arms around Lena, pulling her close. She hesitated before lifting off, frozen by a sudden jolt of apprehension.
"Do you trust me?" Kara asked.
Lena’s lips brushed the side of her neck, her breath a feather’s touch as she spoke. "Always."
