The Day Lena Luthor Died

Chapter 1 - Metropolis

This is an idea that came to me, and I have an outline for a longer fic and some parts done, but I don't know if I'll ever write it. This first chapter has been festering in my WIP pile, but at a friend's coaxing, I've decided to post it. I hope you enjoy this little standalone piece.

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Lena was a nineteen-year-old certified genius when she left MIT with her second Master's Degree in an engineering field. It was the summer, and after a brief internship at Luthor Corp, she planned to return to school and begin on her Doctorate. Actually, her plan involved a summer traveling around Europe, but her mother, Lillian, had put the kibosh on that upon catching the first whiff of it. Apparently, Luthors did not 'backpack around Europe' or whatever other unacceptable thing Lena had planned for her summer. No, downtime was for 'other people', and Luthors were not 'other people' as Lena had been reminded of time and time again. Though a Luthor only in name, that name was enough that her actions reflected on the rest of the family. No matter what Lillian said about Lena in private, behind the youngest Luthor's back and to her face, public perception was what mattered. That meant Lena would spend her summer interning at the family company, learning the ropes, putting on a good face, and goose-stepping with the rest of the drones ("Oh, don't be so dramatic, Lena."). Like it or not, and Lena didn't, her life wasn't her own. Even Lex, the golden boy, couldn't dissuade their mother of this.

Her tests finished and her dorm room packed up, Lena decided to head down to Metropolis a day early to surprise her brother. It wasn't like she had any friends at school, anyway. Though she was finally getting to the age that she wasn't years younger than everyone else around her, something as frivolous as socializing with her schoolfellows was 'beneath her', and the thought that Lillian would let things like Lena being a legal adult or miles away from her mother give Lena even an iota of privacy was laughable. Though several boys had tried ("Hrmmm") and a few girls ("Hmmmm?") to breach the walls Lillian had erected around her daughter, none seemed capable of more than an initial assault before falling away from one contrivance or another. No, Lena's version of a social life was stilted smiles and small talk with the appropriate matches her mother had chosen for her at Luthor dinner parties, so there was no reason for her not to hurry off to spend time with her only real friend, her older brother, Lex.

Lena waited until she had arrived in Metropolis to text Lex that she was in town. Though she knew he might be working still, she wasn't worried she'd be an inconvenience. Even if he had a dinner meeting with a client, she knew she'd be whisked away and pulled in to be introduced proudly with smiles and be honestly included with remarks of, "Lena's the ace up my sleeve. She's the smartest of the Luthors, aren't you, Ace?" or something of that ilk. When she hadn't heard back by the time she had checked into the hotel that night, it was surprising. When two hours had passed and dinner time was well upon them, several texts and two phone calls from her to him going unanswered, they'd reached an unheard of situation. Lena ended up ordering room service but picked at it unable to eat more than a few bites. She was stuck in Metropolis, her brother not even dropping her so much as a text, and her mother's handpicked security stationed in the suite's living room for her 'safety'. She was a veritable prisoner in one of the greatest cities in America.

Lena was already tucked into bed for an early evening when the food cart was taken away. Okay, a Lena-sized lump was tucked into Lena's bed when the food cart was taken away. The cart was outside the elevator when the hotel staff left it to see to a room on a different floor, allowing Lena to crawl out from the curtained underneath and escape into the elevator. She'd left her phone by her bedside to avoid her mother's tracking, only taking cash and the ATM card for her 'other account'. Originally a private account she had found about two years after her father's death, one for which monthly payments kept filtering in but from which withdrawals were no longer made, Lena kept that account active while using most of the money to set up a new one for herself under a new identity. Even as a teen, the pressures of being a Luthor without her father's insulating presence were becoming overbearing. So, Lena was preparing for the day when she might need to disappear, to run off to Switzerland or someplace with no extradition... not that extradition was her worry. She just needed to avoid her mother.