Chapter 12: Am I dreaming?

I felt instant regret build up inside of me. Dinah was right. This was a fucking bad idea. There was a reason I left and I should've stayed away. Those emerald eyes. Everything was blurry but her eyes. It was as if they could look right through my soul.

"Y/n can you hear me?" She said. "Are you alright?"

This wasn't real. This couldn't be real, it was probably a dream. That guy must've shot me back in the store. I wouldn't be so stupid to come back here, even though I had wanted to since the day I left. 

"Y/n?"

I felt myself sink as she sat down next to me on the couch I was laying on. 

"Am I dreaming?"

"No y/n." She sighed as she was running her hand through her hair. "This is fucking real. I couldn't believe it myself, when Mikaela told me your token was detected. I thought it was a malfunction in the system. Seeing you again, now... after all this time. I thought it was a dream too at first."

"Well my body hurts way too much to be a dream anyways" I groaned, as I tried to sit up a bit more.

 "You look extremely tired too. But  your eyes... a moment ago they were bright gold and now they're back to normal. Something is wrong, isn't there?"

"Fuck, this thing is getting worse and worse. Normally my eyes only turn gold for a few minutes." I slowly tried to sit up, feeling slightly dizzy. I was still shivering, and it felt as though I had run for days. My body was exhausted. I've never had anything quite this bad before. "A lot of shit has happened..."

"Explain to me from the beginning y/n, what happened to you? What happened to your eyes?What happened... after you left"

"First of all Lauren... I'm sorry I..."

I could see something shift in her expression as I started to apologise. Hurt and anger... but she was holding it back. There was that look on her face. I had the urge to reach out, out of habit, but it was a bad idea. 

"Y/n... just stop." She said, averting her eyes." We don't need to talk about that now, we'll have time for that later. Tell me what happened. Who did this to you?"

"It all happened about a year after I left. A woman named Lilian Luthor had ordered some of her men to kidnap me. I woke up in a cold empty cell, with just a  bed and a toilet. Later I found out they brought me to a hidden location outside of National city where they would use me for an experiment. No idea why they picked me, but from that moment on I was number seven. I was locked up in a cell, as well as many others in there. I don't know if you ever heard anything about it, but it was for a project called CADMUS."

"I heard Lilian Luthor was arrested after supergirl revealed their organisation. Didn't hear anything about the people they rescued. Nothing about people being rescued at all."

"I had no idea how many others were still there, but yeah supergirl came to the rescue that day. As they threw me into my cell, the alarm went off. It caused the guards to panic and forget to lock my door. Well I escaped through what looked like an emergency exit. I didn't know who supergirl was at the time, so I didn't pay attention to what was happening outside. All I knew was I had to get out of there as quickly as possible. Through all the chaos and gunshots I just decided to keep running without looking back."

"But what happened to you in there? How did they treat you? What did they want from you?"

"I.. They injected me with several substances every day. I didn't have a clue what they were. It somehow caused me to have these strange attacks. All I can feel is this horrible pain and nausea, and my eyes change colours. This time I didn't feel pain until I blacked out. It has never stayed this long, and it has never been this painful."

"That's weird... so they never told you why? You don't remember anything else about the experiment. Any names? Incidents? The other people?"

"Some of my time there.. I just completely forgot... or maybe I blocked it out. They did terrible things Lauren... just... there's no way to describe it. Sometimes I wish I had forgotten everything..."

"Oh god y/n, I'm so sorry to hear that, are you ok talking about it? About what happened?"

"I... I don't feel comfortable talking about it right now. No one really knows yet." I felt a bit shaky as a lot of those memories came up again. The screams... the...

Suddenly I felt a pair of arms wrap around me. I hated to admit it, but it felt great to hug her again.

"It's ok now. You're safe here. No one can enter this place without my permission anymore. Outsiders don't know how to get to the Nightzone either."

There was something strange in her tone. No one was able to enter without her permission, which meant no one would be able to leave without it either?

"Well, the problem is that I'm not safe at all. Nowhere in National city. There's a lot of shit going on, and they're looking for me. The problem is that I need to stay to find out why. To find a cure for whatever this is. They will find me Lauren. She's everywhere, and I don't know why she's so fascinated with me. I don't know how long I'll be safe here, but I'm guessing not for too long."

"Who are you talking about? Are these people working for Lilian? She's still in prison as far as I remember."

"Lena Luthor. CEO of Luthercorp. She's Lilian's daughter, but claims to have nothing to do with her. Somehow she know's me, but I have no memory of her. My hands are bleeding cause she chased me nearly all the way here and I cut myself on a broken bottle. I shook her off at the other end of the bridge, but you had to see her. She moved so fluently, almost like a parkour athlete. Every jump and every slide, she was right behind me. That woman isn't just a genius but she's physically strong too. If I wasn't terrified of her I'd be starstruck."

"I've seen her on the news, someone broke in at her company. That was you wasn't it? You really have a thing for women with dark hair and green eyes don't you?" She said jokingly. "But seriously, how did she find you? You're pretty good at not being found..."

"Well Lauren, please don't get mad. Long story short. She lured us into a trap..."

"Who's us?"

"Dinah, Normani, Octavia, Camila..."

"Dinah and Normani!"

"Lauren please calm down"

"Calm down? y/n! You left me here all by myself, just to run off with a bunch of traitors"

"It's not like that Lauren. Besides they didn't mean to do any of that, they wanted to help me get out."

"Well explain! You left! Ran to people I used to call friends!"

"I loved you I really did. I just couldn't stay here for the rest of my life, Lauren. You're the boss around here. You're tied to this place and I felt stuck ok? The longer I stayed here the harder it got to leave, facing you would've made it impossible ... I was honestly still contemplating on coming back here for the longest time, just because of you."

"Then why didn't you y/n. I would've done everything to make it work."

" That wouldn't have been fair for both of us. We don't fit together Lauren, even though I love... you more than anything, we just don't have the same dreams. I don't want to grow old in the Nightzone even if it is with you. I should've stayed and explained myself instead of leaving with a stupid letter, but we both know you wouldn't have let me go."

She was silent for a bit, but I saw that her eyes were watery.

"Dinah and Normani were the only people I knew on the outside. I'm sorry you felt like they betrayed you, but you just wouldn't have listened. They were there for me when I left. They protected me from Lena until now."

"I understand" She sighed. "But you've really hurt me when you left. I really tried making this place something both of us would like."

"I'm sorry Lauren, I truly am. Right now you're the only one who can help me. The only one left I can trust with this. Even though Dinah and Normani didn't want me to come here. I trust you, but I guess I just didn't trust ...  to come here. That's why it took so long."

"Trust you to do what?" She asked quietly. I noticed everyone else had left the room.

"To be able to leave you a second time." I averted my eyes.

She leaned in and softly pressed her lips against mine. 

"You don't have to. Let's leave National City. Together."

I was extremely worried about y/n. Where the fuck was she? My men had scouted the city and no sign of her. We had retraced our path multiple times, but I had no clue where she was headed. After what she just did. She must be in a lot of pain right now. For her eyes to just shift like that, and that jump... A normal person couldn't have made that. 

She was alone this time, and we couldn't really intercept a signal from her earpiece while she was running. Knowing her she was probably following her own plan at the moment. Maybe that was for the best. That bunch of idiots that thought they could protect her, only made things harder. 

As I walked over to the spot on the bridge again, where y/n had landed, I noticed a little print. Right! She cut herself on the glass in the alley. Maybe I'd could follow that. A bit later, Kara walked over to me.

"Think we lost her?"

"Yeah, we did, but maybe there's a way... Can you use your powers?"

"Yes, it doesn't feel like she's close by."

"She cut herself as she was running, if you can see any other handprints, like this one here."

I couldn't help but think of the worst possible scenarios. Like Y/n getting the aftereffects while climbing, and dropping off a tall building. I really hoped that Kara would find other traces.

After a while of scanning the bridge, Kara noticed prints on the other side. As she called my name, I ran over to her immediately.

"She must've climbed down right here. There's even prints on that building. She must've been able to jump really far... I wish I could've seen that..."

"It's not fun Kara. Not for her at least."

We went down, and notice another print against the pilar of the bridge, but there was no other trace of her. None at all.

That was until I noticed a little symbol on the other side of the pilar. 

A dragonfly... 

❤