She tightened her legs one last time. "Show me," she breathed, "what happens when you break ."
Finally , she thought. Something new. Three days later, Xenia stood in the center of the crater. The ship—Kryptonian, she’d learned from the dead scientist she’d followed—was mostly dark. But its core hummed. A pulsing green heart. She pressed her palm to it. Instead of killing her, it purred . Her veins lit up like circuitry. For the first time in her life, she felt weakness leave.
First, a casino heist where she walked through the vault door—not around it, through it. Then a penthouse party where she threw a grand piano off the balcony just to hear the Doppler shift of its scream. Then the helicopters. She plucked them out of the sky like rotten fruit.
And then—a hand. Warm. Unbreakable.
She hit him again. And again. Each blow sent a little green crack through his suit, through his skin, through his calm .
She squeezed a chunk of hull plating. It crumpled like wet paper.
She’d been running from Bond—no, from the inevitable fireball of a secret base in Myanmar—when the sky tore open. A green-veined crystal mountain plummeted from the clouds, trailing smoke like a dying god. It hit the jungle two klicks east. The shockwave threw her through a billboard. She landed in mud, laughing. superman returns xenia
She looked up. God, he was beautiful. That ridiculous jaw. Those sad, blue eyes.
The first time Xenia Onatopp felt truly alive was between a strangle and a scream. The second time was in the wreckage of a crashed spaceship.
"Xenia Onatopp." His voice was calm. Disappointed. Like a priest who'd seen too many confessions. "The radiation from that ship is killing you. The green crystal—it's not power. It's poison." She tightened her legs one last time
"Everything that makes me feel alive is poison, darling," she said, standing. "You should know that better than anyone."
"I don't want your help, Superman. I want your attention ."
The news called her "The Emerald Ghost." Lex Luthor, watching from his tower, smiled. But Xenia wasn't working for anyone. Not anymore. Three days later, Xenia stood in the center of the crater