He loved me—loves me. I know he does. He only ever said it once, that he loved me. But even before then I knew it. I was his first child, he always favored me. He showed me his love not in his kindness towards me or affection, but in the way he trusted me above all his other men… in the responsibilities he gave me. And he was my family, he was my father. And I loved him.

It wasn't until breakfast that Kara saw Thor again. She had pretended to sleep when he woke up, and then she slipped out while he was in the shower. Her cheeks flushed slightly when he walked into the meeting room and she avoided eye contact. The group had been sipping their coffees and snacking on the breakfast spread, chatting idly- some member still half asleep. Kara's focus was like a laser beam as she stared at the screen at the front of the room. The room quieted as some of the avengers noticed Thor starring intensely at Kara, and Kara avoiding his gaze like the plague. Natasha chuckled under her breathe and Steve felt his face grow hot with anger, but he didn't know why. Kara was an adult, free to do as she wished… he wasn't jealous… or so he told himself.

"Tony, let's start. We're all here and we've prolonged this enough." Bruce called from the far end of the table, opposite Stark.

Swallowing the last of his blueberry muffin, Tony stood up and directed his gaze to the screen behind him. Without a word, Tony pulled an image up on the screen. The image had been captured through the video cameras in the Iron Man suit. On the image stood an alien man with purple skin, huge and imposing. A lump grew in Kara's throat. Father. Had they caught her? Was this why they called her in, to accuse her and crucify her? Her face flushed red and she forced herself to breathe, to calm down, act normal.

Tony started, "As most of you know, we believe the attack on Asgard was directed by Thanos—"

"There was an attack on Asgard?" Kara cut in, whipping her head towards Thor, eyes wide. Why hadn't he mentioned it before?

Thor nodded, "We do not know it was Thanos. There was a surprise attack and an attempt to steal the tesseract. They were not able to succeed."

"Right," Tony continued, "And we think his next play is to come here for another stone."

Kara looked around the room. None of the other avengers looked confused like she was, "I'm sorry Tony, I'm lost here, what stone?"

"An infinity stone," another picture popped up on the screen of first the tesseract then a green stone, "A man named Thanos is after these stones. He had come to earth years ago, attempting to take the time stone."

"We sent him packing," Steve boasted.

"We were able to hold him off," Tony continued explaining to Kara, "But we think he is coming back, this time with an army."

"And who knows how many stones he has gotten a hold of by now," Natasha added.

All of this information was new to Kara, and she tried to process it as they told her, "What's the point of these stones? And what is a tesseract?"

"They hold immense power, should you be able to wield it," Thor explained. "The tesseract contains the space stone. It is safe on Asgard in our vault. However, the time stone is on earth, and it's unprotected."

"The time stone is hidden away, in a temple in Tibet. The Lu Ri Temple. It is guarded by monks, but better than that it is hidden, hard to find or reach. We are hoping it will be safe there." Tony concluded his slides with a map and picture of the temple, high in the mountains.

"If he gets his hands on even one of these stones," Natasha said, solemnly looking deep into Kara's eyes, "his power could be greater than we could ever overcome. If he succeeds with what he wants and gets all of the stones, he would be the most powerful being in the universe. He could wipe out all life with a snap of his fingers."

Kara swallowed hard. Only one word came to her mind as she thought about how her father would use this power: balance.

The meeting concluded with Tony warning them all to stay on high alert, that an attack to earth could be coming. As the avengers and Kara filed out of the room, Bruce held back, staring at the floor with a hand rubbing his neck. Tony was shutting the room down when he noticed.

"Is there something else, Bruce?" Tony asked, quizzically.

"Tony," Bruce was whispering, and it forced Tony to lean in closer, "I thought the time stone was here… in New York." He looked at Tony, "I thought Strange had it, why would he take it to Tibet?"

Tony glanced at the door and shuffled quickly to close it. He came back and dropped his voice low, "It is, you're right."

"Then what was the point of this meeting? Just a load of BS?" Bruce asked, letting his frustration rise the volume of his voice.

Tony threw a hand out, motioning for him to stay quiet. Begrudgingly, he leaned in, "I need to make sure," He huffed a deep sigh before continuing, "I need to make sure Kara is on our side."

Shocked slightly, Banner pulled away. He opened his mouth to speak, but Tony cut in.

"I need to know she isn't going to run off and sell this information to the highest bidder, I need to make sure she isn't working with anyone. This way, if the temple gets hit, we'll know she can't be trusted."

Bruce just shook his head, "And if she finds out you were testing her, if she doesn't want to help us anymore? What then, Tony? We barely beat Thanos off last time he was here. We aren't strong enough, Tony!" Bruce motioned to the door fervently, but kept his voice to a whisper, "that girl out there is. She is stronger than all of us combined-stronger than all your suits. She is our only defense when he comes back."

"You don't think I know that?" Tony's eyes flashed in fury, "That is exactly why we need to know if we can trust her."

Kara's head was spinning by the time she got to her room and closed herself in. Trying to calm her breath, she paced around her room. She never knew anything about stones or unlimited power, why hadn't Thanos told her of these before she left? If they were as important to Thanos as the avengers made them out to be, wouldn't Kara have been the first to know? Kara ran over her entire life with Thanos in her mind, recounting the times he had trusted her, and only her, with military information. He always told her of his plans. How could he have kept this from her? She tried to remember when he had first come across the avengers. She wasn't with him for it, she had been on another planet fighting giants with her brother and sisters. That battle was a little over a month before she was sent to Earth, and she remembered him telling her about his fight with he avengers. He said he had heard of a group protecting earth, that they wouldn't allow him to rule it out of their pride and arrogance. They wanted to be the saviors of earth, so they let it fall to ruin only so they could 'save' it again, is what he told her. They were powerful, and he said that the last time he came to earth to try to talk with them, they fought back, and he gave up, knowing they were too prideful to listen to reason. That's why, Thanos had told her, that when it came time to rule earth as well, if the avengers were still unwilling to cooperate, he would need to know how to defeat them. But now, the information she just heard didn't match up with the story she was told before she came here. Regardless, she believed the avengers story, wanting ultimate power sounded like her father. His goal was to rule and restore the universe, it wasn't surprising that he had been seeking out these stones to afford him the power to do so. What didn't make sense was why he had never told Kara. She though about what Nat said, that he could wipe out all life in the blink of an eye. She shook that thought out of her head as quickly as it came in. Balance. The word hung in the air in the room, making it thick and hard to breathe. She couldn't shake it as easily. Kara sighed and closed her eyes. He knows what he's doing. He deserves to rule, he will restore the universe, Kara told herself. She might not have known every detail of his great plan, but she believed in his mission. She believed in him.

A knock on Kara's door pulled her out of her thoughts. Natasha opened the door and walked in before Kara could respond.

"Hey, there you are," Nat started, leaning her head to the side, "We were wondering where you were when you didn't come down to dinner."

Kara furrowed her eyebrows and turned her head to look out her window. To her utter surprise, a dark black night sky met her gaze. She realized she had spent the whole day so focused on thinking that she literally couldn't feel the hours pass.

"Yeah, I took a nap," was the only lie that Kara thought could make sense. Kara stretched, genuinely, because she had been sitting on the edge of her bed in the same position since the morning. "I was just so tired from last night."

With that little piece of news Nat grinned and shut the door quickly before turning and jumping beside Kara on the bed. "Last night with Thor?"

"Oh God!" Kara's head leaned back in disgust, "Does everyone know I went to his room?"

Nat threw her head back and laughed, "No, no, I just guessed. After our conversation before I thought maybe you two would get together. Tell me everything."

Kara shook her head, but a small smile started forming, "Nothing happened. We just talked… actually. Well, we kissed, but that was it."

Nat's eyes had gotten wider with every one of Kara's words, "A kiss can mean a lot, don't feel like there has to be sex for there to be something between Thor and you."

Kara nodded, listening. Her voice dropped a little quieter, as she considered if she should tell Nat about how she was feeling, "I wanted more, I know that, I just felt this kind of panic, and I couldn't go through with it."

"Wait, are you saying you have never had sex before?" Nat looked puzzled.

"Yeah, I told you that before."

"Oh! I thought you were just talking about sleeping with Thor." There was a pause before Nat continued, "Why do you think you've never been with a man before?"

Kara shrugged, "I guess I just never really had those feelings for someone. Every guy I have ever gotten close to has been family, or someone I would definitely not like in that way." Kara shuddered with he thought of her father's henchmen. They had never even been remotely an option.

"No one in school that you were interested in?"

Kara laughed. She thought about her classmates in university, most of them in their 20s and decades her junior, "Honestly, I don't think a human could handle me. I feel like I would break them."

Nat laughed as well. She understood that it took a very special man to attract her interest. Not just anyone could keep up with her.

Kara leaned in closer to Natasha, remembering one man she had met her first year on earth, "There was this one guy. He was the first person I ever really talked to in school. He was really sweet and invited me to a party. He was my first kiss, actually, but that was it. I kind of shut him down after that. I didn't want to get too close, you know?"

"I know," Nat nodded genuinely.

"I've never told anyone that, about him, I mean," Kara went on, "It's really nice to have a girl to talk to. I grew up around only men. The first sister I had hated me, and my other little sister was closer to a daughter…" Kara could feel tears creeping to her eyes, and she knew she had to stop talking about her sisters before all of the memories came back.

"I didn't know you had siblings. I thought just you and your parents came to earth?" Nat questioned, her head tilted slightly to one side.

Kara bit her tongue hard. It took everything in her not to let her facial expression change as she realized the weight of what she just said. Stupid! Kara's reality and lie blurred together. Idiot! She told Nat parts of her true story, and she had to rack her brain for the details of the lie about her past she had already told them. She tried to nod calmly, "Yeah, my sisters didn't make it… they weren't able to escape with us." Kara closed her eyes and hoped the lie made sense, that Nat would buy it.

Natasha put a hand on Kara's shoulder and gave her a sad smile, "I'm so sorry… Let's talk about something else."