Fighting for You

Chapter 14

The two women stay mostly in silence. Both are trapped in their own minds. Kara occasionally hisses when she has to move her leg a bit to get more comfortable. Each time, she can sense Lena looking at her. Kara does everything she can to pull her mind out of her own little self-pity. She would do anything to distract herself by caring for Lena just on the other side of the glass wall. She lets out a deep sigh. Her thigh throbs. She hasn't felt pain like this in a very long time. She's trying to come up with a way to escape... Or at least a way to get Lex to let Lena go.

Lena is putzing a bit. She's scribbling ideas in her own short hand, trying to reverse engineer a cure for the Kryptonian that she loves so much. It wouldn't take long for Lex to decipher if he got a good look, but it should at least protect it from the cameras. There's something puzzling about the compound. She knows that her best way to find the cure would to be to complete the compound.... but if she did that... well, she can't risk it. She cannot let Lex get his hands on whatever this is.

Kara's voice cuts through her very loud thoughts. "I assume we are being watched?"

"And listened in on," Lena mummers.

Kara hums. "Any hints on our super powered friend?"

"No."

"Enough chatter," Lex's voice breaks through on the speaker system.

"Must be a touchy subject then," Kara speaks a bit louder and pointedly.

"Kara, stop," Lena commands. She lets out a heavy breath. "Don't antagonize him. If you think stabbing you once was as far as Lex will go... you are sorely mistaken."

Kara struggles against the chains once more. Now that her adrenaline is waning, she starts to feel trapped. She feels her heartbeat in her leg. Each time she closes her eyes, it takes her back to her pod, drifting in the phantom zone. She struggles harder against the chains. Her eyes dart all over, looking for a way out. She does everything she can to not blink, and she tries and tries to break free with some super strength.

"Kara!"

Lena.

"Kara, listen to my voice!"

It sounds all distorted, like she's hundreds of feet below water. She can hear a faint thudding. She has a faint thought that this seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Lex! Open this damn door! You won't be able to get me to work when she's in this state!"

Blackness starts to creep into her vision. Her lungs are burning. She can feel her eyes tear up from staying open for so long.

"Kara! Kara! Stay with me! Just breathe. Lex, I swear on our father's grave that if you don't open this door RIGHT NOW, I will strangle you with my bare hands!"

Kara's eyes flutter as her muscles can't continue to strain against the chain. The blackness reminds her of the vast emptiness of the phantom zone. No, no. Don't send me back there. I can't go back.

"Kara! No, no, no." Tears are spilling down Lena's face. She slaps her palm against the windows repeatedly, trying to get Kara to respond, but she doesn't. Lena can't even tell if the heroine is breathing. She looks unconscious or even... dead.

"Lex, please. Please, just let me check on her..." Lena doesn't care of desperate she sounds. "Open the door... I'll do anything you want."

"You've made that promise before. It's too bad. This Kryptonian is worthless in this state if she's not already dead. Don't worry dear sister; I'll dispose of her so you don't have to."

Hearing the smugness in his voice, not being able to tell if Kara is alright, feeling trapped and defeated, Lena lets out a pained scream as she drops to her knees on the floor. It's loud and long and so, so wounded. In this moment of pure, unfiltered grief, all the glass blows out. Every beaker, every window, every instrument made of glass shatters. Fire erupts from Lena's hands, making her panic. She's quick to smother it out with her lab coat. She only takes a second to look at her unburned hands before she looks up and realizes she can get to Kara.