Chapter 73

"I don't want to do this," Alex grumbles.

She has a sharpened piece of Kryptonite in her hand and is going to get closer and closer to Kara, to see if her Wonder Woman crown thing works. And then, Alex is going to poke her with it, see if it makes her bleed or uncomfortable like it usually does. And then... Gods, Alex really doesn't want to do any of this, but especially not the last thing. They know Cadmus will have weapons with Kryptonite in them, like arrows and swords and crossbow bolts. And they want to know if Kara's crown will protect her from that.

"You don't have to. You can have someone else do it." Maggie says. "I can do it instead. Or Lena can-" Lena shakes her head. "I can do it."

"Thank you." Alex breathes out, getting a kiss on the cheek from Maggie.

"Ready?" Kara calls from the other side of the room.

They're in the training room, and despite the fact that the Kryptonite emitters are giving off 100%, Kara doesn't feel any different. She won't tell Alex that, though. She knows her sister will panic because usually they keep it below ten percent. 100%, that would probably normally make her very nauseous and pass out. She assumes that, at least. Alex never let her try it.

Since her senses aren't dampened, she has heard everything they've been saying, including Alex repeatedly saying she doesn't want to do this.

"Come on, guys! It's for science!" She calls.

"It could kill you!" Alex says, her voice higher than normal.

"But it won't! The Kryptonite emitters are on and I'm fine! See?" Kara floats over to them on her back.

"We don't know how physical Kryptonite will affect you, Kara." Alex says. "Your crown might not be able to block all of it out."

"That's why we're testing it." Kara reminds her.

Alex sighs. "You're impossible." She cracks a small smile at Kara, but she mainly looks worried. "Alright. I'll turn off the Kryptonite emitters. I don't want it skewing the data."

"Oh! We should run two tests, one without the Kryptonite emitter and one with it!" Kara says.

"That's not a bad idea." Lena admits, earning a glare from Alex. "Come on, Sir Alex. My mother will most likely have Kryptonite all over, even in the walls if she can manage that. So we should be prepared for anything."

Alex sighs. "Fine."

Alex walks over to the control panel, moving her finger automatically to move it down from seven percent. When she notices the knob isn't there, she looks down and does a double take. Her head whips up and she glares daggers at Kara, who gives Alex her best innocent expression.

"What did she do?" Lena asks, amused.

"Put the emitters at 100 percent!" Alex scowls.

"Cadmus isn't going to be nice and make sure that the level isn't high." Lena points out.

"Okay, that's fair but..." Alex sighs. "What if you get hurt?"

"Then you'll patch me up." Kara says like the answer is obvious. "I'll be okay, Alex. I know Kryptonian technology, and this will work."

Alex nods, deciding to trust her sister. But if Kara gets hurt when she says she won't, Alex is going to kick her butt. And lecture her on being careful, which is almost worse than training without powers with Alex in Kara's mind.

As promised, it's Maggie who does it. Neither Kara's sister or her girlfriend want to accidentally hurt her. Of course, Maggie isn't too big on the idea of harming her (probably) future sister-in-law either.

Maggie takes the piece of Kryptonite from Alex, who thankfully doesn't go into a panicked ramble on how she should be careful, but the nervous energy coming off of her in waves is enough to make Maggie serious.

Kara floats down until her feet hit the ground again. She isn't wearing her armor at the moment, since they want to see what Kryptonite does if it hits her bare skin. They can do another trial later if it's necessary with the armor.

Maggie reaches out and takes Kara's hand in her non-dominant hand. She has the Kryptonite in her other hand and presses it against Kara's skin.

"Anything?" Maggie asks when there's no visible reaction.

She's not sure what she was expecting. Maybe that Kara's hand to give some indication it was in contact with Kryptonite, like the skin turning red, or smoking or something. Kara shrugs.

"It feels like it would if you pressed a normal rock to my skin."

"Good. What's the next thing we're testing?" Maggie questions.

"A sword!" Kara answers.

Maggie chokes on nothing, her eyes wide. "You want me to hit my girlfriend's sister with a ?"

"Science!" Kara says happily, seeming nonplussed by the fact she's about to be hit by a sword.

"Yeah, just a normal swing you would use on an enemy." Alex says, patting Maggie's back as she takes the Kryptonite and hands her girlfriend a sword she's never seen before.

"Al, I swing at enemies to kill or injure. This is your sister, who also happens to be the Princess of this entire kingdom. And given what we're testing, this sword probably has Kryptonite in it or on it."

"Then just... Poke her with it first." Alex advises.

"... Your advise is for me to poke her."

Alex nods and Maggie sighs. The things she does for love. She gently taps the sword against Kara's arm, but using the broad side of the blade that isn't pointy. Maggie can practically feel her girlfriend rolling her eyes behind her.

Kara raises her eyebrows at Maggie. "It's fine, Maggie. Really. Poke me with the pointy part."

Maggie sighs and adjusts her grip on the sword. It's a smaller sword than what she's used to, but still a pretty good size. It looks like it's a blend of a couple of metals. Maybe Kryptonite was mixed in or something. She gently pokes Kara's bare arm and she doesn't even flinch.

Kara giggles. "That tickles. It's like when you poke me, Alex."

Alex purses her lips. She's relieved Kara isn't in any pain, but she's still worried about all of this. Kara wouldn't lie about this kind of thing, but she can't feel like they're all waiting for something to go wrong. Maggie continues gently poking a laughing Kara, and eventually works her way up to hitting her with the broad side of the sword. Kara doesn't move, it's like she just hit a wall instead.

"I could feel that but it doesn't hurt." Kara informs them.

They continue running tests throughout the day, ending with a very anxious Lena shooting a crossbow bolt covered in Kryptonite at her girlfriend. She doesn't know who's more relieved, her or Alex, when the bolt bounces off Kara. Kara, for her part, is glad that the crown has worked as well as it has, and that she wore a shirt she didn't like too much. It's kind of gotten ripped up, what with her being hit by swords and arrows and crossbow bolts.

But they have come to a conclusion, that the four of them all agree to. Kara's crown works, and it works really well. Alex, after bringing up the concern that it could be hit out of the crown, is quickly rebuffed by Kara.

"No, it latches onto whatever it's placed on after it's activated, whether it's organic material or not. It'll stay there until it's deactivated, which I doubt Cadmus can do while fighting us." Kara says. "I doubt they can even read Kryptonese."

"Organic material as in living things? It could've stuck to you? Like a leech?" Maggie asks curiously.

"Yup. But you have to confirm that it's what you want to place it on, which is why I had to press the button again once we placed it in the crown." Kara explains.

"Thats actually pretty cool." Lena admits.

"Of course it is, it's technology from somewhere in space, some other planet in the vastness of the universe!" Kara says.

Lena chuckles at her enthusiasm and squeezes her hand soft in hers. Today has been a long, stressful day where she has worried about her girlfriend getting hurt for nearly all of it. She can't wait to relax tonight and cuddle with her.

***

The calm before the storm ends quickly, and the DEO is full of people running around, preparing for departing for Cadmus. The madness starts five days left before they're planning on going, and it's all hands on deck. Alex and Maggie are busy training and making sure everyone knows what they're going to be doing.

Kara trains with then sometimes, but mostly just patrols the city and helps out at the DEO when she's needed. Lena's busy with Winn and Vasquez, and a couple other lab rats, working on cranking out crossbows for their long range division.

Next chapter, they leave! I still have to plan out the battle, to be honest... I've been so busy with college stuff and spending time with my family before I leave (in less than 2 weeks 0.0 ) that I haven't had time to sit down and crank out a solid plan! But now that I'm telling you guys this, it'll force me to come up with a plan because I work best when I tell other people what I plan on doing. Then I don't have an excuse... So! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!