It turned out having your property stolen by a group of dangerous mercenaries and used to assault not only the city but break out an even more dangerous supervillain before rocketing into space to try and destroy one of the planets in the solar system wasn't good for Personal Relations. Unfortunately most of the public outrage was from the devastating hit to the world's satellite grid that temporarily shorted out communication and wireless networks everywhere. L-Corp had been bombarded by civil suits and treats of class action in retaliation to the massive electromagnetic discharge that disabled most everything in orbit, which left Lena scrambling at her office putting out fires before they turned into an inferno.

Fortunately she still had the world's best lawyers her family money could buy. Her legal team was able to dispel most of these claims immediately by pointing out L-Corp wasn't at fault or even connected in any way to the electro-magnetic pulse so all lawsuits wouldn't make it to court nor did she need to settle compensation. She did however offer relief efforts to the charities that would help the right places in this momentary crisis whilst rebuilding relations with her associates and ensuring the Samaritans were properly and permanently dismantled. What pained her about the ordeal was in order for her lawyers to quell the rising tide of death threats they had to rectify the story and put her friend Supergirl in their line of fire instead. Her fight with Cyborg Superman was the cause of the pulse after all and while nobody was hurt and the villain was defeated the world saw Kara nearly burn through the atmosphere and detonate over their heads. Public opinion wasn't kind to her right now and she had a feeling it wasn't going to get better soon. She could just hope things would blow over eventually and it was her job to make sure L-Corp survived until it did.

But despite how serious that job was it couldn't stop the woman from worrying about the Jake White situation. Between emails and phone calls and organising meetings with her assistant Lena spent hours in her office distracted by the revelations that left everyone reeling. She was familiar with two faced bastards like Jake, like Maxwell, but this one seemed so much worse. Maxwell was predictable. He used Lena to get her tech and used it to further his own ambitions. She dealt with small men like him her whole career, even when they tried to kill her. But Jake…Jake was not a small man. He was smart, conniving, and dangerous in all the wrong ways. Worse still, he wasn't crazy. Dressing up in a suit and running around killing people usually categorises someone as insane, but Jake clearly wasn't. Insane people don't hide in plain sight, or cover their tracks so elegantly. And their plots aren't as layered as this is.

No, as Lena sat there at her desk trying to focus on the work in front of her, her mind drifted to her brother. Jake and Lex couldn't be compared, not by any stretch of the imagination, but whatever scheme is going on it rang like one of his. Jake was brilliant, intelligence, his strategic mind keeping him one step ahead of everyone else. Alex and Lena may have stumbled upon his identity earlier than he anticipated, but now Lena pondered if that was because Jake let himself be found. He was already on his way out of the country. He already booby-trapped the apartment. Was this his plan? What is his end goal?

"I thought that was obvious" her brothers voice cackled from the back of her mind, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up as if sensing he was right behind her. She closed her eyes and shook her head, even as her thoughts took the form of her dead brother to sort through them. "He wants Supergirl dead. Can't say I blame him."

"But why?" she whispered to herself.

"Take your pick" he chuckled, the memory of his face looking back from her reflection. "Just look at all the chaos she and her kind bring to the world. People are even blaming you for her latest calamity and you didn't have anything to do with it. You're a victim, yet once again it's the Luthor's fault."

"Shut up!" she snapped, dropping her pen and sitting back in her chair chasing his ghost away. To distract herself from the distraction she grabbed her remote control and switched the TV on, hoping it was covering anything but the unrest around L-Corp.

Fortunately the news anchor was at the city square where the young man was reporting "…hundreds of people from across the city are already gathering out here in preparation for the rally that will be starting in just a few short hours. The newest candidate for the upcoming senate seat election Dorian will be taking to this stage behind me to speak to everyone and hopefully answer the question the country has been asking since they announced they were running earlier this week; how will an alien run for the senate. Despite the outspoken controversy of the announcement thousands have already shown their support to what can only be described as a historic occasion for National City. We'll be covering the live event all day and bringing you…"

"Miss Luthor?" Eveline Price called knocking on her door. Lena muted the TV and sat up at the young assistant brought her the folder in her hands. "I found the employment file you asked for. I don't understand why you needed the hard copy though?"

Lena took the file from her assistant and replied "Because after everything that's happened I don't trust anything on the computer." She knew it was a longshot and doubtful their database had been tampered with, but given who they were dealing with she didn't want to take chances. Price nodded walking back to her reception desk. Lena opened the file and found it smaller than she was hoping for. Jake's photo materialised on the first page to greet her, immediately putting Lena's back up as he gave her a tiny smile. Even on paper he was mocking them.

She leaned over the table and skimmed the pages speedreading the information recorded. Jake wasn't lying about his employment at L-Corp, that much she ascertained. Jake was a maintenance engineer, a low level junior which even his foreman noted was much to beneath his skill level. He was brought on as a temp under a year ago and stayed on for only eight months. The reason he gave for leaving was listed as "change in circumstances." A handwritten note included the words "family emergency", not uncommon. And since he was only a temp the position was filled almost immediately. There were no black marks on his record. He always arrived to work on time. He kept his nose clean and even did overtime. She noted down the number of the foreman, who was no longer employed at L-Corp, setting a reminder to call him and ask about his work here. On paper he appeared to be a model worker.

"You're wondering what you missed, aren't you?" Lex butted in again, echoing her own thoughts as she looked up at the office around her.

Her eyes fell on the air conditioning unit sitting in the far corner next to the hidden panel to her storage space. She recalled having problems with that unit around that time and asked maintenance to fix it. A young man came to her office with a step ladder and a toolkit, immediately examining the unit while she was working. She couldn't place the face but she recalled glimpsing the lanyard with the name Jake printed on it. She closed her eyes and replayed the memory, the polite smile coming to mind as she stepped past him to make a phone call. It was the same memory that she recalled when she first met Jake have lunch with Kara a month or so ago. It's while she remembered him, that smile. So disarming and natural.

"Makes you wonder doesn't it" Lex said. "How long has he been planning this? Did he come work for you because he had an agenda? If so then you should've seen it, shouldn't you? But then you always were a sucker for a pretty face" he chided, his judgemental face boring down on her. "Maybe if you weren't so easy to fool you wouldn't have been taken for a sucker, again."

"There was no breach in security during that period" she muttered, going over the security report she asked for the moment she discovered Jake was the Reckoning. It came back clean. No thefts or breach in security. Even with Jake's talents she would've found something like that. But she may have missed something so she asked her teams to go over everything again, checking every bit of data and go over the credentials of everyone who came and went in that period. Her chief of security told her it could take those weeks to get through it all in that much detail, but she didn't care. She needed to be sure. Why did Jake come here? Titan served a purpose? Which come to L-Corp.

"Maybe he was looking for an ally" Lex mused. Lena's eyes looked up as the mental image shrugged. "I mean why not? We had a lot in common. It makes sense. Maybe he thought you would be amenable to his cause too?"

"I would never work with him" she scoffed.

"You say that, but then… you would've had good reason to join him."

"If he came here with ulterior motives, then he betrayed me too" she spat.

"Yeah, but he wasn't the first" he pointed out. "And we know I'm not talking about Maxwell" he added coldly. Lena closed her eyes and willed the ghost to leave, but this time it persisted whispering in her ear "it wasn't like he was your closet friend, someone you trusted, someone you cared for and confided in. someone who lied to you for years and flaunted herself in front of your face mocking you. Jake is an inconvenience, someone you barely noticed. Maxwell was a dalliance who used you. But they didn't betray you the way she did…"

She grabbed the glass on her desk and shot to her feet, screaming in defiance hurling the cup at the wall shattering it into pieces. The ghost of her brother vanished from her mind leaving her angry and frustrated. "Go to Hell!" she hissed.

"Lena?" a voice whispered from behind her. The woman spun around and found Kara floating just inside her window having slipped in from the nearby balcony. Lena gasped in surprise quickly composing herself as the superhero looked at the shattered glass with concern. "Should I come back later or…?"

"No! Its fine" she lied, waving Kara inside straightening her jacket. She looked around and considered cleaning up the glass but decided to leave it for the cleaners later. "Can I get you a drink?" she asked, moving to the decanter quickly pouring herself one.

"No, that's okay" Kara replied, watching Lena gulp down a glass before pouring herself another. "Are you okay?"

Lena took a deep breath and laughed, looking back at her remarking "I should be asking you that question." Kara wasn't convinced so she deflected saying "just some work stuff. PR, nothing important." She scanned Kara's costume deducing "have you taken that off since the bomb?"

Kara looked at the costume, still bearing smudges of soot and ash and hints of ice from the fortress. She shrugged in embarrassment admitting "every time I try to take it off it… I'm worried if I do I won't be ready."

"Ready for what?" Lena asked, sitting on the couch patting the seat next to her.

Kara hesitantly sat down explaining "everything. Anything. I keep waiting for the next thing to happen. Jake might've said he's going to give us time to…Rao, to adjust to everything, but I keep expecting him to show up and do something."

"Do you think he's planning something?" Lena asked, staring at Kara amazed at how together she seemed. When she looked into her drink she glimpsed Lex in the reflection and inhaled sharply. "You think he might go after the others?"

"I don't know" she replied looking worried. "He could. He knows Dreamer's secret identity. He knows James is Guardian. He knows you and I are friends. He could come after you. Brainy has the DEO giving everyone we know protection…"

"I know. He suggested it to me yesterday" Lena nodded. "Don't worry, I've been hiring the best security detail for years. You don't need to worry about me" she promised.

Kara nodded, feeling a tiny bit of her weight lifting from her shoulders. But she set seemed tired. Lena guessed she hadn't allowed herself to sleep yet. "Can I ask you something?" Kara said cautiously, almost reluctant to speak as she turned to Lena. "I get if you don't want to, but…I was wondering…"

Lena was able to read Kara like a book, old emotions coming back as she recalled the feeling she was undoubtedly going through. "How did I handle it when I found out you were Supergirl?" she guessed, looking at Kara with a sympathetic expression. Kara swallowed and weakly nodded, guilt and shame crossing her expression as she turned away. Lena thought about her answer carefully before replying "not well, I'll admit. But I do recall the sting it left." Kara winced sensing the tension returning between them. But then Lena's expression softened and she turned back to Kara saying "but the circumstances aren't quite the same."

"They're not?"

"No" she said, choosing her response carefully hoping she didn't scold her as much as her inner voice wanted her too. "You were…you. Despite the years you spent hiding who you were, you never once steered me wrong. Not as Kara Danvers, or as Supergirl. And while I reacted appallingly, you never wavered in being on my side."

"I wasn't sure if you were going to forgive me" she muttered guiltily.

"Neither was I. but I'm glad I did" she replied thankfully. She then took a breath, and a sip of her drink, explaining "Jake is not you though. He used you, used us all, and he killed people. And he's no doubt planning to kill more. He does not deserve our forgiveness, or anything more from us."

"I know" she nodded, rubbing her eyes indicating she was still unconvinced. "I know that. But how did you…how do I handle this? I keep feeling like…I feel so many things."

Lena turned in her seat, asking her "is one of them anger?" Kara looked up and nodded. "Good. Here's my advice. Hold onto it" she suggested. "Hold onto that anger. Let it remind you who this man is. Let it remind you what he's done and what he's willing to do. It will help you focus, trust me. And when he's found and brought to justice, then you can start to heal."

Kara looked at Lena sceptically, considering her advice as she closed her eyes and exhaled. Focusing on one emotions seemed unhealthy, but to her surprise it did help focus her thoughts and think a bit clearly. She couldn't let go of the idea that Jake mind be redeemed, but until they know more about why he was just another threat to her friends. "Thanks Lena" she said, smiling gratefully at her friend as they sat together. Kara took a glance around the room quietly asking her "who were you talking to earlier? I overheard something before I came in" she remarked, looking again at the shattered glass.

Lena looked at it and shrugged. "Just myself. Venting out loud" she said, finishing her drink trying to ignore the judgemental presence of her brother hovering in the back of her mind. She knew he was trying to get under her skin, or maybe it was that part of her that hadn't let go of the anger she felt at Kara's betrayal resurfacing, but she wouldn't let it come between her and her best friend again.