When she arrives at work on Monday, Kara sends Lena a couple of text messages. She hears nothing back. At first she doesn't think anything of it. Lena frequently spends her days in meetings or will lose herself in an experiment she's conducting. On Tuesday, still not having heard from her, Kara tries to call. There's no answer. Kara decides to give it another day. When there's still no answer when she calls on Wednesday, a slight worry sets in. Kara keeps replaying moments—bits of conversation, touches, looks—from the previous Saturday. For Kara it had been a magical night. To be there with Lena, to feel their closeness returning, to sense the promise of a new beginning.
But had she been so caught up in her own feelings that she had not paid enough attention to how Lena was feeling? Had she somehow missed something? But she had been so singularly focused on Lena that night. And all she remembers is how warm and attentive and loving Lena had been all evening. Had something happened afterwards? Had Lena started to freak out? Had it been too much too quickly after all? But then Kara sees Lena standing in front of her again, in the rain, kissing her goodnight after they agreed to take it slowly. Lena had seemed so calm and happy. Kara can't make any sense of it.
When in the late afternoon Lena is still not picking up, Kara decides to go over to L Corp to get some answers.
"No, Ms Luthor hasn't been in this week," the assistant tells Kara as she leans back in her chair, leisurely taking sips from a cup of coffee.
"Do you know where she is?"
The girl shakes her head. "No."
"She hasn't called in?"
"No."
"Any idea where she might be?"
The assistant is starting to look impatient. "No."
"Is she maybe out of town on business or something?"
"Not that I know of."
"Are you sure?"
The assistant sighs. "Listen," she says curtly. "According to her calendar she should be here. She's not. But it's her company. She can do whatever she likes."
Realizing she's not going to get anything out of Lena's assistant, but also suddenly convinced Lena's absence or disappearance has nothing to do with her, Kara flies to the DEO to talk to her sister.
"What do you mean she's not answering her phone?", Alex asks. "Did you two fight again?"
"No, it's not like that."
"Kara, if she needs space, you have to give her that."
Kara shakes her head. "It's not like that," she says again, more emphatically this time.
"What then?"
"Something is wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"I think something may have happened to her."
"Come on, Kara."
Kara can tell Alex thinks she's being overly dramatic and jumping to conclusions.
"If Lena needs time …," Alex starts again, but Kara interrupts her impatiently.
"I went to L Corp and they don't know where she is either."
A look of concern finally comes over Alex's face. "That doesn't sound like her," she says with a frown.
"I know." Kara is glad Alex is finally listening to her.
"And nothing happened on Saturday to upset her or make her want to disappear for a while?"
"No."
Alex raises her eyebrows to show she really needs an honest answer from Kara.
"No!" Kara says vehemently. "It was a great night. We had a really good time together."
"Okay!" Alex puts up her hands.
"You know what," Kara suddenly says. "I almost forgot. There was one weird thing that did happen on Saturday."
Kara brings Alex up to speed on the disappearance of the Luthor heirlooms.
When she's done, Kara can tell Alex is trying to make sense of how the theft could possibly be related to Lena's disappearance.
"I don't know whether these things are related," Kara says preemptively . "But for now it's the only lead we have."
"Besides Morgan Edge and half a dozen other people who may want her dead or at least out of the way."
"True." Kara is starting to feel overwhelmed by how little they have to go on and how many possible scenarios they're looking at.
"You know what," Alex says, seeing the worry on Kara's face. "I'll get in touch with the NCPD. Perhaps they've uncovered something about Saturday night that will help us."
Kara nods. "Okay." She thinks for a moment and then says, "You know what? I think I'll pay Lillian Luthor a visit."
"Supergirl," Lillian Luthor says as she looks up from the book she's reading as Kara walks through the door of her prison cell.
Although her tone is friendly, Kara feels ill at ease. Being in Lena's mother's presence always unnerves her.
"To what do I owe this pleasure?", Lillian asks, with only a small hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"I'm looking for Lena," Kara says, trying to sound matter-of-factly.
"Well, as you can see, she isn't here," Lillian says, as she focuses her eyes on her book again.
"I know. She's missing."
Barely visible, but still there, is the smallest look of surprise. A tiny narrowing of the eyes, a slight tilt of the head. Kara is convinced Lillian didn't know.
"How long has this been going on?", Lillian asks as she looks up, trying hard to mask the concern Kara nevertheless detects.
"Three days."
Kara can see Lillian relax. A mocking smile appears on her face. "Three days?"
"I know something is wrong," Kara says adamantly.
"You worry too much," Lillian says as she shakes her head.
"Did you know your family was robbed?"
Once again there's a genuine look of surprise on Lillian's face. "What do you mean?", she asks.
"Some valuable objects your family owned were stolen at a charity auction."
"A charity auction?"
"Yes. Lena donated them."
Lillian rolls her eyes. "Of course she did." Then she adds, with a great deal of condescension in her voice, "She's always trying to buy people's love. It's pathetic."
Kara is about to defend Lena, tell Lillian how wrong she is, but realizes that won't get her any closer to actually finding Lena.
"What did she donate?", Lillian asks.
Kara is surprised Lillian wants to know, considering Lena's avowal that her mother doesn't care about this sort of thing. Kara tries hard to remember. "I think some pieces of ancient Egyptian jewelry Lena said were from the time of Ramses the Second …."
"Ramses the Second. Ozymandias."
"Excuse me?"
"Ramses the Second. Also known as Ozymandias. 'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'"
"Right."
"What else?" Lillian asks, sounding genuinely curious.
Kara thinks hard. "I think some letters written by Napoleon, some etchings by Rembrandt …."
A big grin appears on Lillian's face. "Good on her," she says.
"What?" Kara is surprised to hear Lillian sound almost proud of Lena.
"His love of those silly things always made Lex look so effeminate," Lillian says condescendingly. "He would dote on them as a four-year-old girl dotes on her dolls."
Suddenly it hits Kara that the man they're talking about has only been dead for a few months. And going by what Lena has told her, Lex seems to have been the most important, as well as the most cherished, person in Lillian's life. Was this the psychopath's shallowness of emotion on display?
Kara observes Lillian closely. "Speaking of Lex," she says, her voice now warm and kind. "I am sorry for your loss. Although your son made himself into an enemy of my family, it must be terrible to lose a child."
Lillian looks at Kara with her cold, calculating eyes, pulls the corners of her mouth down into a sad expression, shakes her head slightly, and says in a flat tone, "Yes, just terrible."
Kara somehow finds the moment utterly uncanny. The affect seems entirely fake. It is as if Lillian is performing grief without actually feeling it.
Still trying to make sense of the moment, Kara suddenly hears Alex's voice in her ear.
"Kara, you'd better come back to the DEO right now," she says.
Kara looks at Lillian, who's sitting there staring at her blankly. Although Kara feels she's not done here, she quickly takes her leave.
When Kara arrives at the DEO, Alex immediately pushes a piece of paper into her hands. "Look at this," she says.
It's a photo of a framed painting printed on regular paper. The figure in the painting is made to look like Lena. She's seated on a wooden bench, gagged, with her hands tied together in front of her with a thick rope.
"What is this?", Kara asks. "Some kind of threat?"
"Maybe," Alex says. "We're looking into it."
A DEO agent walks up to Alex and hands her another piece of paper. Alex shows it to Kara. It is the painting, but now as a regular photo.
"We thought the painting might've been created from a photo using one of those apps. Turns out it is," Alex says, sounding disappointed rather than pleased to have her hunch validated.
Kara looks at Lena's face in the photograph. Her eyes are hollow; she looks exhausted. Kara feels such anger welling up inside of her.
"We'll find her," Alex says soothingly when she sees the fire in Kara's eyes.
"Do we know where she is?", Kara asks, trying to calm herself down.
"Not yet, but we will."
She points to the gilded frame that's been photoshopped around the fake painting. "Did you see this?", she asks. At the bottom of the frame is on a golden title plate. On the plate is inscribed, in an antiquated cursive font, 'Supergirl to the rescue'."
Kara frowns. "When did this arrive?"
"Maybe twenty minutes ago?"
"So at least it's someone who knows about the DEO's existence."
Alex gives Kara a look that says, That doesn't help us much.
"Do we know anything else?", Kara asks.
"We're still analyzing the image. All we know is that the letter was posted in Michigan using the USPS overnight service."
"Michigan?" Nothing about any of this makes any sense to her.
Kara looks at the photo again. She's starting to feel sick to her stomach. She looks at the painting. Who would do something like this?
As Kara keeps looking at the painting, it suddenly seems to her as if the image is changing. Kara blinks, then blinks again, making sure her eyes aren't playing tricks on her. No, somehow Lena's face is changing. "Alex, look at this," she says as she places the painting on the big round table.
Alex stands next to her. Kara points at Lena's face.
"Do you see this?", she asks.
For a moment Kara can tell Alex doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then all of a sudden a frown appears on her sister's face. "Is it dissolving?", Alex wonders out loud.
The two sisters look at the image again.
"It looks like her face is distorting," Kara finally says.
Alex nods in agreement. She calls Brainy over. "Have a look at this," she says.
"Very interesting," he says after he's studied the image for a moment. "The ink used for Lena's face appears to have been made of thymolphthalein, sodium hydroxide …."
Brainy is speaking slowly, enunciating each word carefully. Kara feels herself getting impatient. "I'm sorry, Brainy," she says. "Could you give us the short version this time?"
Brainy gives Kara an annoyed look. Then he say, "When the ink used for Lena's face interacts with carbon dioxide in the air, the ink slowly disintegrates. In two to three hours, the ink will have disappeared completely."
Kara looks at Alex. "Do you think it's a threat?", she asks.
Alex nods. "Supergirl to the rescue or Lena will be erased? Could be."
Kara feels ready to punch someone. How could they do this to Lena after all she's been through?
"Kind of reminds me of this book we read in high school," Alex suddenly says.
Kara looks at her sister, annoyed that her sister is bringing up random books they read in high school when Lena's life is on the line. "What book?", she snipes.
"The one about the guy who has this painting of himself and the more sins he commits the more hideous the painting becomes?"
"The Picture of Dorian Gray?".
"Yes, that's the one."
Suddenly all the pieces fall into place.
"Oh my God!" Kara exclaims. "Oscar Wilde."
"What?"
"Oscar Wilde. Sebastian Melmoth. That son of a …."
"Kara, what's going on?" Alex looks utterly confused.
"Alex, It's Lex. Lex Luthor has her!"
