Luthor family’s new world order

chapter 6: secret (part 1 of 2)

“So, where are you from?” Lena asked Kara the next time they met up. The two had become very close very fast, each of them mysteriously and inexplicably drawn towards the other. But as friendly as they were, Kara had still been highly secretive of her life, refusing to give Lena even the tiniest hint about her past. Not that that discouraged Lena from trying to figure it out.
“Sorry Lena, I just really don’t like to talk about it,” Kara shook her head with an apologetic smile, but her cover-up wasn’t entirely untrue. It really was hard for her to talk about Krypton… and Kal. It had taken her multiple months to even tell her foster parents, so even Lena, wonderful as she was, was not going to be hearing the story any time soon, if ever.
“Awww, I thought we were friends!” Lena pretended to pout.
“We are!” Kara cried passionately. “I just don’t like telling people. To be honest, I haven’t even told my own foster family!” she looked almost ashamed as she said this.
“You’re no fun!” Lena remarked, but she elbowed Kara playfully to let her know that she was only teasing.
“What can I say?” Kara gave another apologetic laugh.
“You can’t even give me a tiny hint?” Lena continued to press hopefully.
“Nope,” Kara gave her a small smirk as she shook her head.
The two friends continued to go back and forth like this for a little while more.
“But why?” Lena asked at last. “Why can’t you tell anyone, even your own family, even the smallest of hints? You know I’d never hurt or betray you! You can trust me! I’ll keep the secret! So please tell me!” and it was then that Kara’s face fell, just for a second. Although she believed Lena entirely and had total faith in her, it wasn’t that simple. Even if Lena was a good person, that didn’t mean the rest of her family was.
Besides, even if they were, there were still so many bad people right here in Kara’s neighborhood that telling anyone her secret would put her entire life and family in jeopardy. It would be so easy for a secret to get out, even accidentally, and it would be even easier for that secret to spread across the entire town in one day. One little slip could mean the end of Kara and the Danvers. Her family had impressed that upon her deeply…
“Remember what we said, Kara,” Eliza and Jeremiah had told Kara before her first day of school. “Don’t ever use your powers anywhere, especially not in a public place like school!”
“I understand!” she had promised solemnly, but even that wasn’t good enough and the Danvers were quick to turn on Alex, tasking her with helping keep Kara’s secret safe, hidden and controlled.
But even if Lena did manage to be the only one to ever hear the secret, then it would only put her in danger too. Kara just couldn’t take that risk. So she kept her secret safe and left Lena in the dark. It made her feel bad, but if it kept her, her family and Lena safe from all the local hate groups, it would be worth it…
In the days to come, the new US president, Lex Luthor, signed into a law an act which ended all government censorship of all media. It was titled the “Against Dictatorship in Social Media” Act and it officially put an end to government control and moderation of media, including movies, shows, games and various social media platforms.
“Was that act really that necessary?” Lena had asked him over a private phone call one night.
“Well, think of it this way, sis, now you can watch whatever you want whenever you want!” Lex replied smugly, reclining in his Oval Office. Lena huffed.
“I wish I could be back with you. This school sucks!” she complained.
“Now, now, Lena, remember what you promised me,” Lex sing-songed, but there was an edge in his voice.
“I know, I know,” Lena sulked. “You asked me to come to Midvale to keep an eye out on the Hate Groups here. But was it really necessary? Couldn’t you have sent in one of your other goons? Why did it have to be me? What can I do for or against them anyway?!”
But as Lena continued to demand why Lex had been so insistent upon her coming to Midvale, Lex only continued to snicker coldly over the phone, teasingly denying Lena the answer to these questions. Although it had been true that he had personally sent her to Midvale on a secret assignment and although it had been true that Lena had agreed, it had not been true that this assignment involved scouting out the local Hate Groups. Lex had had other, more sinister plans in mind…
“Where is it?! Where is it?! It was right here! It was right here!!!” Kara panicked, splashing through the lake she’d first crashed into when her pod finally reached Earth. But that was just it, the pod was no longer there. Her three new family members continued to help her look, scouting the waters and the forest surrounding them, but nothing ever came up. The pod was well and truly gone, totally vanished. It was then that Kara broken down sobbing, her one and only piece of Krypton ripped away from her by a thief in the night. But it didn’t matter how loudly she sobbed, nothing would ever bring that pod back…
The pod, however, was still in near-mint condition, perfect and perfectly preserved in one of Cadmus’ labs, brought to it at the behest of Lex Luthor himself. He had been part of the Cadmus team that found the pod on the night it crashed down to Earth. He had been one of the team to follow the NASA workers to the crash site before killing them all and taking the pod away to research it. He had been the one to realize that there was a Kryptonian currently living within Midvale… Desperate to get his hands on it, he had sent Lena in to try and seduce it, befriend it and bring it back to him. Of course, she had no idea what he was really up to, but that didn’t matter to him. So long as she and the little alien got along, that was all that mattered to Lex…
All the while, Lena’s eyes were still trained on the local Hate Groups.
“They’re getting stronger and stronger each day, aren’t they?” she asked bitterly as she and Kara observed a few members walking down the road with protest signs that called for the banning of aliens on Earth. Kara felt her stomach churn as she watched them walk by, but she said nothing. Instead, she only nodded grimly along with Lena’s dark observation. But it wasn’t even just the townsfolk, the large group of high schoolers who had been banned from field trips (and then from school itself) were still bitterly complaining about how unfair that ban had been. In their eyes, wearing their uniforms was not a crime, it was an exercise of free speech and free expression. They hadn’t been harming anyone, just wearing the uniforms. But still, they were punished.