Chapter Text
Lena stared at her brother, watching him pace from where she sat bound to a chair in an abandoned commercial boathouse. Water lapped gently against the pylons behind her, a gentle counterrhythm to Lex's anxious steps as he stalked across the wooden planks.
No one warned her he'd escaped. She'd had no warning, nor had Supergirl.
"How could you, Lena? How could you turn away from your own family?"
Swallowing, Lena gave a disaffected shrug. "Just following in big brother's footsteps, I guess."
"I did it for you!" Lex rounded on her. Lena flinched away from him, as much as her bindings would allow. The tape around her wrists and ankles held. "Everything I have done has been for you--"
"Don't insult me by trying to disguise your hatred of innocent people as love for me.”
Lex rocked back on his heels. "Lena..."
"I said don't,” she shot back.
A familiar smile shone through the madness, cracking Lena's heart in two. "You're my sister. I love you, even if you don't believe it. Just like I know you still love me."
"No," Lena countered, shaking her head.
"Lena--"
"I don't even know you anymore!" Tears burned at her eyes, twisting her lips even as she struggled to maintain her composure. "I love who you were. Not this."
"It's still me." His tone gentled, and god, it sounded like him. Like the Lex she remembered. "I'm the same person I've always been."
"Really?" Lena snarled. "The kid who taught me chess had always wanted me dead? Those afternoons you sneaked away from boarding school to take me out for ice cream, you were already plotting to murder me? Is that what it was?"
Lex's eyes flashed dangerously. "You turned your back on me! You threw your lot in with them!"
"I'd barely been in National City a month when you sabotaged the Venture. I only met Supergirl because you-- mmph!"
A rough hand slapped a long piece of tape across Lena’s mouth, silencing anything else she had to say. Lex turned on his heel, stalking away from her with fury scrunched in his shoulders.
"I don't want to play the blame game," he told her. His voice echoed in the open space of the warehouse, distorting itself into the tone of one laboring to take the high road. Lena twisted her wrists against the tape pinioning her to the chair. It held fast, even as Lex turned back to face her, now with a video camera in hand.
"I'm going to ask you a simple question, Lena." He handed the camera to another henchman, who deftly slipped the padded strap over his fingers. The red recording light came on, focusing on her as Lex crouched at her knees. "It's a simple yes or no question, and as you decide your answer, I urge you to remember that Supergirl won’t be coming to save you this time."
Lena curled her trembling fingers into fists when Lex's hand settled gently on her knee. Her thoughts flashed to the last she'd seen of Kara, sprawled on the pavement outside L-Corp with a kryptonite blade in her chest. Lena's vision swam with tears.
She stared at Lex, if only to keep from letting them fall.
Lex stared back, his features open and hopeful. "Will you help me?"
A chill ran down Lena’s spine. She didn’t need a genius level intellect to discern the true question posed to her. Her options were simple: one answer meant her life--the other, death. It wasn't a question at all.
With a single shake of her head, Lena’s tears shook free of her lashes, spilling down her cheek. No.
Lex reached up to wipe her tears away with his thumb, and for a brief moment, his palm cupped her cheek. This time, Lena didn't recoil from his touch. The warmth of his hand spread along her jaw, gentle and so like the brother she remembered. After a moment, he rose up and pressed a kiss to her brow.
"I love you so much, ace," Lex said, his voice low. Lena stared at him, breath sharp in her chest. "Even enough to let you go."
Lena didn't immediately feel the blade that slid between her ribs from behind, so gentle was the thrust. Then it twisted viciously, scraping against bone and left there by an unseen hand. Her scream was little more than a gasp, swallowed by the tape across her mouth. All the while, Lex smiled at her in absolution.
She coughed through her nose as Lex stood and turned his back on her. Pain spread across Lena’s chest as the rest of her body caught on to the fact a blade had found its home in her. It flared with every pump of her lungs, stealing her very breath as Lex started issuing orders.
"Start packing up. We're done here."
The man lurking behind her finally crossed into her field of vision. His right hand was painted red with her blood, and hard eyes regarded her coldly, until Lex issued one final order.
"Get rid of her," he said. "If the Kryptonian survived, let her tear her hair out trying to find the body."
In an instant, a boot slammed into Lena's chest, tipping the chair backwards. She braced herself for the blow of the floor colliding with the hilt still protruding from her back, but it never came. Instead the sharp chill of the water's embrace shocked her senses, before the waves closed over her head and swallowed her in darkness.