As Kara started to wake she heard a familiar and unwelcome voice. Starting to panic she opened her eyes and found herself staring at Hank Henshaw. Unsure how she had been captured again she lashed out then flew, literally, out of his arms, colliding with wall. As she rebounded off the wall she landed in a heap, surrounded by plaster and large chunks of the wall.
"Kara? Are you okay?" A familiar but slightly out of place voice asked.
"Kal?" She asked looking up and seeing her cousin looking down at her, his forehead scrunched with concern.
"I'm right here. You're safe." He said hugging her.
"But, Henshaw? He wa..." She started to say before turning and seeing J'onn get up off the floor. "J'onn? Did I do that? I'm sorry."
"It's okay." He assured her as Alex sprinted round the corner.
"What happened?"
"She's fine." Superman said coldly before lifting Kara up and taking her back to her room.
"What happened?" Alex asked J'onn as the guilt built inside her.
"I was carrying her back to her room when she woke up and thought I was Henshaw. She panicked."
"I will kill him when I find him." She said.
"You should go see her."
"Seeing the look Clark gave me I don't think I am welcome right now." Alex said.
"He's feeling guilty about not noticing Kara was gone and is taking it out on everyone else." J'onn said. "He'll calm down." He added as Winn hurried over.
"Guys Le...What happened to the wall?"
"What did you want to tell us?" J'onn asked.
"Oh right. Lena Luthor just showed up here with Maggie."
-00-
"What's going on?" Alex asked when she and J'onn entered the small room that housed Lena and Maggie.
"She came round to my place to see you. It sounded important so I brought her here." Maggie explained.
"How do you know about Maggie?" Alex asked getting more suspicious of all things Luthor.
"Kara." Lena stated simply.
"And her address?"
"Money buys most things including information." Lena shrugged. "I wouldn't have done it, but this is urgent."
"What is it?" Alex asked.
"My mother paid me a visit." Lena said.
"Where is she?"
"Crawled back under a rock I would assume." Lena said.
"Why did she risk seeing you?" J'onn questioned.
"To persuade me to give you a modified version of the nanobots."
"Modified in what way?" J'onn asked.
"A small modification to the source code allowing remote control from a superuser, overriding all other commands. My guess is so they could remotely take control of them and kill Supergirl. All the information is on this drive, but you probably shouldn't put it in your network. Knowing my mother it has some virus or malware on it."
"Why did your mother approach you? You're not exactly on the best terms." J'onn asked still weary of her intentions.
"She thought she could persuade me that Supergirl didn't deserve to live."
"How?"
Before she answered she glanced at Maggie causing Alex to say.
"You can say whatever it in front of her."
"She tried to blame Lex's madness on Superman's lies and then said Supergirl had been no better by revealing that Kara and Supergirl are one in the same. I think she'd hoped that I would feel so betrayed by the lie I would embrace her psychotic plans. Which obviously I didn't." Lena said. As she noticed Alex's frown she added. "Don't look so worried. I have known for weeks they are one in the same. For a secret organisation, you may want to work on disguises and cover stories."
"Does Kara know?" Alex asked trying to ignore the 'I told you look' Maggie threw her.
"No. I assumed she had her reasons for not telling me. Her friendship was more important to me than forcing the issue. But if my mother approached me, she will probably approach others she is a master for plans within plans. And as much as I hate to admit it I don't know who I can trust at L-Corp. As paranoid as this sounds I am pretty sure there are people loyal to her working there. So this drive," she said pulling out another disk, "has all our research, it may be safer to use people you trust, than risking using my people. But if you want to take the risk you are more than welcome."
"Thank you." J'onn said.
"There's something else." Lena said.
"What?"
"I don't know how much Kara told you about what happened. Probably not much. But on the first drive there is a video of Kara being tortured. My mother said it was her proof that Kara and Supergirl are one in the same, but maybe she gave it to me knowing I'd hand it to you to mess with you. I don't honestly know, I prefer not to try to second guess my mother. But if you want to watch it, and I wouldn't recommend it, it's there."
"Thank you." J'onn said.
"I'll take you back to L-Corp." Maggie said not wanting to get in the way.
The second Lena had disappeared from the room J'onn turned to Alex and said. "Don't."
"Don't what?" Alex asked.
"Watch it. Lena could be right Lillian might want you to watch it."
"It could offer a clue about what they did to Kara and how to get the masses out." Alex said picking up the two thumb drives.
"Or it could be meant as a distraction." J'onn warned.
"I won't let distract me." Alex said walking out of the room in search of Winn.
"Hey Alex, everything okay?"
"I don't know. I need two clean laptops that can't connect to our network."
"Um, okay. This way." He said getting up and leading Alex towards a store room. "Why?"
"Lena gave me two disks, I want to be cautious. This one is for you, it has all the research on."
"Okay. And the other one?"
"You can have it after I'm done."
-00-
Having got the laptop off Winn Alex went to her lab and powered up the device before plugging in the thumb drive. Just as she was about to double click on the the video she hesitated, wondering if she should take J'onn's advice. For a moment her finger hovered over the mouse before she finally hit play.
"Not so Super today are we?" Lillian asked as she approached Kara who hung limply from the ceiling.
"How does it feel to be truly alone? I admit I thought that you may have corrupted Alex at a deeper level. I assumed that once the euphoria of her father coming home had worn off she would put that brain of hers to use and try to find you. But nothing. He's been back for two months," she said once again lying about the time Kara had been captive, "and Alex doesn't even give a wistful glance at your apartment, or should I say former apartment, when she drives past it. It is almost like you didn't exist. And as for your alter ego. The media don't even care she, well you, have gone. You may have well never existed. Two identities and no one cares that either of them have disappeared."
"In fact only one person tried to ring you. And even she has given up. Any guesses who that may be? Would you like a clue? You claimed she was your friend, whilst lying to her and destroying her relationship with me for your own advantage. You have no idea how happy I am that you can't hurt Lena any more."
"Lena's my friend." Kara mumbled.
"If that were true, why do you lie to her?" Lillian asked. "Friends trust each other, yet you clearly don't trust her. You are no better than your cousin. He used Lex and you used Lena. You brainwashed her so much that she was the only one to show any concern for you. The public wondered where Supergirl was when they were crashing cars and robbing banks. But their curiosity died off in a week and their adoration moved to the Guardian. People really are fickle. Alex chose having her father over you in her life and Jeremiah chose freedom. Your cousin, who knows, but he hasn't made any effort to find you. I guess you really were an unwanted hindrance in his life. It would explain why he abandoned you with the Danvers. But whilst your so called family thrives without you, Lena, she was drawn to you like Lex was to your cousin. But I won't let your kind destroy another of my children. In fact your work here will help Lena. You see when we have perfected the Kryptonite L-Corp will win the contract to make it. It'll be worth billions. So seeing you claim to be Lena's friend I'll even let you choose the method today." Lillian said opening up a lead box. "So tell me Kara, would you prefer us to use the new blade on you?" She asked taking out the blade and cutting Kara's cheek with it. "Or perhaps you want to ingest it again?" She said taking out a doughnut. "After all you must be hungry?" She added waving the doughnut under Kara's nose. "Or shall we just stick with the injection?" She asked putting down the doughnut and picking up a syringe. "I can tell from the fear in your eyes you really don't like this one." Lillian smiled. "This one it is then." She said nodding to Henshaw who put Kara's arm in a vice like grip before Lillian stuck the needle in Kara's vein. As she depressed the plunger Kara screamed in pain.
Unable to watch any more, Alex pulled the thumb drive from the laptop and roughly shut the lid whilst plotting her revenge.
-TBC...
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing. I am flying home tonight so I am not sure when I'll be able to post the next one. Hopefully it will be tomorrow, albeit later than normal, but it may be the day after.