Chapter 21Notes:
uh...surprise? I guess? Idk, just felt like an extra chapter.
Chapter Text
Lucy was making a terrible decision. She was aware of that, as she stood in front of Johnson's apartment door. She'd waited till eleven in the morning to be sure that there was no chance of Kara being anywhere near the building. But it also meant if this went badly, no one was ever going to find her body, let alone know what had happened to her. A wonderfully cheery thought as she knocked on the door.
It took a minute, but then the door opened, and Daisy Johnson was looking at her, with a raised eyebrow, and wearing rumpled-looking pajamas. The flannel loose pajama pants and baggy long-sleeved shirt along with her unkept long hair didn't suit how horrifically dangerous she was. Even her voice was unalarming and understated. "Lane, wasn't expecting you?"
"We need to talk." Lucy refused to show her unease.
Johnson stepped back waving her into the apartment.
Lucy walked in, and couldn't help but notice the changes from half-gutted to actual apartment, if still a bit sparse. Her eyes caught the laptop by the couch as she turned on her heel to face the other woman. "How did you fake your military records?"
Johnson had shut the door, her back leaning against it, and the unguarded affability melted from her face. "Huh, that's an accusation."
"You could start at what your actual name is, and not that ridiculous one you have the media calling you, Quake." Lucy felt like the other woman's gaze was picking her apart.
Finally, Johnson pushed off the door, walking toward the kitchen. "Tea or coffee person?"
"Excuse me?" Lucy's jaw clenched.
Johnson raised a brow, "This is a coffee discussion then." She pulled two mugs out of the cupboard. "You know I never liked the name Quake, but it's better than the other options. I mean Project World Killer always sounded ridiculous as fuck." She grabbed the coffee pot and poured it. "Black coffee or do you put stuff in yours?"
"Black." Lucy felt a cold shiver down her spine. "What, is Project World Killer?"
Johnson raised a brow while putting the coffee pot back and pulling out creamer. "Depends on how you mean it, but classified, very classified, and me."
Oh, that was a very bad sign. "You're not serious."
"Not always," Johnson set the black cup of coffee on the edge of the kitchen island closest to Lucy, before leaning against the counter behind her. "If you don't mind my asking, what gave it away?"
"You dropped the act the second Kara needed you to. And she trusted you, completely." Lucy would admit she never would have put Johnson and Quake together without knowing how Daisy and Kara interacted. Johnson might be good, but she was tied to someone whose identity was an open secret.
Johnson sighed, dumping creamer into her own mug of coffee. "Yeah, I'm kinda accepting the secret identity thing isn't going to last." She shrugged, "Not that I have a life to be ruined by that."
Every single one of Lucy's instincts was screaming that she didn't want to know what the answers to her questions were. "Give me one reason I shouldn't have you dragged into the DEO? A person like you does not just end up as Supergirl's next-door neighbor."
"Too much of a coincidence?" Daisy picked up her mug, considering her words, and then her eyes were sharp as they looked at her. "I'm not a good person. What do you think happens when Supergirl hears Project World Killer is in her city? And don't give me that look, some secrets don't stay secret long, and I'm going to rip Cadmus to bloody chunks before the end of the year."
Lucy really did not like the conclusions she was drawing. "She'd try and stop you."
"How do you think that would go?" Daisy asked like it was that simple.
But it was that simple, wasn't it? Lucy swallowed. Kara would fight, and Lucy might not know exactly how strong Johnson was, but she wasn't a pushover and every scrap of her behavior screamed she was trained. "So you preempted a conflict between you."
"Yup, I mean I figured I was stopping by to say 'hi' and making sure I wasn't going to get pasted or have to break her. She took issue with the fact I was sleeping in my car." Johnson took a sip of her coffee and her face was genuinely fond. Or at least looked that way. "Then she went and told people I was her new neighbor. So I made that the truth."
Lucy hated that she actually believed that. "Wonderful."
"Hmm," Johnson considered her. "Before you ask, it gets complicated, but think of me as three-quarters human, one-quarter alien. And not the nice cuddly type of alien."
And Lucy hated that even more. "A quarter alien makes you that powerful?" She put every drop of disdain and disbelief into her voice as possible.
Johnson's lips twitched, "No, it means I had a bunch of junk DNA floating around in there. Nothing to write home about. I guess I didn't get sick as much as most kids. Healed a bit faster, not anything anyone would notice though. Hell, I didn't notice." She set her coffee aside. "But it meant I survived when other people realized I had it."
"Survived?" Lucy felt bile, she did not like the picture she was getting. The one that explained everything about Johnson's behavior since the day she'd shown up in National City.
The woman set aside her cup of coffee, grabbed the hem of her shirt, and pulled it up and over her head in one smooth motion. Johnson tossed her shirt aside and picked up her coffee again and sipped, her eyes staring at Lucy without a flicker of concern.
Lucy was a military woman, nudity wasn't a thing that bothered her. And Johnson had left her bra and pants on. She hadn't needed to take them off. Lucy didn't need to be a doctor to know what she was looking at. There were scars. They weren't particularly raised or discolored. But they were quite visible. The two gut wounds were blatantly fatal. The crooks of her arms were a mess of scarring, but it was the Y-incision that put any doubt of what the point was to bed.
"How long?" The Military was deeply entangled with Cadmus. Cadmus that experimented on humans and aliens.
Johnson's head tipped to the side, "Depends on what you mean, took the two gut shots on one of my first missions when I was eighteen. No chance of survival, no family."
And here she was, actually Lucy was almost positive which classified report she didn't have access to that was. So dying soldiers with no one to care, it'd be so, so easy to pass them to Cadmus for experimental medical procedures.
"The slave chip didn't get ripped out till fairly recently." Johnson pulled her hair to the side, the scarring on her neck obvious. "So, knowing any more detail than that and I'm going to say 'classified', want to talk about something actually productive?"
So Lucy had an escaped Cadmus soldier in front of her. Soldier, experiment, slave. It was sickening, and it fit so fucking neatly she couldn't really argue against it. At least not without looking into it more. "What do you mean productive?"
"You need your position as Director of the DEO made permanent instead of interim." Johnson raised her mug at her. "Arresting me isn't going to go well for you. A. I haven't committed a crime that you know of or can prove. B. Kara will throw a fit. C. I'm not stupid enough not to have fail-safes like some very classified documents from being dropped online if I don't update my files every twenty-four hours. And let's not forget Cadmus is still in your organization, as much as I'm aware of them, they're aware of me."
Well, wasn't that some shit. Lucy was going to tear a few things apart to confirm some of that, but she had a horrible feeling it was entirely honest. "What do you want?"
"I want Max Lord taken off the table," Johnson replied without hesitation.
Lucy reached forward and picked up the offered cup of coffee. "He knows about the DEO, that Kara is Supergirl, and will blow all of it out of the water if we touch him. Besides, he's too high profile for the DEO to touch."
"If I can ensure he keeps his mouth shut on those particular topics, and I can ensure he gets arrested by the regular police, so it looks all nice and tidy, how hard would it be for you to put a plea deal in front of him where he's a DEO prisoner and asset for his time served?" Johnson asked.
Lucy considered that, ignoring the implications of whatever Johnson would have to do to make that happen. If the prosecutor and judge could be convinced of a plea deal, they'd want to. Lord's corporate lawyers weren't a sure bet for any kind of case. Lord's ego meant he might take the deal too. "I'd consider it."
"And the credit for stopping the next Lex Luthor would play well with the President," Johnson sipped at her coffee.
Well shit, Lucy drank her coffee considering the woman across from her. "Give me one reason to believe working with you is anything but a trap?"
Johnson sighed, her expression wry. "You're not dead."
Lucy marched into Dr. Saunders's office. "Did you finish mapping out the blood samples?"
"Not fully, but enough to make some conclusions." Dr. Saunders swiped her fingers across her tablet, the screen on the wall lighting up with what even Lucy could tell wasn't human DNA. "Quake certainly bled enough before Supergirl knocked her out I didn't struggle to find genetic material."
She crossed her arms, "So she's not human?"
"That's what I'm finding so fascinating." Dr. Saunders manipulated the image, "Her base DNA has a great many commonalities with human DNA, I've never seen anything like it. I'm almost positive she'd be compatible with human blood if we ever have to give her a transfusion. O negative if that matters. But that's not the most interesting part. Look here-"
Lucy had a migraine, science was not her field, but she'd heard enough to understand genetic manipulation, chemical slurry, and high degree of base commonality with human blood. She didn't need to look up as J'onn entered the office. "How did you manage it all?"
"Time, making a lot of mistakes." His voice was stupidly kind. "Building a team you trust helps."
She looked up at him, "Quake is an escaped Cadmus slave soldier and experimental living weapon of mass destruction and if I'm not mistaken, the only reason we're not dealing with her ripping Cadmus up and killing everything in her path is that Supergirl got to her first."
"Ah." J'onn dropped into the chair in front of her heavily. "That makes a horrible amount of sense."
Lucy did not like finding out she was sitting on a barely controlled nuke ready to go off at any time. "Your pardon is official."
"It is, but the DEO is still yours, Director Lane." J'onn was looking at her curiously.
She pulled the contract out of the top desk. "How would you like a job as an Alien Advisor to the DEO?"
////
Daisy was so smug, dive bar burgers were always the best burgers. She grinned as she saw Kara stepping through the door. Raising a hand she waved.
"Daisy!" Kara was all bright fizzling joy as she slid right in on the same side of the booth Daisy was sitting on, hugging her immediately. "I'm sorry I'm late! But Ms. Grant promoted me! And then I got an office!"
She couldn't help laughing, easily hugging Kara back. "That's great!" Daisy let her eyes close, enjoying just the warmth of the snuggly alien in her arms for a minute before pulling back. "And lucky for you, the food's already here."
"It is? You ordered already?" Kara actually registered the table, her eyes almost closed she was smiling so much. "You ordered for me."
"Of course," Daisy leaned back in her seat. "Tell me all about your promotion?"
Kara reached out, pulling her place from the other side of the table to where she'd slid in…apparently, they were eating on the same side of the booth. "Ms. Grant dropped a box on my desk, and started putting all my things in it, and then just marched off with it! And brought me to an office! I have an office! She's offered me a job anywhere in the company I want! She even called me Kara!"
"She…the name thing is so weird, but wait, you get to pick your job?" Daisy bumped their shoulders together, "That's really great. Do you know what you're going to pick?"
Kara shook her head, "I don't know! I've never even thought about getting promoted."
"You'll have fun figuring it out then," Daisy had to bite back the offer to help. Alex was back, and that meant Kara wasn't going to need her. She grabbed some fries and stuffed them in her mouth to keep her from being tempted to say something stupid.
Kara happily nodded while she ate too fast to be human. And, Daisy was fine with eating burgers on Kara's late lunch and hearing about how she got a promotion.
Daisy sighed, standing up as she watched Kara zip out of the alien bar. Shaking her head she headed to the bar, it was early still, and slow. Even if Al's opened earlier than most dive bars. She leaned against the counter. "Hey, M'gann I've got a question if you have a minute."
"You have a lot of questions," And M'gann was not looking particularly friendly as she walked over.
////
M'gann M'orzz had been on Earth for a long time. She'd seen a lot of beings over the years, and she could spot a gaping wound of chaos and pain from a mile off. Being unable to read Daisy Johnson's mind didn't mean she couldn't feel the tightly controlled turmoil and agony the being likely wasn't even aware was agony. Feeling emotions was harder, and fortunately duller for her than thoughts. But she had no intention of ever touching the being across from her, lest she felt more. She had enough darkness in her own soul. "Al might deal with your business, but he's not in today."
"Not business, or well that." Daisy shrugged, "I was wondering if there's a cop or detective, someone in the law enforcement who at least is open to being paid to not be a dick on the alien topic?"
That should have been a harmless question, M'gann didn't know or even particularly think it was. "Why should I tell you that?"
Daisy sighed, "This is so not my day." She looked at her. "Look, I know I haven't been around long enough to have earned any trust. And I'm not harmless. But I need someone willing to arrest a person for attempted murder motivated by xenophobia. Figured it was a better option than handling it myself."
M'gann was a Martian, she knew what warriors looked like, knew what they felt like. She had no doubt the previous owners of the gold Daisy had brought in were dead and at the being's own hands. "Why not handle it on your own?" She paused at the expression on Daisy's face. "The Kryptonian asked you not to."
And at the word 'Kryptonian', Daisy went sharp. "She's off limits."
"I may know someone," Interesting, M'gann didn't need to feel the way Daisy's emotions vanished into pure focus to realize for the first time since Daisy had entered this bar, she was an active threat to her. "Peace, no one here will say anything of your mate's identity."
Daisy blinked, pulling back ever so slightly and shaking her head, a soft whisper of longing from her. "She's not my mate."
"Excuse me?" M'gann wasn't even sure what to do with that.
Daisy's brow pulled together slightly, "I've done some really shitty stuff, but I'm not enough of a dick to start something with her."
M'gann pulled out the blue sparkling liquor that had been popular on Halla before the planet had been ravaged by plague. She poured a glass, setting it in front of the woman. It was also the kind of thing drunk as a shot, not by the pint. But she was nearly positive the woman in front of her didn't know that. And if she wanted to know if the being before her was stable enough to point at Detective Sawyer, she had some questions she wanted some answers to.
"What?" The suspiciousness was creeping in.
M'gann grabbed a beer for herself, "You are asking me to trust you, convince me."
Daisy groaned, her head hitting the top of the bar. It was a bit theatrical, the emotional exhaustion was palpable. She looked up, "There's nothing I could tell you that would convince you if you're half as paranoid as I think you are."
"You're not leaving the city any time soon?" She waited for the hesitation and then a sharp nod before continuing. "Have a drink with me," She knew she wasn't the only paranoid one here. "I can't read your mind, but I feel something like emotions from you."
Daisy held her gaze for a long moment, wariness and unease bubbling under the surface. But then she picked up the glass and took a drink. "You're starting us off, how long have you been on Earth?"
"Centuries ago." M'gann was not so unfair as to ask what she would not answer in turn. Or she perhaps was, but not with someone as much a monster as her.
Daisy's brow raised, "Huh, very cool, I think?"
"My species are very long-lived," She took a drink from her own bottle.
And it was interesting that Daisy cared, at least enough to reciprocate what was offered. "I'm not sure how long I'll live. But I'm twenty-five."
"How old were you when you went to war?" Because M'gann knew this woman had been in war.
Daisy's emotions bristled slightly, "How old were you?"
"A young adult by our standards, and I was a guard, not a soldier." M'gann hated to feel the clawing guilt and memories, but if she wanted honesty, lies would not work.
It worked, Daisy paused, "Seventeen. Late seventeen, and lied about my age so they'd let me."
M'gann was both impressed by Daisy's alcohol tolerance and also felt like she'd been pulling teeth. She got a lot of nothing answers, and anytime she touched anything serious, she was forced to exchange deeply painful things for it. She switched topics from something the being was clearly tight-lipped about as hell. "So your courting of the Kryptonian, how long has that been happening?"
"Uh, it's not happening," Daisy snorted as she sipped from her third fucking drink. "She mates for life, I don't. Do you know how much of a dick that would make me?"
That was, not exactly the response she'd have expected, "But you wish to court her?"
"Uh, no?" Daisy's head cocked to one side.
M'gann rolled her eyes, "I can feel your emotions." And had seen the two near each other twice. It wasn't hard to pick up.
The being's eyes fell to the bartop, her fingers poking at the wood before her eyes flicked back up. "Look, I'm not good news. And I'm not a forever kind of person. I don't know why, maybe I never learned how? But nobody wants long. Not even just romantically, just…any kind of anything. They die, get sick of me, or stop seeing me as more than a tool." The jagged mawing pain was staggering in its weight.
M'gann realized two things as she barely kept from gasping at the hurt and pain rolling off the other being. One, she was very drunk and just good at hiding it. And two, she was agonizingly lonely. Her hand on the counter tightened to keep herself upright. "Your friend wouldn't agree."
"She will," The certainty of it was crushing. "Things changed, her people are back. She won't need me anymore. But I can make sure she's safe before…" Her brow furrowed, "before it ends. And if it wouldn't work, it would be mean to start something." Daisy looked at her with a wry expression. "But hey, I have managed to catch stupid inconvenient feelings for someone who isn't on the other side of a war, a Nazi, or a lying asshole."
Her brow rose as the counter hummed, the bucket of pain in front of her had skipped tipsy and gone straight to drunk, on her way to wasted. "The person you want arrested, they're a threat to your …friend?"
"I'd have just shot him, but Kara wouldn't like it," Daisy grumbled, she looked at M'gann. "She's just so nice! It's so stupid."
M'gann took the mostly empty glass away from Daisy, "Pass me your phone, you're not fit for driving, flying or however you plan to get home."
Daisy's eyes narrowed, but she handed the phone over, and her coordination wasn't actually that bad.
M'gann pulled up the contacts, it was…there were three numbers saved. It made it easy, at least, even if it was definitely not healthy. She could admit that she was a barely social recluse, and she had more contacts than this. Still, she dialed Kara.
-"Daisy! Do you need something?"- It was a very perky voice.
M'gann didn't look away from the very dangerous being who was watching her like a hawk. A drunk hawk, but a hawk. "This is M'gann from Al's, Daisy has had a bit too much to drink." She stared at the phone as it blinked off. Predictable. She passed the phone back to Daisy.
Daisy had barely slid it back into her pocket before Kara was there in a blur.
"Daisy!" Kara had one hand on Daisy's back, instantly in the being's space, concern painted on her face.
"I'm fine," Daisy scoffed, rolling her eyes.
Kara looked at M'gann, "Thank you for calling me."
"It's not a problem," She didn't mention it'd been partially intentional. M'gann had no interest in getting her face lasered off by a pissed off Kryptonian that was halfway latched. The whole thing going on between the two of them would settle, and M'gann wasn't going to be the one to straighten that mess out. However, she was mostly sure it was the right thing as she pulled out a business card while passing it to Daisy. "Once you've sobered up, Detective Sawyer, she'll work with you."