Chapter Text
Kara honestly wasn't sure why she'd ended up going at mach speeds towards her ex best friends penthouse, all she knew was that the second the DEO monitors had showed Argo's life signal flicker out as the wave of antimatter tore through it with no hesitation, she'd been in the air. She could feel the grief coursing through her veins all over again. Her mother, her people, the last remnants of Kyrpton, gone. Again. It seemed like a fate, doomed to loose everything over and over again until it crushed her from within.
Her cape cut behind her, billowing in the wind as she flew. She cut through the clouds, eyes stinging from more than the wind. National City stretched below in panic; sirens and people racing through the streets, the red that began to filter into the sky mirrored in broken windows. Every second stretched, time folding in on itself as if the universe didn’t know how much longer it would last. Kara gritted her teeth and pushed harder, sonic booms trailing behind her as she aimed for one place, one person. Even if Lena still hated her, even if she never forgave her, Kara couldn’t lose her too. Not without trying. Not without telling her the truth she’d buried too long. Another secret to the long pile that had gripped its claws around her lungs, squeezing every time she tried to breath. Slowly killing her ever since that day in the fortress when she realised she'd finally pushed the scientist too far.
When she landed on the penthouse, it wasn't with the force she'd just been flying with. Her steps were silent as she stepped forward, hand reaching forward for the glass door she'd so happily wandered through before their relationship became a fractured mess she didn't even know how to begin fixing.
"Lena?" The blonde's voice was tentative, hesitant. "Are you here?"
There was a moment of silence that surrounding the penthouse that had once been as familiar to Kara as her own loft. But eventually, movement. Lena stepped out from the hallway, and Kara's heart clenched. Her old NCU hoodie hung from Lena's frame, just like it had done when Kara had given it to her before all of the issues with Edge had arisen. But anger and disbelief outweighed what had once been a look of adoration. “Kara?” Her tone was sharp. “The nerve you have showing up here."
Honestly Kara hadn't expected to be able to make it into the building, having thought the other woman would have installed some kind of Anti Kryptonian measures around the building by now. "Lena, please I know you're angry with me, but you need to come with me, right now."
"No." Lena's tone was unwavering as she stared down the Superhero in her living room. The woman clad in the cape and her family insignia proud on her chest. An insignia that now belonged to her, and her alone. A warring image of the hero she'd fought, vs the best friend she'd trusted so foolishly, blindly.
"No?"
“You think you can just barge in here after months of lying to me, after everything you’ve done, and expect me to follow you blindly?” Lena’s voice trembled, but her anger burned bright. "I can save myself, Supergirl." The name spat with barely restrained disgust. "You don't get to show up here to play the hero after making me look like a fool, you can show yourself the way out."
"That doesn't matter. Please just come with me." The beg from the Kryptonian's lips would have sent a dark satisfaction through the Luthor hours ago, but now, her traitorous heart stopped for a moment. Becuase in all the years she'd known the other woman, she'd never seen her look so utterly distraught. And a part of her, one she wanted to burry so deep and forget ever existed, was still so deeply in love with her best friend. The reporter that had stood by her side through everything.
Kara’s voice softened, trembling. “Argo is gone, Lena. My mother. My people. Everything that was left of Krypton, it’s all dust now. And I can’t-” She swallowed hard, tears spilling freely now, the agonising grief wearing at her bones. “I can’t lose you too. I've just lost one world, I won't lose another. please Lena."
Lena blinked, the words hitting her like a shockwave. “Kara…” She wasn't entirely heartless. She'd sat with Kara after the reveal, held the blonde when she'd told her about Kryptons death, the years spent trapped and alone in the Phantom Zone, the way she'd felt discovering Argo was alive, that she wasn't the only person carrying her culture anymore, because Rao knew Kal-El was more human than Alien now. She'd seen the way Kara carried her trauma, seen the way she shoved it aside because National City was her focus, her reason now. Never allowing herself a moment to grieve all that she'd experienced, all that she'd lost.
“I love you,” Kara whispered, the words barely escaping her, like a confession never meant to see the light of day, buried under betrays and fear. “I’ve loved you for so long, and I was too much of a coward to say it. And now the universe is ending, and I don’t care what happens next, I just-" She took a shaky step closer. “I need you to know. I need you to just trust me for the next few hours. You can hate me after, but let me protect you." Because thats who she was, an identity, a purpose so deeply interwoven in her DNA. Who was supergirl if she didn't protect the youngest Luthor? Who was Kara Danvers if she didn't stand unrelenting by Lena's side, even when the world turned against her? It was who she'd been ever since walking into her office besides Clark on the day of the venture. Lena Luthor was like a wrecking ball on Kara Zor-Els life, and Rao if it didn't scare and elate her all in one breath. She'd give up everything for the other woman, even now, even when Lena hated her with every cell of her being. Nothing came before her life, her wellbeing. Because Kara could deal with her hatred, as long as she was alive to hate.
The silence stretched on around them as her words trailed off. Lena stood there, motionless, her breathing uneven. The world outside crackled and rumbled, the city’s skyline starting to dissolve into a sickly red hue that warned of the incoming end.
Lena’s breath caught, a single moment of hesitation, heartbreak, longing, a single moment to pretend to be who they were before. A single moment to let the words she'd craved for years to hear from the blonde's lips wash over her. And eventually she spoke, her words a soft whisper, because while Kara Danvers' purpose was to protect the Luthor with every part of her being, Lena's was to love the superhero through everything. Even when her mind still reeled from the betrayal. There was never a universe, a timeline, where she didn't love the other woman. “You have the worst timing imaginable.”
Despite everything, their past weighing so heavily against them, Kara laughed weakly, the sound breaking. “I know.”
Her gaze softened, holding out her hand, "Please, come with me. I can keep you safe." Lena took a step forward unsure, but a step all the same.
One step turned into multiple, her own hand reaching out to take Kara's, fitting so perfectly in the grasp of the blonde, just like it always had. Lena’s green eyes flicked up to Kara's, guarded, still slightly unsure, and then softened. “You’d better not drop me, Supergirl.”
Kara smiled faintly, a ghost of their old laughter echoing in the back of her mind. “Never.” And when she launched from the penthouse back towards the DEO with the CEO in her arms, it felt as familiar as it always had.