By the fifth day of the Superfriends investigation, Lena and Brainy had almost had a breakthrough with the power dampeners and Selah's blood but it ended up being a false negative. Alex had found tire tracks in the alleyway that matched 80% of all the rental vans in the city and absolutely no DNA anywhere. Kal-El was doing nightly sweeps of the city using his super senses but wasn't noticing anything. Nia's dreams didn't have any consistent signs, and J'onn and Selah couldn't sense Kara's psychic energy at all. To say that they were all disappointed and frustrated was a major understatement.

"How can we not find them?" Nia asked that morning, as they all sat around the table trying to discuss how to move forward. "How do they just seem to disappear and reappear out of thin air whenever they want to be seen?"

"They're like chameleons," Kal said. "Hiding in plain sight. Blending in."

"We're positive that they're human?" Alex asked. "They're not shape-shifting?"

"I deduced with a ninety four percent certainty that they are indeed human based off the images that Selah sent us," Brainy said.

"I spoke again with my mother about this, and she insists that she doesn't know anything about them," Lena added. "I could bring a truth seeker, I suppose but," she shrugged. "I think I believe her."

"They stay in abandoned buildings, mostly underground," Selah said. "But they also move around once every few months. The building that you found me in was only one of countless places where they had me."

"We've done sweeps of all the abandoned factories and warehouses in the city," Alex said. "Did they ever take you outside of National City?"

"I don't know. I never knew where I was being taken. Some of the places were near a forest I think, or a river." The girl winced suddenly, inhaling sharply and bringing a hand to her temple.

"Are you okay?" Lena asked.

"Yeah," she replied absently.

"You look really pale," Alex interjected. "Have you been having seizures again?"

"I'm fine," Selah insisted. "Can we please focus on finding Kara?"

The conversation resumed, but Alex kept an eye on the girl, mentally keeping a count of all the times she rubbed her forehead.

"I had a dream flash about some kind of salamanders," Nia said glumly. "I don't know what it means, but maybe it has something to do with a forest? I looked it up in my mother's dream symbols books but all they said was that lizards are a symbol of regrowth and perseverance."

"My databases also indicate that it could be a phallic symbol, according to Freud," Brainy added.

"Not helpful," Alex said, pointing at him. "I'm going to go over some data. I'll be in my lab if anyone needs me. Brainy, I need you to keep trying to track Kara's comms, try and find out where exactly they last went off-line."

"Affirmative," he said. She left and the group got back to work. No one seemed to notice Selah quietly excusing herself a few moments later, following Alex to the lab.

"I want to see her," she said once she arrived, slightly more restless than usual.

"What?" The agent asked.

"My mother. I know she's here." Alex sighed and shut her laptop as the girl walked over and sat next to the desk that Alex was working at.

"I'm sorry. I was going to tell you, but then Kara was taken, and-" Selah shook her head, cutting the woman off.

"It doesn't matter. I just need to talk to her about the Agenda. I need to know if she knows anything about Kara."

"We already tried talking to her," Alex told the girl. "She's not saying much."

"I know. But I have to try."

"Okay. I'm coming with you, though." Selah stiffened a little bit. "Love, the last time you saw your mother she beat you up. I'm not letting you get hurt by her again."

"Okay," she said quietly. The two stood up and made their way to the cell block where Lyla was being held, Selah anxiously cracking her knuckles as they walked.

"I'm going to be beside you the whole time," Alex said as they opened the door. The girl nodded, and walked into the hallway outside of her mother's cell. Lyla was standing directly in front of the glass, anticipating their arrival, and she smirked as her daughter entered.

"I was wondering when you'd come to visit," she said. Selah stood opposite her mother, glaring back at the woman. "It's typically seen as rude to ignore your family."

"Yeah well, it's also typically seen as rude to sell your daughter to buy more alcohol," the girl replied, crossing her arms. "I know that you're still involved with the Agenda. Where are they?"

"Straight to the point, hmm?" Lyla raised an eyebrow. "Why, do you miss them?"

"You must know that what they are doing is wrong."

"Don't preach your morals to me," the woman snapped.

"So you think that their actions are just? That conducting experiments on children is a virtuous cause?"

"I think they acted intelligently. They found a branch of science that was unexplored, and they found the resources to expand on it. That is, after all, how new discoveries get made."

"I know you don't truly believe that."

"You know nothing." Lyla scoffed. "You have these simplistic ideas of what is right and what is wrong, but you have no idea how the world actually works. In this life, there is no one definition of good and evil, there is simply chaos." She began examining her cuticles idly as she continued. "And who gets to define what is right? Governments? Corporations? The people in power? It was a government on Andromeda that decided that all their citizens with minds such as mine deserved to be killed. Is that right? Your Martian friend will tell you that the Whites decided that it was noble and good to kill all the Greens. Were they correct?" She laughed airily. "One day, my dear, perhaps you will learn that in order to get by in this world, you cannot get yourself tangled up in the mess of virtue politics." Looking directly at Selah, she raised a finger to emphasize her point. "There is no right and wrong, there is only survival."

"Alodiah, please" the girl said intently, using the Andromedan word for mother. "I know that you made choices that you regret in the name of survival. I know that your guilt eats you up inside. I know that you are held captive by it. You have a second chance here. We can help you to make a different choice this time, one that you can feel proud of." Lyla looked away and for a moment, Selah thought that her mother was going to actually listen, but the woman's face grew hard.

"You are no daughter of mine," she said, switching over to Andromedan. "You are nothing more than a coward." She slowly lifted her head and looked at the girl with an intensity that made her shiver. "I sold you to those doctors with the understanding that they were going to kill you." Leaning forwards slightly, she whispered, "I wish that they had."

Selah stared evenly at her mother, waiting for the woman's decision to become final. After a few long moments, she turned to Alex.

"I'm done here," she said, striding out of the room and biting back angry tears that pricked at the back of her eyes.

"What did she say?" Alex demanded, following the girl as she strode back to the atrium.

"Nothing useful." She turned abruptly, facing the agent. "Is it alright if I take a break for a few minutes? I just feel a little overwhelmed." Alex nodded.

"Call me if anything's wrong."

"I will." The agent watched as Selah walked onto the balcony and sat on the railing, her back to the DEO. The girl sat there for a few minutes, her eyes shut, feeling the wind gently moving her hair as she listened to the noise around her. She heard one person's thoughts getting louder and louder as they approached, until they were standing in the doorway.

"Hey," she said finally, without opening her eyes. Kal smiled ruefully as he walked over to his daughter, sitting next to her on the railing.

"I guess it's pretty hard to sneak up on a telepath," he said. Selah glanced over at him, smiling slightly.

"Sorry for getting kinda overwhelmed the last time we talked," she said after a moment.

"I get it."

"The whole 'surprise, it's a father' thing was kind of a lot."

"Yeah, well I wasn't exactly expecting to discover my secret daughter." He rubbed his chin, snorting. "Still not used to saying that." Selah looked at him, examining his face as he looked out at the city. "If you ever want to come to Metropolis to meet Lois and my boys, you're more than welcome."

"Okay." They stood in silence for awhile, side by side. "I'm sorry about Kara," she said eventually. He nodded, his eyes kind.

"We'll get her back." They stood there for awhile longer, watching the city, both listening for any signs of Kara. "I'm going to go do another lap of the city," he said finally, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Okay." Selah watched as he took off and began flying over the city, and she winced again as the noise around her rose in volume once more.

.

Alex was studying Lena's research that she did on Selah's blood, frowning at the numbers that she was reading when a woman burst into the room followed by two agents, both of whom had their weapons raised.

"We don't know who she is, Ma'am," one of them said. "She just ran into here and wouldn't stop."

"Are you Director Danvers?" the woman asked, seemingly unbothered by the guns pointed at her.

"Who's asking?" Alex replied.

"My name is Lea Lerrol. I'm Selah's aunt."

"You're both dismissed," the director said to the agents, both of whom lowered their guns and left the room.

"Is she still here?" Lea asked, wringing her hands. "I can't find her psychically."

"Yeah, she was on the balcony with Clark a minute ago," Alex told her. "Why do you ask?"

"I think she might be in danger. About an hour ago, the Agenda began broadcasting a telepathic message across the city, saying that they would send Supergirl back if Selah went to them, as a trade. I immediately texted her and told her not to do anything, and she told me that she wouldn't. Ten minutes ago, she stopped answering my texts right as soon as the Agenda's message began to be sent again. I tried finding her telepathically, but I couldn't, the last place that I could sense her was here." Upon hearing this, Alex stood up and the two women began walking to the atrium.

"Why didn't J'onn hear the message?" she asked.

"Martians cannot pick up on Andromedan psychic waves." They entered the atrium and saw that the balcony was empty. Lea began quietly crying. Going over to the main desk, Alex started pulling up the surveillance footage from that area. "There," Lea said, pointing to the screen as Selah appeared on the balcony. She watched Clark fly off, and then her hand went back up to her temple, as Alex assumed she began hearing the second message from the Agenda. She stayed on the railing for a few moments before beginning to pace back and forth anxiously. Pulling out her phone, she removed the battery and set it beside the door, and with a quick glance over her shoulder, she jumped off the balcony and disappeared.

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