After everything that had happened and with too many bad guys loose in the city, the last thing Kara wanted to do was go back home and rest. But that's exactly what Alex forced her to do, even driving her back herself and dragging her through the door to her apartment. "I'm not a child Alex, I can do this myself" she complained as her sister clung to her elbow tightly.
"Is that right? I wouldn't have guessed from all the whining you've been doing on the way here" she remarked, leading the reluctant women to the sofa. "Now do me a favour and shut up and sit down" she insisted.
Kara groaned with irritation as she took a seat, wincing from discomfort holding her side. The kryptonite might've finally cleared her system but the wound in her side was still taking too long to heal. Until it did Alex had taken it upon herself to watch over her younger sister, mainly to ensure she didn't run off and try to find Hank on her own. "I don't need a babysitter" Kara repeated for the seventh time. "I can take care of myself. Shouldn't you be back at the DEO coordinating the search?"
"Brainy can keep me up to date from here" she replied, taking off her jacket and shoes before making them both a drink from the fridge. "Believe it or not, the DEO can run very well without me looking over their shoulder."
"So you've decided to look over mine instead?"
"I won't apologise for wanting to look after my sister" she said pointedly, passing her a glass of squash. Kara took it taking a gulp, feeling like she was being fussed over by their mom. "I could give her a call you know" Alex said, as if reading her mind.
"Don't you dare!" she hissed. "I can tolerate you but Eliza would never let me leave the apartment if she knew about the Reckoning."
Alex agreed, which was why it was a bluff. Her parents had experience with this kind of trouble and if there was one thing that would unite the Danvers family it would be the sheer panic around an enemy capable of hurting their adopted child. Alex sometimes wondered if Kara got more love and attention than she did, something that dogged her when she was younger, but over time she accepted they were just cautious about having an alien child growing up on an unfamiliar planet. She still remembered the first time Kara came into contact with Kryptonite, the look of panic on her mother and father's face when she was brought in. she was so weak, her skin so pale they could see through her, her veins and arteries glowing green as she struggled to breath. She was in so much pain. Alex held her hand all night while their parents nursed her back to health. She never wanted to see Kara go through that ever again. She hated the mineral for years, even though she understood its necessity when she joined the DEO. She didn't object to J'onn stockpiling it for potential use, but she dreaded every moment Kara was forced to endure it, even in their initial training. She was relieved when they destroyed every ounce of the stuff they could find. She knew they couldn't find all of it, but she thought they had removed enough. Enough to keep Kara safe. Turns out they were wrong.
She slumped down onto the sofa sipping her drink, giving herself a chance to decompress after the day they had. "How's J'onn?" Kara asked after a moment of silence.
Alex stared at the ceiling releasing a slow breath of exhaustion. "I'm not sure. He wouldn't talk about it" she told her.
Kara looked at her inquisitively. "Talk about what?"
"Whatever happened with Hank in his cell? Whatever it was, it affected the whole prison. Affected me. I felt nothing but anger, hatred, wanted to rip into whoever was closest to me. The prison turned into a riot, worst I've ever seen. When I got to the cell J'onn was…cold. Like a statue, staring at Hank through the glass. I thought J'onn had tried to use his telepathy and Hank somehow seized control. But when they snapped out of it…J'onn had this look, the way he turned to me, like he was seeing a ghost."
"But he was okay, right?" Kara asked.
She nodded. "He seemed to be. Hank was more out of it when it was over. But like I said, J'onn won't talk about It." her expression turned sombre as she spun in her seat to look at Kara. "You know the weirdest thing though. I thought I heard him say dad's name."
"Jerimiah?" she said with surprise, sitting up straighter. "Do you know why?"
She shook her head. "I might've misheard it. But it was odd. And then he looked at me, hugged me… I know it sounds strange, but I had this idea that suddenly it wasn't me he was seeing at that moment."
"Well, he did say you're an awful lot like him" Kara remarked comfortingly.
Alex smiled. "Mom said the same thing. Maybe all that history between J'onn and Hank stirred up that night, when he…"
Kara took Alex's arm, sharing her pain and grief. Even though the man survived that night, a part of him never returned to them. To them, their dad was killed when they were children. "I've never really thought about how much Henshaw was responsible for what happened" Kara said thoughtfully.
"I have" her sister grumbled. "I think about it a lot. The only reason I can stomach talking about him is because I knew he failed. Dad's still out there, somewhere."
"And we'll find him one day" she agreed. But the statement wasn't filled with as much confidence as either would've liked. Given everything he'd been through, all the betrayals and hurt he brought back with him, the two of them wondered how much of their childhood hero was left after all this time. Kara stared at her older sister, who stared into her lap wistfully missing her father. "Why weren't you there?" she suddenly asked.
"What?"
"With J'onn. I thought you were both going to interview him together?" she asked curiously.
Alex swallowed the last of her drink before cautiously rising from the sofa to walk to her jacket. "I stepped out to make a phone call" she explained slowly, reaching into her pocket and taking out the USB drive Brainy had given her.
Kara narrowed her eyes at the DEO thumb drive in her hands. It was rare for someone as by the book as Alex to bring sensitive work home with her. She sat up in her seat expecting it to be an update on their investigations until she caught sight of the anxious expression on her face. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she looked back at her sister. "What is that?" she asked.
Alex looked at the USB in her hands, knowing what was on it wouldn't sit well with her. "Hear me out first" she said hesitantly. "I asked Brainy to run a surface level look into Jake, just to see who he is."
Kara blinked before rubbing her eyes. "I'm sorry, I must still be ill. For a moment I thought you said you ran a background check on my boyfriend!" she said. When Alex's expression confirmed she hadn't misheard she snapped. "Why? Why would you…are you serious?"
"Kara, there's something about this guy" Alex explained calmly. "When I talked to him, there was something about him that seemed off."
"So you ran a background check?" she repeated, leaping to her feet ignoring the pain from her side. "Are you insane? Was this because of your talk with him? I understand if don't like him, but this is…"
"It's about that" she replied defensively. "But he is hiding something. Brainy found some big gaps in his story…"
"Hang on, why is Brainy helping you?" she asked accusingly.
Alex sighed. "I needed someone I could trust, who could find out as much as they could."
"I thought you wanted surface level information?" she noted, making Alex squirm under her contradictions. Her eyes widened. "You wanted Brainy because you thought he could find out everything. Alex, this is…unethical for a start! You could get fired for using DEO resources like this."
"I'm aware, but will you just listen!" Alex snapped. "Brainy only just started and he found two major red flags. First, there's little to no record of his activity from after five years ago. Just a few scattered employment records. No social media, spotty resident addresses scattered around the world."
"So? Not everyone uses social media like we do" she argued. "And he already told me he moved around a lot, worked in a lot of places."
"But he's almost a ghost. He travels but only to work? Moving around like a nomad? But before that he had an internet presence, helped in charities, had a stable career in the UK. Then one day he packed it all up and disappeared? And then there's his ex-girlfriend."
"You looked into his ex?" she gasped.
"Her name came up in the file" she explained but Kara was pacing the room in disbelief. "Her name was Sarah Kelly…"
"I know who she was" Kara interrupted angrily. "He told me she died. They were engaged. There's nothing suspicious about it."
"Except I can't find a death certificate for her" Alex said. Kara froze only for a moment, but it was enough to indicate she had her attention. "There's no record of Sarah Kelly passing away in the UK. But five years ago she just disappeared. And unlike Jake, she vanished completely. A month later, so did he."
Kara looked at Alex who had a suspicious glint in her eye. "What are you suggesting?" she asked, shaking her head already predicting the insinuation. "No, no way."
"Kara, you said yourself he was hiding something. And he got very cagey when I asked him about his past."
"Alex, you're way off. He wouldn't have hurt her. He loved her."
"Kara, I need you to listen and think. Stop thinking like his girlfriend and think like a journalist. There is something here that has to be ringing alarm bells for you?"
"I don't believe this" she muttered, shaking her head pacing the living room. "I don't believe you Alex. This is… this is insane. You looked into Jake behind my back, and now you're suggesting… you're insane! This is crazy!"
"The questions are there Kara, and the answers are here?" she said, putting the USB on the table. "Just look at the file, then tell me if I'm wrong."
"No" she said, turning away from it refusing to look. "I can't believe you'd do this. This is… why him? Of all the guys I've dated, why did this one warrant a background search?" She asked. But then a horrific thought came to her. "Have you done this with everyone I've dated?"
"What, no! Absolutely not!" she snapped. "I would never… that's not what this is! I don't trust this guy!"
"You never gave him a chance!" she yelled. "You had one talk and now you're passing judgement?"
"He already lied to you Kara!"
"And I've lied to him! But he trusts me enough to be honest in my own time."
"And you expect him to be honest with you?" Alex asked in disbelief. "You're not that naive Kara!"
"I like him Alex" she snapped with conviction. "I haven't felt this way about anyone since… since Mon'El. I understand this is new and you're worried about be, but this… this is out of line" she said, glaring at the file on the table. "I can't believe you'd go behind my back like this."
"I am just looking out for you" she argued. "If he's dangerous, we need to know about it."
"Right now, what I need is for you to leave" Kara told her, pointing to the door.
Alex stared at her refusing to move. "Just read the file and then you can…"
"No, just go!" she yelled. "Jake is not the threat to me right now. Hank Henshaw is. The Reckoning is. Those Samaritan suits are still out there. If you want to protect me, focus on the people we know are dangerous and not my boyfriend! I can take care of myself."
"Kara…"
"GO!" she snapped, wincing from the pain in her side aggravated by her yelling. Alex went to help her but she pushed her away, storming off into the bedroom. The red head reluctantly left the apartment, picking up her jacket and bag putting on her shoes. She left the USB drive on the table where she knew Kara would see it, hoping when she'd calmed down shed be ready to look at the evidence and draw her own conclusions.
The staging area Eagle picked out for the remaining militia members was eighteen miles out from the city in the desert wasteland, an abandoned farmstead with a rickety barn. The blistering heat baked the brown dirt as the sun blinded those caught outside during the day. They took shelter in the barn, the final eight Samaritans climbing out of their suits and the latex padding sticking to their skin. They retrieved the emergency stash they left here days ago, a change of clothes and some weapons in a couple of duffel bags. Hank stood in the entrance to the barn looking up at the sun, his human eye unblinking as he glared at the orb of light. His cybernetics would need recharging, nothing a few hours hooked to a generator couldn't fix. As for his mental condition, he was still groggy from what the Martian did to him, his thoughts still echoing inside his head. He growled. The last thing he wanted was his memories. But he enjoyed the brief moment he got to inflict his own torture on the alien's mind.
Eagle approached him after a few minutes, a radio phone in his hand. "They want to talk to you" he said, holding out the phone.
Hank looked at it silently. His lieutenant had briefed him on everything that went down after his arrest. The militia scattered, as ordered. Then Eagle took it upon himself to round up who he could and plan out their jailbreak. Hank's transfer to Stryker's Island complicated their plan considerably, but that's when they received a lifeline from a third party. Hank took the phone and brought it to his human ear, waiting for the speaker to introduce themselves.
"I hear congratulations are in order" a familiar voice crackled back to him. Their third party. "How are you enjoying your freedom?"
"You have some nerve" he growled back. "After what your enforcer did to me."
"My associate had his reasons. You were warned about picking your targets carefully" the Blacksmith replied calmly. "Supergirl was off limits."
"If she gets in my way again, don't expect me to hold up that part of the agreement any longer" Hank warned.
"A risk we anticipated."
"So why help my men break me out?" he asked, looking at the suits his tip off helped them acquire. "Why give us this armour."
"Consider the Samaritans a gift. And don't worry about the virus blocking Luthor's initial cope from being hacked, we have no interest in hijacking your plans. Unless you deem it necessary that is." Hank growled. He didn't like the idea of giving this blacksmith another inch. The last time he trusted him he shorted the microchip in his skull to disable him. The first thing he did first chance he got was take an optic beam and bounce it from a mirror to cut it out of his skull. The left side of his dome showed the mess left behind still. "And as for your liberation, consider that a curtesy and a show of faith" the voice said.
"You needed my men to get your man into the DEO" Hank observed curiously. "Why?"
"Our motives needn't concern you. But if it helps ease your mind" the Blacksmith said, "know that the objective we sought will help bring harm to some mutual enemies we share."
Hank did like the idea of that. "They're looking for you, you know" he warned. "They know you exist."
"It was only a matter of time" the voice mused. "Don't worry about us. We know how to take care of business. Enjoy your freedom Mr Henshaw" he said before the call hung up.
Hank passed the phone back to Eagle, who waited patiently beside him looking out over the wasteland. "So what's next boss?" he asked.
Hank stared thoughtfully contemplating how to best utilise his newfound freedom. He initial thought lingered. He wanted revenge. He wanted to spite the Blacksmith and kill Supergirl himself. But she could wait, as could the rest of them. After what happened in the prison, he had a more important vendetta to carry out. "Purge the computer systems in those suits" he suggested. "I don't want them interfering any longer."
"We'll lose the present countermeasures built in" Eagle advised.
Hank nodded. "Knowing they have the capabilities will need to be enough. First wipe that virus. I'll reconstruct the systems myself. Then we make preparations" he said, his gaze lifting into the bright blue sky staring beyond the horizon with a sinister grin. "You should've killed me when you had the chance Martian."