Chapter 17
Chapter Text
Daisy was in agonizing pain. The Myriad signal left her feeling nearly drunk from the way it rattled in her brain, her bones. They didn't have time for her to be in pain though. And Kara didn't need to be bothered with it. She was still functional and had long been able to find clarity through pain. So it was barely a thought to keep herself braced and functional as she and Kara landed on the balcony of Catco, walking in. "That's some Zombie shit."
"What are they doing?" Kara said as she walked into the office space, everyone had the same blank, glazed expression as they worked on what was definitely alien coding.
Daisy glanced at a screen, "Going to guess that's a Kryptonian coding language?"
"It is, what is Non up to?" Kara's eyes were flicking across the screen, at least understanding more than Daisy was.
Daisy grimaced under her mask as Kara tried to get Winn to react, to say something, to be her friend. This whole thing was so fucked up. She grit her teeth. The signal felt like a wave, and it was just…so much information and a kind of vibration she hadn't felt before. She couldn't just follow it to its source. It felt like it was reflecting off of everything…also she was pretty sure it was being broadcast downwards.
Her attention turned to a screen broadcasting the news. "Supergirl, the news."
It was the first look at General Sam Lane's face, that Daisy had had. His words were not comforting -"The United States Army has taken up position at every entranceway into National City. Until this threat is neutralized, National City has effectively been quarantined."-
Daisy grimaced, "It's not the worst strategy." She looked at Kara, "If this starts to spread they'll bomb the city. We don't have a lot of time."
"Can you get me on the phone with him?" Kara was mission-focused, and she was going to play everything then.
Daisy just nodded and grabbed a cellphone of according to the name plaque, Kelly's desk.
And, five minutes later, Daisy had to admit, it was impressive listening to Kara hit the emotional key to the General. His daughter Lucy was safe, and Kara just needed him to buy them time to keep her that way. It was a risky ploy, but Kara genuinely meant it, so it was working. Daisy could admit it, Kara was inspiring. When was the last time she'd been forced to use nothing but belief and it hadn't gotten her ass kicked? To be fair, she was pretty sure Kara was better at it than her.
Supergirl hung up the phone, "He'll buy us time, we-"
Her words cut off at the sound of the elevator dinging.
Daisy and Kara both looked and just kind of silently stared at the actual ridiculous nonsense happening now.
Cat fucking Grant walked out of the elevator, totally focused on her cellphone, sunglasses on, and miserly sass on point. "Kiera, call Harrison Ford and tell him that I'm flattered, but once and for all, I do not date older men, especially when they're married."
Kara cleared her throat, face plastered in disbelief.
"Oh!" Cat turned, pulling her sunglasses off. "Supergirl, what a pleasant surprise, did we have a nine am? Maybe to discuss your terrible taste in girls?"
"You're not a mindless drone?" Kara breathed in disbelief.
Cat was looking at her cell phone again, very millennial of her in Daisy's opinion. "No, I learned that lesson when Demi Moore and I wore the same dress to the premiere of Ghosts. Never again."
"You know, if anyone was immune I'm not surprised." Daisy finally spoke up, cause as hilarious as it was to watch Kara waffle, they needed Cat to stop staring at the phone.
Cat's attention was carefully casual as it turned to Daisy, and then her eyes tightened ever so slightly. "You brought a friend, hate the new mask. It's tacky."
"Supergirl said my first one was creepy since it didn't have eyes." And because she knew the LED face was distinctly creepier looking, Daisy thought it was kind of awesome. "But, your office." She waved at the mindless, mind-controlled zombie people.
Cat looked at the office. "Hmm, well, yes, they are a bit more quiet than usual. Maybe my reign of terror has finally reached its peaked effectiveness." It'd have been convincing if Daisy hadn't been able to feel her heartbeat.
Kara was frustrated past the point of playing the game though. "No, look at them! It's not just them either, it's the entire city." She stepped forward waving to the window. "Look!"
There was a moment, Cat had a flicker of hesitation before she stepped to the window and looked out. It would have been impossible for her to miss the marching people down below as they went where Non commanded. "Oh, my God." And her tone was perhaps honest for the first time that Daisy had heard it. "What's happening to everyone?"
"Alien mind-control." Daisy shifted her weight to her other leg. "Trying to figure out how to stop it, so if you've got a great insight into how you're immune, that'd be helpful."
Kara cut in before Cat could snap at her for that, "Please Ms. Grant, do you know why you're not affected, anything that could explain it?"
"Wait a minute, if it's affecting everyone, then are any of us safe?" The weight of the situation was finally dawning on the woman.
Daisy had her gun out and aimed at the stairwell at the feeling of movement from it. "Don't move."
A man with dark hair and a face she, unfortunately, recognized held his hands up. "Not the welcome I was expecting, but I've come to help, and I do have my moments."
"Lord," Kara zipped to Daisy's side, pulling her gun arm down. "What are you doing here?"
Max Lord spread his arms, prancing into the room. "Do Kryptonians gloat? Because I'll bet wherever he is, ol' Uncle Non is feeling pretty good about himself."
"Why am I not surprised your brain is intact, Max?" And shockingly Cat sounded as pleased about the man's presence as Daisy was. "What is it they say? Only cockroaches will survive the apocalypse." She turned striding into her office.
Max was def bothered by that. "Happy to see you too, Cat. You look lovely, considering the end is nigh."
"Why weren't you affected?" Kara cut through the bullshit.
Max actually answered her, the asshole. "Ion blockers." he tapped the thin plastic and metal thing that honestly looked like a fancy headset on the side of his head. "I realized the Kryptonians were using my LTE interface system. That's why they broke into my lab over Christmas. They're using my satellites to send neural signals directly into the minds of everyone in National City. These scramble the signal before they reach my brain."
"If you invented technology that blocks Myriad, why didn't you give it to the DEO?" Kara looked half baffled and half ready to strangle the man.
And Max proved to be exactly as swarmy as his stupid face looked. "Once Henshaw and his Trusted Girl Friday stepped down, I had no one at the DEO to trust."
"And reaching out to Supergirl about it was what, too complicated for you?" Daisy scoffed, that was weak, an excuse at best to make himself feel better because the cost, effort, and vulnerability in allowing others to have access to whatever he knew was needed to stop this was more than he was willing to give.
Cat arched a brow, "As much as it pains me, Hot Topic Girl has a point." She waved a hand, "And clearly, not everybody needs this ear-wig thingy, because I don't have one and my brain is perfectly intact."
Max walked toward Cat, wagging his finger at her with what he definitely thought was playful confidence. "I see you got the earrings I sent you last night."
"Oh, I get it." Cat clucked her tongue. "Ion blockers in the diamonds? Oh, so many karats and yet so functional."
His chuckle was remarkably smug. Also, Christ, they were flirting. "Didn't seem right for the world to lose Cat Grant's mind." He reached out, brushing Cat's hair away from her ear, before dropping his hand and turning back to the rest of the room. "Speaking of, where is your faithful assistant? Out marching with the masses?"
Cat sighed, disappointed, which burn. "Don't be glib, Max."
"As much fun as it is to watch you two flirt, mind control, city, evil plots." Daisy snapped her fingers. "Is there a way to make like a big Ion blocker?"
Max's laughter was derisive.
"You think this is funny?" Kara cut in with the same burning frustration that was covering for pain and helplessness. Pain and helplessness that had been far too raw at the Fortress.
Daisy didn't physically reach out, instead, she thrummed a vibration in Kara's arm.
Max was serious as he walked into Kara's personal space. "Everything I have feared has come to pass. I couldn't be more serious."
"We have to stop them. They're using your satellites. Can't you reprogram them and destroy Myriad from the inside?" Kara asked, desperate for a solution.
Daisy swallowed, they could fly her into space, she could dust the satellites but…that'd be toast for her, and it'd leave every other aspect of the attack.
"I tried. There's some pretty epic force fields around those satellites at the moment." Max was as frustrated and helpless as Kara. And forcefields meant the single shot Daisy might be able to get at the satellites was far less than a guarantee so that Hail Mary was probably out unless they literally failed every other option.
Cat cut in. "You're always 10 steps ahead, Max. I know you have a plan."
"Of course I do," Max clicked his tongue, something almost manic about him. "We kill them all."
There was a silence as his words sunk in. Surprisingly, it was Cat who broke it.
She scoffed, "Max, how exactly do you plan on killing an army of Supermans?"
"I'll tell you the plan when I know you're both on board. Can't have muscles or broody over there trying to stop me." Max actually meant it. He really was proposing genocide.
Kara didn't deserve to be dumped in a fucked up situation like this. Her words proved that. "Killing is never the solution."
"Except we're way past villains-of-the-week and kittens stuck in trees. We're at war. And the only way to win a war is to kill the enemy before they kill us. So, time to grow up and put on the big girl cape."
Daisy physically stepped between him and Kara. "Back the fuck off. If it comes down to it, I'll do the killing. I'm not afraid of getting more blood on my hands, and you do not get to call someone weak for not being willing to commit mass premeditated murder. But sorry if your word is the only evidence we have that the only option is genocide, I don't find that convincing. You're a xenophobic fuckboy, and you're not a god. So I'm going to need more than 'because you say so' before I start slaughtering people."
"I'm sorry, but we're at war. Your little 'girlfriend' is going to have to get her hands dirty or we are all going to be mindless slaves." Max was condescending, just waiting to dismiss her and going back into cutting into Supergirl.
It was probably a good thing he couldn't see her face. Daisy stepped straight into his personal bubble. "One, you're only still breathing because she told me not to kill you. You really should be nicer to her. Two, we don't need whatever weapon you have to kill Kryptonians, you just have to point me at them if it comes to that."
"Quake," Kara laid a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back slightly.
Daisy turned looking at her, "I mean it. And you know what my power is, if killing is the only option I can do it. It's what I was made for."
"Made for?" Cat said.
Daisy looked back at Max, "Walk me through why you think killing them all is a good idea. If it is, I'll do it. If it's not, you shut up and do something useful."
"Fascinating as this is, looks like someone made it through security," Cat said, and she was scared and not hiding it as well as she thought she was.
Daisy didn't need her eyes to know the man was Kryptonian, his vibrations told her. He felt like Kara, that same dense vibration so different from a human. She easily slid just behind Kara's shoulder as Kara moved to face this newest threat. The fact they were implicitly protecting Max fucking Lord only bothered Daisy a bit.
And that was def Non from the asshole in charge voice. "The people of this City have already knelt before me. Soon you will too. I don't want to fight you, child."
"Afraid I'll win?" And it hurt to hear Kara trying to be strong when it was so apparent this man meant family to her.
Non's raspy voice replied with care for that. "You've already lost. Accept it and the glorious fulfillment of Astra's vision." He tipped his head, "In the end, she defeated you."
"This doesn't look like a victory to me. And all you're doing is betraying her." Kara's posture and tone softened ever so slightly, the vibration of her voice desperate to get this man, her uncle, to listen. "I was with Astra in her final moments. We forgave each other, we paid respect to our blood bonds. She didn't want this."
Non wasn't willing to hear it. "Of course she did. It's what everyone wants," and he believed his words, absolutely. "Peace on Earth. Goodwill towards man."
"It's a lot less like Christmas out there and more like Dawn of the Dead." Cat remarked, probably intending it to be quipper, but respect for back-talking the alien who could paste her.
Non's quiet pride in his work sparked with anger. "The human race finally has a chance to live. Or it will suffer the same fate as Krypton." Oh, bad guy monologue time. "And the same thing is happening on Earth, with a populace more interested in reality stars and political circuses than working together to solve the world's problems."
"So, mind control is the answer to global warming?" Max clucked his tongue and fuck that guy did that a lot. "Why didn't I think of that?"
Non was a fanatic, but Daisy grimaced under her mask. "Thanks to Myriad there are no more racial divisions, no political parties. Only one people, working with one purpose towards one goal. To save the world."
"Except you haven't saved them, you've enslaved them." Cat crossed her arms, disdain readily apparent.
Kara picked up from where Cat had started, "Humanity is better than this. If you really want this planet to avoid the fate of Krypton, then work with us."
"With these people?" The disdain was dripping from Non's voice as he gestured at Cat and Max. "These two are the best of your world and all they do is help the populace amuse themselves to death. If anything they laid the groundwork for me."
Winn spoke up from where he'd been mindlessly typing, his voice empty. "You've already turned us into drones."
"Winn! Winn, can you hear me?" Kara lunged toward him, desperate for her friend back.
But Daisy was looking at Non, and she was realizing he meant it. Deeply, and utterly meant his stated goals. This was his tribute to his wife, his mate. It was his ideals, his love for his one companion through life, everything of who he was. She didn't twitch as James walked in, his voice the same deadness as Winn's.
"Your inventions have drowned out sense and turned it into nonsense," James uttered.
Winn seamlessly picked up where James left off. "But now everyone is united, everyone's creativity and thought dedicated to eradicating famine, disease, climate change."
Max spoke and as afraid and condescending as he was, there was a certain admiration there. "You're harvesting the brain power of everyone in the city to solve the world's problems? National City is a giant think tank?"
"This is not the way to solve the world's problems." Kara's arms were open, horror on her face.
Winn's empty voice replied, or rather Non's thoughts through Winn's mouth. "Your heroics have done nothing to save the planet."
"This is the inevitability of Myriad." James picked up. And it was telling in horrific ways that Non was choosing these two men as his speak pieces.
Kara swayed slightly. "Non, stop this!"
"These are your friends, aren't they?" He replied, which fun, everyone in the room was just not even pretending they didn't know Kara and Supergirl were the same person.
Kara's voice was soft. "Let them go."
"I have lived with loss. Allow me to return the favor." He tipped his head in a sick mockery of manners.
"Kelly?" Cat knew, they all knew why James, Winn and apparently Kelly all started walking toward different windows.
Daisy was sick of this. She pulled out her gun and tranqed all three of them, dropping their bodies before they could get out of the room in quick succession. She faced Non, ignoring the yelp of alarm from Cat and swearing from Max. "What's the end game? You make them solve their problems, and then what?"
"And who are you?" Non turned his attention to her, cold and evaluating.
Daisy straightened, holstering her gun. "Quake, of House Kasius." It disgusted her to use that, but she knew it would matter to Non, and that mattered more than her feelings on the matter.
He hissed, barely keeping from recoiling. "What could possibly bring one of your depraved ilk into an alliance with a daughter of the House of El?"
"Your niece is hot," she shrugged. "And I didn't have anything better to do. Bonus points, she didn't try to murder me on principle like you're considering."
A muscle ticked in his jaw, "No Kree alone could stand before a Kryptonian under the yellow sun."
"Good thing I'm only part Kree then. A full-blooded Kree would make an issue at the House Kasius thing, but since I killed every other member of the House I don't really give a fuck." Daisy cocked a hip slightly, purposeful disregard in her body language since the voice modulator wasn't going to quite get it across. "To your whole, thing." She waved a hand, "It's neat, very ambitious, very clean. But uh, why do you think humans don't already know how to do that? And kind of insulting you think Maxwell Lord and Cat Grant are the best of humanity."
Non stared at her, "What?"
"I mean Cat Grant is a media personality, she might be winning gold medals at being a bitch, but at humanity?" Daisy wiggled her hand. "And Max there is a scared dipshit with more money than sense. I mean google the top inventors of just this country and he's not the top. He's up there, but the world?"
Non's gaze on her was harsh. "And yet you would defend them for something as dirty and petty as lust?"
"I mean sounds more interesting than your mind control world." Daisy let the entire room vibrate from the air to the floor. "But you've said your piece. Supergirl and these two human pieces of shit will consider it. I don't know about them, but everyone here who matters knows what loss is. Or didn't you and Supergirl both lose a planet? And I have my own parents' blood on my hands. I've lost count of how many I've killed and how many I've lost. Loss is cheap. We got your message."
He was still for a moment, but finally, he tipped his head to her, "Very well I will take your terms, Kree." Non's attention turned to Kara. "Do not stand against me, or everyone you know, love, and care for will die. Accept defeat. Not even allying with monsters will save you. I have already saved National City. Next, I will save the world." With that, he flew out.
As Non left Daisy's senses, she let her passive threat fade, the vibrations of the room returning to normal. She glanced at Kara as she felt the hand on her upper arm.
"Thank you," Kara squeezed her arm.
Daisy nodded to her.
"I'm sorry, didn't understand all of that, but why is Non still alive if you could have killed him?" Max half sneered with contempt, desperately shoving down his blatant terror.
"Because he thinks he's a hero," Daisy glared at Max, not that he could see her glare, but she hoped he got the point. "He has the entire population of this city held hostage and he's not going to start murdering them unless it's to fuck with Supergirl, or he's pushed to it. We don't know if that's true of his second in command. So unless you want to roll the dice on everyone's lives, keeping the asshole who isn't planning on mass murder in charge of the bad guy faction seems smart, fuckwhit."