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2017-12-12
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2018-02-06
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5/?
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Spree

Summary:

Agent Reign

Sam keeps waking up at the scene of numerous gruesome murders, unaware of her nighttime killing sprees as Reign.

Alex keeps showing up to solve these gruesome murders, and wonders what that nice soccer mom is doing around these parts.

Canon compliant Agent Reign

Notes:

So this one’s gonna weave in and out of the canon world—follows canon pretty close up to 3x07/3x09, except I’ve erased the existence of Mon-El altogether, and paired Kara up with Lena, as is right and proper. Everything else up till the mid-season finale is more or less the same.

Chapter 1: The Pile on the Pier

Chapter Text

 

On Tuesday the 5th of December at approximately 8:15ish in the morning, Sam awoke to several questions. 

The first question was why was she so cold? That answered itself quickly enough—she was cold because she was lying curled up on the pier in downtown National City. Of course that answer led to the next question, which was, why was she on the pier? That question remained unanswered for the moment, but she did have to wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that there was a pile of dead bodies no more than a few feet from her.

That wasn’t so bad, she thought blearily, as she raised her head, squinting to make sure she was, in fact, seeing bodies. Yes she was. Five in one pile, another three strewn out next to them, and two broken and dangling over the edge of the dock where their fingers drifted against the surface of the water every time the pier shifted above the waves.

Well, it was a little bit bad, Sam corrected herself. But her dreams of late had consisted of significantly more bodies, sometimes ripped apart, sometimes in flames, always with frozen looks of terror twisting their faces.

So this was still an unpleasant dream, but she’d had worse.

What she hadn’t had, was this incredibly realistic setting. Most of her dreams lately had been more abstract—hundreds of bodies, violence like she’d never imagined…but at least it was still in a dreamlike world. The colors would swirl, the images would stretch and collapse on themselves, twists in the pit of her stomach would send her spiraling down—and then she would jolt awake in her bed. Sweating and terrified, sure—sometimes even screaming. But this right now…it just seemed so real. She could feel the slats of the pier beneath her, the splintery wood pressing into her cheek, the ache of her shoulder from being trapped under her body. She could taste the dryness of her mouth, she could smell…

God, what was she smelling? Salty ocean air, the dank wood beneath her…and something much more putrid. She blinked, eyes fixating back on the pile of bodies. She counted them. Five in a pile. Three strewn out. Two hanging over the edge.

The same as before.

Her dreams never kept track of numbers.

She jolted upright at the sound of sirens wailing in the distance. They were so loud—why was everything so loud all of a sudden? No, she didn’t like this dream at all. This was worse, this was much, much worse than the others. Its consistency, its stillness—her dreams were never still like this. People died in her dreams, they were never dead already. They never looked this way, never stayed this way, never smelled this way…

It hit her like a slug to the gut. This wasn’t a dream.

It seemed real because it was real.

Clutching her stomach against a dizzying pull of sickness, she tried desperately to wrangle her memories of last night. How the hell had she gotten here—had she sleepwalked? And if these men had been attacked, why was she still alive? Did she get here after it happened?

Her thoughts tumbled over each other, only managing to tangle themselves further. She had no memory of this, she had no idea how she’d gotten here…

Sickness jolted through her again, sudden, and enough to make her start to shake. If she was out here, where was Ruby?

Pushing every other thought from her head, she sprang into a run, shaky legs carrying her faster than she’d imagined possible toward home.

*

“Heyyyyy, got some fun neeeewwws for everybody!”

Alex cringed at the sound of Winn’s overly-cheerful drawl as he called everyone’s attention over to the control room of the DEO. “Fun news” from Winn usually meant hours of physical grunt work for Alex that would turn into piles of paperwork at night, which would often spill over into the early hours of the morning. And Winn new that. But he still insisted on using that…tone. 

Alex frequently wished he were a field agent so she could kick his ass in the training ring for a little bit, but such was the privilege of being the tech guy. The only opportunity Alex ever had to smack him was when he would fuck up their chances of beating Kara and Lena at charades on game nights, and that just wasn’t nearly often enough.

On the other hand, every so often, Winn’s announcement of “fun news” actually did mean something fun like a real mission to go on, or the capture of a new hostile species Alex might have the chance to study. If anyone asked, she would answer that kicking ass and taking names was her favorite part of the job, but really, long nights in the lab analyzing samples taken from hostiles, from crime scenes…those were her favorites. 

She also kind of liked studying the insides of hostiles that had been killed.

…And that last part was exactly why she didn’t tell people that that was her favorite part of the job. Sounded a little morbid, even in her own head.

Today was looking like more of a grunt work day, though, as Winn laid out the situation.

“Ten gang banger dudes,” he said, holding up what was actually five fingers as his other hand was busy holding onto his iPad. “All found on the pier, dead as a friggerzoid. Cops first thought it was just a turf war, but—the wounds they’re describing indicate the source as something maybe comparable to heat vision, which is fun. Supergirl, you might get to have a new playmate, eh?”

Alex glanced at Kara out of the corner of her eye to find her sister affording Winn some kind of imitation smile. He must have caught onto that imitation feel as well, because he cleared his throat awkwardly before continuing.

“So. Anyway. I’m thinking…we should probably go check that one out. What say you, Papa Bear?”

J’onn’s face remained fairly placid at the query, but there was definitely a dangerous spark in his eyes at the slip. He couldn’t stop Winn from calling him Papa Bear after hours, but at work in front of the rest of the agents…Alex was interested to see if Winn would still have his job tomorrow. Or all of his limbs. Definitely not the wisest of his decisions.

“I’m going to assume you meant to say ‘Director J’onzz’ and move on from there,” J’onn said sternly. He turned to the rest of them. “Supergirl, I’d like you to go survey the site where the murders took place, see what you can find to go off of. Agent Danvers, I’d like you to come with me to the morgue, see what you can make of the bodies.”

A morgue day? Examining dead humans? Alex hadn’t had a day like this in years. 

And she should most definitely not feel as excited about it as she did currently.

“Agent Schott, I want you on the comms in case Supergirl is in need of backup,” J’onn finished up with. “Everyone clear?”

“Clear,” they all murmured obediently.

“Oh, and Agent Schott,” J’onn added, calling Winn over with a crook of his finger. He placed a large hand on Winn’s shoulder. “If you ever happen to be tempted to call me anything other than Director J’onzz in front of the rest of my agents again, I will place you in a containment cell and invite Agent Danvers to do what she will with you. Understand?”

Winn shot a nervous look at Alex, and nodded quickly.

“Good,” J’onn said, satisfied with his look of terror. He pointed at Alex. “Agent Danvers, if you’ll go change, I’ll meet you outside,” he said.

Alex nodded affirmatively, and made her way toward the locker rooms.

She looked behind herself as she heard Kara trotting up behind her, apparently deciding she needed an escort. 

“What’s up?” Alex asked a little warily.

“Nothing,” Kara said. “I’m just surprised you aren’t jumping up and down with joy at getting to go poke apart dead bodies.”

Alex rolled her eyes. Alright, Kara knew that was her favorite part of the job, but after this long, she guessed there was no real hiding anything from her.

“I don’t poke apart dead bodies,” she said. “Probably all I’ll be doing is taking a few tissue samples, nothing fancy.”

“Still,” Kara said. “Isn’t that the thing that makes you all giddy and weird? Where’d your morbid joy go?”

“It’s here,” Alex assured her. “I just want to make sure I get out of here on time today. Sam called earlier this week and…”

Kara grabbed her arm abruptly with a dramatic gasp. “Sam?” she squealed. “Oh my god, are you finally—“

“—babysitting Ruby? Yes,” Alex said, cutting off what she knew was going to be an extremely annoying fake swoon from Kara. “Sam’s got a meeting with your girlfriend later, and she needed me to look after her.”

“Riiiight,” Kara said. “And then when Ruby falls asleep and Sam comes home…” she started circling her hands in a dance accompanied by a sly, “Bow chicka bow-wow.”

“Kara, we’ve been over this,” Alex said, rounding the corner to the locker rooms. “I don’t like Sam. I mean, I like Sam, y’know, as a smart, accomplished, interesting human being, but I don’t…”

“Alex, do you see this?” Kara interrupted her, holding up her cape for Alex to examine.

“Yes…?”

“This is the color your face turned last week when Sam told you she liked your jacket. I know I’m not a human, but I think I’ve lived around you guys long enough to know that this is not a color most humans are unless they’ve been sitting out in the sun for like three days straight.” She leaned in close. “…Or if they really like someone,” she added in a conspiratorial whisper.

“Alright, I am officially ignoring you so I can go meet J’onn and poke at dead people,” Alex said, opening her locker and pulling out slacks and a blouse rather than a uniform that suggested she frequently leapt out of buildings to battle rogue aliens.

“Alex and Saaam, sittin’ in a tree,” Kara sing-songed as she skip-hopped backward toward the door. “K-I-S-S-I-N—ow!”

Alex knew it hadn’t actually hurt her Kryptonian sister, but it was still satisfying to throw her shoe at her head anyway.

*

Sam jumped at the sound of her doorbell ringing, jerking her hand so that the eyeliner she was applying angled right up the corner of her eye all the way to her hairline.

Fantastic.

“Mom! Alex is here!” Ruby called from the living room.

“Can you let her in, babe?” Sam called back, grabbing a tissue to try to wipe away the mess she’d just made of her face. God, she was still so jumpy. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

She took a deep breath, staring herself down in the mirror. Her hands hadn’t really stopped shaking since this morning, even after returning home to find Ruby safe and sound in her bed. Part of her still wasn’t sure what she’d seen, if it was real. The sleepwalking part…she was pretty sure that was real. Ending up on the pier, she was pretty sure that was real too; she had all the aches and pains she’d expect to accompany sleeping on a wooden dock. She also retained a deep chill to her bones she could only trace back to having spent so long outside. 

She wasn’t sure about the rest of it, though. She hadn’t been sleeping well lately—as clearly evidenced by this sleepwalking episode she was going to need to do something about. Long hours at the office, that news station constantly playing above her desk—she remembered last night before leaving the office, there had been some news story about a rise in gang activity lately. Maybe that had fused somehow with her dreams…she’d run home this morning and upon finding Ruby snuggled safe in her bed, had collapsed next to her, holding her tight to her chest, and passing out into a blessedly dreamless sleep for most of the day.

When she’d woken up, it was to Ruby prodding her shoulder, reminding her that she was supposed to be meeting with Lena in an hour. Groggy and disoriented, Sam had raced around to get herself ready in time. Lena was her friend, but she was also her boss, and their conference would be attended by several board members she didn’t get along with particularly well. She’d practically leapt into the shower, scrubbing all that grogginess and confusion from herself, and by the time she got out, she had almost convinced herself that the horrific scene she had woken up to this morning was nothing more than a hallucination brought on by a shit sleep schedule, and watching too much of the news.

It didn’t account for the way her hands were still shaking, though. But that didn’t matter. That was something she was going to need to put from her mind, at least for now, hopefully forever. She’d been preparing for this conference for weeks, and Lena was depending on her. Once this was over, she’d have at least a couple days of down time. Maybe she could get her sleep schedule back on track and stop having these horrific nightmares.

She was going to have to look into the sleepwalking, though. Maybe that had been part of her hallucination too, but she didn’t think so. The last thing she wanted to do was have to go to a doctor of any kind, but if this was a thing now…better nip it in the bud. She’d seen enough horror movies to find the whole notion of sleepwalking to be terrifying.

“Mom!” Ruby called again, sounding just this side of exasperated. 

Right. Conference. Lena. Predictably unpleasant board members. Inane arguments and sleazeball attempts to get under Lena’s skin. Sam always ended up playing guard dog just as much as she played CFO, snarling after anyone who was trying to go after Lena’s business, or Lena’s already somewhat precarious sense of self-worth.

Meetings like these were exhausting on several fronts. She needed to get into that headspace.

Running her fingers through her hair one more time, she turned and made her way to the living room.

Alex was already on the couch with Ruby, and Ruby was showing her something on her phone—a game, or a video or something. She took a moment to take the scene in, finding herself very suddenly much calmer as her gaze settled on the way Ruby was chattering animatedly at Alex, and Alex was hanging on every word, as if it were the most important story in the history of the world. For a brief second, Sam felt all of her worries and exhaustion disappear, and was actually startled when Alex’s gaze lifted to meet hers, a smile splitting her face.

“Hey!” Alex said, getting to her feet.

“Hey,” Sam echoed with a small stumble at the end of the word, offering a smile in return. “You found the place okay?”

“Yeah, it was no problem,” Alex said. “It was on my way back from the morg—from…where I was doing some work, so it was super convenient.”

Ruby grabbed Alex’s hand almost before she got the sentence out. “Were you just about to say you were on your way back from a morgue?” she asked, eyes wide. 

She’d always been way too astute.

Alex shot Sam a nervous look, like she wasn’t sure how she should answer. Sam shrugged with a roll of her eyes.

“Babe, Alex is a federal agent,” she started to explain. 

“…Yeah. Yeah, there’s…lots of dead bodies in my line of work,” Alex said, taking her permission a little too far. When Sam caught her eye, she quickly added, “I mean not lots. Just…sometimes there’s…y’know, my job is actually to keep people safe so there aren’t any dead bodies.” 

“But you were at a morgue today,” Ruby pointed out. “So I guess your job didn’t go that well.”

“Well, everyone has their off days,” Alex murmured, tugging a little uncomfortably at the hem of her jacket. “But on the plus side, I got to run a series of tests on these particular bodies to find out what happened to them so I can stop it from ever happening to anyone else.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. “Cool,” she said, frankly looking completely enamored with the idea.

Sam smiled to herself as she looked at them. It was rare that Ruby opened up to adults. Granted, Alex had been there for two major catastrophes in which Ruby had almost been killed, but there was something else about her connection with Alex. Sam didn’t know Alex all that well beyond those few incidents and a couple run-ins at L-corp and two very ridiculous game nights in which said federal agent had come close to murdering her co-worker Winn, but she liked her based on those few encounters. She liked how immediately she had taken to Ruby, and vice versa—and she couldn’t help but be a little intrigued by Alex’s work. Sam had accidentally overheard her on the phone with what she had to guess was Alex’s boss during one of those game nights, and from her tone, and the questions she was asking, it was clear she had an incredibly sharp, analytical mind. 

Add that to the fact that Lena had vouched for her as one of the most trustworthy people she knew, and the fact that Alex seemed to be an expert in purchasing very well-fitted leather jackets…well, Sam could think of worse people to have in her home right now.

“Well, I’ll leave you two to it,” Sam said, getting her thoughts back in order. She patted her hands over her clothes, making sure they were free of wrinkles. “Rubes, why don’t you go ahead and order some pizza for the two of you…”

“On it!” Ruby shouted over her, starting to take off for the number to the pizza place Sam had stuck to the fridge.

“Hey—hey!” Sam stopped her, holding out her arm. “Kiss first.”

Ruby rolled her eyes, but trudged over obediently, hugging her, and kissing her on the cheek, before resuming her journey to the kitchen.

Sam looked up to find Alex grinning at their exchange. “So—any rules or regulations I should know about before you go?” the other woman asked. “Any laws I need to enforce?”

That teasing look on her face was really something, Sam was having a hard time ignoring that. “Let’s see…in bed by nine,” she listed off, looking up so she wouldn’t have to focus on that teasing look too much. “No more than an hour of TV, and one bowl of ice cream, no more—no matter how much she begs you. Those puppy dog eyes are pretty killer, but if you can manage to resist them…”

“Got it covered,” Alex assured her. “No one has bigger puppy dog eyes than my sister. Trust me, I’m immune.”

Sam grinned at her, and Alex cocked her head, gaze fixing at the corner of her eye.

“You’ve got some, um,” Alex said, gesturing at the corner of her own eye, “a little eyeliner issue going on there.”

“Oh—shi—uh, crap,” Sam murmured, catching the swear before Ruby could hear. On the off chance she was actually listening. “The doorbell startled me when you got here and I smudged my eyeliner all over the place…”

“Oh no, I’m sorry!” Alex laughed. “Here, I can fix it for you if you want.”

Sam froze a little in surprise as Alex reached forward, hand cupping her face. The other woman looked a little surprised herself, like she’d reached forward without having fully thought things through. Seeming to decide there was no going back at this point though, she brushed her thumb along the corner of Sam’s eye, presumably evening the makeup out.

“Are you just making it worse so I make an ass out of myself in front of Lena’s business partners?” Sam asked, surprised to find a note of teasing in her own voice.

“Yup,” Alex confirmed seamlessly.

Sam smiled, finding herself pressing into Alex’s hand at her cheek. It was still a little cold from the outside, but strangely comforting nonetheless. That feeling of calm from before returned, and she held in a sigh, watching Alex’s eyes which were fixed sharply to their task. The other woman’s focus allowed Sam the chance to really look at her face, the sharp angles of it, the way her lips pressed together with concentration, as though this were some sort of life-saving surgery. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from grinning at the thought, knowing that it would cause her eyes to crease, potentially undoing all of Alex’s work.

Alex finally took her hand away, fingertips brushing over to her hair for a moment. Her face turned very red all of a sudden, as if she’d caught herself doing it without having meant to, and she took a step back, hands returning to tug awkwardly at her leather jacket again.

“All fixed,” she said a little too brightly. “No one will ever know.”

“Thank you,” Sam said, feeling a strange, not-completely-unpleasant squirming sensation in the pit of her stomach. “Well, I’ll…I’m not sure how long this is going to go. Shouldn’t be later than ten, maybe ten-thirty.”

“Take however long you need,” Alex said. “Ruby’ll be in bed by nine, having watched no more than one hour of TV, and eating no more than one bowl of ice cream. It might be a very large bowl of ice cream, but there will only be one of it.”

“Good listening,” Sam approved with a smile, and Alex’s cheeks seemed to glow a little red.

“Also, I promise I’ll cool it with the FBI talk,” Alex added, lowering her voice. “No more morgue talk, no more dead gang banger talk.”

Sam tilted her head curiously, a little pinprick of cold snagging at her. “What did you say?” she asked sharply.

“Oh, that’s what I was at the morgue for,” Alex told her. “There was this whole thing last night…ten gang members found slaughtered down on the pier—kinda piled on top of each other. It was…honestly, it was pretty unsettling, even for me.”

“Ten,” Sam echoed as if in a daze, that pinprick of cold hooking into her gut and pulled it sickeningly downward as she pictured the scene she had woken up to this morning.

Five bodies piled on top of each other, three more strewn out beside them, two broken and hanging over the edge of the dock.

Ten bodies. Down at the pier.

“Yeah, we’ll stay away from that topic though,” Alex assured her. “I’ll stick to the rescuing kittens from trees stories for tonight. Promise.”

Sam managed a faint smile, or at least some sort of upward twitch of her lips…she hoped…but found she was incapable of speaking.

“You okay?” Alex asked with sudden concern, obviously catching her expression.

Yeah I’m good, Sam tried to say, but found her voice too hoarse to be heard. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Yeah I’m good,” she said. “You have—you have fun with Ruby. I’ll try not to be too late.”

She exited quickly after that, shutting the door behind her and sharply inhaling the cold air outside, trying to keep her legs from shaking.

She’d been so close. She’d been so close to convincing herself that this morning wasn’t real. But she hadn’t watched the news today, hadn’t listened to it, hadn’t heard any of it…until now, from Alex. Ten bodies piled up on the pier. 

She’d been there. 

She just didn’t know why.