Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bekka returns to Planet Earth at the insistence of Lex.

Days earlier, the two had been taking a stroll through the community gardens on New Genesis. Always in the afternoon, before lunch so that Lex Luthor could grow accustomed to walking again. He’d spent so many years using a wheelchair and then floating in zero G that much of his muscles had atrophied, and there was only so much New Genesis technology could do. After all, the best way to heal atrophied muscles was to use them.

Lex was squatting low to inspect a delicate flower that looked like a cross between a rose and an orchid in the most vivid shades of pink and yellow. He always needed rather ironic reminders from Bekka that he really could do all the things she could, all the things he hadn’t been able to do for years while ill and crippled on Planet Earth. He pulls out his magnifying glass and makes several soft murmurs about flower breed and color wavelengths before standing up to his full height and looking up at the sky. He felt the blood pulsating through his legs, his entire body, and while he was grateful to be here, he found himself thinking of home. Such a flower could never exist on his home planet. And while such a flower was beautiful, remarkable in its own right, he found himself growing strangely nostalgic for the beauty of a simple Earth rose. After several moments, Bekka realized Lex wasn’t walking beside her or mumbling about flowers. She turns and notices his perplexed expression.

“Luthor?” she asked. “Everything alright.”

Finally, after several long quiet moments Luthor turned those calm gray eyes to her and smiles softly. “Not too surprisingly, Bekka. I miss our home.”

“Your home, Lex.”

Lex shrugs. “I beg to differ on that.”

Bekka shook her head, but she was smiling. “Well, we should probably check up and see what our boys have gotten into. It’s almost been a year, probably gone mad without us.”

Lex smiles. “I’d like to picture Hernan has learned to negotiate better.”

Bekka barked out a laugh. “Knowing him he’s probably the cause of some skirmish.”

“My dear Wonder Woman,” Lex drawled. “We should have a little faith in our boys.”

“We’ll see, Luthor.”

Lex smirks. “I’ll wager it.”

Bekka grinned. “Well, now it’ll be interesting.”

Chapter Text

They had traveled through the boom tubes many times over the last year, and yet—Bekka turns to watch Lex’s eyes widen slightly in wonder as the quantum tube tears a sonic boom through the fabric of space-time. She smirks and rolls hers shoulders, adjusting her cape. She stretches out the ribbed neckline of her top before flexing and stretching her gloved hands. She was nervous, that much was obvious to anyone who knew her.

It had been over a year since she’d seen her boys and she hadn’t exactly been the best at communicating with either of them over the months. Oh sure, whenever Lex Luthor conducted an interplanetary call she had joined in from time to time. They had sent videos back to the two of them of their scientific explorations, and Kirk had always gotten excited at getting to experience new species of life through Bekka and Lex. Later, they had sent videos of Lex’s progress, as he went through physical therapy session after physical therapy session. Hernan and Kirk were the first to witness as Lex learned to walk again. Bekka was pretty sure Hernan had shed several tears that day, although he’d probably say it was the angle of his holographic image.

And Lex had sent audio files whenever possible, but still, it was always Lex initiating the calls, the holo-videos, the messages.

It was just...it was weird. It was weird to see Hernan’s soft smile and feel a pang of...of something in her belly at the sight. It was weird to hear the soft inflections of his accent, so very different from Kirk’s New England accent and long to feel it resonating against her skin. She missed Kirk and she missed Hernan, but it felt different and she hated knowing that.

Lex clears his throat, placing a gentle hand on top of Bekka’s own. Bekka’s eyes quickly blink and she turns a small smirk in his direction.

“If I’m being totally honest-”

“You always are,” Lex interjects.

Bekka snorts. “Right. I’m still getting used to it.” She shakes her shoulders to show what she means.

Lex eyebrows raise in understanding and his eyes take in the new color of her new outfit. It wasn't markedly different from her white and gold outfit. It was still mostly white and gold, now interlaced with black and red to represent her marriage to Orion and better suit her Apokalypse-forged sword. It had been gifted to her by Highfather several months after their return, as a material sign of the peace Highfather hoped to achieve with his granddaughter. Even with the well wishes, even with the well-worded phrases of peace and kindness to Bekka and by extension, Lex, it was challenging.

The political games of New Genesis reminded Lex of the same political games he had played for most of his life on Earth. With one exception. Lex had grown rather tired of tedious political games, and had very quickly learned how to keep himself and Bekka out of most of the political intrigue here on New Genesis. Their time was better suited elsewhere, he had taken to reminding Bekka whenever she had nearly lost her temper.

And Bekka would calm herself, knowing it was best if she explore the cosmos with Lex, to slowly gain the trust back of her family and most especially, Highfather.

Until one day, Highfather had asked for Lex Luthor to stay on in New Genesis, no more cosmic missions for the two of them. When asked why, Highfather had scoffed and gestured at the wonder of New Genesis surrounding them.

“Why, so we may begin to heal you, Lex Luthor,” Highfather had said.

At first, Lex had politely declined. He hadn’t really thought the science of New Genesis could do much for him when he, one of the smartest minds on planet Earth couldn’t do much for his own body.

But he’d been politely proven wrong.

Lex rolls his own shoulders. “Still getting used to it too.”

Bekka smiles and shakes off her jitters. Alright, so she hadn’t been the best pen pal, but her boys would forgive her.

Right?

“Time to return to something more familiar for a change,” Lex says.

Bekka nods. “Wager still on?”

“Most definitely.”

Bekka lets out a sharp laugh and the two finally walk through the boom tube.

Chapter Text

The boom tube was supposed to send them to the coordinates of the new headquarters of the Justice League. When Luthor had asked what had happened to the old building, Kirk had pursed his lips and simply said, “We needed a change of scenery.”

“They’ve changed headquarters, Bekka,” Luthor tries to explain as they walk into the boom tube.

Bekka isn’t totally surprised, she remembers the three men discussing it during one of Lex’s rehabilitation visits. Still, she’s not worried.

“My sword will get us where we need to be.”

It had only taken them a total of eight steps for them to trek thousands of light years between New Genesis and Earth.

But before Lex can marvel at the subtle aesthetic differences between the Earth he’d known and the one now in front of him, there was screaming.

More screaming and pained howling mix with gleeful laughter as Bekka snaps her sword upwards to shield her and Lex from an oncoming wave of twelve foot tall playing cards.

“Well, well, well my duckies! Seems we have two new players entering the fold,” a female voice with a robust Cockney accent cracks out from somewhere above them. Bekka looks up to a see a well-dressed woman grinning wildly as she mock-marches the edge of Metropolis’s tallest tower.

“Perhaps you lovelies can solve my little riddle, hmm,” the well-dressed woman says as she twirls a baton nearly as tall as her up and down, seeming to call up more towering playing cards, only now a white rabbit the size of the tower rears forward with a screeching battle cry.

“Never been much for riddles,” Bekka trains her sword on the humongous rabbit before quickly darting her eyes back at Lex.

“And if Lex here solved it then I’d have no fun.”

Lex hides a small smile. “This is reminding me of our time on Corsc-klee.”

“Yes, but this time, I’ll get to dance a little before you go solving equations.”

Bu before Lex can retort that Bekka had gotten several nights of “dancing” on Corsc-klee, the Wonder Woman of New Genesis is off to sword fight with a large bunny rabbit.

Lex smiles softly, marveling at the mix of sophisticated technology and touch of sorcery surrounding the air of Metropolis. He paces back and forth, waving his fully functional hands through the air before making several comments about the ongoing hybridization between technology and apparent sorcery. He looks up at the acrobatic young woman swinging a tall cane with a large orb set on the top of it. He’d seen a similar magical looking orb-cane years ago, but years it had been handled by an older gentleman. Still, he’s sure he recognizes the cane and comes to a conclusion.

“We must have entered a hypnosis of sorts Bekka,” Lex muses aloud, side stepping Bekka’s battle with the bunny.

Just then a brown-skin, blue-eyed Kryptonian crashes to the ground near Lex.

“Sure feels real, Luthor,” Hernan says as he slowly stands up, rolling his shoulders.

Lex smiles. “How is a small-time magician getting the best of Earth’s greatest Kryptonian?”

Hernan raises one eyebrow, before deftly catching a screaming green-skinned elephant.

The green-skinned elephant lets out a thankful trump before morphing back into a petite teenager, still green.

“Er, well-” the green skinned teenager blushes a curious shade of violet. “They answered my distress call and uh, things got a little out of hand.”

Lex tilts his head, curious. “Well, well, I don’t think I’ve met you before. And what’s your name then.”

The green-skinned teenager puffs her chest out and grins. “Name’s Beast Girl and that one-” Beast Girl points at the magician currently in battle with Bekka. “Goes by the name Mad Mod. She wasn’t this powerful before but then she somehow got access to kryptonite and well, now this happened.”

“Lex! Hernan!” Bekka calls out. “Somebody come here and distract the damn rabbit!”

“Her wand is the hypnosis machine, Bekka!” Hernan calls out. He flies out and punches the snarling white rabbit in the mouth, causing it to whimper and stumble.

Bekka curses before landing a blow on Mad Mod’s tophat, slicing it in half.

Mad Mod yelps in frustration. “That was my favorite tophat! Now you’ve gone and made me angry!”

Bekka scoffs and thumps the end of her blade against the tower, powering up several boom tubes.

“And you are annoying,” Bekka says. She jumps off the building and Mad Mod gasps. The young woman leans over excitedly, anticipating seeing Bekka’s blood oozing out on the pavement, but Bekka didn’t fall. Mad Mod cries out as a boom tube opens above and to the left of her. She looks around her, growing both frustrated and very much out of her depth. She’d just wanted to have a bit of fun. Why did adults always have to ruin the fun. She raises her hypnosis cane, ready to call down a more powerful hypnosis so she could make a quick getaway.

But then Bekka’s hands grip the orb and Mad Mod yelps as Bekka’s legs kick her off the building. She screams and screams, Mad Mod’s body turning in the air until her eyes are facing the ground and she closes her eyes.

After several tense moments, moments when she should have heard her head hit the pavement, she peeps one eye open to see a very annoyed Kryptonian holding her from her left ankle.

Mad Mod looks up at the Kryptonian and smiles sheepishly. “Well we certainly had fun, didn’t we duckie.”

“Sure,” Hernan says.

Bekka smashes the hypnosis orb and the sounds of a giant generator powering down echo and reverberate from the building Bekka is still standing on. Cracks and chips in the building begin to form and Bekka hovers her body several feet in the air. She watches as the building seems to both implode and subsume into itself. She could hear the hypnosis machine seem to growl and groan as she begins to notice the extent of the damage done to this block of Metropolis and the surrounding area. She inhales through her teeth, President Amanda Waller was not going to pleased about this.

“Now would be a good time to move that building before it crumbles down around us, Bekka,” Lex calls out.

Hernan hovers and drops Mad Mod none too gently beside Beast Girl, who looks at Mad Mod and growls.

Lex looks over at Mad Mod, one eyebrow raising in suspicion. “Don’t even think about it.”

Hernan flies over to hover beside Bekka. And as Bekka looks at Hernan, she feels a heat creeping onto her cheeks. Her eyes widen and she shakes her head.

Was she blushing?

Now?

“You get the base, I’ll get Kirk,” Hernan says as he flies through a broken window.

Bekka lands beside the crumbling building and blinks rapidly, still surprised at her blushing. She places her hands at her flushed cheeks before letting out a huff of frustration and shaking her head. She wasn’t blushing. It was just adrenaline. It had been some weeks since she and Lex had gone gallivanting across galaxy and dimension. She was just excited to be back in the thick of it, that’s all. She shrugs off her nerves and faces the already swaying building.

“Alright then,” she says to herself. She flexes her arms and places two steady hands on the base of the building and exhales slowly. Bright green eyes focus on one cracked bit of brick and she flexes again, feeling the weight of the building as it sways and sways until it finally sways to meet her and her hands. She yells and braces against the building, halting its movements and forcing it upwards. One could always tell the personality of a building as it was quite literally ripped out of the ground it was founded on. Bekka can feel that this building would have lasted a good more ten years if it hadn’t been for this latest super villain debacle.

She exhales and yells again as the building slowly shakes and lifts from the ground. She exhales forcefully and squats, leaning her hands deeper into the foundation of the building as she slowly lifted it. It was a curious sensation, to lift a brick and mortar building as it was getting ready to implode and probably take the whole city block with it. A trickle of sweat tickles her forehead and she huffs as she digs deeper and deeper into the foundation of the building, taking more and more of the building into the air with her. She crab walks and lifts the building at the same time, entirely focused on the task at hand. The building was shaking and crumbling all around her, an explosion of glass and fire sending shards and bits of flame swirling around the building. She had to get this damned building into the air and away from the city already. She squats even deeper into the ground, the cement foundation crumbling underneath her feet and she yells, bracing her arms over her head in the same stance of X holding the weight of the world. She yells and yells as she lifts the building over her head and slowly flies above Metropolis.

“Take it to the port Bekka!” Lex calls out.

“Or you could swing it out and see where it lands!” Mad Mod giggles hysterically.

“Shut up! Both of you,” Bekka retorts.

“Even me?”

Bekka feels as part of the building’s weight is displaced from her hands and onto another. She turns green eyes to find cool blue staring back at her. She was already sweating profusely, so when the blush rises to her cheeks she doesn’t think anything of it. Or rather, she’s annoyed. Annoyed that she’s blushing at the sight of Hernan so she scoffs, trying to distract herself from those butterflies in her stomach.

“Took you long enough.”

To his credit, Hernan chuckles. “Come on, we’ll have more fun crushing it at my place.”

Bekka stammers and Hernan hesitates, waiting for Bekka to respond.

She knows what waits for her if they go to his fortress. Privacy. And that huge bed of his with the fluffy sheets and a warm fire and just her and Hernan and—and...

Bekka shakes her head. “The others. And where’s Kirk?” Bekka finally asks.

Hernan won’t get insulted that she’d politely turned down an offer of sex. After all, it’s been over a year. They could wait before they started seeing each other like that again, right?

Bekka listens as Hernan explains he’d placed Kirk safely away from the rest of the group with enough generated plasma to recover from Mad Mod’s hypnotic torment. But still, she was avoiding a night with Hernan, several nights alone with Hernan because she was nervous. Nervous and shy around him in a way she couldn’t understand. She only hoped he hadn’t noticed, that he had chalked up her polite decline for sincere worry over Kirk and not anything else. Because she didn’t need him to know how there were strange butterflies whirling in the pit of her stomach. Didn’t need him to know how she couldn’t keep her eyes off his hands, remembering all the ways those hands could apply the perfect pressure against her skin, her lips, the backs of her thighs and applying the most perfect pressure against her—

She mentally shakes herself. No, he didn’t need to know that. Certainly didn’t need him to know she was blushing and it wasn’t only from the exertion of having lifted a tonne of a building by herself.

No, he didn’t need to know that. Not yet anyway. Maybe.