Supergirl ~ The Fanatical ~ Part One

***

When they entered Lena's laboratory in L-Corp, Dinah took one look at the woman inside the containment unit and sighed sadly, closing her eyes. "Yeah . . . that's Sam."

"You didn't believe us?" Oliver raised an eyebrow.

"It's not that," Dinah shook her head. "It's just . . . seeing her here in person?"

"Seeing reallybelieving," Curtis swallowed.

Oliver conceded the point with a nod as Lena leaned in towards Kara. "So just like that, everything's good?" she whispered, eyeing Dinah, Curtis, and Rene in concern.

"Well, not 'just like that,'" Kara sighed. "We've got a while to go, but we're working on it."

Lena nodded in acceptance, then Dig cleared his throat from where he was looking at the camera showing Lena's microscope activity. "So . . . what is this?"

"It's what I've been working on, and why I unfortunately missed the trial," Lena said, giving Oliver an apologetic look.

"Lena, don't worry about it," Oliver shook his head before she could say an apology. "Sam is who you have needed to focus your time and energy on."

Lena sighed, but nodded. "This is a biolistic delivery system," she explained to the group in the lab: Oliver, Kara, Dig, Mon-El, Winn, Dinah, Curtis, and Rene. "It's usually used for overwriting genes in crops, but Reign's cells are closer to plant cells than you'd think."

"Because plants use sunlight for food, right?" Curtis asked.

"Yeah," Kara nodded. "It's part of how Kryptonians process sunlight."

"That's pretty cool," Rene admitted. "How does it work?"

"You take particles of heavy metal, coat them in DNA, deliver the payload, and then overwrite Reign's DNA with Sam's," Lena answered. Kara nodded, and Lena tapped the controls on her tablet. In the containment unit, the robotic arm holding the syringe approached Reign, then injected the needle into Reign's arm. "Plasmid inserted," Lena took a deep breath.

Curtis started when Reign's eyes flew open, then a robotic voice announced,

Lena hung her head in defeat. "I thought this would work," she seethed, fingers curling into fists angrily. "I just need the right vectors with the right metal!" She swallowed hard, trying to calm down. "I just need more time."

"Yes," Reign sneered coldly, making everyone look at her. "Give Lena more time. She doesn't have much left. Because when I'm free, I'm gonna rip out her spine. And when that's done, I'm gonna crack this planet in half, and you'll hear every scream – "

"OK," Lena tapped her tablet, blackening out the forcefield. "We don't need to hear that."

"Well," Curtis smiled nervously. "Just a bit more threatening than Diaz."

"You should've seen what happened when she first fought Kara," Dig said grimly.

Mon-El frowned, hearing Reign scream from behind the field. "What was that?"

"It's a refractive scatter-field," Lena answered. "She can't see us now."

Winn blinked in surprise. "Even with the X-ray vision?"

"Don't try it," Lena held up a hand to stop Kara as she turned to try it curiously. "The wavelength interference of the forcefield hurts any Kryptonian that looks at it, and the shock seems to keep her in check. I only created it because of Reign."

"Guess I'm not using X-ray vision in here any time soon," Kara scratched the back of her head, wincing. "Thanks for the heads up."

"We'll let you get back to work," Oliver nodded.

Lena smiled sadly, turning back to her tablet as the group headed for the elevator. "Man," Rene shook her head. "I know you said this was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but . . . I didn't know it was almost that."

"None of us ever had a clue until Sam had a Reign moment in Lena's office," Kara sighed, absently pulling her phone out of her pocket when it chimed with a text. "It's been rough going from there."

"And hopefully it stops soon," Oliver added, frowning when Kara suddenly stiffened. "What is it?"

"I need to get to CatCo," Kara answered, swallowing. "James just got a visitor."

***

"Sorry I'm late," Kara hurried into the main office at CatCo, adjusting her glasses.

"It's fine, Kara, don't worry about it," James shook his head. "This is – "

"Mr. Olsen said you both know Supergirl?" the dark-skinned girl cut across him, looking at Kara with wide eyes.

"Er," Kara looked at James with wide eyes, who mouthed "sorry" to her. "Yes, we do."

The girl nodded, fumbling with her satchel and pulling out a worn book. "I need you to get this to her."

James examined the book, taking it when Kara nodded at him. "What is this?"

"It's Thomas Coville's journal," the girl answered, swallowing hard.

Kara's eyes widened, and she looked at the cover more closely. Sure enough, there at the top was the coat of arms for the Worldkillers. "How did you get this?" she asked.

"I stole it from his cult," the girl answered, looking between them. "Can you get it to her or not? I think his followers are using it to make a bomb."

Both Kara's and James's heads shot up, their eyes widening in shock.

***

"I was a teacher," the girl, Tanya, explained as Kara flipped through the journal and James placed a glass of water on the table for her. "Linguistics and semiotics."

"You helped Coville learn Kryptonian," Kara nodded in understanding.

"He found me," Tanya confirmed. "I'd been saved by her. I – I just wanted the miracle to mean something. But when Reign came, the followers started making me translate his journal. It had everything he'd ever learned about Krypton, and I was the only one left who knew how to read it. But what I read, it was like a recipe. Explosives."

"Where's Coville now?" James narrowed his eyes.

"He just vanished," Tanya shrugged. "The others were saying that he died serving Reign, that he's a martyr. They'd become fanatics."

"And where are his disciples now?" Kara asked.

Tanya looked around, then stood up and walked to James's desk, picking up a pen and scribbling on a Post-It note pad. "This is where I ran away from," she said, taking the note off and handing it to Kara. "Look, I know I should have left earlier, but at first, it was so nice to believe in something, to connect to people. But then Reign came, and Coville got word to us that we were worshiping the wrong god, that Reign was our deliverance." She gulped, then hurried past Kara. "I – I should go. They'll be looking for me, they need this book."

"No, no, hey, hey," James shook his head instantly, standing up from the couch.

"Wait," Kara held up her hand, stopping Tanya. "Why don't you stay here?"