Endless Legacy (DC Comics)
Chapter 82: Realization

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 has a bit of a mental breakdown.

-x-X-x-

Oh… oh no. Kara's face goes chalk white and she collapses backwards into the chair behind her as her legs give out on her. Everyone tenses up, with Lucien looking actively concerned about her health.

"Kara? Are you alright?"

Whimpering, Kara buries her face in her hands and mumbles out a response that causes Tea to snort derisively and Claire to scoff. Lucien, meanwhile, simply raises an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I quite caught that."

Removing her hands from her face for a moment, Kara just groans as she repeats herself.

"I think I'm actually starting to trust you."

Lucien blinks and then sighs.

"Ah. My sincerest apologies."

D-Damn straight! This was… the worst! Because if Lucien was telling the truth, if she actually believed all of the things he just said… then that would mean he wasn't actually a bad guy! All this time, everything she'd done… it would all be utterly pointless! She would have wasted a year of her life chasing shadows!

And unfortunately, as the tears start to fall, it's impossible to remain in a state of denial much longer. The proof was right in front of her leaking eyes. Galatea and Match were… well, they were one thing. It was possible Lucien was lying to her about them, but if he was he wouldn't be asking her to introduce them to the League.

After all, between Wonder Woman's Lasso and the Martian Manhunter's psychic abilities, there was no way that they would be able to hide the truth. Which meant the truth was precisely as Lucien had laid it out more than likely. And that meant she'd been an utter fool all this time.

"Err… there, there."

Kara just sobs harder as Lucien gently pats her shoulder. And now the bastard was trying to comfort her! Uwaaaah!

-x-X-x-

Fortunately, Kara doesn't keep crying forever. He's not sure what to do about a weepy Kryptonian in his private office, so really if she hadn't stopped soon, he might have considered sedating her. And yes, Lucien recognized how ridiculous that might sound given he hadn't even considered sedating her when she'd thrown his desk across the room and tried to attack him.

Still, an angry Kryptonian was one thing. He was prepared for that. He was not prepared for a sad Kryptonian who seemed to be questioning her life choices right there in the middle of his office.

As mentioned though, she calms down eventually. And even does an admirable job of putting herself back together after she's done. Thankfully, none of the others seem like they're going to mention it, even as Kara finally rises from her seat and clears her throat.

"R-Right… I'll just… call the League then. And let them know about T-Tea and C-Claire…"

She looks like she wants to do anything but that right now. But then to be fair, Lucien can imagine why. After all, he's fully aware that Supergirl did NOT have the permission of the Justice League to continue 'investigating' him. She definitely didn't have their approval to infiltrate LexCorp and go undercover in her civilian identity to try and bust him for whatever crimes he might be committing.

Basically, she looks like she's about to start marching to her own execution and given what Lucien knew of her situation with the League, it might as well be. Kara was in a weird place with the Justice League. She was a full grown adult by now, but she'd started out young enough to have been seen as Superman's sidekick once upon a time. Getting the Justice League to treat her as a full-blown member was a constant battle from what Lucien had heard.

And now she was going to have to prove her naysayers right by revealing what she'd been up to recently.

Unless…

"You know, we don't have to tell them the whole truth."

Lucien grins lopsidedly when Kara immediately looks suspicious again, glaring up at him with red-rimmed eyes.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

Shrugging, Lucien sits back down in his own chair, clasping his hands in front of him even though there's a massive empty hole in the space between them where his desk should have been.

"Simple, really. We don't have to tell them that you infiltrated my company or that I caught you immediately. They don't have to know what you were really up to at all. Instead, we can say that you and I teamed up and figured out what Cadmus was up to together. We'll claim that you were keeping the data safe while I raided the Cadmus Lab and retrieved these two."

The suspicion melts away as Kara realizes he's not talking about lying for his sake, but rather for her sake. Her eyes get progressively wider as he outlines how they could pretend the two of them were working together all this time, rather than the rather embarrassing truth that she was… well, spying on him when he was just trying to do the right thing.

Mouth opening and closing, the blonde superheroine doesn't seem to know what to say, prompting Tea to speak up with another derisive snort.

"Just say yes and thank him, you idiot. He's throwing you a huge bone here… you'd be a fool not to take it."

Twitching, Kara looks at the clone that Cadmus made of her… and then down at Tea's breasts as well before flushing and looking away. Tea smirks in response, straightening up and crossing her arms under her chest to emphasize and amplify it some more, something that Kara doesn't fail to notice even though she's pointedly not looking.

"You… you'd be okay with that? You and Claire? Me just… taking partial credit for your salvation like that?"

Tea scoffs but its Claire who actually responds. The clone of Superman and Wonder Woman huffs and tilts her head in his direction.

"If he says it's fine, then I don't care. It's not like either of us actually owe you a damn thing, got it? But if that's how the Boss wants to play it, then that's how we'll play it."

Lucien grins sheepishly as Kara twitches again, this time at Claire's use of the word 'boss'. He really did want both Tea and Claire to be able to have their own lives separate from his… but they'd definitely gotten attached to him. He didn't want to push them away, so he doubted they would be going anywhere anytime soon, even if they were invited to join the Justice League.

Finally, after a long stretch of silence, Kara lets out a sigh and shakes her head.

"N-No. I… I'm thankful for the offer. But I can't lie like that. I fucked up and I see that now. I have to own up to my mistakes and take my lumps."

Well damn, that was too bad. Especially since the offer wasn't nearly as altruistic as it might have seemed. Rather, Lucien did mostly offer it for Kara's sake, but the truth was it would also have been good for his own reputation with the League if he could claim that he and Supergirl had been working together on the Cadmus thing for months now instead of starting just this moment.

Hm…

"So then, how do you want to do this?"

When Kara blinks at him, Lucien just raises an eyebrow and smiles.

"Like I said before, Blackfire, Mercy and I were able to shut down the facility that Tea and Claire came from while also gathering a lot of Cadmus Intel at the same time. We have a limited amount of time on our hands before Cadmus finds out that the facility didn't actually self-destruct and their data isn't as secure as they thought. So what do you want to do? Are we taking all of this straight to the Justice League… or do you want to work with us as a representative of the Justice League to take down Cadmus first before we report in?"

Kara bites her lower lip in thought while Lucien watches her patiently yet also expectantly. Really, it's not like he wants to be the Devil on her shoulder or anything. But it would be better for his purposes if she chose of her own volition to not rope the rest of the League into things just yet.

It had to be Kara's choice though. Anything else and she wouldn't trust him and the League would probably come down on him like a sack of bricks, even though he was trying to be a good-ish guy here.

Finally, hesitantly, Kara stands up again.

"Ah… could I… look over that data first and then make my decision? We should probably make sure it's stuff we can handle without the rest of the Justice League. I wouldn't want to do anything… rash."

Lucien smiles politely at that and very pointedly doesn't say the obvious. Alas, Tea is less chill.

"You mean like infiltrate a massive company you know has experience developing countermeasures for your exact species?"

Kara goes bright red, causing Galatea to grin wickedly. It would seem like the clone has a bit of a sadistic streak to her. Lucien is half-tempted to bend her over his lap and spank her right then and there… but not only would she probably enjoy that, he has a better idea.

"Tea."

Hearing the tone of reproach in his voice, the blonde swirls around to look at him with a pout. Lucien just raises an eyebrow, making her duck her gaze.

"I'm assigning you to help Kara go through the data we took from the lab. I know that most of the personnel treated you like just an experiment, but the Professor told you more than he should have, didn't he?"

Puffing out her cheeks, Tea looks like she wants to argue for a moment before Lucien gets to the end of his reasoning and she steadily deflates.

"… Yeah. Alright. Fine."

Looking to Kara, Tea just scowls, arms stilled crossed under her bust as she huffs.

"C'mon then."

Kara doesn't exactly look thrilled to be liaising with the clone herself, but she follows Tea out of the room without protest all the same. Blackfire watches them go for a moment before rolling her eyes when Lucien gives her a look.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll make sure they don't kill each other."

With that, she leaves the office as well, closing the door behind her and dropping the room into silence. A moment later and Lucien senses all three women leaving the penthouse behind.

Then, he startles, looking over to see Claire, aka Project Match, removing her black leather jacket and then the top she's wearing under it.

"… Claire? What are you doing?"

Shucking off the top and tossing it aside so that she's wearing nothing but her bra, black leather pants, and shoes, Claire looks at him blankly.

"What does it look like I'm doing? We're alone now. Figured we could fuck."

That was… particularly forward. Not that Lucien minded. He didn't mind one bit.

"Well, I'm certainly not against that. You do know I'm currently involved with multiple women though yes? Including Tea?"

Far from getting angry or upset by this information, Claire nods stoically, even as she unbuttons and unzips her tight leather pants, slowly beginning to peel them down her legs. One might accidentally think she's doing it so slowly to be sensual about it, but the truth is, Lucien can tell she's moving slowly so that she doesn't accidentally rip the garment off of her long, shapely legs with her super strength. He can't help but smile a little bit at seeing how much she cares about the clothes he got for her.

"Yeah, I know. Does it matter? It doesn't matter to me who else you fuck, so long as you also fuck me."

Rising from his chair, Lucien walks over to Claire, who pauses at his approach now just in her bra and panties. Reaching out, he takes her in his arms, running his hands up and down her flesh as she shivers at his touch but also pushes herself into him almost greedily.

"It's important that I fuck you, is that it?"

Eyes hooded with desire, Claire hisses her approval at his touch.

"Yesss… you're the only one who deserves me. The only one who's ever cared about me. I want… I need to repay you."

Lucien sighs, even as his hands wander lower… and lower… until eventually he drops to his knees, surprising Claire as he begins to fondle her ass and her legs alike.

"You have amazing legs, Claire."

The clone blushes crimson at that, glancing off to the side.

"My… legs? That's what you like best about me?"

Chuckling, Lucien nuzzles his face into her thigh.

"Well… there's a lot to like about you really. But the legs are definitely one of your best parts."

The taciturn clone is quiet for a moment before finally nodding.

"… I'm glad. They're yours. Just like all of me is yours. Now and forever."

Lucien hums, looking up at Claire from his kneeling position.

"And what if I wanted them to be yours instead? What if I wanted you to be your own woman?"

Claire tenses up, frowning down at him.

"I…"

Her hesitation is answer enough. With a sigh and a hand on Claire's ass, Lucien takes the woman off of her feet and gently but firmly drops her down into the chair that Kara had sat in just a little while ago. Luckily, said chair is rated for super strength.

It wouldn't survive someone with their power actively trying to destroy it of course, but it can handle a Kryptonian lunging up out of it on the war path, and it can also handle Claire dropping down into it with a surprised 'oof'!"

"You don't really know how to be your own woman, do you Claire?"

Flushing, showing more emotion than before, Claire looks away in silence for a long moment before shaking her head.

"… No. I don't."

Well, when they could finally introduce her and Tea to the rest of the Justice League, maybe someone like Wonder Woman could help her out. For now, Lucien can tell that even if she puts on a braver face than Tea, Claire is just as vulnerable right now. And if he rejects her, he'll hurt her more than he's willing to.

Instead, Lucien smiles up at her and begins kissing along her inner thigh, causing her breath to hitch and her eyes to lock onto him and study him as he moves.

"Well then… for the time being, I'll make you my woman, alright? But just know that it's only temporary for now. We can discuss making it a permanent arrangement later on if you want to, but I want you to explore all possible options first, got it?"

Claire slowly nods, still intensely focused on what he's doing. Lucien just chuckles into her pristine flesh. Seems like he was going to have to do for her what he did for Tea. It was only fair, after all.

-x-X-x-

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