While the young people went off to return to patrol or work, Eliza decided to join J'onn on a walk to his office. He offered to walk her back to her place, asking politely if she was staying with her daughters. "No, I've rented a small cottage on the outskirts of the city" she explained. "I could've booked a hotel room but my security detail advised somewhere more secure. And I'm sure both Kara and Alexandra would appreciate it if their mother wasn't hovering over them."
"I'm sure they would've welcomed having you close" he said optimistically. "If only to make sure you stay safe."
"Hmm" she mused. Her eldest had made the offer to let her stay at her apartment. She had expected Kara to be the one to offer her room, but she realised she was actively attempting to keep everyone she cared about at a distance for fear of putting them in danger. It was heart-wrenching to see her so fearful. It reminded her of her years growing up terrified that her own powers might hurt her new family. She intended to be there for both of them, but she wouldn't let them feel obliged to keep her safe. She'd been doing that herself ever since she believed her husband died.
She looked up at the Martian wearing the face of Hank Henshaw; a man she never trusted, the man who took her Jerimiah away from her. It always conflicted her seeing that face knowing it now served someone who was much kinder and more protective of her family. After all these years she realised she didn't see Hank when she looked at him anymore, she saw J'onn. "How are you holding up?" she asked him. "I heard about Henshaw's re-emergence. He made quite a spectacle."
"He did" he nodded. "But we handled it. Alex and Kara were brave."
"I know. But what about you? Facing him again must've been confronting."
J'onn stared ahead as they walked briskly down the darkening street, the street lamps flickering on overhead. "It was" he admitted reluctantly. "All that history between us…" he looked at Eliza and trailed off, apologetically saying "I'm sorry. I can see how difficult it is talking about this."
"Are you reading my mind again?" she asked well naturedly. It was difficult to talk about, which is why neither of them needed to speak of it. Nevertheless she told her old friend "I heard that monster is currently comatose in his prison. I almost made a stop to see him on the way here."
J'onn looked at her in surprise. "Why?"
She shrugged. "Morbid curiosity I suppose. Or maybe I just wanted to look him in the eye if he wakes up, show that this family is still standing. But I didn't. I couldn't bring myself to face him."
"You have no reason to be afraid of Hank Henshaw Eliza" he assured her.
"I'm not afraid of him J'onn" she replied quietly. "I'm afraid of what I might do if I was in the room with him. After all he'd done to this family, all he'd taken from us, the thought of standing in front of him in such a vulnerable state…" J'onn put his hand on her arm. He could sense it, the anger and intent. She was afraid she might take the opportunity to kill him once and for all. But she was afraid that if she did, what kind of example would that set for her children. He understood her feelings. It was taking much the same strength not to consider the same.
They reached his office just before nightfall, the sun dipping behind the skyscrapers as they stepped inside and flicked on the lights. The room was cast in an orange glow that seemed to warm the pair of them as J'onn to her coat and offered her a drink. She sat down on the sofa and waited for J'onn to bring her a cup of tea, joining her on the seat exhaling deeply. It had been a long day for both of them. "I need to ask you something J'onn, and I need you to be honest with me" Eliza said, putting her cup down and turning in her seat to face him.
"Of course" he said, turning in his seat to address her.
"This boy, Jake White…how dangerous is he really?" she asked, finally showing how concerned she was. "How much danger is our family in?"
J'onn hesitated, wondering how much he wanted to worry the middle aged woman. "How much have the girls told you already?" he asked tentatively.
"The broad strokes and most of the details" she replied. "They told me his fiancé was one of the victims of the Community Hospital tragedy five years ago, which is tearing Kara up. They told me about how he integrated himself into her life, made her fall of him only to break her heart which I can only assume was part of his twisted game. They told me how he all but orchestrated everything that had been happening these past few months; helping Hank attack the city, TITAN Industries and Maxwell's Samaritans, the attack on the DEO…" she sat forward, telling the man "they told me everything he'd done. But what I want to know is the parts they won't tell me."
"What makes you think they aren't telling you everything?"
"A mother knows" she told him, looking pointedly at him adding "as would a father." He sighed, getting what she meant. Children never tell their parents everything, but they always know when they aren't. "They're scared J'onn, I can tell. I don't think I've seen both of them so scared, not even when they were little. So tell me…how bad is it?"
J'onn took a deep breath before shuffling forward, as if he was confiding in the woman a great secret. "We're still piecing it all together. What we know is at one point he worked for Maxwell Davies at TITAN as the lead engineer for his Samaritan project. That's where he designed his Reckoning Suit. Then some time either after or before he began working for this weapon-smith called the Blacksmith, who's been using alien technology to create more advanced weapons onto the street. Jake is incredibly intelligent, our investigation has determined most of his suit was designed by him and augmented by the Blacksmith. He's also skilled in other areas, including combat, explosives, all to a worrying level. One or both of them was able to hack into L-Corps safeguards to override the Samaritan suits. They even hacked Henshaw's cybernetic components."
"So he's capable. Does that make him a treat?" Eliza asked.
"Yes. But that's not all of it" he said. "Did they tell you about Nia's nightmares?" she shook her head in confusion. She was aware Nia was Dreamer and what her powers were. She was proud Kara was taking the young woman under her wing. "The day we first found out about the Reckoning, before any of us knew what we were dealing with, she had a dream of Supergirl covered in blood surrounded by dead bodies. National City was burning, she was weeping, and what she called the Red Devil was hovering over her laughing maniacally. We've been trying to understand what her nightmare has been foreshadowing for months, but it's clear this devil represents Jake. Every time we gleam a new clue it lead us to something connected to him."
"Do you think it's a premonition?"
"I don't know. But she was worried that it could mean Jake is responsible for the devastation of the city or that Kara was. Now we're still not sure."
"Is it possible Jake could attack the city?" she asked, looking out the front windows with concern.
J'onn inhaled sharply rubbing his face. "I don't know. We don't know. That's what has everyone so worried. He has the technology to hurt Kara, kryptonite from and unknown source and a portable red sun generator to depower her when he's within range. I don't mean to alarm you Eliza but…the truth is he could've killed Kara at any point in the last few months" he told her honestly, watching the panic rising in her face. "He had her dead to rights twice, at least, since they engaged. Each time he chose to leave her alone. Even now… I can't help but believe we only know about him because he let us. He left the evidence in his apartment to show us that he knew, that he knows who we all are and how much he knew. And then he tried to blow up Alex just to make a point." He paused to push down his anger, those protective urges coming back to the surface. "He's out there, in the UK we think, and we don't know what he's planning. The problem is I don't think we are close to catching him. He's been ten steps ahead of us for months. He's known our secret identities for longer. We don't know what he's planning. All we can do is catch up and hope we're ready for whatever his next move is."
"And you don't know what that next move might be?" she asked.
"All we have are theories. But the problem is he's too intelligent to predict. I can't help but wonder if he wanted to kill each of us he could do it and none of us would realise it until it was too late."
Eliza reached over and put a hand on his, seeing the frustration and concern in his face. "He has all of you scared, doesn't he?"
"What parent wouldn't be scared for their children" he muttered. When he caught himself realising what he'd said he looked at her apologetically. "Sorry, I meant…"
"No. you are as much a father to my girls as Jerimiah was" she told him kindly. He smiled and they shared a tender moment before she asked him "so how do we protect our children J'onn?"
He thought about it a long moment before suggesting "by making sure they're ready to face whatever comes next, and being ready to support them." she nodded in agreement. So they both made plans to how they could support the girls and protect them however they can.
After an hour of talking, Eliza looks at the time and decides she should head back to the cottage she was staying at, which J'onn confessed was a DEO safe house. She once again declines his offer to walk her back, voting to get a cab instead. They flag one down and J'onn makes a subtle evaluation to double check it was legitimate before allowing the woman into the backseat. They bid each other goodnight before she drives off into the city.
Once she is out of sight of the Martian Eliza reaches into her pocket and pulls out her mobile phone. She scrolls through her contacts until she finds a number she hasn't used since before Alex was born. She knew the man who used the number would pick up just as she knew neither J'onn nor Alex would agree with what she was considering. She glanced at the cab driver, making sure his eyes were fixed on the road ahead, before dialling the number and waiting for a connection. "We need to speak ASAP" she told the voice who picked up, not needing to identify herself to her contact. "I believe I have a situation which requires your services."
Night fell over National City and Dreamer stood on the fire escape overlooking a dark portion of the neighbourhood. She envied Supergirl's ability to fly, hovering over the city able to see everything. The best she could do was climb to a rooftop and look down. And while that always gave the young woman such a thrill, it made her response time inconvenient when she saw trouble. She needed her own means to get around the city. Maybe a motorcycle like Guardian, or one of Lena's teleporter watches. She once joked with Brainy about the possibility of creating her own astral projection of a plane to carry her around, but he told her the energy output would do more harm to her than fighting crime would. Which left her grounded and unable to get anywhere further than a couple of blocks in a moment's notice.
That wasn't the mean she wasn't experimenting with her powers more and more. In training she'd try different astral projections to creating more intricate constructs, until her concentration wavered and they dissolved. But what was showing most promise was creating platforms she could jump or catapult off. She once managed to use one to cross the gap between two buildings, jumping a distance she wouldn't have made on her own. But when she tried again the platform shifted under her weight and tipped, sending her tumbling towards the ground. She was fortunate Kara was there to catch her in time. She had been nervous to try again since.
As she climbed back down the fire escape tonight, she paused at the final ladder deciding to bravely take a step towards progress. Five feet off the ground, she angled her body away and jumped from the ladder, summoning a glowing blue platform for her to land on halfway between her and the ground. Her feet landed on the solid energy, her balance wavering a moment until she steadied herself, beaming with excitement as she stood there hovering on air…until it buckled and she fell through the dissolving construct landing on the ground. She managed to stay on her feet but her pride was hurt, cursing under her breath as her head swam. Something about the amount of concentration needed to suspend that much energy to hold her up made her head spin. She'll have to talk to Brainy about it sometime.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a voice calling out for help a few blocks away. She rushed out into the street following the screams coming from a turning in front of her. As she got closer she heard the sounds of violence, the voice grunting in pain between cries. She sprinted for the corner and found a narrow alley where three hooded figures in gold masks were beating a man on the ground with kicks and bats. "HEY!" she shouted, anger flashing through her thoughts as she saw the Children of Liberty attacking a defenceless man.
The masked men looked up at her and found the superhero sprinting towards them, leaping into the air to launch herself towards them. Without thinking she stepped up onto a small platform she created and used it as a spring board to rocket towards the thugs, clenching her fist creating a glove of energy that she threw at the nearest figure. The hooded thug lurched backwards from the impact, skidding along the ground tumbling into a pile of garbage. The other two stopped beating the man on the ground and turned towards her, swinging their bats in her direction. She blocked one with a shield and deflected the other with a timed backhand before firing two beams of astral energy at them sending them tumbling. She stepped protectively over the man whimpering on the ground challenging the thugs with a cold glare, but they quickly scrambled to their feet and retreated down the alley.
That was easy she thought as she watched them run. She considered going after them but the groans from behind her pulled her attention to the injured victim on the floor. She rushed to their side crouching down, asking the man "are you okay?"
"I'm okay, thank you" he whispered, his voice barely audible as she helped him up. His body was heavy as he put his arms around her, practically falling on top of her as she struggled to hold him steady. "Thank you dreamer" he kept repeating.
"It's okay. Everything's going to be okay" she said, dragging the injured man to his feet trying to support him. "Is there somebody we can call or…"
There was a sudden sharp pain in the side of her neck which made her freeze, her hand shooting up to find the man's hand holding something stabbing into her skin. She quickly pulled away from the man, who she realised now wasn't clinging to her for support but holding her still with his powerful arms. She managed to pry herself from his grasp only to stumble on her feet and fall to the floor, the world suddenly tilting around her as her equilibrium spun. She blinked her eyes as a haze descended, her voice becoming shallow as her muscles slackened. Something was wrong. She looked back at the man now standing above her, her eyes catching the syringe in his hand. He was staring down at her blankly. She started to crawl, trying to get away, but her movement was sluggish and slow. She lifted her head and saw the vague shape of a van pulling up at the exit to the alley, a shadow throwing the side door open. She tried to think, come up with a plan. Her body was barely listening to her. She couldn't fight. She turned her unfocused gaze to her wrist, the device Lena made on her costume. She dragged her other hand too it. But before she could reach it two pairs of hands grabbed her arms. She tried to scream, tried to struggle, but the world tilted again and her voice croaked in response. She looked up and saw the hooded men in masks. She thought they had run away. They hadn't. They threw her into the van like she was garbage, her body sprawling limply onto the cold floor as the figure inside dragged her deeper.
She looked up at the exit, the light spilling into the darkness, her vision fading. The last thing she saw was the man she tried to help standing outside the van as the thugs climbed inside with her before pulling the sliding door shut, her vision thrown into darkness.