315 - DC: The Infinite Villain (Patreon)

315 - The Lane Sisters

When Damon had brought Black Siren back from Earth-2, Mark Mardon had happened to kidnap Joe West and summon a tsunami to destroy Central City. The Flash had nearly traveled back a day, but Damon stopped him and went on to work out a method of creating a time loop. Damon froze the wave, Joe survived, and Mardon ended up in a metahuman cell beneath S.T.A.R. Labs.

Finding him would be easy.

Lucy Lane knew none of that. Even if she had, she would not have challenged Damon's decisions. In his eyes, she was no different from Patty, the detective they had just met: another woman he treated as a pillow. They left the cafe, walked around for a while, and then Damon carried Lucy to a hotel room in Metropolis.

"Take a shower," he told her.

Lucy nodded and went into the bathroom. Damon called Lois Lane.

"It's me. Remember what we discussed last time? Come to this address now." He gave her the hotel and room number.

Lucy came out after showering. Damon made a blindfold with his power ring and placed it over her eyes. "Someone else is coming," he said. "You'll both be with me."

Lucy hesitated. She did not seem comfortable with the idea, but she said nothing. She gave the blindfold no further thought.

About twenty minutes passed.

Lois arrived.

She saw Lucy blindfolded when she entered and paused, but did not ask who she was.

After showering, Lois returned to find Damon with the blindfolded woman. She looked uneasy. Damon beckoned her over. "You haven't forgotten what you promised me, have you?" she asked. "You'll still keep your end of the bargain?"

"Of course." Damon glanced at Lucy. "You want to see your sister alive. After this, you will."

Lois drew a long breath and moved closer.

Neither woman knew the other was her sister. Lois came from Earth-1 and Lucy from Earth-38; Damon alone knew who they were. He let the encounter happen without telling them, withholding the one fact that would have changed their decisions.

When it was over, he stayed between them. Neither had learned the truth.

He turned to Lois. "Take off her blindfold."

"What?" Lois did not understand why he wanted her to do it when Lucy could have removed it herself. Still, she reached over and untied it.

"Lois?"

Lucy blinked against the light, recognized her sister, and sat bolt upright.

"Lucy?" Lois stared at her. The possibility struck her all at once. "Are you..."

"I'm Lucy. Lucy Lane. Your sister." Lucy pulled her into an embrace. "God, I never thought I'd see you again."

The Lucy of Earth-1 had died years ago. On Earth-38, Lois was dead.

They both knew the woman in front of them was not the one from their own world, yet the bond felt no less real. Damon laughed at their shock. It took them a moment to turn toward him.

He had planned this.

Lois had never known what her sister would look like as an adult, but Lucy knew Lois's face. Damon had blindfolded Lucy so neither would recognize the other until it was too late. Once they understood what he had made them do, anger displaced their relief.

Neither would have agreed to it had she known. Whatever their separate relationships with Damon, this was a boundary they would not have crossed together. He had taken that choice away from them, and now they feared he might expect it again.

"So that's why you brought me along when this had nothing to do with me," Lucy said.

"And why you were suddenly willing to let me see my sister," Lois added.

"You wanted both of us at once," they said together.

Damon did not apologize. "Why else would I bother? I got what I wanted. You can have time together now." He kissed each of them, showered, dressed, and left.

The sisters exchanged an awkward look. It did not last.

They began telling each other about their worlds. Though they had only just met and came from different Earths, the conversation soon felt like one they had been having all their lives.

Damon left them to it and returned to Central City.

In high spirits, he slipped into the metahuman containment area beneath S.T.A.R. Labs.

He searched the cells until he found Mark Mardon.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Damon tapped on the glass. Mardon looked up and saw a swirling breach open inside his cell.

"Jump through," Damon said.

Mardon hesitated, then stepped into it. In an instant, he was outside the cell.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

Damon bound him in rainbow-colored light before he could do anything else. Mardon struggled, but he could not break free. Damon called Patty, named a meeting place, and carried his prisoner out of S.T.A.R. Labs.

The sun had not yet set over the barren hills outside Central City.

Damon landed with Mardon. Some time later a car passed in the distance, and Patty came hurrying up the slope.

"Mark Mardon."

She glared at him through the rainbow light, her voice tight with hatred.