Dealing with Reign

'Supergirl' and Lena stood outside the cell. Inside was their mutual friend, Samantha Arias, aka Reign, for now and bound.

Kara hesitated. Things were complicated for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which being that a friend she thought she could trust keeping the means to imprison a kryptonian in a secret lab.

Still, when it came to Reign, they could see eye to eye.

"I'm working on suppressing Reign," Lena said. "To do that I have to know what triggers her emergence."

"And do you?" Kara said.

"Partially," Lena said. "I need to work on a lot of the details, and I haven't determined what could suppress it yet, but I have a few theories, both from experimentation and what Sam told me."

"Which are?" Kara said. "If you want us to trust you, you need to be forthcoming."

"I am," Lena said, momentarily frustrated. "It mostly tends to be when she's in danger, or feels as though she is, particularly physical threats to her or someone she cares about. That triggers the metamorphosis. There might be some way to limit or overwhelm that, but I can't look into her mind to work out how to do that, so I'm working on-"

"Wait," Kara said. "Limit or overwhelm what?"

"If the trigger-response isn't dominant, Reign won't emerge," Lena said. "But like I said, I can't look into her mind to find out-"

"What would you need to find?" Kara said.

"A- I don't know. Something that her mind would instinctively focus on, moreso than the majority of threats. Reign does have some other way to emerge normally, but I imagine the mechanism has to be similar; Reign could be delayed, maybe permanently, if her mind can be focused on some kind of threat that wouldn't naturally bring her out. But unless telepathy's one of those kryptonian superpowers of yours, it's all purely theoretical."

"It's not one of my powers," Kara said. "But I know someone that could look."

Sam was genetically human. That was what made it possible; J'onn couldn't have peered into Reign's mind, but Sam was easy. After a minute he emerged, coughing awkwardly.

"Anything?" Kara said.

"What you wanted wasn't entirely clear," J'onn said. "She's had a recurring nightmare of turning up to school naked, both as student or to parent-teacher night with Ruby, but I don't see how that's much use. Beyond that her dominant emotions are what you'd expect."

"Wait," Lena said. She frowned. "You might have something."

Sam woke up blearily. She rubbed her eyes, then blinked. Wait, her arms were free? Oh god, had she escaped-She glanced down, to see she was still in Lena's lab; and then she yelped as she saw she was naked. And-

And Lena was right there, with Supergirl! Quickly she crossed her arms over her chest, sitting up just enough to pull her legs closer to her chest.

Oh god, they must have seen-

"Wh-what's going on?" Sam said. "Why am I..."

"We think we've found a... solution," Lena said. "A temporary fix at least, while I work with the data I've gathered."

"If your mind can focus on something else, something human, it... basically locks Reign out," Kara said. "She can't get a foothold."

"But why am I-"

"You're," Lena said, and coughed. "You're going to have to stay that way."

"What?!" Sam said.

Supergirl smiled in an attempt to be comforting. Sam flushed.

"I-it's embarrassing," she said weakly.

"That's good," Lena said. "Embarrassing isn't anger, it isn't anything Reign can use to take control."

Sam swallowed. Well this was what she wanted, wasn't it?

Ok, it was a solution literally from a recurring nightmare, but it still meant no Reign. That didn't stop her cheeks burning.

"H-how long for?" Sam said.

"Until I can put together a better solution," Lena said.

"How long is that?" Sam said.

Lena hesitated. Oh god.

"At least you can leave," Supergirl said, encouragingly. "See Ruby again, and-"

Oh god! She didn't want Ruby to see her like this, as much as she did want to see her daughter. A humiliating squeal escaped her lips.

"Can- can I just stay in here?" Sam said.

"The whole point of this is to help you be free," Lena said. She hesitated. "And it... won't be as successful in here. Limited exposure, close quarters, the embarrassment is... milder."

"It really isn't," Sam squeaked.

"And it'll diminish with time," Lena said. "We know this won't hold Reign for much longer, that's why this was so important. If you can go out, you can suppress her for longer than we could keep her prisoner. You just need..."

To be naked. Indefinitely. Sam gulped.