With the assassination of Dorian at the rally the mood of the entire city seemed to plunge into a depressed sign. The aliens who survived the attack were taken home and left to grieve their friends and family, as did the humans who had to identify the brave or unfortunate souls who tried to defend them. The Children of Liberty vanished into the cracks of the streets. Only a hand full of them were arrested on the spot by the police or DEO. They all spouted the same doctrine as they were taken way, no remorse for the people they murdered or the nightmare they restarted.
The city news turned from curious optimism about the future of human alien relations to harrowing reports of dead and injured in what has since gone down as the group's most violent and brazen incident ever. James Olsen used his platform at Cacto to highlight the bravery of the men and women who stood against this act of hatred, mainly because everyone else was talking about the violence and the re-emergence of the Children of Liberty and their new leader the Sentinel. No sooner has the new hit the airways then websites and social pages were flooded with their message, calling for all who share their views to step up and take back their planet from the freaks and trespassers. Police were quickly swarmed with calls of harassment, threats and violence in the streets as people in and out of masks began attacking the alien population in the city. It was as if time had abruptly gone back twelve months and nothing had changed.
Unfortunate, due to how quickly these events had transpired, most of the super-friends were still being treated at the DEO HQ following their fight at the rally. Kara sat on the medical bed fidgeting, hearing the screams and calls for help with her super hearing desperate to get out there. "Hold still!" Lena insisted, her hand on her shoulder holding her down as she shined a bright light in her eyes. The only reason she was able to keep Supergirl in place was the kryptonite still in her system, thanks to the aerosol weapon the children used on her. Lena had already determined it had spread through her lungs and into her bloodstream, and while not fatal it seemed it would still weaken her considerably until it was vented out. She prepped an injection that she hoped would cleanse it within an hour, stabbing it into Kara's arm almost effortlessly. "Ow!" she cried.
"And that's why you'll be safer staying here for the moment" Alex said, standing by the doorway with her hands on her hips, a worried expression on her face. She looked at Lena asking "she will be fine right?"
"I've analysed the kryptonite levels and, bizarrely, there's only enough in there to hinder her" she replied. "I'd have thought people like the Children of Liberty would've been carrying weapons to kill."
"They were" Kara said, her tone giving away how frustrated she was. She'd been on the verge of angry ever since the Sentinel got away and left them with over twenty people dead at the rally. "How did this happen?" she asked, looking through the glass doors to the monitors in the war-room covering the chaos they left behind. "How didn't we see this coming?" she wondered.
"I don't know" Alex said with a sigh, looking at the screens as her agents worked to catch up. Unfortunately the answer was pretty simple; their focus was elsewhere. They were so busy chasing Jake and the Blacksmith they missed the indications that a group like this were reforming under their noses. Alex had been kicking herself and dodging calls from the media all afternoon. They had assumed the movement disbanded after Lockwood's death and it came out Lex was secretly controlling their agenda. Looking at the response and rise in assaults the movement wasn't as dead as they had hoped. But now they were back Alex was determined to make sure they stayed gone. They'd dismantled it before, they could do it again.
That being said, she wasn't blind to just how heavy a blow the Children had struck this time. She walked out of the medical room to let Lena finished with Kara so she could check on Nia who was sitting mutely at one of the tables. Brainy was with her, hovering between his tablet and staying by her side. J'onn was also nearby, sitting quietly analysing the situation. James had stepped out to run some phone calls to Cacto, keep the network running and so on. She approached the mute Dreamer and found her still fiddling with the pin she's taken from Dorian's body. It was covered in blood. Alex looked at J'onn who stood up to greet her. "How's she doing?" she asked quietly.
"Physically she didn't get a scratch" he told her before casting a concerned glance in her direction. "Emotionally… losing Dorian like that was upsetting."
"I'm sorry" she said, wishing she could've been there. Maybe she could've helped. "Was there any warning? Something we missed?"
"There had been rumblings on the streets" he said solemnly. "A few refugees voiced concern about feeling watched or threatened. Over the last few weeks though they died down, like the danger had suddenly passed."
"Or just laying low to regroup" she hypothesised, feeling like an idiot. "We should've been watching. This was our jurisdiction. If I hadn't been so focused on Jake…"
"Nobody was prepared for this" he told her. "Not us, not the police, nobody. What the Children of Liberty did was so… so violent nobody could've predicted it."
"We should have" Kara said, stumbling out of the medical lab clutching the table. She still looked green and on the verge of collapsing, prompting Alex to run to her side but the younger Danvers sister shrugged her off. "We should've stopped it. I should've been there."
Alex could see her sister was about to start spiralling into self-blame again, preparing another speech about how she can't prevent every disaster. But her voice got cut off when Dreamer suddenly spoke up saying "why weren't you?"
The quiet voice shocked everyone as they turned to see the young woman hadn't lifted her gaze. But her eyes were focused staring at the blood on the pin, yet staring through it at the same time. The accusation was clear in her voice and it cut deep into Supergirl who looked away ashamed. "This isn't your fault Kara" Alex said anyway, turning back to Kara only for the woman to retort "it never is, is it? So why does it feel like I can't do anything right?"
"Nobody is saying that" Lena said comfortingly.
"Aren't we?" she said, looking at Lena suddenly with a confronting glare. Lena blinked surprise as Kara said "I heard the press releases you sent out on behalf of your company. How L-Corp has nothing to do with what happened with Hank and the Samaritans."
Lena fell silent as she was hit with a wave of guilt. She had hoped they wouldn't have bothered her, or that she'd understand… "Kara, I'm sorry…"
"Or what about you?" she suddenly asked Alex.
"Me?" she asked.
"The reason you couldn't get Jake back from the UK" she said coldly. "It wasn't just public relations, was it? They don't trust me, and have been actively blaming me for the mess we're all in. don't they know I'm trying my best Alex!"
"Hey, don't get mad at me!" she snapped back.
At that moment James arrived back in the main room finishing his phone call seeing the start of the argument. "What's going on?" he asked the people standing around watching the confrontation.
The others barely had time to explain or say anything when Alex shouted "we wouldn't be in this mess if you didn't keep flying off."
"I was looking for the Blacksmith!"
"No, you were what you always do when things start getting complicated. You run off and try and fix everything by yourself. And every time I have to pick up the pieces and hope you don't mess up again."
"At least I was being more proactive then you" she snapped. "You think shouting at a bunch of computers is going to make either of them just appear?"
"I was looking for evidence, like a professional investigator would" she argued. "I'm been grinding my ass trying to get any lead on the Blacksmith, his suppliers, his distribution while also putting together a case to put your boyfriend in jail!"
"He's not my…"
"Please, can we both calm down" Lena interjected stepping between the squabbling siblings. She looked at them both sternly telling them "it's been a long day, but we've all been doing our bit to find these guys?"
"No, we have" Alex snapped. "You've been hiding out in your office making your stock brokers happy."
Lena turned back to the redhead, her expression suddenly turning cold. "That is not true" she retorted.
"No? Well forgive me, it's hard to tell. It must be because I'm up to my eyeballs trying to find any sources of kryptonite these bad guys keep getting their hands on. Any thoughts?"
"I already told you I don't know" Lena scoffed. "And I'm not in the mood for the insinuation" she added in warning.
"I'm not insinuating anything. I'm asking if you found any of your brother's old hideouts. Maybe he left some of his stockpile to the family?"
"Alex!" James shouted in objection.
"It's a valid question?" she said as Lena turned away in outrage.
"This isn't about her!" he argued, getting caught up in the suddenly hostility of the argument. He then turned to Kara and told her "nobody is at fault for what happened except the Children of Liberty."
"Who shouldn't even be out there!" she said, seething with anger. "I don't understand how after all this time things keep going backwards. It's like we're not making a difference!"
"We are, even if some of us are just making things worse like building war suits" Alex scoffed, seeing Lena storm back into the room.
She barged past the director and slammed a briefcase down onto the circular table in the middle of the room. "You want to know what I've been up to?" she asked, ripping open the case and revealing the collection of gadgets within. Everyone saw a collection of wristwatches and communicators designed for their costumes. "Between meetings my efforts have been put into upgrading the signal watch Kara gave me. I made these for all of us. They're all linked to each other so why you activate them everyone gets alerted, not just Supergirl." she grabbed one out of the case and shoved it into Alex's hands. "Don't think I don't contribute to this teams because I've been breaking my neck making sure those war suits don't threaten everyone again!"
"Easy to say after they've done their worst" Alex spat.
"THAT IS ENOUGH!" J'onn suddenly bellowed, his eyes glowing bright red as his form grew to twice his size, his voice booming over the room shaking the furniture. Everyone suddenly stopped frozen by the intensity of his voice, looking up at him as he stared down disapprovingly. "That is enough!" he repeated, shrinking back to his human size glaring at the lot of them. He stared most intently at Alex and Kara, who looked down shameful. Even Lena averted her gaze. "This is not the time to squabbling like children" he said, addressing everyone equally. "This is not the time to fight amongst ourselves. I understand the last few days have been stressful, and we've all been dealing with it in our own way the best we can. But we cannot take it out on each other, no matter how hurt we feel." He looked down briefly at Dreamer, who finally looked up with remorse for starting the argument. "If we are to protect the city and its people out there, we first need to put our trust in each other. No matter what, we are a team" he told them. "We are a family" he told the Danvers sisters.
The group looked at each other, the fight now gone leaving only the humiliation and the guilt. Kara looked at her sister and meekly said "I'm sorry."
Alex looked at her, and at Lena, begrudgingly muttering "I'm sorry."
Lena exhaled deeply. "I'm sorry too" she said.
James muttered his own apology as he walked over and looked at the signal devices Lena made for them. "These look good" he told her, taking one he guessed was for him because it matched his father's watch. "Thank you" he said. She smiled, passing out the others making sure everyone got one before syncing them to each other.
Kara slumped against the war table, feeling lightheaded now that the adrenaline had worn off. She fell into a coughing fit, feeling the kryptonite slowly clearing her body. Lena's serum was working. She looked closed her eyes and rubbed her chest, shaking off the burning irritation as the cries for help died down. Most of the calls had been heard by first responders and good Samaritans in the city. But it still left a few unheard. "I still to get out there" she said.
"You will" J'onn said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "But only once you get your strength back" he insisted.
Kara realised she wasn't going to win any argument today so she gave up and remained seated. She looked over at Dreamer, still in her seat silent as a mouse. She rolled the chair over and came up next to her. "It wasn't that I didn't want to be there" she said apologetically. "I just thought…thought it'd be safer if I wasn't, in case…"
Dreamer closed her eyes and suddenly broke into tears. She had been sitting there trying to make sense of the incident since it happened. At some point her mind fixed on the idea that if Supergirl was there the Children of Liberty wouldn't have dared attack. But she hadn't considered Kara was staying away out of fear of Jake or his plans impacting the city. Hearing her say that made her feel worse and realise she'd been projecting her anger at the wrong person. She looked at Kara whispered "I'm sorry" before the blonde woman put her arms around her. After a moment she confessed "I wasn't mad at you. Last night I had a dream this would happen."
Kara's eyes widened as she looked at her. "A dream? You mean like..."
She shook her head. "I would've told you if it was" she said, though she wanted to tell her anyway. "I didn't realise what it meant. I just chose to ignore it because I wanted today to be about something good. If I hadn't, maybe I could've…" she looked back at the pin, tears falling down her face. "It's not fair! Dorian was safe. I them out, they were at his car. I thought I had…"
"I know" Kara sighed, the same eating at her as she pulled Nia into a hug. The woman sobbed into her shoulder finally letting the emotions in. Kara was on the verge of tears herself. "I know" she whispered, understanding her despair.
Alex saw Kara comforting Nia and felt her own emotions rising to the surface, pushing them down to return to focus. "Okay, I guess I just have once question" she put to the group, overhearing Dreamer mention her dream so tried to loop her in too. "Is it possible the Children of Liberty are connected to our current targets?"
"Unlikely" Brainy remarked, pausing to give Nia a squeeze on her shoulder before explaining "Jake already explicitly stated his vendetta is against Supergirl and not the alien population. There's a stronger probability that this incident is unrelated."
"What about the kryptonite weapons?" she asked.
"At the rate they've been appearing on the streets, they could've acquired it from anywhere" James said.
Lena wasn't convinced. "They could be buying directly from the Blacksmith" she proposed. "But I'll have to agree with Brainy, this doesn't fit Jake's kind of outfit."
"I agree" J'onn nodded.
"Yeah, but Jake has instigated attacks before" Alex argued, referring them to Hank Henshaw and the Samaritan.
"He's helped supply Hank with his weapons but they were going to happen one way or another" J'onn argued back. "So far anything the Reckoning has been involved in was to serve a greater agenda. I don't see what the assassination of Dorian give him."
"Yet" she countered. "There could be more going on…"
"No, Alex, they're right" Kara said stepping up to the table. Alex looked at her but she explained "I know it's hard to believe, but I've been asking myself the same thing all day. And I can't see anything. This could just be a coincidence. Besides, he said he was going to give us some time without him" she added unconvincingly.
"And we're supposed to believe anything he told you?" Lena asked.
"Considering he's still in the UK as of this moment, I'm inclined to say he's kept his word" Brainy reported casually. He then stood before the group and motioned to his tablet. "Also, I've completed my investigations into his background and believe I've ascertained the reason why he's been doing all of this.