Chapter Text
Lena had had every intention of murdering Morgan Edge in cold blood when she’d marched into his office with a gun in her hand. Pounding hangover that she barely felt over the rushing, cold, fury in her veins. Only stalking into Edge’s office she wasn’t expecting anyone except for Morgan to be there. It was late, the staff should have been home. She’d also been expecting Morgan to be alive.
On the floor, blood pooling under him, was a very dead Morgan Edge. And sitting behind his desk was someone who sent every survival instinct in Lena’s body into overdrive. Dark full face mask, dark clothing, dim light, not a single human feature beyond the brown hair.
She and the being behind the plastic face mask both were rather frozen as they stared at one another.
Lena raised the gun on the masked stranger. “Don’t move!”
The stranger slowly raised their hands while straightening up, their masked face tilted. “Here to help or kill him?”
“You’re not the one asking questions.” Lena swallowed back bile. Morgan was dead. She didn’t need to look at his still form on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Right, whoever this was, they had murdered Edge. “What do you know about Acre Lee Chemical?”
The far too professional-looking person stood there for a second. “Why would I know anything about a chemical company?”
Lena flicked the safety off. “Did he not pay you enough, is that what this is? Or did your conscience decide poisoning children was too far?”
“Huh, now that’s interesting. The lead poisoning, it was him, not you then?”
“Only a monster poisons children.” If this was Edge’s assassin turned on him she’d shoot them without hesitation. Or her? The voice said it was a woman.
The assassin made a humming sound. “Agreed.” Her gloved hand twitched.
The gun in her hand shattered.
Lena yanked her hand back, eyes widening as she looked at the shattered pieces, and then back at the assassin.
“Boo.” And only one hand was raised now.
Lena barely had a chance to start to breathe in to say something, and then she was off her feet and slamming into the back wall of the office. The force of pure invisible power kept her pressed against the wall. She tried to fight it, but it wasn’t possible.
The assassin? walked out from behind the desk, grabbing a roll of duct tape off the desk as she did so. “Was not planning on Luthor bullshit, but if you want to volunteer.”
Lena forced herself to not panic. “You’ll regret this.”
“Really won’t.” The woman grabbed a chair and rolled it over. “Your little billionaire powers don’t scare me.” She tipped her head toward Edge’s body.
She didn’t reply because as suddenly as the power had slammed her into the wall, she was dropped, her feet hitting the ground. Her knees didn’t hit the ground from stumbling because a hand with a grip like iron grabbed her and hauled her forward.
Lena tried to grapple with the assassin, but her hands were casually slapped away, and she was shoved into the chair. Power hit her in the chest, keeping her in it. She struggled as her arm was taped to the arm of the chair. “STOP! You’ll regret this!!”
Fighting, she tried to rip her hands up, but the assassin was fast and professional. Lena could feel panic clawing at her throat. “SUPERGIRL! HELP! SUPER-”
A piece of duct tape was slapped over her mouth. “I’m not going to kill you, notice the tape.”
Lena glared, wiggling against the tape as more was added. A lot more. If she had laser vision this assassin would be ash. She didn’t, though.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure Supergirl will help you when you don’t show up for movie night or whatever you two do together.” The assassin slapped a third piece of tape over her mouth. “Getting hair out of tape is a pain. I’d recommend you don’t make me wrap this around your head to keep your mouth shut.”
She tried to push off the chair as her torso was taped against the back of the chair, but the assassin was inhumanly strong. Alien. Not that Lena hadn’t realized, but the reality of it felt like cold water.
“You know, have to say, not a fan of your work.” The assassin dropped the tape, turned and walked back to the desk, sat down in Edge’s chair, and clearly clicked into his computer.
Lena would have snarled if she could have. She struggled against the tape, it was a lot of tape and covered a lot of her. It’d take an hour to get out of this without help, at least.
The assassin’s fingers neatly typed as she sat behind the desk, the light from the screen glinting off her goggles. “I have to say Lena, your friendship with Supergirl is the only reason I haven’t killed you.”
Lena went very still. It was said in such a matter-of-fact way. The assassin meant it. And if she wanted to kill her, she could have already.
“I mean the alien detection device? Just armed the monsters for their little genocide efforts. Forty dead already, and climbing.” The assassin wasn’t even looking at her. “And all that kryptonite you’ve been making. If you weren’t lunch buddies with Supergirl, I’d think you were following your family’s footsteps.”
She tried to tell the assassin to fuck off, but tape. Also, she admired Supergirl, but lunch buddies? She’d never eaten a meal with Supergirl, let alone created a habit of it.
The mask shifted slightly, she was looking at her. “Oh, want to argue you didn’t make a genocide machine, or that you making torture rocks isn’t alarming?”
Which was bullshit.
The assassin laughed, it didn’t have a lot of humor in it. “I haven’t met Supergirl, but word of warning, if that kryptonite isn’t some kind of group project with her, you won’t be taped to a chair next time.”
Lena’s heart raced, how did she know about the kryptonite? Also…why was she so sure she was working with Supergirl with it? They’d only met a handful of times. She tried to tense and then untense, loosening the tape. It didn’t do much.
She wasn’t sure how long they sat there, her taped to this stupid chair, and the assassin calmly doing something on Edge’s computer. Every now and then, her eyes would flick to Edge’s body, the blood soaking into his shirt.
Finally, the assassin clicked something and then stood up. She was looking at Lena then. “Well, it’s been fun. Don’t do a genocide, and don’t go murdering people, and hopefully, we never see each other again. Next brunch or movie night or whatever you have with Supergirl, let her know I don’t have a plan to hunt in her city again.” She pulled out a knife as she walked toward her.
Lena flinched back into the chair. What did she mean by brunch and movie nights?! The only person she did that with was Kara!
And then there was a red and blue crash through the wall of the office, and then out the other side.
Lena blinked at the empty office and sighed in relief. Oh, thank god, Supergirl had gotten here. She started struggling in earnest to get out of the tape.
A reverberating thought pounded in her head next to her hangover, ‘why did the assassin think Supergirl was Kara?’ A thought that scared her.
////
Kara had a grip on the kevlar-like fabric of the masked villain’s collar as she flew them away from Lena. The racing terror at realizing Lena had gone for Edge, seeing the masked villain approaching Lena with a knife, Edge on the floor, she needed to get this villain away. She didn’t know what was going on exactly, but she was going to protect her best friend.
The villain twisted, gloved, and gauntleted hands gripping Kara’s forearm, a painful vibration shooting through Kara, plastic face mask glinting as she looked at her. And then the feeling like she’d be ripped apart vanished as the villain saw her. And then they hit the middle of the street, Kara’s boots skidding across asphalt. “Who are you!?”
The villain didn’t fight, hands raised casually. “I don’t want to fight you, Supergirl.”
“What did-” Kara’s voice cut off as the back of her thumb brushed against the villain’s neck. A sharp liquid burn shot through her skin. She yanked her hand back with a hiss only…her eyes flicked to her hand where black and blues were suddenly flowing down her from her thumb down her arm. She could feel it. She looked back at the other woman in shock, reds, and yellows spilling across the sliver of her neck that was visible.
Her mouth opened. “You-”
A wall of power hit her in the chest, and the world around Kara vanished into a blur as she went shooting through the air, head over heels, before crashing through the surface of the water of the bay.
Kara blinked stars out of her eyes before shooting out of the water, one hand touching her side where she could feel the heat from that touch curling. She swallowed, that was…she could feel the soulmark burning as it settled against her skin. That woman, she was her soulmate.
The unmistakable truth of that rattled through her. Soulmate, she had a soulmate.
Kara shot forward back for where the woman had been. She came to a screeching halt in the street. Her eyes wildly looked around. Where was she? There was no black and masked figure in the street. Nothing, no figure flying away, no one in the road, or slipping down an alley. Just civilians with phones aimed at her, shouting her name.
Where…why had her soulmate fled? It was a misunderstanding right? It had to be? She hadn’t known who the woman was, she wouldn’t have hurt her. She hadn’t meant…Kara knew her heart rate was skyrocketing as she spun in the air where she was hovering looking for the other woman.
She was nowhere in sight.
Kara swallowed. Her soulmate had run.
She landed in Edge’s office. “Ms. Luthor!” She winced at the sight of panicked, wide eyes from her friend and a lot of tape.
Kara quickly got to her grabbed the corner of the duct tape over her mouth, and yanked it off. She flinched at the sound Lena made.
“Finally.” Lena looked at her. “Thank you, please don’t laser vision me out of this.”
Her smile didn’t feel real. “You’re safe now Ms. Luthor. How do I get you out of this?”
Lena looked at the desk. “Grab the paper-opener off his desk, or the knife the assassin dropped, and cut it.”
“Oh, she wasn’t going to stab you, she was cutting you loose.” Kara felt a well of relief at that. The woman hadn’t been a villain.
“Maybe,” Lena moved her jaw, clearly stretching it from discomfort from being gagged. “She killed Edge.”
She picked up her soulmate’s knife, it was cool to the touch, military, like something she’d have expected to see at the DEO. Her eyes burned with tears she couldn’t shed. It felt like a hole had been ripped in her chest. Her soulmate had run from her. She swallowed, making her way to Lena. “Did she say anything?”
“A lot.” Lena bit out in pure frustration. “A lot of accusations about my detection device threatened to kill me if I follow in my brother’s steps.”
Kara cut the tape, brow crinkling, looking at her friend. “Are you hurt?”
Lena rubbed at her wrists as soon as her hands were free. “No, she was convinced we were lunch buddies.” She scoffed like that was ridiculous.
She froze. Her eyes widened as she looked up at Lena’s face. “What, I…that’s um…ridiculous. How did she get that idea?”
Lena stopped trying to help get herself cut free. “Kara.”
Kara stood in the DEO command center, the world felt like it’d been shook loose from under her feet. A rushing in her ears that refused to let her focus on the chaos around her. Alex and the DEO tried to use cameras to discover where her soulmate had disappeared to, Winn was panicking because apparently Morgan Edge’s email account had emailed proof of his connections to Intergang, human trafficking, and the lead poisoning to every media office in the country. Lena was furiously ignoring her.
It was all just…so much. Chaos
She should say something. Just…anything. She’d attacked her soulmate. Lena knew she’d lied to her. Alex and the DEO were trying to find her soulmate, but they thought she was a villain. Her soulmate might be a villain? Lena was furious. It was all just…so much.
All that kept circling around in her head was that she’d attacked her soulmate. And her soulmate had run from her. Against her ribs was the warm presence of a soulmark. A soulmark she hadn’t even seen. All she knew was it was made of darker colors from the brief flicker across her thumb at first contact.
Why was everything so chaotic? It wasn’t…she needed it to all stop. Should she be trying to find her soulmate? Trying to explain herself to Lena? Crying? Helping find out what was happening about the fake lead poisoning? It was just all…
“She’s my soulmate.” Kara breathed.
Lena was snapping at Alex about trust, and Winn was pulling up more surveillance cameras while J’onn was asking about the possible species of ‘the villain’.
“She’s my soulmate.”
The room went dead silent.
Alex’s voice had a slight crack in it. “What?”
Kara met her sister’s eyes. “When I grabbed her, she’s my soulmate.” There wasn’t a lot of air. She couldn’t hear her sister tell her that she had to fight her soulmate. It just…it didn’t feel real, but it felt like the only real thing. The eyes suddenly locked on her. It was just…she needed to get away.
Kara was barely aware of it; she moved so fast going from the command center to one of the gym locker rooms faster than a human heartbeat. As soon as the door shut behind her, she was ripping the top of her suit off, pulling the material away from her skin, eyes desperately searching for the proof she hadn’t lost her mind.
Her breath stilled as her eyes found the softly fluttering color. The air rushed out of her lungs as her fingers touched the warm-to-the-touch mark. It was curled around her hip, half hiding from her. It was real. The world felt quiet, and gravity felt like it’d returned as she was assured it was real. It’d all been real.
Her fingers carefully brushed along the edge of the tightly curled shape made of dark purples, blues, and blacks. Twisting she looked at the reflection. Whatever animal it was was too tightly curled to be truly discernible. She was fairly sure it had dark wings. A bat maybe?
It didn’t seem inclined to movement. Not like the sparrow that fluttered across Lois’s neck, or the badger that would trot around Kal’s ribs. Not that everyone had real animals. As much as it had pained her to see, the griffin that’s feathers showed occasionally on Irma, was proof enough of that.
Kara couldn’t take her eyes off of the dark, leathery-looking wings hiding her soulmate's form. The representation of her soulmate’s soul. It was real, and there. She’d never thought she’d have a soulmate. Surely whoever was meant for her would have died on Krypton? But they hadn’t, they were alive. She was alive.
Absently, she was aware she was crying as her fingers traced along the edge of her mark. The only sign it was alive was the faint tremble of perhaps its mimicry of breath. She knew there was no change to her skin, that it was only the slight warmth to differentiate it from the rest of her skin. But all the same, she half fancied she could feel it.
The locker room door opened, the careful, familiar steps of her sister approached. Alex’s hand gently laid on her shoulder. “Oh, Kara.”
She turned meeting her sister’s eyes, even if her vision was blurry from tears. “I have a soulmate, Alex.” Kara half collapsed into Alex’s arms.
Alex hugged her tightly. “You have a soulmate.” She was rubbing circles against Kara’s back.
Kara laughed and choked on her own tears. “I didn’t…she’s alive.”
Alex’s arms tightened. “So, your soulmate’s a rock?”
She knew it was a joke, it was meant to make her laugh, but she pulled away, and looked at her mark. “She’s not a rock.”
“What is she then?” Alex’s voice was uncharacteristically soft.
Kara’s fingers touched the edge of her mark. “I’m not sure, I think it might be a bat.”
Alex hesitated, looking at her. “May I?”
“Of course,” Kara turned her side slightly toward Alex. The idea of not sharing this with her sister didn’t even cross her mind.
As Alex’s fingers touched her soulmark, it rippled away from Alex’s fingers, wings unfurling as it spread across her side, furious teeth snapping harmlessly where Alex’s fingers were.
“Oh wow,” Alex yanked her hand back. “That is…not a bat. That is very much not a bat. That is a dragon. A very angry dragon.”
Kara watched as the dragon made of shadows swirled across her side before flitting around her back to her other side, curling in on itself again, but its teeth bared as it seemed to glare suspiciously at where Alex had touched it. But it wasn’t that an extinct Kryptonian species was painted across her skin that made the mark unspeakably startling to her. “Nightwing.”
Alex was looking at her. “You’re naming it already? Isn’t that kind of fast?”
“No, Alex, that’s Nightwing.” Her throat felt tight as she touched the distinctive ridges along its back. The dragon made of shadows curled further into a ball, the snarl fading from its face. A warm sensation flickered through her at it calming to her touch.
“Ok…I’m going to need more than that. It’s a specific dragon? Is this like one of those tree in the backyard is suddenly growing on your soulmate situations?”
Her tongue wet her lips. “It’s not a dragon, or it is a dragon. But it’s not just…it’s the god of the hunt and shadows. On Krypton, it’s one of our gods.”
“Oh.” Alex seemed confused by that. “Any chance your god of the hunt and shadows is secretly also a god of rainbows and no evil things?”
Kara’s lips twitched. She wiped at her eyes. “Nightwing is a dark god, but they’re not evil. That’s the purpose Rao created them for, to hunt evil that even Rao could not see.”
Alex made a soft ‘huh’ sound. “So, a person who killed the child poisoning apparent human trafficking sleaze that was Edge, and calling it a hunt would make a lot of sense then.”
“I think so,” Kara bit at her lower lip as she stared at the familiar shape of a god she’d seen depicted thousands of times as a child. The rippling dance of shadows along its back that could almost be glyphs were distinctive. Nostalgia and awe whispered at her. But also, she knew how Nightwing’s story ended.
“Chances your soulmate is a supervillain we’re going to have to stop?”
Kara huffed, shooting a glare at her sister. “Nightwing isn’t a supervillain. And she said she didn’t want to fight. I could feel it, the second before she recognized me, it was like my arm was about to be ripped off.”
“She hurt you?!” Alex stiffened, her eyes flicking across Kara.
Kara shifted, suddenly aware she was just standing in her bra, the entire top half of her suit shucked off. “No! I attacked her, she was just defending herself, and then she recognized the suit, and it was fine. Until my finger touched her neck.”
“Is that why she chucked you into the bay?” Alex asked.
“I think so?” Kara flinched. “I punched my soulmate through a wall.”
Alex’s hand landed on her shoulder, away from the defensively curled dragon. “Hey, you thought she was going to stab Luthor, and you’re not the one who tossed someone five blocks and into the ocean.”
“I attacked my soulmate. Alex, what do I do, she ran away from me? What if I hurt her!”
“She’s fine. There’s plenty of footage of unharmed soulmate fleeing the scene of the crime.”
Kara nodded, she hadn’t really punched her, just grabbed her and…flew them straight through a wall. “I broke a wall with her back.” Horror flowed through her. Of course, her soulmate chucked her into the ocean. “What do I do? How do I find her? I have to apologize and…do we know how to find her? I don’t even know what she looks like!”
Alex squeezed her shoulder. “We were trying to figure that out when she was just a villain of the week. When powered people show up, they have a tendency to keep showing up. And soulmates are drawn to each other. So it spooked her tonight, she’ll show back up.”
That was…yes, the DEO was really good at finding people. “Do you think she’ll come back, once she’s used to the idea we’re soulmates?”
“She’d be stupid not to.” Alex’s laugh was slightly wet. “Guess I’m not the only gay one in the family. Did you know you were?”
“Oh, golly.” Kara blinked kinda stupidly at herself in the mirror. “It didn’t matter on Krypton?”
Alex stared at her. “As in no prejudice, so people just liked who they liked without worrying about it, or sexuality label we’re going to have to google to find the name for?”
She brushed some of her hair behind one ear. “The second one?”
One of Alex’s hands fell on her hip, the other pinching the bridge of her nose. “And you didn’t feel like mentioning that, at any point in the last decade?! I came out to you, and you apparently are….something gayish?”
Kara glanced down, sucking slightly at her lower lip. “It was important to you. You didn’t need my alienness stealing that. Not when I was happy just dating who I was expected to date.”
Alex’s shoulders slumped. “You didn’t need to do that.”
“Yes, I did.” Kara looked back at her side, running her thumb along the back of the dragon on her side.
“We can get space tequila and google sexuality later. For now, you should probably pull your top back on and go talk your best friend down. And probably assure her your soulmate isn’t going to murder her for being a Luthor.” Alex gave a pointed look at Kara’s mostly bare torso. “By tomorrow, we might even have a lead on your soulmate.”