The following week goes by in slow motion, time creeping past as they wait for the equipment to be ready and the protocol to be approved, all the while there's a desperate scream stuck in Lena's throat.

On Monday, she's awoken in the middle of the night by Kara sobbing in her sleep, crying after Krypton and her parents and all that she's lost. On Tuesday, they find Alex napping in front of Sam's cell, their hands resting next to each other but separated by the thick glass. On Wednesday, she punches the too slow 3D printing machine, splitting her knuckles open and splattering dark blood everywhere. On Thursday, Sam starts getting sick from Kryptonite exposure. Alex immediately turns off the emitters but Sam begs for them to be turned back on. Kara steps in to do it with an unreadable expression on her face. They spend the night from Thursday to Friday in a meeting, reviewing protocols and sub-protocols until Lena sees numbers and odds even when she closes her eyes, and her blood is 99% coffee.

Their base idea is simple enough ; find Sam's trigger, and block it forever. The implementation, however, is so complex that Lena almost regrets her college days when she had do dissect and explain the simplest of steps to her professors. They have plans, backup plans and backup plans for their backup plans, a chain of command in which she somehow comes before Kara and even Alex, and so many levels of security that nothing could possibly go wrong. All that Lena can think about is that all they're about to do will cause Sam more pain that either of them are capable of handling.

There is a light in all of this though, and it's that during this entire week, The Blur doesn't make any apparition. There's no more destruction, no more death, and it means that Lena was right to reassure Kara, was right to tell her it couldn't possibly be her. Because she's been downright terrified, been trying to reassure herself as much as she was reassuring Kara that there isn't a murderer inside of her, that her strong arms are here to protect, not to harm.

All she has to do now is save Sam.

"So," Sam starts in a firm and unwavering voice, her flickering eyes the only hint that she's scared, "walk me through what you're about to do."

She's sitting on a metal chair that looks so uncomfortable it's probably been designed for torture, her wrists strapped down to the armrests. She looks sick, but Kelly has wiped out her sweaty brow when she came in earlier to offer counselling. In the week Sam has been locked up, the two have stroke up an unlikely friendship, their love for Alex leading them to care about each other. What little Lena has witnessed from their short interactions makes her heart ache. Sam's skin is pale, almost green, and a strange glow radiates from the device plunged into her skin, delivering Kryptonite right into her veins. Kara is standing as far as the room allows, but she too looks greenish and slightly ill, and if this is how she's reacting to it, Lena doesn't want to think about what it's doing to her friend.

"We're going to try to make you angry," Lena replies, forcing herself to look at Sam.

"Angry ?"

"To find your trigger," she elaborates, shuffling her files to keep her hands busy. "Since you don't remember what happened, it seems likely that you are not yourself when the attacks occur." Lena stops to exhale deeply, fully aware of how clunky her explanation sounds. She's trying hard to not directly link Sam to the attacks, the deaths, because she knows pointing it out will do nothing but harm ; but it makes her sound unsure when she's not. She knows she can save Sam, what she doesn't know is how much pain she'll cause by doing so. "It seems likely that you're suffering from a personality split. Your body is inhabited by both you and the Worldkiller. When I find what triggers the Worldkiller, I can lock it away forever. But it might hurt. A lot."

"Okay," Sam says, with an encouraging smile, "do what you have to do. I trust you."

Lena looks around the room, letting her eyes wander for a long moment. She's waiting. Waiting for someone to step forward and say it's a bad idea. For an agent to interrupt them with the news they captured someone else. For an emergency of any kind to just delay everything for even five minutes. Nothing happens ; and Lena has to start torturing her best friend.

"Alright." Lena breathes in deep and slow, allowing herself to look at Kara one more time before she starts. Her girlfriend smiles, her lips curling encouragingly even as her entire face is set in stone. "I'm going to ask you where you think you were when the attacks occurred. Just, just to be sure. And we're filming you this time."

With a hand as steady as can be, Lena motions for the agent that has been assigned as her assistant to start showing the evidence. She doesn't look at the wall where the pictures and videos are being projected, she doesn't need to. She's watched them enough time, trying to recognise features and patterns, and they are engraved in her mind, no matter how much she wishes them away.

"This one I was supposed to be asleep," Sam says with a defeated and vague hand gesture. "And the day you were attacked in your office I slept the morning away after watching all eight Harry Potter back to back with Ruby. I learned about it when I woke up, it was all over my TV. All I know is that I had a nightmare right before waking up." Sam stops, her throat bobbing as she tries to swallow down an anxious knot. Lena wants to reach out and take her hand, but it goes against protocol. "The night Alex took that drug, I went to see her, cried myself to exhaustion and then went straight to you. But I can't remember if I stopped anywhere else. All I could think about was Alex, and I don't remember anything else. At all. As for last week, I, I was in my office. Before and after. During, during I don't know."

"Brainy ?" Director J'onzz asks, filling the silence that follows Sam's words just when it starts bordering on uncomfortable.

"Right," Brainy says, clasping his hand in front of him with purpose. The blue orbs on his face seems more prominent, his features more sunken, than the last time Lena saw him. "Well we can neither refute nor corroborate this as our satellite situation still hasn't been addressed. We will have to take Sam of House Vex at her words."

"Just Sam is fine Brainy."

"Very well, Sam it is," Brainy says with a sharp nod. He eyes her curiously for a second before his focused gaze sweeps the room to stop on Lena. His forehead twitches where his eyebrow should be ; it's time.

"Okay, Sam ? We're going to move on and get started if that's alright with you ?"

Lena finds herself asking again, stalling once more even as a single hand motion brings forward two agents to hook her best friend to various electrodes. The more she tells herself she's confident in her abilities to save Sam and the more she feels like she's just trying to convince herself that she can do it.

Sam sighs with a tired smile and Lena forces herself to look at her. "You don't have to ask every time. I'm not going to snap at you if you just go ahead and shock me."

Oh I want you to snap, Lena thinks, setting herself straight with an affirming nod. She's got this, she's going to save her friend.

They spend the next four hours showing various pictures to Sam. Drugs dealers, wounded kids, disadvantaged neighbourhoods ; they're trying to spark the self-righteous side of the Worldkiller. But hours trickle by, nothing happens, and Lena finds herself the one growing more and more frustrated. In the far left corner of the room, Kara hasn't move an inch. She's paler, the lightest of shadows tainting the skin under her eyes, but she's still standing there as unwavering moral support. When their eyes meet, she smiles, and with a flick of the wrist, Lena moves on to the next picture.

"I can't look at that," Sam says, screwing her eyes shut and turning her head as far away as her restraints allow.

Lena doesn't have to look at the wall to know that they've finally reached phase one's last resort, photoshopped pictures of Ruby.

"We should move on to phase two," Alex says through gritted teeth. She's standing straight, her arms behind her back, her feet firmly planted in the ground, her jaw clenched and her gaze lost far ahead of her. Her features form an almost emotionless mask, and in her head, Lena is trying to reconcile this vision with what Sam told her of her. For a second she wonders if the woman asking her to electrocute her best friend truly is the same person who used to read Ruby bedtime stories ; but she knows she is, because both times Alex only had her daughter in mind.

Lena waits for a moment, an excruciating second during which she remembers she's the one who has to give the green light. "I'm sorry Sam," she whispers before pushing the button.

Her best friend's screams fill the room.

It's deafening, a roar that only a Kryptonian could produce ; but it's filled with more pain than rage, and Lena knows it's not going to be enough.

Sam opens her bloodshot eyes to stare straight at her. "Do it again," she groans.

This time, when Lena pushes the button, Sam screams longer, her body arching away from the chair as her right arm comes off the restraints in a thunder of ripped metal and broken bones.

Alex steps forward and Kara does to, a mix of fear and concern twisting their faces ; but Lena, Lena feels something curling and stretching deep inside of her, an instinct awakening. Sam flickers in front of her and she doesn't see her friend, she sees an experiment, something to crack open, something to dissect and understand. When she pushes the button a third time, she's not a friend, she's a Luthor.

They cart Sam back to her cell on a stretcher. A thin line of blood and saliva runs down her face, and Lena follows its trail, her eyes fixated on the retreating figure of her friend. She feels dirty, like the skin that holds her together isn't hers. She's buzzing with unconcealed self hatred, and suddenly Kara is behind her, a protective hand hovering an inch over her shoulder ; Lena breaks into a run.

She barrels out of the room, take a sharp turn, runs three flights of stairs, up and up and up until she reaches the floor where she thinks the locker room is. She bypasses startled agents, thinks she can see pity on their faces. She doesn't need anyone's pity, she's crossed a line. The locker room comes into view and she launches herself through the door, her shoulder hitting it open painfully.

She doesn't stop running, doesn't breathe again until she's standing under the boiling stream of the shower, her disgusting clothes clinging to her disgusting skin. She hunches forward, her forehead banging against the wall as bile runs past her lips.

Kara is behind her again, and this time she doesn't just hover ; one hand settles firmly on Lena's shoulder while the other reaches past her to turn the shower to an acceptable warmth. "You did good," she says.

It's the last thing Lena expected her to say and it's terrible and "I tortured my best friend," she bites back.

"To save her."

"How can you be so fucking calm ?!" Words tear out of Lena's throat and she whirls around so fast that she almost hits her head on the hot plumbing. She passes an inch away from splitting her skull open ; she would deserve it. "How are you so…? How can you not…!"

Kara scoffs softly. "Years of practise," she says. "When you spend two decades suspended in space-time only to crash on a foreign world, you learn how to remain calm in every circumstances. I'm not unaffected by this Lena, I'm just protecting myself."

Lena deflates on herself, all fight draining out of her like it was never there in the first place. She staggers forward, her body colliding with Kara's in a soft tud. Her girlfriend's arms immediately come wrap around her but they feel too hot, too heavy, and Lena forces herself out of them, retreating until her back hits the shower wall. "I'm sorry."

"I know," Kara says, and once again, these are not the words Lena was expecting, and she doesn't know what to do with them, doesn't know how to handle the fact that Kara is still standing there, perfect, and welcoming Lena's searing thoughts without invalidating them.

"Why are you still here ?"

"I can go if you want me to," Kara answers with a shrug, her arms still suspended between them from when Lena tore herself away from her. "I can leave you alone if that's what you want, but I don't think it would be very wise. Can I take care of you ?"

"Why ?" Lena asks. "Why do you want to take care of me ?"

If she pushes her away maybe Kara will stop being perfect and will leave her alone to suffocated in her self hatred ; that's what she deserves.

"You're important to me. You matter Lena Luthor."

Something cracks in Lena when Kara says her name. She sees herself pushing the button, she hears Sam screams. Her legs give out from under her but she doesn't hit the ground. Kara scoops her up with ease and brings her closer once more. This time, Lena doesn't have it in her to fight her way out of her warmth. She doesn't have the strength to hold back her tears either.

"Let's get you cleaned up okay ? Is it okay if I remove your clothes or do you want to do it yourself ?"

Lena realises then that she's still clothed and still standing under the shower stream. The damp fabric clings to her skin in a way that feels wrong but she finds herself incapable of answering to Kara's question, words eluding her as she starts shivering.

"I'll do it for you," Kara says without missing a beat.

Lena registers that Kara is about to see her naked for the first time, in less than ideal circumstances, but she couldn't care less. Her girlfriend works on sliding her lab coat off her shoulders, then it's her shirt, that she unbuttons quickly, her bra, that she unhooks without looking, and her slacks and underwear that she slides off in one quick motion.

A voice reaches her ears and she thinks Kara asks her again if she wants her to go. Now that she's naked, vulnerable and shivering, the idea seems so ludicrous to Lena that she doesn't have words to answer. Instead, she steps closer to Kara and wraps her arms around her neck, clinging to her like it's the only thing tethering her to sanity. It probably is.

They stay like that long enough that Lena loses track of time ; her naked front pressed to Kara's clothed one, warm hands running down her back, light lips pressed on top of her hair. It's the first time in forever, maybe the first time in her adult life, that she's naked with someone for a reason that isn't sexual ; she feels clean, and loved.

Later, Kara carries her to bed in an empty rest room and promises to stay with her through the night. Her body is warm against hers, and the strength that Lena knows is there feels soft and protective. She's out like a light.

A few hours into the night, or it could be a few seconds, Lena is startled awake by the sudden disappearance of the warmth beside her. It takes her a moment to shake off the weighted daze of exhaustion, but when she manages to open her eyes, she wishes she hadn't. Everything around her is tinged by a red light that dulls her vision and there's a tall shadow hunched over her, its face inches away from hers. A sharp cry bubbles out of her throat, and as she shuffles away, she gets tangled in the covers and lands ass first on the cold hard floor. It's only a short fall, but she's tired and confused, and as she scrambles to get back up, she's hit with the pointed realisation that she won't make it out. She considers calling for help, but her brain doesn't supply her with enough memories for her to remember where she is, and before she can take any action, a warm hand wraps around her wrist and she's brought to the vertical again. Kara. She's with Kara, and she's safe.

"I'm sorry," her girlfriend says in a husky, tired voice. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay," Lena mumbles even if it's clearly not and her heart is threatening to break out of her ribcage. She lets herself be wrapped in Kara's arms, breathing in the comforting scent of lavender. "What's happening ?"

"There's been an alert," Kara replies, her slow and soothing voice making these words sound much less serious than they are. "I have to go but I didn't want you to wake up alone."

Lena's heart stops, contracting painfully before it resumes its wild run."Is it Sam ?"

"No. No it's not," Kara says hastily. "She's still asleep. But Brainy altered our facial recognition scanner to tune in on facial expressions instead and we've been tracking creepy smiles for any signs of the Black Mercy drug. We've found a hub down on the waterfront, at The Roulette, I think it's the rival casino to Veronica Sinclair's."

"It's not," Lena whispers, her heart plummeting into her chest once more. It twists and turns in time with her stomach, and she feels so sick she wouldn't be surprised if she were to throw it up. "She owns both and plays up the rivalry to make more money. That's all she's interested in. Money..."

A sharp pain cuts the rest of her jumbled thoughts before she can make them into words. Kara's body goes rigid against hers and her hand clasps tightly around her arm ; so tight that Lena can feel the bone shifting and cracking underneath to accommodate to the pressure and her blood vessels bumping against a wall of steel. She's never broken a bone before but she knows she's about to and she braces herself for the inevitable snap that is bound to be heard any seconds now.

It doesn't happen. The pressure and the pain disappear, and like nothing happened, Kara relaxes as quickly as she tensed. "We need to get to command centre."

And just like that, she takes off.

Kara walks slow enough that Lena can follow but she's still too quick for a human and Lena trips twice in her hast to follow. As they make their way through the long corridors, Kara keeps a running train of words, throwing ideas and stray thoughts. "We'll need a list of every place she could hide if the DEO misses her this time," is one of the thing Lena catches. "I'm gonna put her behind bars for life," is another. But the faster she walks and the less sense Kara makes, her angry words bumping against one another until she stops talking altogether ; and when Lena looks up from her clumsy feet, she's nowhere to be found.

To her credit, Lena doesn't panic immediately. Her momentum carries her forward for a good fifteen seconds ; but with each new door passed and each unfamiliar corridor, her heart is a bit more erratic, her breathing a little more raged. She's almost surprised when the last turn leads her straight to the command centre and she finds herself in the middle of a strike team getting ready to leave. Alex is in the middle of it, multiple guns and knives strapped to various part of her tactical armour. She looks fierce, dangerous ; something that Lena only realises when she forgets to stop running and comes into full contact with her, the pain in her arm awakening immediately. "Where's Kara ?" she manages to ask through her clenched jaw. "Where's Kara ?" she asks again, more clearly as Alex straightens her like she weights nothing at all.

"Isn't she with you ? She was with you when I talked to her on the coms."

"She's not !" Lena says, her voice rising with frustration. "The casino. The Roulette. It's Veronica. And when I told her that she just left the room and then straight up disappeared. I don't know where she went !"

"Calm down," Alex says in a slightly harsh tone. "She must have a perfectly good reason. Maybe she thought you were following."

"At superspeed ?!" Lena screeches. And she hates how hysterical she sounds, how panicked she is ; but she doesn't know this place, and she doesn't know these people, and her best friend is locked up in the basement and her girlfriend is missing. Everything is too fucking much.

"Director J'onzz ? Agent Danvers ?" Brainy calls out from behind her. "We seem to have a bit of a situation."

Lena sees Alex's eyes widen in horror, and slowly, like she isn't really in control of her body anymore, she turns around to look at the monitors too. For the third time since she opened her eyes to the red glow of the emergency lights, Lena's heart falls into her stomach. On the screen, The Roulette bursts into flame and a lone caped figure rises from it, dragging a limp body in a red dress. The Blur was never Sam.

"I need everybody on deck now !" Director J'onzz booms, his voice covering the throng. "Agent Danvers ! Double the strike team, I'll go ahead of you. Miss Luthor, Lena, I'm going to need you to step aside."

"It's Kara," Lena croaks, surprised that her voice is cooperating when the rest of her body seems to be shutting down at an alarming rate.

"Don't worry Lena," Alex says in an eerily calm way. "I'm going to send someone to look for her. I'll make sure she's safe."

"No no no. You don't understand." Panic bubbles in Lena's stomach and she has to fight for it not to swallow her whole. "It's Kara. She told me and I, I didn't believe her. I told her it was impossible and then the whole thing with Sam, it just, it skipped my mind."

"It's not," Alex stammers, her stern facade cracking. "It can't be."

"Alex," Lena whispers, "it makes sense. The nightmares. Her arm. Think about it." She hates that she has to be the voice of reason, hates each words that she forces out of her mouth, but she doesn't have a choice anymore.

Cautiously, Brainy steps in front of Lena, tablet in hand and eyes straight ahead. He stands tall and rigid, and winces before he starts speaking, saying words Lena wished she never had to hear. "Then we need to get ready for a Sun Down protocol."

"I can't do that to my sister. There has to be another way."

"If we don't intervene in the next five minutes, there is a 100% chance that The Blur will tear down the entire waterfront. We need to move now Agent Danvers."

"It could kill her Brainy. Kill her."

"I am well aware of that Agent Danvers. Kara's survival rate is of 40% is we proceed as such ; but The Blur's death count will keep on rising if we do nothing."

"She's my sister !" Alex's scream startles Lena enough that she finally catches on with what they want to do.

She's heard about the Sun Down protocol. It was put in place after her brother poisoned Superman with synthetic kryptonite and he destroyed half a city. She knows it's a necessary safety net, but what matters know, all she can remember, is that the Sun Down protocol gathers enough gun power to kill a Kryptonian.

"Agent Dox," Director J'onzz says, "prepare for a Sun Down protocol."

His words are leaden with purpose and gravity, they leave no room for protest yet Lena isn't surprised when Alex tries again.

"J'onn please..."

"Agent Danvers. Go to Miss Arias with a sun grenade and my deepest apologies. We will need her help."

"With the dose of kryptonite we gave her, a sun grenade might not be enough." Lena doesn't realise she's the one who spoke until everyone turns to look at her and she finds herself having to string more words to pretend like she's holding herself together. "She'd need two. And for the kryptonite to be pumped out of her system, that'd take at least an hour. Plus she doesn't really know how to fight, Kara is literally a warrior."

Alex looks conflicted for a second, but her eyes quickly turns feral at the prospect of saving her sister. Between Kara and Sam, she's made her choice ; and though Lena doesn't want to admit it just yet, she's made hers when she chose to ignore the warning signs.

"Brainy," Alex asks, "what are our odds if we send in Sam without pumping the kryptonite out ?"

"There's a 70% chance of capturing Kara with non-fatal injuries if both Director J'onzz and Miss Arias go in to apprehend her."

"Then we're moving now !" Director J'onzz barks, morphing into his true form. "Agent Danvers, release Miss Arias and send her my way."

"Wait !" Alex cuts, catching the Martian by his cape before he can take off. "Brainy, what are, what are Sam's odds ?"

"I can't tell you that," Brainy says slowly, his eyes blinking repeatedly as he cocks his head to the side. "My brain seems to be, lagging."

This, Lena has a feeling, isn't something that is supposed to happen ; but before she has time to offer her help in any capacity, the room is moving at full speed again.

The first strike team is out the door, hot on J'onn J'onzz tail in less than a minute ; and the second one is ready before Alex has the time to return with Sam. They both appear at the same time, Sam carrying Alex bridal style to save them precious seconds. She's standing, alive, but she looks greenish still, and she doesn't look at Lena. Lena wishes she could find something to say, a way to apologise, but the only thing in her head is Kara, Kara, and Kara again.

The rest happens so fast that Lena doesn't understand how it can sear itself into her mind. In the blink of an eye, both Sam and the Martian appear on the DEO monitoring system as they launch themselves at the figure that Lena is now sure is Kara. Just before they can get to her though, Kara sneakily drops several feet and Sam and Director J'onzz collide with each other instead. The thunder like crack is muffled by the distance and it's just as well. In a second, Kara is up again, and she has Sam by the throat. With her other arm she throws the Martian to the ground. He gets up immediately and rams back into her with so much strength that Sam is ejected out of her grasp and Kara herself goes spinning away. She stabilises rapidly and flies straight for him sending him tumbling in the blazing casino. From the ground, Sam runs and jumps to her, but with a flick of the wrist, Kara sends her rocketing into the cold sea. She hovers alone for a moment, crossing her arms in satisfaction. When Sam launches herself out of the water, she sends her right back in with a burst of heat vision. The Martian tackles her from behind and sends them both tumbling in the ruins. They roll around in a flurry of movements but Lena can see him weakening with each blow, and Sam, finally out of the water, lacks military technique to get close enough to help. When Kara hits him with a lamppost, he doesn't move again.

It's just Sam and Kara then, and an awkward nervous laugh starts bubbling out of Lena's throat. She claps her hands on her mouth, looking around in shame, but no one is paying attention to her and she just can't stop laughing. She laughs as Kara and Sam zooms in and out of the screens, crashing in buildings, in the ground, in cars. She laughs when a piece of concrete shatters one of the monitoring camera. She laughs when a blood covered Kara throws Sam up in the sky. She laughs when Sam comes back into view, two shaky fists extended in front of her to pummel Kara into the ground.

She's still laughing when two DEO SUV pull up next to the crater and Alex barrels out of one of them, running to her sister's lifeless figure. She just can't stop herself, and as her body shakes hysterically, she starts crying too.