Endless Legacy (DC Comics)

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story! I also have an announcement about my Patreon at the bottom of the post! Please read it!

Kara at the Lord Gala~

-x-X-x-

She should have gone shopping or something, though deep down Kara knows that it wouldn't have mattered. This was literally her favorite dress, something she'd thought would be more than good enough for a Gala like this. And yet, as she tries to be as inconspicuous as possible off to the side of the party, Kara looks around and feels… significantly out of place.

The dress she's wearing is a strappy thing made up of blue lace in the patterns of the leaves from an Azalea Tree. It's super cute and Kara loves how she looks in it… usually. Namely, she loved how she looked in it when she was trying it on in the dressing room, and the handful of times she'd tried it on since then in the privacy of her apartment.

But only now is she realizing she'd only ever worn this dress in a vacuum… and now it felt like the women around her at the Lord Gala were putting her to shame, each and every one. Even Blackfire, hanging off of Lucien Luthor's arm, looks absolutely gorgeous in the simply black dress she's wearing.

And she doesn't have anything on the host of the evening either. Moving around the center of the room, greeting guests and talking with them quietly, Lena Lord is effectively stealing the show in a big way. Dark hair done up tastefully, bright green eyes that seem to peer directly into your soul… and a beautiful black off-the-shoulder cocktail dress that puts Kara's own cobalt blue dress with its pathetic flimsy shoulder straps, to absolute shame.

Seriously, the way that Lena Lord's dress dips in the middle, perfectly encapsulating her cleavage while exposing her shoulders and upper chest entirely but without seeming overly crass or lewd is… incredible. Kara is supposed to be the one with superpowers here, but even she can't quite tell how Lena's dress is managing it's gravity defying efforts.

Or rather, she could… but that would require using her X-Ray vision on the beautiful woman, and Kara is no pervert, no matter what sort of dreams she's been having recently! H-Honestly… just because Lucien also looked amazing in his suit tonight didn't mean anything! He was still a corrupt businessman at best and a villainous monster like his father at worst!

Ugh. Letting out a quiet huff, Kara forces her eyes off of Lucien and his dumb, sexy body. Technically as his assistant, she's here in case he needs her, hovering around the periphery of the party with a bunch of others like her. But he was probably going to be fine. And Kara knew if she spent the entire evening staring at him waiting for him to call for her, she was going to go crazy.

Instead, she shifts her focus back to Lena Lord… and then because she can't stop thinking about how beautiful the other woman looks right now, Kara again shifts her focus to what Lena is trying to accomplish tonight with this Gala.

Maxwell Lord of Maxwell Lord Enterprises was exactly the kind of scum that polluted the world of economics and finances. In the aftermath of Brainiac's failed invasion of Earth, while Lex Luthor was busy convincing America to make him their President, Maxwell Lord had been busy trying to convince the United Nations that the Justice League needed oversight… and that he should be the one to give it.

It was a ludicrous idea, of course. Which was why Lord had gone ahead and tried to stack the deck in his favor, arranging for several incidents across the globe to demonstrate the Justice League's 'incompetence' and need for proper oversight and leadership from outside of the organization.

Half the reason that Kara had taken as long as she did to infiltrate LexCorp and start spying on Lucien was because she was helping to deal with Lord's bullshit. And frankly, for a man without powers but far too much wealth, Maxwell Lord had gotten extremely close to getting his way.

Fortunately, unlike in the case of President Luthor, Maxwell Lord's insidious plans had not succeeded. His own daughter, Lena Lord, had come forward with proof of his crimes and the numerous ways he'd tried to set up the Justice League for failure, including a time he primed a disturbed would-be terrorist as a villain for the League to defeat, only for the mentally unwell man to blow himself up in the encounter.

It was all just so… filthy. But Lena Lord had proved herself different from her father. She'd set herself apart by exposing his scheming and now that Maxwell Lord was behind bars, she'd taken over his holdings as his heir. The result? The company name had been shortened to Lord Enterprises and Lena had been working hard ever since to keep things afloat.

Lena was one of the good ones, Kara knew that full well. She really did wish the other woman the best of luck in keeping this ship from sinking, because Maxwell Lord's actions would likely haunt the corporation for a long time to come. She-

"Hi there. Kara Danvers, right? That's a lovely dress by the way."

Kara blinks, pulled out of her inner thoughts by a sudden surprise interaction. She'd gotten WAY too distracted. Nobody at this party should have been able to sneak up on a Kryptonian like her after all… but worse than that, it went doubly so for the person who had wound up succeeding!

Lena Lord stands before her, looking amazing in her off-the-shoulder dress and makeup, those green eyes of hers downright piercing. She smiles at Kara in a way that has Kara blushing and freezing up like a deer caught in the headlights. Lena Lord knew her name?! And she thought her dress was lovely?! Wait no, back up, how did Lena Lord know her name?!

"You're Lucien Luthor's assistant, right?"

… Oh. That's how Lena knew her name. Of course. Quickly rallying, Kara swallows down her shock and anxiety and plasters the best smile she can across her face as she dips her head.

"Ah… yes Ms. Lord, that's me. Sorry, do you need me to get Mister Luthor for you?"

Still smiling, Lena shakes her head.

"Oh, no, I already spoke to him. He told me to have my assistant arrange a more formal meeting between the two of us… but I'm afraid I'm between assistants at the moment so I figured I would come to you directly to get everything squared away."

The first crack in Lena's otherwise impeccable façade shows itself then as Kara sees a flash of something aside from casual confidence on the other woman's face. She was between assistants… probably because of all that bullshit with her father. No doubt she'd had to fire Maxwell's last assistant for being culpable with her father's bullshit but was now struggling to hire a new assistant because of the reputation her company had as a potential sinking ship.

For the briefest of moments, Kara wants to blurt out that she could be Lena's assistant. Fortunately, she manages to refrain from putting her foot in her mouth on that front. But after that comes another urge that she ultimately has to crush beneath a metaphorical heel.

She wants to warn the other woman. She wants to tell Lena outright to avoid doing business with Lucien Luthor. He's bad news and if Lena gets entangled with whatever he and 'President' Luthor are up to, then she might wind up going down with that ship even though she managed to survive her own father's fall from grace!

… But she can't. Guilt washes over Kara, spreading through every fiber of her being as she realizes that she can't say a word. If she tries to warn Lena, then she risks everything.

Even if Lena believes her and stays away, there's a risk of Lucien wondering why they never had their meeting and finding out what happened. And if Lena doesn't believe her, if she doesn't take Kara seriously… than the other woman might flat out TELL Lucien what she said and the warning she tried to give. In which case, getting fired would probably be the best outcome she could hope for.

Kara feels even more guilt wash over her when she realizes this might be the big break she's looking for as well. Lena and Lucien getting into business together could be the crack in Lucien's armor. Lena is a beautiful woman, and Kara knows full well that Lucien enjoys having beautiful women under his thumb. But Lena is different. She's not like Blackfire, or Mercy, or even Kara herself. She's already thrown off the shackles of one overbearing male in her life.

If Lucien makes a play and Lena rejects him, then he might take things too far… at which point, Kara can swoop in and save the day, bagging the villain and rescuing the damsel! It's… not a possibility that makes her feel very good of course, but if she can't warn Lena away, then this might just be the next best thing.

All of this has passed through Kara's mind at a sped up rate thanks to her enhanced senses, so in real time, only about a second has passed before Kara responds to Lena's explanation.

"Oh! Of course Ms. Lord, I'd be happy to do so."

Together, they quickly hash out a time where both Lena and Lucien are free. Admittedly, Lena's schedule is a lot less packed than Lucien is, but given Kara is Lucien's personal assistant, she's able to make it work out so that Lena gets to see Lucien within the next week, instead of a month from now.

Part of her again feels guilty for that though, because she technically COULD have pushed the meeting out far enough that Lena might have had to go with another option instead, and there would be no way for that to necessarily blow back onto Kara. And yet here she was, facilitating a meeting between a woman she knew was one of the good ones, and a man she just knew wasn't.

To make matters worse, Lena is all smiles after they've hammered out the details of the meeting. She even reaches out to place a grateful hand on Kara's arm.

"Thank you Ms. Danvers, your help has been most appreciated. I hope you enjoy the rest of the party for me."

Kara barely manages to stammer out a response of 'y-you t-too' before Lena is gone… hopefully she didn't hear it, because good lord, what kind of goodbye is that?!

Feeling worse than ever before, Kara lets out a sigh as she slinks back to her spot on the periphery of the Gala… though not before picking up a glass of champagne on the way. Lena HAD told her to enjoy the rest of the party, after all…

-x-X-x-

Blackfire watches the host of the party leave 'Kara Danvers' to her own devices for a moment before lightly tapping Lucien on the arm she's currently holding. Once she has his attention, she subvocalizes her words, speaking so quietly that even the Kryptonian across the way won't hear them amidst all this noise.

"Lena Lord had approached your 'assistant' and arranged a meeting. She didn't try to push it out further like you suspected she might. Instead, she moved things around so that you'll see Lord sooner rather than later."

Outwardly, Lucien gives no sign of having heard her. He continues the inane and utterly vacuous conversation he's been having with another of the party guests. But Blackfire knows he's listening all the same, even as he wraps up his current dialogue.

"Just how long are you planning on toying with Supergirl anyways? You know the longer you drag this out, the greater a chance of something going wrong."

Finally, Lucien finishes up and the two of them move away, continuing through the party. Only then does he respond.

"Oh? And what could go wrong, exactly?"

Blackfire resists the urge to huff and roll her eyes at that. What could go wrong? How about…

"Well for one, you're now housing a clone of her in your penthouse. You don't think that might blow up in your face at some point?"

She's not jealous that Lucien fucked Galatea, to be clear. Blackfire is more than used to Lucien Luthor being a horndog by this point. If anything, she's more upset that he didn't have them fuck the beautiful blonde clone together. But she understands why that wasn't an option. First times and all that.

Lucien hums for a moment before replying.

"And what would you suggest, exactly?"

Blackfire frowns at that. Lucien knew full well that she wasn't the type to come up with ideas. Maybe once upon a time, she'd aspired to be a leader. After all, she was a Princess… the Crown Princess even until they found a chance to cast her aside. But ultimately, she'd finally come to realize she didn't care about any of that… and she didn't owe anyone anything either. Except for maybe Lucien himself. She owed him quite a lot.

Still, she was much more comfortable in her position these days as his right hand woman. He came up with the ideas, she executed them. It was the foundation for a solid partnership that had lasted quite a while now… the longest partnership that Blackfire had had in her entire life, in fact.

In the face of her silence, Lucien quietly chuckles.

"… I suppose there are options. We could reveal the truth to her and bring her in on rooting out the remnants of Cadmus if you think that would go well. Or we could even just introduce Galatea and Match to her, and have her introduce them to the rest of the Justice League, defusing that potential bomb…"

Blackfire purses her lips together and stays quiet, leaving it up to Lucien to decide what he wants to do about all of this. She's said her piece. Fighting alongside Supergirl a year ago against Brainiac's invasion had been… tolerable enough. But at the end of the day, only Lucien could choose the way forward for them. She'd long since accepted that he was the best one to lead.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

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As such, you can consider these next 8 weeks to be your last chance to pledge to my Patreon at the old price and then get to keep that price going forward.