Chapter Text
Kara sighed a breath of relief when she finally landed on the D.E.O. balcony, cradling her reluctant passenger in her arms. It had taken hours to coax the mystery girl into trusting her enough to let her fly them back, and Kara had to stop several times on the way when the girl started fidgeting enough that she was worried she’d drop her.
The girl apparently hated flying, a thought that struck Kara as odd. The girl was half Kryptonian. Flying should have come naturally to her, as it did to Kara and Clark. But judging by the horrified look on the girl’s face when Kara had caught up to her soaring through the sky earlier, she wondered if the girl even knew she could fly before today.
Kara’s brows furrowed as she looked down at the girl who was clutching her arm hard enough that it actually hurt. She appeared to be of similar age to Kara when she first arrived on the planet. Kara remembered feeling her powers surging through her veins the moment the yellow sun touched her skin. So why was it different for the girl? Was it because she was half human? There was no way for Kara to know. She’d never heard of such a thing happening before. For that matter, she’d never even met another Kryptonian on Earth outside her immediate family.
Of course, there was the more sinister explanation that was bouncing around in the back of her mind. The one that might also explain other things that didn’t add up about the girl.
She pushed those thoughts aside for now though as her focus returned to the girl still clinging to her.
“Hey, hey, you’re okay. We’re on solid ground now,” Kara said, though she had a sneaking suspicion that her reassurances were falling on deaf ears.
Still, after a small squeeze of the girl’s shoulder, she finally released her titan grip. Kara couldn’t help but wince at the sensation. She was careful to hide her pained expression though. The last thing she wanted to do was spook the girl any more than she already was.
As if on cue, Alex came rushing up the stairs.
“Supergirl, you’re back! How did it go? Is everything okay?” Alex questioned, her eyes not so subtly darting between Kara and the girl suspiciously.
The girl instantly tensed and began to back up, a low growl erupting from her throat as she glared at Alex.
Kara groaned internally. It’d taken her so long to calm the girl down enough just to bring her back.
She shot Alex a look, which was returned to her tenfold. She knew Alex was just looking out for her, but she really did have the worst timing. Still, Kara counted her blessings that at least Alex hadn’t assembled half the D.E.O. troops to confront them upon their arrival.
A small victory.
Kara turned her attention to the girl. She almost reached out to stop her retreat, but remembering how the girl reacted the last time she was this tense, she thought better of it and instead positioned herself between her and Alex instead. She held up one hand to each of them, hoping it would be interpreted as a sign of truce.
“It’s okay,” she began, trying to get through to the girl with her sincerity. “She’s a friend.”
The girl’s eyes flicked between Alex and Kara warily for a moment, before she simply stared at Kara with furrowed brows. Kara let out a sigh when her earlier suspicion was confirmed.
She turned towards the girl fully and took the smallest step forward, not missing the way the girl flinched ever so slightly, like she was one sudden move away from leaping over the balcony behind her.
Again.
They couldn’t afford for that to happen though. The city was already scrambling after all of the recent disasters, and the girl’s earlier escape hadn’t helped matters. Thankfully nobody had been hurt, but the girl had left something of a mess in her wake. There was a crater at the base of the D.E.O., and there was a truck that was smashed beyond repair and a mess of rubble along the highway. The girl had made a hasty escape from both sites before anybody could get a good look at her, or worse: photograph her. The last thing they needed was rumors spreading of a super child roaming around National City.
Kara knew the D.E.O. would want to contain the problem. The girl technically did fall under their jurisdiction, given that she was part alien. The situation wasn’t that simple though. Not for Kara. She couldn’t just let them lock the girl in a cell and throw away the key like she was one of the criminals from Fort Rozz.
She was different.
She was Kryptonian.
She was…
Kara’s chest tightened and she cut off that train of thought before it could take root.
She cleared her throat and returned her attention to the girl she was currently trying to calm down. Her eyes softened as she looked down at her. The poor girl seemed to be terrified of everything. It was like staring into a mirror to her own past. She wondered if that was what she had looked like when Clark found her in her crashed pod all those years ago. If that was what she looked like when he left her at Eliza and Jeremiah’s house to start a new life on an alien planet where she didn’t know anyone or anything.
Her heart ached for the girl, because she knew exactly what it was like to be in her shoes.
She took a slow step forward and then knelt down, placing herself below the girl’s eye level in an attempt to give some power back to her.
“Kara,” she said, pointing to herself, like she’d done on the beach earlier.
“You told her your real name?” Alex scolded from behind her, but she at least had the tact not to raise her voice or move towards them.
Kara ignored her protest for now; her eyes focused on the girl.
“Kara,” she eventually responded, and Kara smiled, hoping it would ease some of the tension in her shoulders.
Kara then turned her body slightly and pointed to Alex.
“Alex.”
Kara repeated it a few times and eventually the girl caught on.
“A-Alekss,” she said slowly, dragging out the ‘s’ sound.
Kara smiled at her. She wanted to pat her on the shoulder like before, but maybe that would be too much right now. She stepped back towards Alex instead, grabbing onto her hand and interlocking their fingers. Alex gave her a puzzled look, but Kara just returned it with her own that said, ‘just go along with it’.
She held their joined hands up for the girl to see, which only served to confuse her, but at least she wasn’t hunching over like she was ready to pounce away anymore.
Slowly, eventually, Kara was able to persuade the girl to follow her further into the D.E.O. When they reached the bottom of the stairs and lost sight of the balcony, the girl started to tense again though, and Kara decided not to push her luck.
Baby steps.
The D.E.O. was relatively quiet tonight, and Kara was grateful that the night shift agents on duty were giving them space.
She eyed a pile of pizza boxes stacked in the briefing area and thanked Rao that it was dinner time. The girl hadn’t eaten anything since they’d brought her to the D.E.O., and Kara figured if she was anything like her, she’d be starving by now. The food would also work as a peace offering of sorts.
She grabbed a box from the pile and returned to sit down on the bottom step, where the girl still remained, watching her surroundings suspiciously. Kara placed the box next to her, indicating with her hand for the girl to sit down on the other side. Thankfully she caught on quickly and mimicked Kara’s position. Kara flipped the box open and her own stomach growled as the smell of cheese and tomato wafted into her senses. She took a slice, figuring that the girl probably wouldn’t trust it enough to eat first, and she was right. The girl watched her eat the entire slice before her eyes returned to the box between them. She hesitated a moment, her eyes flicking back up to meet Kara’s as if asking permission.
Kara simply nodded her head and smiled, and the girl didn’t waste any more time. She dug in, quite literally. She fisted slices of pizza into her mouth with fervor, swallowing them down at a pace that would put even Kara to shame. Kara was still hungry, but she only took one more slice for herself and handed a second one to Alex who came to sit down on her other side, leaving the rest for the clearly starved girl.
They sat in silence for a while, simply watching the girl’s face light up every time the cheesy goodness touched her tongue, as if she were tasting it for the first time, every time.
“Well, she’s definitely got a Kryptonian appetite,” Alex finally spoke up.
“I’ll say,” Kara agreed.
She couldn’t help but smile sadly at the girl’s wonder. What kind of life must she have lived so far for something as simple as a cheese pizza to light the spark in her eyes so vividly?
“So,” Alex began after a few beats of silence. “You told her your real name?”
Kara frowned.
“Are you sure that was the best idea?” Alex pressed, and Kara couldn’t blame her.
It kind of went against everything they’d done so far to protect her secret identity. The list of people who knew was incredibly small, even within the D.E.O. itself. There had been people Kara had wanted to tell in her personal life of course. Lena’s face flashed at the forefront of her mind, accompanied by the usual pang of guilt that followed when she remembered the words Lillian had uttered to her all those months ago…
“Eventually she’ll find out on her own. Find out you’ve been lying to her all this time. And when she does, she’ll hate you for it.”
Kara’s heart clenched at the memory. She’d been trying to find the courage to tell Lena for a while now, but after losing Mon-El it had just seemed easier to push her away rather than let her in.
She sighed.
“Probably not,” she finally answered.
“What if she tells someone?”
“I don’t think we have to worry about that for now,” Kara said as she watched the girl shove the last piece of pizza into her mouth and swallow it down in one large gulp.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“She doesn’t really… speak.”
“You mean she doesn’t speak English?” Alex asked, her brows furrowing.
“No,” Kara smiled, amused by her sister’s confused expression. “I don’t think she speaks… any language.”
When Alex just stared at her blankly, Kara chuckled and turned her head to the girl to demonstrate.
“Hey kiddo, can you nod your head for me if you liked the pizza?”
The girl tilted her head slightly at Kara’s inflection and the fact that she was clearly addressing her, but other than that basic recognition, she remained still.
“Can you nod your head for me if you understand anything I’m saying?” Kara tried, and again the girl simply stared at her, but this time her brows pulled together in confusion.
“Interesting,” Alex finally said after considering the interaction. “Did you try Kryptonian?”
“Yeah. It was my first thought when English didn’t work, but no dice.”
Kara would be lying if she said she wasn’t disappointed when she realized the girl didn’t speak Kryptonian either. She’d tried it on the beach earlier, the smallest sliver of hope sparking inside her at the thought of having somebody to talk to in her native language. But the girl had only given her the same blank expression she’d given her when Kara spoke English.
Kara knew the girl had to have been born on Earth given the fact that she was half human, but she couldn’t help but be reminded of home when she looked at her. The mission her parents had given her flashed briefly in her mind. She’d never gotten the chance fulfill it, since Clark had arrived on Earth before her. She’d tried to last year in a way, with Mon-El. Maybe that was the real reason she’d been so devastated after losing him.
She’d lost her purpose.
Again.
But maybe this time…
“What are we going to do with her tonight?” Alex asked, dragging Kara from her thoughts.
Kara’s brows furrowed. She didn’t want to lock the girl up, which she knew was probably what Alex was hinting at. Unfortunately, the girl was unlikely to stay put if Kara left though. She didn’t trust anybody but Kara, and even that trust seemed tentative, like the slightest misstep could cause it to break.
She let out a long sigh.
“I’ll stay here with her. I don’t think she’ll let me leave.”
“I can make up one of the rooms in the barracks?”
Kara considered a moment.
“I think we should stay in the med bay. Just for tonight.”
Alex’s eyebrow rose in question.
“We don’t have any patients in there at the moment, and it’s the only place she’s familiar with. I don’t want to scare her off with something new.”
“Fair enough,” Alex said, pausing a moment before adding. “And what about after tonight?”
“We’ll figure that out tomorrow.”
Alex scoffed beside her, clearly not happy with that answer, but it was the only one Kara had for her. She felt particularly drained, like she’d flown around the planet 10 times and then fought off a small army of white martians. She hoped that tonight would be one of the lucky few where she actually slept through the night and wasn’t plagued by nightmares. As she observed the girl in front of her a moment longer though, Kara had a sneaking suspicion that sleep would elude her tonight as well, no matter how tired she was.
She stood up, reached out her hand and smiled when the girl stood up and took it after only a brief moment of hesitation. She squeezed it reassuringly and pointed towards the hall that led to the med bay. The girl tensed, but after some quiet affirmations that Kara knew she wouldn’t really understand, she eventually relented and let Kara slowly lead her away.
“Hey Supergirl,” Alex called after her. “I think you might need to take some time off from your day job.”
Alex gave her a meaningful look and then shifted her eyes to the girl. Kara followed her line of vision. The girl was clutching her hand so tight that her knuckles were white, and her eyes darted wildly around the room as they spoke, like she was constantly anticipating danger.
Kara grimaced.
Her job at CatCo was rocky at best right now. She’d only just returned after quitting abruptly and then had to take half a day off after passing out in the elevator.
Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment at the thought of Lena finding her sprawled out on the floor like that. Maybe the heat in her face was indicative of something else too as she recalled the vague memory of a warm hand on her chest before she fainted.
She shook herself, her fingers moving towards the bridge of her nose instinctively to shift the glasses that weren’t currently there. She dropped her arm to her side instead, considering the practicality of Alex’s suggestion.
She’d barely started the Morgan Edge article. Would James be okay with her taking time off halfway through an important piece? The answer was likely no, but he would understand when she explained the circumstances to him. But then, James wasn’t technically her boss anymore, and she could hardly give Lena the same explanation.
Her chest tightened as she thought about the last conversation they’d had, after the awkward fainting spell, that is. Things finally felt like they were getting better between them. Opening up had felt surprisingly good. Awkward and slightly humiliating maybe, but still good. It had left her feeling lighter than she had in months, and she had even entertained the idea of maybe opening up to Lena about everything soon. But now, on the precipice of having to tell even more lies, she wondered how that would ever even be possible.
The girl squeezed her hand, and Kara was surprised to find a worried expression greeting her when she looked down. She relaxed her shoulders, not realizing how tense she’d suddenly gotten. It would do neither of them any good for Kara to appear anxious. She squeezed the girl’s hand back and was surprised for a second time when she smiled up at her. It was small, tentative, like the girl was still getting used to the unfamiliar expression. It made Kara’s heart ache as the girl once again reminded her of the very person who seemed to be consuming her thoughts lately.
Maybe Alex was right. Taking some time off might be for the best.
…
Kara gave her apartment one final once-over before slinging her duffel bag over her shoulder and locking the door behind her. It was going to be weird not going back there for a few days, but she supposed all things considered she should have been elated by that fact. For the past few months, it had felt more like the empty shell of a home rather than a real one.
The girl was still sleeping soundly when she arrived back at the D.E.O., and Kara smiled when she saw that she seemed more relaxed than she had in the early hours of the night. Kara stood at the side of her bed and watched her for a few moments. She looked so at peace in her sleep, so small. She looked much younger when she wasn’t tensing and frowning and looking at everything like it was ready to attack her.
Kara resisted the urge to tuck a loose strand of hair behind the girl’s ear. She’d had so few moments of peace since Kara had found her, and she didn’t want to disturb it now.
Instead, she quietly backed out of the room and pulled out her phone. She knew this was something she should be doing in person, but she didn’t want to risk the girl waking up at the D.E.O. with her gone. She also knew she couldn’t put this off any longer.
“Hey boss,” she said when she heard James’s half-asleep greeting on the other end of the line.
“Kara? What time is it? Did we have an early morning meeting that I forgot about?”
“No umm, I’m actually calling because I need to ask you a favor.”
“What do you need?”
Kara hated how immediately accommodating he sounded, and she wondered grimly if he’d be so understanding when the next words left her mouth.
“I uh, need to take some time off.”
“Kara,” James began, but Kara cut him off before the lecture could begin.
“I know. I know I’ve been a terrible employee lately, and an even worse friend.”
“Kara-”
“But something has come up at the D.E.O. and I swear I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important.”
There was a pause.
“Is everything okay? Can I help?” he asked in a slightly lower voice, clearly surmising that the business had to do with Supergirl.
“This isn’t something that requires Guardian’s expertise,” She said, smiling at his eagerness to help whenever he could. “But once I’ve got things under control I can tell you more. Maybe I’ll even introduce you.”
“Introduce me?”
Before Kara could explain, she saw movement in the med bay.
“Sorry James, I promise I’ll explain everything soon,” she said as she hung up and made her way back into the room just as the girl was sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
Kara didn’t miss the way her expression shifted from momentary panic to relaxed when her eyes finally focused on Kara approaching.
“Hi,” Kara said as she sat on the bed opposite her, giving the girl just enough space not to overwhelm her.
The girl tilted her head to the side, and before Kara could start speaking again, she repeated the word back to Kara, “Hi.”
Kara smiled.
The girl already seemed a bit more relaxed than yesterday, and Kara hoped that was a good sign.
“Hi,” Kara said again, raising her hand and waving at the girl.
She was elated when only a moment later the girl mimicked her action and repeated the word again.
“Are you hungry?” Kara asked as she made hand gestures to indicate putting food in her mouth. “Food,” she added when she saw the realization dawn on the girl.
“Food,” the girl repeated, and Kara beamed.
She’d only said a single word, but Kara couldn’t help but feel proud of her.
They spent the rest of the day slowly moving into one of the more private rooms in the D.E.O. barracks. It took a lot of patience on Kara’s behalf, and eventually she’d even resorted to bribing the girl with tasty snacks to get her to follow her. The girl definitely seemed more uncomfortable the further they got from the open entrance room. Kara’s heart sank at the thought that claustrophobia was perhaps something that they unfortunately had in common. She dreaded finding out what experiences the girl had to endure so far for her to be so fearful of confined spaces. As such, she made sure to pick a room that had large windows so the girl could still see the outside world and hopefully feel a little less trapped.
She had no intention of making the girl a prisoner, no matter what it took.
Since the girl knew Kara’s name and they had no way of explaining to her not to say it out loud among certain company, the general area surrounding their room was made strictly off limits to any D.E.O. agents who didn’t already know Supergirl’s secret identity, and for now, only Kara and Alex were permitted inside the room.
“D'où êtes-vous ?” Alex asked the girl as the three of them sat at a small table in the center of the room.
For the umpteenth time that day, the girl simply stared at Alex with furrowed brows before her eyes sought out Kara’s, as if pleading with her to make sense of it all for her.
“It’s okay,” Kara comforted despite the fact that they’d just spent all day learning that the girl seemed to, in fact, not speak any Earthly language.
Alex leaned back into her chair and let out a long sigh.
“Well, I’ve tried Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Arabic, German, Russian, Italian and French. I could try more, but I think you were right. The kid doesn’t seem to know how to speak any language.”
“How does that happen?” Kara found herself saying out loud, though she’d had a morbid thought gnawing at the back of her mind all day.
Alex gave her a meaningful look, perhaps coming to the same conclusions Kara had.
“I don’t know. We’ve got D.E.O. agents scouring the waterfront. That’s where you found her. Maybe we’ll find some answers there.”
Kara didn’t really like that answer, but she tried not to let her discomfort show on her face.
Instead, she turned to the girl and offered her a kind smile, “I guess you’re still a mystery, huh?”
J’onn was suddenly speaking to Alex through her earpiece, and neither Kara nor Alex missed the way the girl winced slightly at the high-pitched frequency.
“Alex, I need you in the briefing room. We’ve got a situation that needs your oversight.”
“On my way,” Alex said, getting to her feet swiftly.
“Do you need any help?” Kara asked, getting to her feet as well, moving on autopilot at the mention of a ‘situation’.
Alex chuckled and flicked her eyes to the left. When Kara followed her line of site, she noticed that the girl had stood up too and was waiting beside her, her body slightly tensed, as if she were anticipating something.
Right.
“It’s okay, I’ve got this. You’ve got your hands full here. Let J’onn and I take care of the city for a few days, okay?”
Kara frowned, not liking being sidelined, but Alex was right. Her priority had to be the girl right now. Hopefully the city could survive a few days without Supergirl.
Over the course of the day Kara taught the girl a few more words and phrases, smiling proudly whenever she repeated something back to her with more confidence than before. Kara soon realized though that it was getting harder and harder to teach her without any new visual stimuli. There were only so many times they could go over words like ‘table’, ‘chair’, ‘bed’, and ‘window’. She kicked herself for not thinking to pack anything for them to do, like books and games. It was going to get pretty boring for them both being confined to the D.E.O. barracks if they kept going at this rate.
As if predicting this very problem, Alex surprised her the next morning with a bag of goodies. The first thing she pulled out was noise-cancelling headphones. They’d both apparently noticed the girl’s sensitivity to sound, her clearly not having a grasp on that superpower yet. The girl was expectedly confused and wary at first. Kara used hand gestures to indicate covering her ears and then demonstrated how to use them. She then handed them to the girl, and once she’d inspected every inch of the item herself, she eventually let Kara put them over her ears. Her eyes widened and relief washed over her face as she seemed to instantly understand their purpose. She looked up at Kara and mimicked her earlier hand gesture of pressing her hands into her ears. Kara nodded and the girl beamed. It was the widest smile Kara had seen from her yet, and it warmed her heart.
The headphones weren’t all though. Alex had also brought a selection of picture books and dictionaries and atlases.
Kara gushed over her thoughtfulness as she excitedly began showing the girl one of the picture books.
“Figured they’d be a good place to start,” Alex said, shrugging her shoulders like it was no big deal.
Kara smirked. Alex liked to play it cool and put up a tough front, but Kara knew she was warming up to the girl.
The girl seemed to flourish now that they had something more stimulating to do. She was a fast learner. Really fast. Kara was surprised by how fast, in fact. It didn’t take long for them to work their way through all the picture books Alex had bought and move onto the atlases instead. The girl’s eyes widened in wonder as she began to learn about the world that she seemed previously oblivious to.
Since the girl seemed to have a knack for learning new information, Kara thought it was time to start introducing her to new social experiences as well. The next day, she introduced the girl to Winn and J’onn. As expected, she seemed suspicious of them both at first. She seemed particularly cautious around J’onn, even though he was appearing in his human form. Since her last confrontation with a martian had led to her being impaled, they didn’t want to risk frightening her with his martian form quite yet. They weren’t sure if she’d be able to differentiate green martians from white martians since she seemed so wary of everything in general.
Kara couldn’t help but wonder from her reaction to him if she somehow instinctually knew that he wasn’t human though. She was wary of humans of course, but in a different kind of way. With Winn and Alex, she always maintained a small distance, like she was staying out of arms reach. The way she observed J’onn though was like she was silently evaluating his capabilities. The way one would size up an opponent they were about to engage in battle.
Now that she thought about it, the girl seemed to have known that Kara was different as well. Kara looked human too, but perhaps the girl could tell that she wasn’t. It would explain why she felt the most comfortable around her while being wary of everybody else. Did she sense something familiar in Kara in the same way she felt there was something familiar about her?
Thankfully she seemed to warm up to Winn relatively quickly, all things considered. The candy and board games he’d brought to bribe her with had probably helped. She still eyed him warily from time to time and still stayed just outside of arm’s length, but by that afternoon she was already letting him teach her how to play Go Fish. Kara smiled as she leaned against the doorway and watched them play. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think the girl just looked like any other kid, playing games and stuffing her face with candy like she didn’t have a care in the world.
But she did know better.
She was reminded of that fact when the girl reached out to grab a new card from the deck and Kara caught a flash of the number that was branded onto her left wrist. She felt an intense anger boil inside her at the thought that somebody had done that to her. She didn’t know who just yet, but she was determined to find out and make them pay for it.
…
Kara woke with a start, her eyes instantly darting to the bed opposite hers. She let go of the breath she was holding when she saw that the girl’s eyes were still closed and her chest was rising and falling at a steady pace.
Kara stood up and silently padded towards the window that overlooked the city. She took a few deep, steadying breaths as she sat down on the wide windowsill, her hand coming to rest over her heart. She didn’t remember her nightmare, but she still felt the uncomfortable racing of her heart and clamminess of her skin that indicated that she’d had one.
She’d woken up like that a lot these past few months. That, or she didn’t go to sleep at all. Sometimes that was the better option.
She glanced over at the girl who seemed to be blissfully unaware of her inner turmoil as she continued to sleep soundly.
That was good. The girl deserved some peace.
Kara returned her gaze to the window and simply stared out at the city for a while, imagining that she was hovering above the clouds in that way that always seemed to calm her. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there for, lost in her thoughts.
When she finally pulled herself away from the window and tiptoed over to her bed to check the time on her phone, the message plastered across her home screen had her pulling her bottom lip between her teeth.
She still hadn’t replied to Lena.
Kara had expected a phone call from Lena that very first day she’d texted James that she needed to take some time off, but Lena had been unexpectedly silent. Kara hadn’t been sure how to feel about that, simultaneously grateful for the space but antsy at the separation. She finally felt like she was beginning to patch things up with Lena, and now being away from her again so suddenly had Kara’s mind scrambling to try to make sense of why she felt her absence so strongly this time. It wasn’t the same, self-loathing loneliness she’d felt after what happened to Mon-El. This loneliness was sharper. It felt more focused. Focused on Lena.
But why?
So, when Lena’s text had come earlier that day, Kara had no idea how to respond.
‘Hope everything’s okay. I’m here if you need to talk.’
The message was simple enough, yet vague enough that Kara had no idea what James had told Lena about her sudden absence. While the comforting words were enough to have Kara’s heart fluttering, she was also painfully aware of the fact that anything she told Lena about her current situation would be another lie.
She groaned internally as she continued to stare at the message.
Eventually she typed out a simple, yet vague response of her own. She stared at the words for a few, long moments, wondering if it was the right thing to say. She finally hit the send button before she could talk herself out of it.
‘I miss you.’
It was the truth. It was maybe a little cheesy. Maybe too personal for a message to a friend? She wasn’t sure. It was just how she felt.
Her heart skipped a beat when she saw three little dots appear below her message after just a few moments. Lena was responding. Kara’s eyes flicked to the time on her phone, and she was surprised when she saw that it was almost 4am. She wondered what had Lena up so late? Did she have a nightmare too? Was she lost in her own thoughts? Thoughts about…
Kara shook herself before she could finish that train of thought, not even knowing why she had entertained the idea that she would be keeping Lena awake. Just because Kara’s thoughts seemed to be consumed by Lena lately didn’t mean the opposite was true. Still, Kara couldn’t help but smile when Lena’s text finally came through.
‘I miss you too. Brunch soon? Maybe when you’re back? And go to sleep.’
Kara’s eyes homed in on the heart emoji that closed off the text, her face warming slightly at the sight.
‘You’re awake too. But yes. Soon.’
She hit send and fell back into her bed, hoping that sleep would be kinder to her for the few remaining hours of the early morning.
She found her eyes drifting over towards the girl again, playing out scenarios in her head of introducing her to Lena. Would they get along? Would Lena see the same similarities in the girl that Kara could no longer ignore?
Kara had no idea what she’d tell her yet. They still knew so little about the girl. But the fantasies comforted her nonetheless, and soon she was drifting off much more peacefully than she’d awoken.
…
The girl continued to eagerly devour new knowledge in the following days. She still didn’t speak much, but Kara could tell that she was beginning to understand more and more as she started responding with a nod or shake of her head to questions. She seemed especially receptive to Kara’s praise when she learned something new, beaming up at her whenever Kara pat her on the shoulder or head. Kara was just grateful that she’d stopped flinching at physical contact. Well, from Kara at least. She still trod carefully around the others, never letting herself get too close.
Baby steps.
Alex wanted to do an MRI of the girl’s brain to get a better idea of why she seemed to be learning new information at such a rapid rate, but getting the girl to agree to it was a struggle. She seemed comfortable enough with the med bay since the room was a familiar one, but as soon as Alex pulled out any type of medical equipment the girl seized up. When they showed her the MRI machine and Alex demonstrated what it did by laying in it herself, they thought the girl might actually be okay to go through with it.
Unfortunately, their expectations may have been too optimistic. As soon as she was finally settled inside and the loud whirring sound began, she let out a loud growl and punched a hole straight through the machine.
Kara sighed as she pulled the frantic girl out of the machine and rubbed her hands up and down her arms in an attempt to calm her down. She could already hear J’onn’s lecture in her mind about them destroying an expensive piece of medical equipment.
“Maybe we can try another time?” Kara mused to Alex as the three of them made their way back to the barracks. “When she’s calmed down a bit more.”
Alex hummed beside her, and her expression held a flicker of hesitation.
Kara wanted to ask her what was on her mind, but she figured Alex would spit it out when she was ready. It wasn’t like Alex to sit on things. She was far too blunt a person for that.
Turns out it didn’t take long at all, and Kara had to resist the urge to laugh when Alex immediately pulled her aside as they entered the room. The girl seemed content to look through the atlas of the world that she was so enamored with while they talked about whatever was on Alex’s mind.
“So,” Alex began.
“So?” Kara mimicked, a smirk tugging at her lips when Alex rolled her eyes at her.
“So,” Alex reiterated, giving Kara’s shoulder a playful shove. “We haven’t really talked about the Kryptonian of this all.”
Kara’s brows furrowed.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I mean the kid clearly shares some of your abilities. But we don’t really know the extent of what she can do-”
“Because she’s half human,” Kara finished Alex’s train of thought.
“Exactly. Now that she’s starting to understand us a bit better, maybe you should think about teaching her to control her powers. She clearly struggles with the super hearing.”
“And flying,” Kara added absentmindedly, thinking about how the girl had seemed so terrified when she’d caught up to her soaring through the sky a few days ago. Not to mention the fact that she’d been less than thrilled at the idea of Kara flying her back to the D.E.O. after that.
“And, y’know, maybe if she learned a bit of control she wouldn’t be lashing out and punching through expensive medical equipment,” Alex said, smirking.
Kara grimaced.
“J’onn’s going to kill me, isn’t he?”
Alex’s smile widened, but before she had a chance to respond, J’onn was speaking up in her earpiece.
“Alex, Supergirl, we have a situation,” he began, hesitating a moment before adding, “I need you both on this one.”
Kara gulped as she looked over at the girl who was observing them curiously from the table. She’d apparently picked up on the urgency in J’onn’s voice, despite not knowing half of what he’d actually said.
Kara took a deep breath as she walked over and crouched down in front of her.
“Hey kiddo,” she began, the thought that they still didn’t know her name flashing in the back of her mind.
She smiled and placed her hand on the girl’s shoulder, hoping to calm her as much as possible before what she was about to say.
“I need to leave, just for a bit,” Kara said slowly, trying to wrack her brain for words that she knew the girl understood.
When the girl just looked at her with wide, green eyes and furrowed brows though, Kara rethought.
“Kara,” she said, pointing to her herself. She then pointed to the door behind Alex and added, “I need to go.”
The girl continued to frown, but after a few moments Kara finally saw recognition flash in her eyes and she abruptly stood up, grasping onto Kara’s forearm with a vice grip.
“No,” she said firmly, staring at Kara with pleading eyes.
Kara’s eyes darted to Alex for a moment, who shrugged her shoulders in response.
Kara resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Alex’s less than helpful response. She turned her attention back to the girl and gave her a small smile and a reassuring squeeze of her shoulder.
“Yes.”
“No,” the girl repeated louder this time, shaking her head and grasping Kara tighter.
Kara resisted the urge to wince at the tight grip. She had no idea how to get the girl to let go of her, let alone convince her to let her leave, and when she saw tears gathering at the corner of the girl’s eyes, she almost lost her resolve completely.
But she was still Supergirl. She still had a responsibility to the people of National City.
“I’ll come back.”
The girl stared at her pleadingly, searching Kara’s eyes for something. A single tear finally broke free from the corner of her eye, and the reaction must have surprised her because she flinched when it landed on her cheek.
Kara slowly reached forward and wiped it away with her thumb, and the girl looked at her with such a confused and lost expression that Kara’s heart shattered. Acting on instinct, she pulled the girl into her arms. The girl tensed at the contact at first, but after a few moments Kara felt her body relax in her arms, and then she was clinging to Kara like her very life depended on the contact.
Kara wasn’t sure how much time passed, but she realized suddenly that the urgency of whatever emergency was happening in National City had temporarily taken a backseat to the more pressing need to comfort the girl and make sure she was okay first.
When the girl finally started to loosen her grip, Kara pulled back and took in her conflicted expression and trembling hands. It was the most vulnerable she’d seen the girl since meeting her, and something in Kara shifted.
“C-come back?” the girl asked shakily.
“Yes. Always,” Kara answered with determination.
The girl searched Kara’s eyes, seemingly for any sign of a lie, and despite the tense situation, Kara couldn’t help but find the action endearing.
“Don’t worry Kara! We’re going to have so much fun that we won’t even notice you’re gone. Isn’t that right kiddo?” Winn suddenly spoke up from the doorway.
Kara turned to see that he was smiling widely at them while he held a deck of cards in one hand and a bag of candy in the other.
Alex was gone, and Kara wondered if it had taken her too long to calm the girl down after all.
“Go fish?” the girl asked hopefully when she spotted the cards.
“Of course! Are you gonna let me win today?” Winn asked as he walked into the room, sat down at the table and began shuffling the cards.
The girl’s brows pulled together as she stared at Winn for a moment, before recognition flashed in her eyes and she shook her head at him.
Winn chuckled and placed his hand over his heart in mock offense, which actually managed to draw a small smile out of the girl as she reluctantly let go of Kara and sat down opposite him.
Kara gave Winn a grateful smile and mouthed ‘thank you’ to him as she made her way to the door. She hesitated a moment at the threshold, the thought of leaving the girl for the first time since they’d essentially moved in together suddenly hitting her harder than expected.
She turned back to face her and smiled when she saw the girl was already looking at her.
“See you soon.”
…
It was late by the time Kara made it back to the D.E.O.
What had initially been just the one mission to detain a dangerous meta-human in National City had eventually turned into several. Burning buildings were saved from the brink of collapse, a bank robbery was thwarted, and a truck carrying fuel had been stopped on the highway before it could blow anybody up when the driver had suffered a heart attack and lost control of the vehicle.
A part of Kara relished flying around the city again, having been cooped up at the D.E.O. for almost a week now. She’d missed being Supergirl. Missed the fresh air. Missed the freedom.
Another part of her though couldn’t help but feel uneasy at the thought of the girl being left alone. Well, Kara supposed she wasn’t technically alone. Winn had promised to look after her, but Kara knew it was different. While she’d made a lot of progress in just a few short days, Kara could tell by the tension in her movements and the sharpness of her eyes that the girl still didn’t fully trust the others. Kara wondered sadly if the girl even trusted her fully.
Needless to say, while she had enjoyed performing her duties as Supergirl for the evening, she was anxious to get back to the girl. Despite the late hour, she was unsurprised to see that the girl was still awake when she got back. Especially given the fact that she’d constantly been checking in on her with her super hearing while she was out.
The girl must have been listening for her too, for Kara barely had a chance to step into their shared room before the girl was bounding into her. She landed against Kara’s form with enough force that it sent her staggering back a couple of steps as she caught her.
Kara was reminded of the conversation she’d had with Alex earlier as the girl gripped her tightly. Maybe it was time to start teaching her to control her super abilities after all? The girl seemed to understand that she was stronger than the others. Kara had seen the tension in her shoulders and the shakiness of her hands when she tried to pick up something delicate without breaking it. It reminded her of her first few years on Earth. And while the girl hadn’t hurt anybody yet, she knew the slightest amount of stress could be enough to set her off. The MRI machine had been proof of that. That wasn’t even taking into account heat vision and freeze breath, neither of which Kara knew if the girl was capable of yet.
The girl suddenly pulled back and looked up at Kara with those piercing green eyes.
“Come back?” she asked hopefully, and the sight melted Kara’s heart.
“Yep. I said I would.”
The girl seemed happy with her response, but she still held onto Kara’s hand with a titan grip as they walked further into the room.
Winn was packing up some boxes of takeout and the remnants of a board game as they approached.
“I can’t thank you enough for today, Winn. And sorry I was out so late,” Kara said, giving him an appreciative smile.
“It’s all good. Crime doesn’t stop just because Supergirl has a family emergency,” Winn said jokingly.
The use of the word ‘family’ caused something strange to stir within Kara, but she ignored it for now as she laughed along with Winn, knowing he didn’t really mean anything by it.
The girl seemed confused by their laughter, but Kara gave her hand a reassuring squeeze to let her know that everything was fine.
“Were you good for Winn?” Kara asked her, which only earned her a confused frown in response.
“Good?” the girl asked uncertainly.
“Three was great. We played some games, ate some candy, and then I ordered Chinese food and we ate some more. Oh, and she kicked my ass in every single game of Go Fish.”
Kara smiled along at Winn’s explanations of their seemingly fun evening, until her mind finally processed what Winn had said.
“What did you say?”
“I don’t think we need to worry about cuss words around her yet, but if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll say she kicked my butt instead,” Winn joked.
Kara’s brows furrowed.
“Before that.”
“That we ate… Chinese food?”
“What did you call her?” Kara asked with a steady voice.
Winn stared at her with a confused expression for a moment before Kara saw the realization flash in his eyes.
“Oh.”
“That’s not her name,” Kara said, suddenly feeling irrationally angry.
“No, o-of course not. That’s my bad, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called her that,” Winn stuttered out an apology.
“You haven’t been calling her that all evening, have you?”
“No, I swear.”
“Then why did you say it just now?”
“I don’t even know,” Winn tried to defend, bringing his hands up in front of him as a sign of surrender. “Really, I don’t call her that. I m-must’ve just picked it up from…”
“From where?” Kara demanded, taking a step towards him.
“Well I, uh…”
“Winn…”
“I think I heard some of the other agents mentioning it, b-because of the mark, and y’know, we don’t know her real name yet so,” Winn babbled, taking a few steps back as Kara followed him.
“That mark is a brand. One that was likely put there against her will. I don’t want to hear anybody calling her that from now on,” Kara said, trying to keep her voice low so as not to spook the girl who was still standing right behind her.
She didn’t know why it had bothered her so much. Why she was taking out that anger on Winn when she knew he didn’t mean anything malicious by it. But she couldn’t help it. The rage that had boiled up inside her had taken over her so quickly, and the need to defend the girl was overwhelming.
Despite her best attempts to keep her anger contained, she realized she mustn’t have done a very good job when the girl suddenly clutched her hand tight and pulled her back slightly. When Kara turned to face her, her heart clenched at the worried expression that was plastered across her face. Her eyes were darting between Kara and Winn pleadingly, almost like she was begging them not to fight.
Kara let out a small sigh and stepped back from Winn. She knelt down in front of the girl and tucked a loose stand of hair behind her ear. She squeezed the girl’s hand reassuringly with the one that was still being clutched by her, and the girl seemed to relax slightly.
“Sorry,” Kara said sheepishly, before turning to Winn and offering the same apology. “Sorry Winn. I don’t know what came over me. I know you would never-”
“Hey, it’s all good,” Winn cut her off with a wave of his hand, his casual smile seeming to diffuse the tension in the air. “You were just going all mama bear because I said something stupid.”
“M-mama bear?” Kara almost shrieked but managed to reign in her surprise in hopes of not scaring the girl any more tonight.
“Yeah, and that makes me Uncle Winn I guess,” Winn laughed, having no idea of the plethora of emotions that single phrase stirred within Kara.
A few moments of silence passed before Winn spoke up again.
“Do you think she has one?”
“What?” Kara asked, still slightly reeling.
“A name.”
Kara’s eyes locked with the girl’s again. She found herself almost becoming lost in the piercing green as she often did with another, strikingly similar pair.
“I don’t know.”
…
It turned out Kara wouldn’t have to wait too much longer for the answer to Winn’s question, and a lot of her own. It was just after 3am when she heard Alex raising her voice to get Supergirl’s attention from where she was currently assisting the D.E.O. team on ground at the waterfront.
“Kara, we found something.”
Kara silently rolled out of her bed and tiptoed over to the girl’s, noting with relief that she was wearing her noise cancelling headphones. Kara crouched down beside her and listened to the steady rhythm of her breathing for a few moments. She seemed to be deep in sleep, and Kara let out a breath of relief.
She waited until she was in the briefing room before she responded to Alex in the earpiece she’d put in, “I’m on my way.”
Kara grimaced as she flew over the waterfront area. She’d seen the aftermath of the destruction more than once already, but she still was still blown away by just how devastated the area looked, even after reconstruction efforts had begun.
The guilt lodged in her chest at the thought that she wasn’t quick enough to stop the second blast going off. Maybe the destruction wouldn’t have been so bad if she’d just been fast enough.
She shook herself, homing in on Alex’s position. They were here for a reason. Her lingering guilt could wait.
“Supergirl,” Alex greeted as she landed.
“What have we got?”
“We’ve had D.E.O. agents scouting the area ever since the reports of the alien attacks that happened right after the attack on the statue unveiling. As you know, the destruction from the missile blasts is pretty extensive, meaning there was a lot of rubble to wade through.”
Kara winced and Alex gave her an apologetic look before continuing.
“Earlier tonight our guys stumbled upon this crevice in particular. From up here it looks just the same as all the others spread out across the area-”
“But I’m assuming it’s different?” Kara finished for her.
“Exactly. We sent agents down to explore, and they found a building buried pretty deep that’s not listed in any public city records.”
“What about our records?” Kara asked as an uncomfortable feeling began to stir inside her.
“Winn’s looking into it now, but there’s something else,” Alex began, her face scrunching into a pained look.
“Alex, what is it?”
“It’s Lillian,” Alex practically spat, her disdain for the woman apparent.
“Lillian? She’s back in town?”
“Yeah.”
Kara gave Alex a meaningful look.
“Jeremiah?”
Alex just shook her head, and Kara pulled her into a brief hug. They hadn’t seen or heard from Jeremiah since the whole Cadmus exodus debacle.
“Winn,” Alex said, prompting him to fill Kara in on what he’d learned.
Kara didn’t miss the slight strain in her voice and made a mental note to check in with her later. Losing Jeremiah had hit Alex the hardest.
“Alrighty so, most of the traffic cameras in the waterfront area were destroyed by the missile blasts. But then I noticed that there were a lot more cameras not working outside that radius, that shouldn’t have been affected. So, I wondered why those cameras were down too and widened my search. After scouring hours of footage, which you’re welcome by the way, I noticed something weird.”
Alex rolled her eyes and Kara fought the urge to chuckle at Winn’s rambling.
“The night after the alien attacks, a bunch of unmarked trucks suddenly appeared outside the radius of the broken traffic cams. They were so far apart that I initially didn’t think anything of it, that is until a certain somebody was picked up in the passenger seat of one of the unmarked trucks. Three guesses who!”
“Lillian,” Kara deduced.
“Bingo!”
“So what makes you think Lillian was here specifically?” Kara asked, eyeing Alex curiously.
“You’d better come down and see.”
The D.E.O. had constructed a small elevator of sorts to descend into the crevice, not that Kara would need it. She still opted to ride down with Alex though. For some reason she knew she’d need the extra time to prepare herself mentally for whatever it was they were about to show her. Alex’s tense silence beside her only reinforced that fact, and the sinking feeling in her stomach worsened the further they descended. Kara almost gagged from the smell of industrial cleaning products as the elevator finally came to a screeching halt.
“It’s on foot from here,” Alex said, indicating with her head for Kara to follow her.
Battery powered lights had been set up along the sides of a seemingly endless hallway. The walls used to be stark white but were now littered with scorch marks and were crumbling around them. Kara noted with morbid curiosity that all of the walls were lined with lead, meaning she had no way of knowing what was on the other side of the ones that were still intact. Being stripped of one of her super senses only added to her growing sense of dread as they continued on their endless path.
Just how far did this building go?
They turned a corner to find a new hallway lined with several doors on either side. The doors were all ajar, and Alex led Kara through several. They were mostly unremarkable. There were marks on the hard floors of some of the rooms that perhaps indicated some type of furniture previously being present. Whatever had been in there was gone now though, cleared out in a hurry if the scrape marks along the floor and scuff marks on the door frames were any indication. The smell of bleach and smoke that wafted through the air also suggested something nefarious.
The most curious thing of note was that the walls and doors to each room were thick and seemed reinforced. Kara was reluctant to test just how strong they were since the building was falling apart around them and she didn’t want to bury them all alive down there. As she ran her hand over the thick door though, which was lined with lead like everything else, she wondered if she’d be able to punch her way through it if she was locked inside.
She made note of the tiny windows at eye level to each room as they stepped back out into the hallway, as well as what looked like the remnants of an electronic locking system of some kind to the side of each door. The doors appeared to have been locked from the outside, and it was then that the thought finally occurred to her.
“These are prison cells.”
“That’s what we’re thinking,” Alex confirmed as she led Kara further into the facility.
The more traditional looking cells they found further down that had shackles bolted into the walls only added to the macabre atmosphere of the place, as did the rooms lined with medical science looking equipment that was broken beyond repair. Kara had to lean against a wall to support herself when Alex led her into one such room that had what looked like dried blood splattered all up one side of the room. It looked old, like it had been there long enough that it was essentially part of the décor now. The hint of ammonia that wafted from it mixed with the faint smell of stale blood that Kara was certain only she could smell made her feel nauseous. She took a few steps back and scrunched her nose.
“Somebody tried to clean this,” she answered Alex’s unspoken question as her sister gave her a worried glance.
“I’ve got agents scraping it to see if we can collect any DNA from it, but I’m not sure how much luck they’ll have. Judging by the spray patterns it’s likely that we’re looking at several…victims.” A pained expression flashed across Alex’s face before she continued, “And that’s without seeing what they did manage to scrape off before we got here.”
“So what?” Kara began, resisting the urge to puke from the smell. “Are we thinking this was another Cadmus facility?”
“It would explain Lillian,” Alex replied, but Kara could tell from her tone that she wasn’t certain.
The one thing Kara was certain of though was that she needed to get out of that room.
“Is there anything else I need to see?”
“Just one more room,” Alex said, giving Kara a sympathetic look, apparently sensing her discomfort.
Kara tried to ignore the way her stomach turned and the walls felt like they were closing in around her as she followed Alex silently down another hall. They walked through four more doorways, turned down another hall, and then were standing outside a room with a door that was thicker than all the ones they’d seen so far. It was swung wide open, resting against the wall outside the room. Like all the rooms and doors so far, it was lined with lead, but this door curiously had no window.
As soon as Kara stepped inside, she realized why Alex wanted to show her this room in particular.
“It’s soundproofed,” she said, her brows furrowing as her eyes shot up to meet Alex’s. “But why only this room?”
Alex gave her a meaningful look, and Kara tore her eyes away as she tried to ignore the fresh wave of nausea that wracked her body.
She focused on studying the room. Like the others, there were marks that indicated missing furniture around the room. The walls were barren, but littered with way more scuff marks than the previous rooms. There were no windows or anything to indicate any kind of personalization. The only thing of note was the large roller door off to the side that led into a smaller, but equally empty room.
Kara’s stomach lurched when she saw the wires hanging from the top corners of the room.
“Probably from cameras,” Alex said, following her line of sight.
Kara shuddered. This just kept getting worse and worse.
“I want to check something. Can you shut the door as much as possible?” Kara asked, trying to keep her hands from trembling at the thought of being locked in this room.
“Why?” Alex asked, her brow furrowing.
“I want to see how soundproof it is,” Kara said, giving Alex a knowing look.
Alex seemed to pick up on her implication and stepped out of the room without further protest.
Kara could hear the faint sounds of footsteps from D.E.O. agents further down the halls, their voices, and Alex’s grunting as she pushed the hulking door. Right up until the moment it was completely shut. Then… nothing. She closed her eyes and strained her ears, listening for anything beyond the walls that surrounded her, but only the sounds of her own breathing and heartbeat could be heard. She noted anxiously that her heartbeat was beating quite rapidly, and she figured that was enough of that.
Not wanting to be in that room any longer, she slowly pushed the door open, realizing Alex wouldn’t be able to hear her from inside and not wanting to knock her out with it.
“I couldn’t hear a thing,” Kara answered Alex’s expectant gaze when she finally pushed her way out of the room.
Alex frowned and looked like she wanted to say something, but she hesitated. After a moment she cleared her throat and instead pointed to the expanse of wall that the door had previously been covering.
“What do you think that’s all about?”
Kara’s eyes landed on the wall that Alex was indicating and at first she was just as clueless as Alex. The wall looked just like all the other walls, but something had clearly been scratched off this particular section. The scratches were erratic, like they were done in a hurry, and they were etched in deep. Whatever was there before was clearly something that somebody went to a great deal of effort to cover.
Kara took a few steps back to get a better look at it. She focused on the shape of the scratches, using her x-ray vision to see if there was anything she could make out beneath them. After a few minutes of staring, she thought she started to notice a curved shape. Once she noticed one section, she followed it with her eyes until it rounded back on itself. It was the number zero, or perhaps the letter ‘o’. It only took up half the space though, so Kara used the same technique to focus on the other side.
It took her quite a bit longer to decipher the second half, and her eyes widened in horror when she finally did. The second half was the number three, meaning the whole thing read ‘03’.
Kara stumbled back as the implication dawned on her, suddenly feeling unsteady on her feet.
“Supergirl, are you okay?” Alex asked as she reached out to steady her.
Kara could barely focus on her sister’s words though as the number on the wall seemed to consume her entire field of vision. It seemed so obvious now that she’d noticed it. She suddenly thought of the mark on the floor in the room that was just big enough that it was maybe the place where a bed used to be? Then she thought of the cameras, and the scuff marks all over the walls, and the windowless door and the roller door and suddenly it was all too much.
She had to get out of there.
The walls were closing in again and she had to get out.
She stumbled forward, the tight grip on her arm the only thing stopping her from falling over completely. She vaguely registered in the back of her mind that it was probably Alex, but her thoughts were far too preoccupied with the deafening sound of blood pumping in her ears and the darkness that was clawing at the edges of her vision.
“I-I have to get out,” she mumbled, not sure if she was even legible enough to understand.
She took off, her super speed propelling her forward. She stumbled several times on her way, but she didn’t have the luxury of falling over completely. Not when her vision was tunneling and breathing suddenly felt impossible under the weight of everything she’d seen down here.
When she finally reached the elevator at the base of the crevice she shot upward, heaving to get air back into her lungs when she was finally hovering above the waterfront. She sucked in ragged breaths and hugged her arms around her, tight. She could see movement below her, but it was blurry, like she was looking at the scene through frosted glass, and the only thing she could hear was the pounding of her own heartbeat in her ears.
She wasn’t sure how long she remained there, drowning in the chaos of her own mind, but eventually Alex’s voice cut through the fog.
“Supergirl, are you with me?” she asked, and Kara could hear the worry in her voice.
“I’m here Alex,” Kara said shakily, finally lowering herself to stand on the ground. “I’m fine.”
She couldn’t see Alex anywhere and figured she must still be down in the facility. They had been quite far down, after all. There was no way Kara was going back down there though, so she stepped off to the side, away from the buzz of the D.E.O. agents that were busy working, and sat on the edge of a shipping container.
Now that the panic was beginning to subside, the crushing reality of what she’d found was finally starting to sink in. She didn’t want it to mean what she thought it meant, but it would explain so much. She clenched her hands into fists to stop them for trembling at the thought of what must have happened in that facility. Of what must have happened to her.
Kara didn’t even realize she’d punched through the shipping container she was sitting on until a nervous D.E.O. agent asked if she was okay.
She shook off their concern as she stared down at the hole her fist was currently lodged in. She couldn’t help the morbid thought that suddenly overtook her of that shipping container being the person’s skull who was responsible for all of this.
Before she could get lost in that dangerous thought for too long, Winn was suddenly speaking up in her earpiece.
“Alex, Supergirl, I found something.”
“What is it?” Alex asked, and Kara could still hear the lingering concern in her tone.
“I finally tracked down the building records,” Winn began, pausing a moment. “It belongs to L-Corp.”
Kara’s breath caught in her throat, and she couldn’t help the small, strangled sound that escaped her lips as it did.
“The name on the lease, Supergirl, it’s Lena.”