Supergirl is flying over National City when it happens.
She hears the explosion.
She hears the screams.
She sees the smoke.
She sees the fire.
She recognizes the building.
She freezes.
Her heart stops in her chest.
"Supergirl? Supergirl, do you copy?"
Kara finds herself unable to answer.
"You need to rush to L-Corp. There's been an explosion," Alex's voice continues.
But Kara's mind is in overdrive. She knows exactly which floor just went up in flames. She knows it well.
Lena's office.
Oh Rao, Kara prays, let her be alive. Let her live.
She's never flown faster.
There's not much that she can do. The heat, she doesn't feel. She walks through the flames and uses her x-ray vision to spot any survivor, but there's nothing. Only devastation.
The firemen tell her no one could have survived such a blast. They look at her with sorrow in their eyes, as if they know how she feels inside.
They don't.
"Who was it?"
Alex turns when she hears her sister's voice. She puts both hands up as if to calm her down, but Kara pushes her away and plants herself firmly in front of J'onn.
"Who's behind the attack?"
"We don't know yet," he tells her, impassive as ever.
"Bullshit. You know something. I can tell."
Kara's hands form fists at her sides and she feels like breaking something. Someone. She looks at Alex, whose eyes are set on the ground.
"Alex. Tell me."
Her sister swallows hard and looks up at her.
"Please," Kara whispers, her voice betraying her despair.
"We think it might be Lex. We've yet to verify if our lead checks out."
Kara's jaw clenches.
"It'll check out. It makes sense."
"No, it could be someone else. Lena had a lot of enemies."
"Has."
"Kara—"
Kara is in no mood to listen. She exits the room in a blink of the eye.
This isn't happening, she tells herself over and over again. This is not happening.
She flies in circles, unable to decide where to land. No place will offer any solace. She should have seen it coming. She should have known. She should have anticipated that Lex Luthor would strike again.
But she hadn't.
And now…
Now L-Corp is mourning the disappearance of seventeen employees. Blown to pieces. Pulverized out of existence.
And the CEO… the CEO, Kara isn't ready to think about.
Alex finds her on the couch, sitting numbly, staring at the wall, unblinking. She approaches slowly so as to not startle Kara and sits down beside her. Kara's posture is stiff and it looks like she hasn't moved in hours.
"Kara," Alex tries softly.
"He escaped, didn't he?"
Kara's voice is robotic, emotionless. Cold. Alex fails to suppress a shiver.
"Yes," she says, because there's no point in lying.
"When?"
"Yesterday morning."
"Why are we only hearing about this now?"
Her eyes haven't left the wall. She still hasn't blinked.
"The FBI."
"Does Clark know?"
"I called him, yes. He saw the news. He should be here any minute now."
"I don't want to see him."
"Kara—"
"I don't. Want. To see him," she repeats, her eyes finding Alex's.
"Okay," she sister capitulates, "okay."
Soon after, there is a knock at the door and Kara jumps out of the window and disappears into the night.
Kal-El should have killed Lex Luthor. That's what she keeps thinking about. Her cousin should have killed the son of a bitch a long time ago. But now…
Now things have changed.
Now this is Kara's mission.
She will find Lex Luthor and she will crush him.
Like he's crushed her.