Chapter Text
Light filtered through Lena’s eyes as she opened them, sitting up, the brunette adjusted her vision to a room lit with a blue hue from lights situated on the wall, she was lying on a large bed, looking down she saw she was dressed in a black lacy dress, seemingly tailored precisely to her curves. Lena stood up from the bed with a wobble, a splitting headache forming as she did. With a slightly blurred vision, Lena looked around the room, searching for any clue as to where she was. The room was dark, with grey walls and floors, and brown floor-length curtains. The sheets she had woken up on were a light grey, almost silver, made of a silky material, nothing like she had seen before. The room seemed so alien to Lena, very different from any room she had seen on earth. Lena took a moment to take it in, from the bioluminescent light fixtures to the strangely shaped headboard, and the feel of the silky sheets she had rested on. She rubbed it in between her fingers as she pondered if it was made of a similar material to Supergirl's cape, which she had felt when she was showering Kara with questions about it after she had found out Kara was Supergirl. The sound of fast-approaching footsteps, and a voice invaded her thoughts, it was one of a woman, she was commanding for the doors to be opened to the room Lena was in. Lena quickly sat back down and in strode a woman, with brown hair and tanned skin, dressed in a grey gown, and a grey headpiece situated on top of her head.
“Lena, dear, you’re finally up”, she said coming to sit beside Lena, reaching out for her hand. Hesitantly letting her take it, Lena looked up at her, her vision starting to become less blurry, she recognised her as the woman whom she had looked up to, working with to build the transmitter portal that would help so many aliens in returning to their home planets.
“Rhea?”, sitting up straighter, Lena’s memories caught up with her. Rhea had lied to her about her intentions with the transmitter portal and had flooded National City with daxamites. “Where the hell am I?” pulling her hand from Rheas, Lena scooted further away from her.
“I’ve been looking after you, ever since Supergirl nearly killed you when she attacked our portal.”, she said, moving a strand of hair out of Lena’s face. Lena pulled her head back, away from Rhea's cool touch. All she could remember was being next to Rhea and Supergirl, they were fighting. Kara was trying to stop her. The last thing she heard was Kara calling out to her after she had been knocked to the floor by a blast, and then everything went black.
“Supergirl tried to stop you- I should have stopped you.” Lena turned her lip at her, “You lied to me… you used me”. Lena felt like a fool for falling for her antics, having trusted her, having revelled in having an ounce of what resembled a mother-daughter relationship with this woman.
“I did what I had to do for my people. But I did it for you too.” Rhea said, smiling at Lena, one that was far too sweet to be genuine. “You are meant for better and bigger things Lena. This planet is a waste of your potential. You represent the best of your race. I am going to create a society, worthy of you.” Rhea stood up and walked to the window near the far side of the bed, pulling on the brown curtains, light filling the room. Lena followed, cautiously walking toward her. She followed Rhea’s line of sight, peering out the window she saw dozens of ships, destroying National City. Daxamites were flooding the streets with guns, wreaking havoc on its citizens. Lena gasped and took a step backwards. Turning to her, Rhea grabbed the brunette by the shoulders, “Get comfortable Lena, you are where you belong… beside me, presiding over this new world that we will create together.” Lena felt sick as she watched Rhea look proudly over the destruction of the CEO's home.
Flinching at a particularly large explosion, Lena stepped out of Rhea’s grasp. She walked back over to the bed and sat down. Lena needed a plan; Rhea was not going to let her just walk out of this. She needed to act as though she is agreeing to Rhea’s plans if she were to get anywhere, she can’t imagine defying the Daxamite would benefit her in any way. She needed to find out exactly what Rhea wanted from her, and she needed to gain her trust if she was to have any freedom here, she needed figure out how escape from the ship and put an end to the inevitable war that was going to outbreak on earth.
“I have had a dress made for you, from our royal seamstress on board. It is hanging in the closet for you. Put this on and join us for dinner in the throne room in half an hour, I have some good news.” Rhea announced, before turning to leave, commanding the doors to be opened by the guards situated outside.
“Rhea,” Lena called after her, clearing her throat, “Thank you.” Lena gritted a small smile to her, “I understand now why you did what you did, earth does indeed have many flaws… too many people ready to disobey order and turn on each other…” Lena thought back to the time when she found out Kara was Supergirl. She had a tough time at first, knowing she had been lied to throughout their friendship. She had gained similar feelings of what she was saying to Rhea. She wanted to make something that would make it so people wouldn’t inflict hurt on each other. She quickly realised this took away their will and would disrupt the natural balance of humanity. Shortly after, she forgave Kara, it hurt that she had been lied to by the person she had trusted most, but she realised that in the end it was never Kara’s intention to cause Lena that hurt. She had lied to her based-on not wanting Lena to have any harm come to her if enemies knew she was friends with Supergirl. But she also lied to her for a selfish reason, she wanted to just be Kara with Lena. The CEO realised everyone has flaws, it was inevitable, and that isn’t a bad thing, only when there was bad intention. An intention to cause harm to others, which was what Rhea was doing. Lena heard the sickening sound of explosions below the ship, Lena fluttered her eyes closed, steadying her breathing. After a second she opened them again and looked back up at Rhea, she saw that the older brunette had an almost joyous look on her face, unaffected by the mass murder happening below her feet.
“I’m glad you finally see it from my point of view Lena, you will make an excellent Princess of Daxam. Together, we will have this planet at our fingertips, my dear, just you wait and see.” With that, Rhea exited the room, doors closing behind her. Lena let out a shaky breath she was holding in and ran a hand through her raven hair. Lena needed to play this out. She needed to ensure the safety of her planet and to do that she is going to need to get all the information she can get from the inside. Rhea no doubt had something bigger planned, and Lena was going to find out what it is. If she was going to have to play princess and listen to all of Rhea’s diabolical ideas, then so be it. She is not going to let her planet be turned into the new Daxam, not if it kills her.
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Lena opened the closet to a scarlet gown, which had a cage like pattern on the boddice. Fitting, she thought. Pulling it out, she also noticed a matching tiara next to it. Sighing, Lena put the dress on. After zipping it up, she walked over to the mirror. “Boobs in a cage.” She scoffed. She then placed the tiara on top of her head to finish the look.
Lena thought back to what Rhea had said. A princess? From what Kara told her, Daxam was a planet notoriously known for their slave-trading market and their egotistical and aristocratic royal family, seeing themselves as above others. Kara mentioned the prince, she said he was the ‘frat boy of the universe’ having a new girl in his bed every other day and only thought about himself. Lena rubbed her temples at the thought of having to potentially meet this prince, who she assumed she would have to work alongside to play the role of Daxam’s ‘Princess’.
After one last glance in the mirror, she headed towards the doors. She creaked one open and saw there were two guards stood each side of it, in steel armour and cloaks settled on top of their shoulders, they had large spears stood upright at their sides. As she started walking, they followed, marching behind her. They met two other guards at the far end of the hallway, where they opened the door for her. Lena strode in, walking under spears crossed over above her head, when she reached the end of the canopy of steel, a man to her left offered her a hand. “Yeah, I’m good.” She declined, with a slight eyeroll, this all seemed too much. Lena pondered whether it was because Rhea was trying to stop her from running away, or if it was accustomed for royalty to be accompanied everywhere, even in their own ship. Lena hoped this didn’t extend to the bathroom.
Lena stepped towards the large table in the middle of the room, where she noticed there were three people sat down, Rhea at one end, a dark-haired gentleman similar to Rhea’s age, who Lena assumed to be the King was sat at the other, and there was another man, with his back turned away from Lena, who she assumed was the prince.
“Lena!”, she announced to the table, after noticing her arrival. Rhea stood to greet her, as did the men. “Please, take a seat”, she said with a gesture towards the seat across from the prince, whom she had not seen the face of yet. Walking around the table, his features came into view.
“Mon-El!?” Lena felt shock run through her body, this was her best friend’s boyfriend. She couldn’t believe this was the prince Kara despised so much. Who was he? Was he the man Kara had spoken about so affectionately? Albeit, on occasion with frustration at their clashing views and his sometimes-childish behaviour. Or was he this prince, a frat boy without any sense of responsibility or concern for anyone but himself.
Mon-El gaped at her, “Lena?!” Mon-El looked between Lena and his mother, with a startled look on his face. “Mother, what is this?”.
“Now you are both here, I can tell you the good news.” She sat down, and so did the King, Mon-El and Lena following suit, with uneasy looks exchanging between them. “As you know, I have chosen Earth, for our people to inhabit, with a bit of work I believe this will make a fine home. However, this won’t be easy, and Me and Lar-Gand, won’t be here forever,” she said gesturing to the King at the end of the table. “We will need a King and a Queen to take over for us when we are gone, to ensure our subjects are on the right track… You will both be joined in matrimony. Tomorrow.” Lena’s mouth shot open, an objection on the tip of her tongue, however, Mon-El had beat her to it.
“Matrimony?! Mother, Lena and I are not going to marry, I have found a mate down on earth!”, he stood, raising his voice.
“Silence Mon-El!” Rhea ordered, her voice filling the room. “You will marry Lena. Your mate on earth, Kara Zor-El… she is kryptonian scum, far to obnoxious and self-righteous for our kingdom. She does not share our vision. She would rather run than to protect what is hers. Look what happened to her planet. The one that exploded down to no fault but their own, destroying our home in the process. I am not going to let her lead this planet into a flaming demise like she did her own!” Lena’s fists clenched under the table, her anger increasing by the second. Kara lost everything when her planet exploded, by no fault of hers. Only thirteen, alone, and scared. Just as Mon-El opened his mouth to argue back to his mother, she spoke again. “Lena shares our vision, Lena will not run,” Rhea turned to her and gave her a hard look in the eye, almost as a warning. “And she is a perfect match to produce an heir.”
“Excuse me what?! An heir? We are certainly not giving you an heir” Lena practically shouted across the table, side eyeing Mon-El.
“She doesn’t need us for anything” the prince started to say, reluctantly, “she just needs our genetic materials. Daxamites can generate a child using just locks of hair.” He said, sighing, bowing head to the ground.
“Which I collected while you slept.” Rhea added. “My son knows me well; I hope for the best but prepare for the worse” a smile crawled onto her face like a fly to a rotten piece of fruit. “So, the wedding will legitimise your union in the eyes of the daxamite people, we will have a formal ceremony, tomorrow. Just remember, there are people you care for,” she said walking over to a screen, pressing her fingers to it. A target appears on the screen, aiming straight for her city, “one button and I can take out you’re entire precious city.” Lena felt her stomach drop. “The question is… will you agree to the ceremony now… or after I’ve murdered thousands of lives in the city below.”
“Fine.” Lena uttered, her voice small.
“We will do as you ask.” Mon-El added, both hanging their heads low, admitting defeat.
“I know it’s hard to see now, but in time you will realise you made the right choice.” Rhea smiled, sitting back down. “Now, let’s feast. A big day is ahead of us.”
A big day indeed.