Eliza Danvers cast her eye over the apartment looking for nothing in particular. It had been a while since she last visited her children in the city and always made a habit of checking out the place to make sure they were taking care of themselves. She couldn't complain, the apartment was tidy though in need of a quick dusting. She didn't acknowledge that bit as she put her case on the floor and circled the kitchen. "I hope you're eating more than just the ice cream" she remarked as she opened the fridge, glad to see it stocked after catching the empty tub in the bin.
Kara looked at the half melted tub in her hands and hid it behind her back as Alex rushed over to close the door. "Mom, what are you doing here?" she asked in surprise. Neither of them were expecting a visit for another month or two.
"Does a mother need a reason to visit her children?" Eliza asked as she continued her self-appointed tour.
"No, but you could've called ahead" she replied as she followed her around the apartment, sensing the judgment as she examined their living space. Alex may not be living here anymore but she knew if Eliza found something wrong with it both the sisters would be deemed responsible. "You've kind of come at a bad time" she tried to explain.
"Oh, and why is that?" Eliza asked as she came into the living room to approach Kara, finding her in her pyjamas looking back with a nervous smile. She greeted her warmly rubbing her arms. "Hello Kara, I hope you're well" she said.
"I am" she replied, wanting to embrace her if not for the junk food behind her back. Eliza wasn't fooled though as she wiped Kara's cheek with her finger, scooping up a dollop of ice cream the girl missed. Kara's cheeks turned red as she was given that look she got whenever her hand was caught in the freezer past bedtime. "I was hungry" she said spontaneously.
"You were upset" she deduced, reaching behind her back to take the tub from her. "You always go for the large bucket when you're upset" she said, recalling many times she found the blonde girl curled up in her bed with a tub like this after a dreadful day. She walked back into the kitchen to return the ice cream to the freezer, pretending not to see her daughters miming to each other like arguing siblings do. "So is there anything you want to tell me?" she asked, spinning around to see her girls snap into a normal posture putting on their "it's all good" act. "Any reason you might be upset, or why it's a bad time to visit?"
Both Alex and Kara looked at each other before they both lied "no, reason." She raised her eyebrow, but they stayed quiet and stubbornly stoic. To think these two had started out hating each other when Kara came to live with them. Now they were keeping each other's secrets and lying to their mother. Eliza didn't know whether to be proud or frustrated. "So, err…when did you get here?" Kara asked.
"Today" she explained, turning away to make herself a cup of tea. "It was a last minute decision" she explained as she poured water into the kettle. "It's been a rather…interesting week."
"Oh?" Alex said, crossing her arms nervously quietly pacing into the kitchen. "How's that?"
"Well for a start this man was following me for the last few days" she replied, looking over her shoulder seeing their faces turn pale.
"Are you okay?" Kara asked worried, rushing over to the island in their apartment to join Alex. "Did he hurt you?"
"Oh no, I'm perfectly fine" she told them calmly. "No, it turns out he's a…bodyguard? Apparently someone at the DEO ordered a security team to keep an eye on me and my home. Apparently I could be in danger so they were sent to protect Me." she fixed her gaze on Alex, the director of the DEO, and asked "you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you dear?"
Alex and Kara's eyes met as they realised how much trouble they were in, that Eliza wasn't here by chance. "We can explain" Kara started while Alex's face fell into her hands.
"I don't know what concerns me more to be honest" Eliza interrupted, crossing her arms and adopting her motherly posture she has when a scolding was needed. "That there is a murderer out there who knows about my family and has intentions to hurt them, or that neither of my daughters felt inclined to tell me about him. Instead I had to wring out of the incompetent bodyguard I was given."
"We didn't want to worry you" Alex tried to explain in her defence.
"Alexandra, I am your mother. It's my job to worry about you" she snapped. "Especially when this man tries to blow up my two only daughters!"
Both young women hung their heads quietly mumbling "sorry" as the kettle began to whistle. Eliza chose to ignore it as she strode into the living room. "Now you two make us some drinks and then you can both tell me what's going on. And I want to know everything" she said as she took a seat on the arm chair.
Kara and Alex obediently went to pour some cups of coffee and a tea while quietly muttering to each other. "We should've told her" Kara whispered.
"But then she would've been here a week ago" Alex argued.
"She's here now!" Kara pointed. She sighed asking "is she really going to want to know everything?"
"Including how he was your boyfriend and tried to kill us on multiple occasions? I imagine so. Remember, she can smell a lie from twenty yards."
"I remember" she groaned, recalling numerous sit downs after being caught doing something she should've growing up. Eliza was like the Stasi when she wanted the confession. "So what do we do?"
"Give her what she wants" Alex whispered. "And then remind me to find the name of that incompetent bodyguard who ratted us out" she added quietly.
The mood across the city was tense, like an elastic band waiting to snap. The Children of Liberty had stirred back up old animosity between the humans and the aliens, splitting the populace down the middle forcing them to pick a side. Last time it was toxic, untenable, but this felt different. Possibly because this time there was more people siding with the aliens. It made the hunting ground open season for both the refugees and what the Children were calling collaborators, sympathisers and traitors. The police had been working around the clock to patrol the streets, breaking up fights between agitators in gold masks and everyday folks who were fighting back. A dozen aliens had been assaulted on the streets. Four were attacked in their homes. One family was trapped by a fire caused by a Molotov cocktail, who the fire fighters were able to save in time. On top of that humans calling out the aggression were harassed and assaulted too, and anyone found to be friends of the aliens were targeted, their names and addresses posted on the internet like a watch list. The Children were merciless as they spread fear throughout the city, leaving everyone inside terrified.
Periodically Nia would catch the Sentinel's broadcasts on the radio or TV screens, streaming across the internet through various websites preventing anyone from finding their hideout. She would be wearing the replica of Lockwood's mask and sprouting his doctrine, with a few added alterations making his message for an Earth without Aliens more extreme. She looked away whenever she saw one of them, unable to stomach seeing the face of the monster responsible for Dorian's death. She had hoped to be rid of that mask after Lockwood's tyranny ended. It seemed none in the community were that lucky.
She walked the streets in her civilian clothes, wanting to survey the effect the Children of Liberty have had from the ground level. She could've donned her costume and gone on patrol like Olsen and J'onn have, but she was still shaken from her failure at the rally. She kept replaying the assassination over and over in her head, trying to figure out where she went wrong. She should've made sure he reached the SUV herself. She should've seen the gunmen waiting for him. No, what she should've done was interpret that dream she had correctly and prevented the massacre from happening. Too many people died today and it was all her fault.
It's not your fault the voice in her head told her, echoing what everyone in her life would say. The only one to blame for what happened is the Children of Liberty.
She rounded a corner and heard a commotion up the street. Looking up she saw an alien ran restaurant she liked to frequent, the doors thrown open. She approached cautiously when a chair was thrown through the glass window, the sounds of yelling and shouting now clear to her along with the noise of whimpering. Nia didn't hesitate to sprint forward, rushing to the entrance to find three hooded figures in gold masks trashing the place and beating up the waiter curled up on the floor. "Hey!" she screamed, leaping inside to grab the nearest man and shove him away. The man toppled over an upturned chair while she went for the second figure, who saw her and lashed out throwing her against the wall. Before she could prepare for a fight a large burley blue woman came charging out of the kitchen brandishing a broom, swatting the figures out of her restaurant screaming in her native tongue. Nia followed them to the door, wincing from the bruised rips holding back the astral blast she wanted to fire at them.
Stupid! Stupid Nia! You're not even in costume right now! Her inner voice scolded as she turned back to check on the man on the floor. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah" she wheezed, his expression pained as he rubbed his clammy hand over his torso. "I don't think anything's broken" he said. Blue alien said something aggressive but the man spoke back to her in her language until she stopped fussing. Nia offered her hand helping him to a chair. "Goddamn hooligans" he said, looking around at the trashed restaurant. "Pa would be rolling in his grave."
"It's not that bad" Nia said optimistically.
"No, but it'll get worse" he groaned, standing up weakly picking up a picture frame that had shattered on the floor. Nia looked at it and saw the young man with his family standing in front of the restaurant. "They attacked us last year when they first showed up. Pa refused to run. This was his place, his hope for our future. He died here. Those bastards killed him."
He looked around at the restaurant, wondering if it was worth it now. Nia felt for him, unable to offer anything comforting as she silently turned to leave the restaurant. Before she left the blue alien woman tapped her on the shoulder holding out a bagel wrapped in a napkin. She was speaking in her language. "She wants to thank you by offering a free bagel" the waiter explained.
Nia looked at the food. She didn't want to accept it, believing she didn't deserve it. "Neither of you know me" she said.
"It doesn't matter" he said. "You came to help. That means a lot." The alien held up the bagel insistently, waiting until Nia accepted it before turning around to begin cleaning up the place. "Thank you" the waiter said before picking up the broom and beginning to sweep.
Nia paused at the door, pocketing the bagel as she watched the aliens clean up their restaurant, watching the downcast expressions on their faces. It broke her heart because she'd been seeing that expression all afternoon as she walked the streets. Hesitant to leave, she decided to stay and help pick up some chairs and right the tables. The two aliens smiled in gratitude as she helped them bring a tiny bit of order back into their lives.
It took at least an hour for Kara and Alex to recount, in detail, everything that had being going on with them leading to this moment. Kara was humiliated to explain how Jake had hoodwinked her for months, but Eliza was supportive and listened intently letting her daughters explain the situation to her. She was disheartened to learn how much they'd both been through, and infuriated to discover how much Jake knew about her family and the lengths he'll go. When they finally finished she sat back and took a moment to think about the state of affairs. "And he definitely knows about Kara's identity, and our family?"
"Yes, he knows" Alex confirmed. "And not just us. He knows about Guardian, about Dreamer, about J'onn…he has our names, our addresses, our friends, everything. That's why Brainy put the security detail on you. We were worried he might go after you to get to us."
"We didn't mean to keep you out of the loop" Kara apologised.
Eliza waved it away. Now she understood the situation she was less mad and more concerned. "What is the risk he could use this information to expose us?" she asked.
Alex had been pondering that herself. "I don't know. To be honest, he's known about us for months, maybe longer. I have to wonder if he had any intention of revealing our identities to the world he would've done it already."
"I agree" she nodded, coming to the same conclusion. It's not unheard of for people to keep their most valuable information to themselves for leverage, or for a calculated event. She'd listened to the part where her girls discovered his apartment and the evidence upon it and wondered if the reason he left it wasn't so it was revealed as they thought but to alert them that he knew. Jake was playing mind games, hence why he detonated the explosive to wipe away the evidence. Not only to prevent him from being extradited but to prevent anyone else learning the truth. Whatever he has planned, revealing Supergirl's secret identity inside his priority. "So what is the plan?" she asked them. "How do you intend to respond?"
"The plan is to nail him and bring him to justice" Alex said determined, sipping the last of her coffee and standing up to get more.
"Right now we're hoping to find the Blacksmith, the man he's been working with" Kara clarified, her coffee cold and forgotten.
Eliza nodded. "A more reliable and realistic strategy" she agreed. "Do we know where he is now?"
"Back in the UK" she answered.
Eliza nodded. She could see this boy had affected her deeply. She also noticed in their talk that her feelings for him had run a little deeper than she let on. "How are you holding up?" she asked her youngest.
Kara looked at her and almost lied, only she'd lost the strength for it as she slumped against the sofa. "I feel like this is all my fault."
"It's not" Alex called from the kitchen.
"It is! He's after me and I'm putting everyone in danger. I let his fiancé die and he wants revenge."
Eliza moved from the chair to the sofa to sit beside her daughter. "Hey" she said, pulling her chin to face her. "I do believe we've had this talk about that day, haven't we?" she asked, growing weary of having to comfort her daughter about events out of her control. "You saved the whole city that day, hundreds of lives."
"Fifteen people" she said, but her mother reminded her "are not your fault. You can't change the past no matter how super you are. I've had to listen to you sulk every year for five years about that day, and I'm sorry to say this Kara but I'm tired of treading the same ground. You have to forgive yourself for what happened."
"What if I can't" she asked.
Eliza sighed, looking at her with compassion. She then looked at her other daughter and asked "did Alexandra ever tell you of her mission in Berlin, a few months after she got cleared for field duty?"
Kara's eyes narrowed, not seeing the relevance. "No?"
"Mom!" Alex cried as Eliza glanced at her. "I'm not surprised" she said as Alex raced back into the living room. "She doesn't like to talk about it."
"Talk about what?" Kara asked, looking at Alex.
"It's nothing" she said, standing in front of them feeling very uncomfortable as her mother looked at her expectantly. She knew which mission she was talking about and why she had brought it up. "It's…it's just a mistake I made. It's not… I really don't want to talk about this" she told her mom.
"You should" she said gently. "It might help you both."
Kara looked at Alex, confused and concerned as Alex paced around the coffee table before taking a seat in the chair. "Okay, fine. It was…one of my first missions in the field, when Hank…J'onn was director. We were sent in to stop an arms trafficker selling alien weapons. The sting went off but the target escaped, his men were everywhere shooting at us. I chased the suspect into a blind alley, it was dark and…" she stopped, anguish on her face as she turned to Eliza. "I really don't want to…"
"She pulled her weapon and fired at the suspect" Eliza finished, chocking Kara as she explained "only the person she shot wasn't the suspect. It was a civilian who stepped outside at the wrong time."
Kara's eyes widened as Alex hung her head in shame. "Alex? Why…you never said anything?"
"Because at that time you were still…you didn't know where I was working" she replied, as if that excused the secret.
"Don't judge your sisters Kara" Eliza said, sitting forward to squeeze Alex's hand. "It took her weeks to tell me what happened. She couldn't forgive herself either."
"The man died" she said, looking at Kara with tears in her eyes. "J'onn told me it wasn't my fault but…I couldn't let it go. I went to therapy but it didn't help. I'd have nightmares. I couldn't hold a gun for days after that. And when I did I felt sick."
Kara looked at the anguish in her face and realised she was talking about the same parallels Kara was going through. Now she understood why Alex was so passionate about clearing Kara of her guilt, because she'd gone through the same thing. "How did you move past it?"
Alex chuckled, quietly muttering "who says I have."
"He nearly quit her job over it" Eliza said, surprising Kara.
"What? Why? The DEO is everything to you!" she said.
Alex shrugged. "I didn't think I could hack it" she said.
"She was so adamant not me, nor J'onn could convince her to stay" Eliza explained. "She was on her way out, ready to resign. But then something happened, didn't it" she said, looking at Alex.
The young woman nodded, looking at Kara. "What?" she asked.
"You revealed yourself to the world" they told her. Kara looked at them confused until Eliza explained "you saved that plane and your sister, and Alexandra realised you had taken the first step onto the path you are on now. And she knew you would need her help, so she stayed. She stayed for you."
Kara stared at Alex, who silently confirmed all of this with her expression. "Well I wasn't going to let you save the world by yourself" she laughed. Kara stared. She had no idea about any of this or the impact she had on her family. She reached out and took Alex's hand, unable to think of anything else. It was enough for now. "So will you do me a favour and try not to give up on being a superhero?" she asked pointedly.
Kara couldn't make that promise, but she understood her sister a little better now. She wasn't sure how it would help her situation with Jake. "My situation is different" she said.
"No it isn't" Eliza told her. "You think you failed those people. Failure is nothing to be ashamed about. It teaches us to be better. Can you honestly say you haven't come out of it stronger? Are you convinced you'll make the same mistake again? Either of you?" They both thought about it and shook their heads. "No, because you are both strong and capable people. And if you don't feel that way remember you have each other to lean on. We're a family. And as for this man" she added as she pulled both girls onto the sofa with her, determination in her gaze, "if this Jake White wants to mess with our family, then he'll find that's a mistake he'll quickly learn from. Agreed?"
"Agreed" Alex nodded.
Kara nodded too, falling into Eliza's embrace as she hugged her children. They may not know what Jake had planned, but they were going to face it together. He won't know what hit him.