Kara blinks. She feels herself doing so very slowly, in a sort of comical sluggish way. Simultaneously she sees the first Cat throwing her coffee at her, finally registering the source of the acrid smell in the droplets of liquid Kryptonite that slush out of the cup. The cup however doesn't hit her, but collides with Nia's back instead as the younger hero throws herself in front of her and hisses as the burning coffee seeps into her clothes.

"Fuck !" Nia screams at an ear splitting volume. "Fuck ! Fuck ! Fuck !"

Kara allows herself a fraction of a second to assess the situation further, both narrowing her eyes to scan her assailant and cocking her head to the side to keep track of the original Cat Grant. She hears the telltale sound of a taser crackling to life behind her and knows she won't be able to prevent both Cat and Nia to launch themselves at Miss Grant 2.0 to protect her.

In a barely calculated move, the result relying entirely on Nia being able to avoid the taser, she throws her off herself and to Cat, brushes the side of her glasses, punches her own chest the moment her crest reveals itself, and, before the armour has had any time to completely unfurl, grabs the doppelgänger by the neck and jumps out the window.

For a moment, an eternal instant that doesn't last longer than it takes for Kara to take off, she fears that she's miscalculated, that she's been tricked, that this is a hallucination and she's strangling her former boss while the witch is waiting safely back in the office. Then, the skin that her gloved hand is touching starts bubbling and melting into grey scabs and, satisfied, she circles back in a loop-the-loop and flattens Selena head first on the floor at Cat's feet.

The Queen of all media is standing there, entirely unaffected, looking almost bored by the situation. She gives an appreciative nod to Nia who's barely finished fixing her mask to her face and says, more to herself than the present company, "guess I still got it." Then, in what Kara can only describe as the most badass move she's ever witnessed, Cat takes a slow mindful sip of her latte and nudges the side of the shifting witch's head with her pointed shoe. "I hope you have the means," she drawls, "to pay for the damage done to my building."

Nia cackles and immediately slams a hand on her mouth to stifle any further sound when Cat glances back at her. She straightens up absurdly, hands clasped behind her back and brow falling in the posture of a child ready to be scold. "It's really nice to see you again, Miss Grant," she says, forgetting all heroism in favour of grovelling.

"It's nice to see you too, Nia. Or is it Dreamer now ?" Cat says somewhat off-handedly. "I trust that the little covert organisation you and my friend Supergirl work for has a cleaning crew ?"

"I will call them right away," Nia hurries, fretting for a moment for an absent pocket before she remembers the comm device in her ear and raises two fingers to activate it.

"Good," Cat replies, cocking her head to the side appreciatively. She turns to Kara then, smile broadening like Christmas has arrived early. Or at least that's what it feels like to Kara ; it's been so long. "Supergirl. Do you have time for a quote ?"

Aware that she might appear too eager, Kara leaves a two second pause before replying, all the while wondering if offering a full interview with photoshoot would be too much. She opens her mouth, confident that she'll manage to appear only half idiotic when she speaks, when a blast, louder than anything she's ever heard makes her forget everything she might have intended to say. A gust of air soon follows and she finds herself face down in shattered glass, cursing her lack of foresight when the absence of her helmet mixed with the remaining droplets of Kryptonite leads to the pesky shards cutting her skin.

As fast as she can, she rushes to her feet, and turns around just in time to see the top of L-Corp, Lena's office, tumbling down the facade of the building, leaving behind a billowing cloud of smoke, and no heartbeat.

There is no doubt a very good reason for why Lena is afraid of heights, something deep and psychological only the therapist she's not seeing could unearth. In her own humble opinion, it's because she keeps on getting thrown off high buildings. It's nothing but the second time in a matter of weeks, at least the third since she met Kara, and she remembers Lex attempting to push her from their tree house on two separate occasions when she was naught but a wee child. Staying away from great heights is nothing but logical self-preservation.

This time however, she came prepared, and the second she regained consciousness after getting the floor blasted from under her, the Lexosuit was ready to welcome her in its cold and hated embrace, allowing her to rocket away from the ground instead of towards it. Still, she should have been ready sooner, should have been on edge, should have been paying attention. If she had, she would have noticed the giant eyeball hovering outside her window, and wouldn't have lost track of Taylor in the fall.

As the smoke starts to dissipate, she catches sight of Max dangling from the side of the building, sword buried in the concrete to keep herself from falling any further down. That's all Lena can take stock of before a blue and red blur collides with her at full speed, sending her on a downward path again. This new fall is short though because Kara corrects the course immediately and rights them abruptly, words tumbling past her lips at an almost incomprehensible speed.

"You're okay. You're okay. You're okay. You're okay. Rao. I thought- I thought-"

"The suit shields my heartbeat from Kryptonians," Lena whispers roughly, realising just then that the inside of her mouth is coated with blood.

Kara is in her armour, minus the helmet, and her exposed face is covered in cuts and bruises, already healing and disappearing. She's shaking and crying and, Lena thinks, she's never looked so scared. She gets the irresistible urge to kiss her and it's just about the most ridiculous and reckless thing she could do right now but she does it anyway, allowing her helmet to recede to meet her hero halfway in a searing mid-air kiss.

It's both the weirdest and most memorable kiss of her life. It's frantic, hurried, tastes of blood, ash and, faintly, of tears ; and it's the culmination of each and everyone one of her guilty fantasies involving Supergirl and a dramatic rescue. But it's also Kara, just Kara. Kara's lips on hers and Kara's tongue in her mouth and Kara's teeth nipping at her and Kara holding her so tight that she can feel her through both of their armoured suits.

They could hold onto each other like that for an infinity, forever entangled mid-air in a borderline obscene display of affection but a loud crash below their feet draws their attention away and like a punch to the guts, Lena remembers that they're in the middle of an emergency.

On the ground, far under them, Lena finds Taylor going toe to toe with the viking-like warrior who almost killed Kara. And for some reason, they're not wearing their goddamn suit. They're standing at the edge of a newly created crater, constantly tripping and slipping on the rumble and even from there, Lena can see they're losing.

Her brain and body kick up into action so fast that for a split second, the world blurs in a wave of nausea and she forgets to communicate her intentions. Kara however, is thankfully already on it and after pushing Lena in the general direction Max is still hanging patiently, she rockets towards the ground at a speed too fast to follow and trounces the warrior into the ground.

The entire block rocks from the impact and the shockwave sends Lena against her building, slabs of concrete spilling in the street below. She flattens herself against Max, arms raised over both their heads in an attempt, she belatedly realises, to protect yet another virtually indestructible alien.

Very helpfully, her helmet's technological vision informs her that she won't be able to take all the rumble that's cascading over her and warns her, rather nicely, of her imminent death. She even gets a rundown of the major components of the reinforced hunk of concrete that's speeding towards her head. She closes her eyes. If she were to raise an arm and send a burst of energy, she might be able to destroy it, but it would further the instability of the building, and endanger hundreds of lives.

Her senses are overloaded, the stench of blood and ash overwhelming under her helmet, and an insistent ringing in her ears rendering her half deaf ; it's not going to be a nice death. At the very last second though, the world grows unbearably hot around her and a shower of dust descends on her instead.

She opens her eyes to find Ghim hovering protectively next to her, eyes still burning with the remnants of heat vision. She's got a hand buried in the concrete, holding upright one of the metal pole that runs through the building and single handedly ensuring the stability of the upper part of L-Corp.

"We need to evacuate the building," she says, accent sharp and hurried. "Get everyone to the ground floor. I will not be able to do both."

"On it," Max grunts. "If the concrete shower is over and someone can get me to a fucking window."

Faster than Lena can process it, Ghim plucks Max out of the facade and throws her through a window which is ruthlessly effective if not the way she would have done it herself. It's just the two of them then and Lena can feel Ghim's eyes boring into her. She takes in the sleek black suit she designed for her, the House of El crest now spray painted on her chest and gets flooded with a blazing sense of pride that fuels her to do her part too.

"Go," Ghim says like she can read her mind. "I am taking care of the civilians."

Not needing to be told twice, Lena lets herself drop several feet, appreciative, for once, of the rush of air around her, before she activates her boosters, pivots and flies towards the ground, sliding to a stop at the edge of the crater. It's not until she's standing here, immobile on the brink of what is now an almost thirty feet drop, that she realises how eerily silent the street is. So silent actually, that she can hear tires screeching in the distance, the telltale sound of Alex and the DEO rushing towards them. A geyser of muddy water springs up not far from her from a broken sewer line, the only moving thing in the perimeter. There's no sign of the warrior, no sign of the eye, no sign of Taylor and, no sign of Kara.

As she peers over the edge, looking for any sign of life, any sign at all, she doesn't dare to breathe, fearful somehow of a simple intake of breath leading to the entire thing crumbling and taking her with it. Behind her, cars come to a stop, half a dozen, the display in her helmet supply for her, not that she cares. She hears hurried steps, doesn't bulge at all when Alex violently grabs at her arm to avoid toppling into the crater. She feels her stop breathing in time with her, and in utmost synchronicity, their spirits prepare to take the first step into grief when the ground explodes and another part of the street collapses to reveal Kara holding the warrior by his breastplate like he's nothing more than a dirty sack of flour. Both of them rocket into the sky, spilling sewage everywhere, until Kara loops twice in a fancy useless move and comes land a foot away from them, crushing the warriors face in the dirt.

"Don't you dare lay another finger on me," he grunts, "for I am..."

"I don't care who you are, Magog," Kara says, voice distorted by the suit. "I'm not paying for any crime I haven't committed yet, and I'm certainly not letting anyone come after my family."

For good measure, she leans more heavily on the foot she's planted on his back and Lena is sure the bones cracking she hears are not a figment of her imagination. Apparently it really isn't, because after a beat, Alex rushes into action, gently dragging her sister away from the warrior before she can burden herself with the guilt of a rage induced death.

"Is Taylor with you ?" Kara asks as soon as she gets to Lena and unfortunately, the exact same words leave Lena's mouth at the exact same time.

They stare at each other, in the echo of their twin words, and Lena feels like if so much as a hairpin were to fall right now, the entire universe would come to an end.

"There's Kryptonite in there," Kara stammers. "Loads of it. They're not, they're not wearing their suit."

"The eye exploded in my office," Lena whispers, wondering, idly, where she found the strength to speak. "I'm not even sure how they survived the fall."

Kara comes to take her hand and she holds on tight, their armours squeaking against one another. Lena doesn't dare to look down the crater again, instead keeping her back resolutely turned as she fights against the hole threatening to tear at her insides. She needs to stay focused. They all need to stay focused. She would bet her entire fortune and a few unreleased patents on the Kryptonite eye still being operational and even if it isn't, they only have the warrior in custody.

Kara herself stands twisted, looking at the crater over her shoulder and Lena wants to tug at her hand to tell her not to but she can't bring herself to move. Instead, it's Kara who tugs at her, whispering her name incessantly and this is why when she turns, pushed to do so by both Kara getting her to and Alex shouting and pointing at the sky, she looks down at her feet instead of up at the clearly menacing shapes flying at full speed towards them.

She sees a hand first, trembling and gripping tightly at the edge, then a forearm hauling itself up and another, covered in a half torn sleeve and adorned by an antique wristwatch with a white and blue woven strap. Everything recedes to the background, the shouts, the assailants coming upon them, as her own heartbeat fills her ears and Kara and her both bend in tandem to each grab a hand and heave Taylor out of the hole.

Tired from her previous fight, Kara falls ass over teakettle retrieving Taylor from the crater. It's a good thing, because it allows her to welcome Indigo with two heavy feet to the stomach, gaining them a few precious seconds as she sends her hurtling away. The techno-organic villain is sent back to the sender like a boomerang and Kara watches her tumble away with a childlike glee. That is until she realises that Alex's unbreachable secret prison has definitely been breached a second time, and the Empress has managed to retrieve what remained of her original team. They are, as anyone but Kara would say, absolutely fucked.

She scrambles up in a flash, shielding Taylor from a burst of incoming Kryptonite. They're busy repeatedly slapping their watch, mumbling a string of obscenities under their breath.

"I don't understand how it got stuck," Lena says in a frenzy. "It's not supposed to get stuck."

"I don't know how it got stuck Mum !" Taylor yells back. "You said it yourself, it's not supposed to get stuck !"

Lena takes hold of the watch ; Kara takes another Kryptonite blow to the chest. Out of nowhere, or from behind her Kara supposes, Alex tucks and rolls and springs up in front of her, gun at the ready, and immediately starts shooting bursts of energy with enough precision to cut short the next few incoming blasts.

"You were turning it the wrong way !" Lena shouts and Kara glances back to see her turning the bezel a quarter to the left. A fraction of a second later, Taylor's suit starts unfurling from the watch.

"Well how the fuck was I supposed to know that !"

"Because I fucking told you !"

"Language !" Kara yells, though she's somewhat aware that it's not making the top list of anyone's concerns.

"Can we agree to argue later ?" Alex snaps. "Now's really not the time !"

As if to prove her point, this is the moment Indigo chooses to circle back, arms extended before her and sharpened in blades. By Kara's rapid calculations, her own nanite suit won't be able to take the blow.

She doesn't need to however as suddenly, a blur of green, gold and fire jumps in front of her and she gets to see Indigo's mock blades shatter to pieces on the razor edge of Max's sword.

"Why are you all standing like sitting ducks ! Move !"

But Kara finds herself frozen, and instead of leaping into action, she looks back at her family. They could all die today because of her ; it'll be virtually impossible for her to keep track of everyone and unless she stops this madness here and now, she's going to lose someone. If she surrenders, if she makes a good enough show and convinces the Empress to kill her instead of her family, she might be able to save them all.

In the microsecond it has taken her to think about it, the others have already leapt into action. Taylor is trading blows with Indigo, Maxima and Alex are teaming up in a strange dance of blade and bullets, keeping Solomon Grundy at bay after he's jumped over the crater, J'onn, who's joined them in his true form, is phasing in and out of Tharok's sightline, causing the half-man, half-machine to repeatedly punch himself, and Nia, perched on top of Ghim's back, is attempting to block Mano's matter-siphoning with her dream energy.

It leaves Kara and Lena alone, and Kara can barely hear her over the sound of her own ragged breathing. Lena's gloved hands come to frame her face and she convinces herself that she can feel her through the two layers of armour. "We all chose to be here with you," she says like she can read her thoughts. "We love you and we're not going down without a fight."

Taylor flies over their heads in an array of limbs, rushing back the other way in a matter of seconds yelling something that might be : "don't worry I'm okay !"

"The Empress wants your family ?" Lena asks with a peculiar kind of fury. "Well your family is fighting back." She leans forward, bumping the top of their helmets. "Brainy and I will run tech support, you go take down that cunt and tell her green's not her colour. Okay Kara ?"

Kara gulps then nods. She can't prevent any of them from fighting for her, so the best she can do is fight at their side. "Okay."

"Go get her Supergirl. I love you."

Kara wishes she could kiss her, but removing any of their helmets would be unsafe so she makes do with pressing her palm over Lena's heart. "I love you," she says ; and then, she's off.

She flies with a speed and intensity rarely displayed. Most of the time, she's holding back, but today, she won't. She's tired, and she's angry, so angry ; she wants this to end. She doesn't know who her target is yet, doesn't know who she's about to crush to near death first, but she doesn't have to make the decision herself. Emerald Empress moves in front of her giant eye and Kara skirts around her at the very last second to aim for it. She doesn't get the chance to land even one punch.

A gut wrenching scream stops her dead on her tracks.

Lena.

She whirls around at full speed to find her writhing on the ground, the warrior hunched over her, his axe lodged in her armour and his hands around her throat. Brainy is already lying in a pool of blood. She prepares herself to intervene, stomach sinking in its own acid with the realisation that she will be too late that she didn't pay enough attention and that she's going to lose, not just the love of her life, but everyone. Because it's not just Lena.

Indigo is standing over Taylor, their internal organs all over her shortened forearms, and Max just ran Alex through with her sword, and Nia has disappeared in anti-matter, and J'onn is falling lifelessly, blood oozing from every pore.

"Supergirl," a voice sounds through her comms, "Supergirl what are you doing ?" It's Ghim, but Kara can't find her anywhere.

"Kara what the hell are you doing ?!" This time it's Alex, and it vaguely registers in some part of her mind but not to the point of surpassing her single minded focus on Lena. She has to get to Lena.

She tears Magog off her body, crushing the warrior's windpipe in a long forgotten blind rage. She will have his skin for what he did to her. She can feel his armour crunching under her hands, revels in how this joyful sound takes over the cacophony of voices calling out for her. She will save them all, but first, she will avenge her love.

"Kara !" Lena screams huskily. "Kara what are you doing ?!"

Kara squeezes harder. The warrior flickers before her showing for a split second a purple and green armour.

"Kara ! Kara stop ! You're hurting me !"

Kara screws her eyes shut. When she opens them again, she finds her hands wrapped around Lena's throat.

She drops her like hot coal, picks her up again immediately and lowers her to the ground as gently as her trembling body allows her to. She finds the release button for the helmet, barely waits until its unlocked to tear it off her head and forces herself to look at Lena's purple face and bloodshot eyes. She thinks she hears her croak her name. She almost killed her.

She almost killed Lena.

"Supergirl ?" a soft voice sounds in her own helmet. "Supergirl ?" Brainy asks again, his voice very lively for someone whose corpse she just saw. "The eye comes from the planetary system of Ekron. Remember ? You told us that. Light years away from here and home to telepaths and illusion casters. Whatever you think you're seeing right now is most likely untrue."

Lena raises a shaky hand, lays it on her helmet where her cheek would be. "It's me darling," she coughs. "See ? It's me. Please. It's me."

"Supergirl ?" Brainy calls again, "Supergirl, I promise you we are all okay. I do not lie, you know that. Whatever you thought you saw is an illusion."

Lena flickers before her. Magog. Lena. Magog. Lena again.

She clasps her own hands behind her back.

"Supergirl," Brainy says softly. "You are standing over Lena. Behind you is Alex, she's going to put a hand on your shoulder." Indeed, Kara feels a gloved hand squeeze her armoured shoulder. Is it Alex ? She refuses to check, eyes glued to Lena. "Maxima is holding her own in battle, she is winning and so is your child, Lor-El." Kara listens to the flow of his voice, focuses on it as much as she can. Lena stops flickering. "Dreamer," Brainy continues with unrestrained pride, "has defeated our most pressing concern and our friend the Manhunter is also victorious. Supergirl, Kara, we need you to take out the eye."

"Go," Alex says, her head coming to rest on her helmet. "I'm taking care of Lena, I promise."

It takes all of Kara's strength for her to tear herself away from Lena's battered body and she knows she'll never perform a greater fit than this one. As she flies away, heart lurching in her throat, she refuses to look back, instead pushing herself harder until she flies under a cascade of glass when the last windows standing break in her wake.

She shoulder checks the Empress on the way, barely noticing the way she sends her tumbling in a building, and flies straight through the eye, coming on the other side covered in sticky translucent liquid. She loops back, ready for a second passage but before she can rip through it a second time, the eye knits itself back together and shoots an energy beam at her that throws her back far into the sky.

She rolls on herself and tumbles down in a graceless arc, crashing through a roof and down several stories back first. Dust and plaster fill her sight, covering her visor and sending the display in a technological spiral as the suit tries to analyse every single particle floating down around her. It's nothing but dust, but still, Kara feels the walls closing in on her and has to push against her own limits to get back up and rocket off through the building again. She emerges in clean air, take a deep breath of the recycled oxygen coursing through her suit and shoots for the eye again.

She won't be able to do it on her own, that much is clear, but she doesn't have to. Further down, Ghim is wrestling with the Empress and it gives her an idea. She's not the only Kryptonian in the vicinity, the wish she never even dared to hope for has been fulfilled. Even with Kal's lack of care, even with her own mother's lack of will, the House of El lives on, and the House of El will come to her aid.

"Lor-El," she calls, "I hope you don't mind getting covered in goo."

"That's part of the job, innit ?" Taylor laughs, shooting off the ground and living behind what vaguely resembles a pile of nanites.

They fly dextrously, avoiding a beam of Kryptonite to come land a punch square in the middle of the eye. It blinks, and Kara seizes the opportunity to grab one side of it and pull. Taylor mirrors her with no need for explanations, fingers burying in the slimy eyeball in a sound Kara would very much like to never have had to hear.

A screech fills the street around them, so loud and powerful that Kara throws up a little inside of her helmet. Her vision tinges with green as her suit starts beeping from Kryptonite overload. It hurts, but she cannot give up now, even if it's the last thing she ever does.

She doesn't need the assistance of her comms to hear Taylor's pained groan, their yelp reaching her even through the howl coming from the eye.

"Let go !" she shouts. "Lor-El let go ! I'll do it myself !"

"You are very brave Supergirl," a rough lilted voice sounds next to her, "but you are also very stupid."

She turns her head a fraction to the right and finds Ghim sans her helmet and hovering much too close to them. She's green in the face, and blood is dripping from her nose. She smiles, eyes glowing with the beginning of a heat beam.

"I am happy to be like you," she continues, "brave, and very stupid."

"Don't ! Get away you're going to get hurt !"

Ghim fires, and under their combined efforts, the eye of Ekron, bursts apart.

It is not the most pain Ghim has ever felt. She has been subjected to much much worse. This time, she barely feels it at all ; and as she falls to the dampened sound of cries and the world goes dark around her she is just happy to have done her part, and to have made her family proud.