Chapter 9

Leo emerged from the portal and into one of Lex's labs his eyes meeting Hope and he handed myriad to her. "Get myriad on and operational Non Nocere launches within the hour. And Hope excellent work preparing the move." He'd past the point of no return, and he was so close to achieving his goal. Leo knew he wouldn't have much time before Supergirl came after him. The bunker began blaring alarms and Leo went over toward the main computer terminal. The proximity alarms had detected Supergirl. "Supergirl found us."

"Don't worry the bunker is led lined she can't find our exact location." Hope replied.

Leo cleared his throat his eyes looking at the screen as defensive subroutines awaited activation. "Wait, these are Lex's countermeasures."

"Did you want to active the countermeasures?" Leo bit his tongue, trapping Supergirl was one thing. He didn't want hurt her unnecessarily. Just what were Lex's countermeasures? "Mr. Luthor?" Hope pressed and Leo's head snapped up at Hope.

"Deploy." He gave a firm nod and Hope activated the countermeasures the cannons firing at Supergirl and soon Supergirl vanished from the vicinity. Leo let out a sigh of relief. "That should keep her at bay." However moments later Supergirl reappeared and the cannons began to rearm themselves. "What's happening now?"

Hope began to interact with the terminal. "It appears to be rearming the cannons with kryptonite."

Leo's eyes widened. "What!? Well cancel it!"

"It's on an automatic override."

"Shut it down!"

Hope shook her head. "It's not responding."

"Shut it down now!" When Hope wasn't getting any success on shutting down the cannons Leo pushed Hope to the side his fingers franticly trying to find a way to shut down the cannons. He couldn't kill Kara, not Kara. He gritted his teeth and soon he had disarmed the cannons. Leo let out a shaky breath. "We aren't killing anyone! No matter how much they've hurt us." Leo rubbed the side of his face. That was too close; if he had been a second off Kara might have died. He wouldn't kill, not again. Killing Lex was enough blood on his hands.

Leo huffed, "We're so close. At this point, it's 99% non-lethal. It doesn't matter now. James is in surgery. I can't help him now." Leo sat down he was too late. Lex wheeled his wheelchair up sitting in front of him.

"Did I ever tell you about my dog, Ignatius? Before you joined our family, he was my closest companion. And when I was seven, he had to be put down." Lex began.

Leo rubbed the temples of his head. "If you're gonna continue to compare James to your dying dog, I'm not sure I'm gonna be amenable to your point."

Lex seemed to ignore Leo's response and continued with his story. "I wanted to be there for the procedure. But Mother insisted that I go on a business trip with father. She thought I was being too sentimental."

Leo snorted. "That's our Mom."

Lex shook his head and firmly said. "That's my mom." He paused his eyes locking with Leo's. Leo had always tried to be accepted even by Lillian. All he wanted was a Mother again, he never got that a second time. "A trip with Father, that sounds like something that ordinarily would've pleased me. But on this particular trip, he brought a woman with him, and insisted that she go everywhere with us." Lex began to chuckle and soon began to cough. He cleared his throat. "So, here I was, seven years old, dog dying, Father ignoring me."

Leo sighed, "Is there a point to this story?"

"At first, I swore to loathe this woman. How dare she take my Father from me at the moment I needed him most? But I couldn't keep my promise. Because she was wonderful. She was so kind to me. On the day they put Ignatius down, she embraced me, and sang me this beautiful Irish song." Leo's eyes flicked up at the mention of an Irish song and soon began to understand why Lex had told him this story. He knew exactly who this woman was. "By the end of the trip, I wished that she was my Mother."

"But she wasn't your Mother." It still pained him to think of his Mother. He remembered the day she died all too well.

"She was yours. I want you to know with certainty that while I came from poison, you came from love. And if the rest of this family stands steadily in darkness, you will always fall into the light. I knew that from the moment I met her." Lex admitted and then began to cough and wheeze. He stammered out his words. "Jimmy needs you now, Leo. You can send the guard back in."

"Leo..." He knew Kara's voice so well and the hairs on the back of his neck rose up. He turned and saw a Hologram of Supergirl in front of him.

"Supergirl." He pursed his lips and his hand went to disconnect the hologram.

"Please, just hear me out." Kara begged.

His hand hesitated above the button to disconnect the feed of the hologram. "Save your breath you showed me who you really are." Leo's hand lowered back to his side.

Kara lowered her eyes and gave a slow nod. "You have every right to say that, but don't do this."

"Do what?"

"Whatever it is you're planning on doing with myriad and Malefic's Q-waves."

Leo shook his head snorting. Of course she thought he was trying to do something evil with myriad. "Did it ever occur to you that I was going to do something good for the world?" Of course not, they were once again back to this age old thought. Luthor's always were evil, they fulfilled that narrative.

"But with myriad people won't understand."

He wasn't Lex, why did he always need to prove that. "Of course you assume the worst I'm not the bad guy."

"I know you spent years trying to be open and trusting even when everyone expected you to be like your family even when everyone in your life let you down even when I was..." Kara took a deep breath her pain evident in her voice as she struggled to keep back her tears, "…weak and lied to you knowing that all you ever asked for was the truth. You were always better, Lex took advantage of my weakness and used it to manipulate you he wanted my mistakes to change you. He wanted you to become him... but you are nothing like him... nothing. Don't let my mistakes turn you into something you're not."

Was he making a mistake? Kara looked at him hoping she could change his mind, hoping that she could mend this. She needed to fix this, she needed Leo to be the man she loved once again. No, this was necessary, he needed to fix mankind. He couldn't trust again. He wanted better people, there needed to be better people. "I am good and I always was. Lex, didn't change me and you didn't change me either you just exposed me to the ugliest of humanity, you did me a favor Kara. I learned what kind of deceitful person you really are and that's what inspired me to do this."

"Leo." Kara began but Leo was quick to shut her down.

"Your words me nothing to me anymore." Leo turned away from her his hands working on disconnecting the feed. "Spare us both the drama and leave me alone."

"Wait!" Kara began but was soon cut off as Leo shut off the feed. He would be lying if he thought Kara's words meant nothing to him. His pain and anger was greater than his logic and that only fueled the wall he was building up between them. He didn't know how to deal with his feelings and once again he was pushing away the people he cared for the most.

She couldn't get through to Leo and no matter how much she apologized he wouldn't forgive her. The man she had loved, that she had given her heart to, was breaking her. She didn't know how to fix this, and she was foolish for believing she could fix this so easily. Still all she wanted was things to be better between them. She leaned against the balcony of the D.E.O her hands clasped together.

"Hey… are you okay?"

Kara turned looking at Alex and sighed, "No. I couldn't get through to him."

"I'm sorry."

Kara slowly wiped away a few of her tears. "You know part of me always knew that this couldn't be that easy. But I get it I fully understand why he feels betrayed, it's so hard for him to trust people. I made him trust me. Over and over again I made him believe that I was the one who'd never ever hurt him. Then he finds out the most horrible way, that our entire relationship was based on lies."

Alex sighed, "Look you were dammed either way Kara. Your choice to conceal your identify, it wasn't born out of a place of maliciousness it was born out of love and compassion. You were just trying to protect your family and you were trying to protect Leo from people who could use that information to hurt us." If this was a normal break up they'd be at home eating ice cream this was not normal. Kara needed to hear the hard truth, Leo was making dangerous decisions and it was up to her to protect people. "And look I love Leo too. I am deeply upset by what is going on but this it… this isn't just two people having a break up this is someone who has turned a corner."

Kara shook her head. "But this is not him this is not our Leo."

"Who is our Leo?" They had to be objectified and look at the greater picture. "I mean he knew that Lex was out of prison and he said nothing. He kept Sam Ariaslocked in a sub-basement at L-Corp knowing that she was Reign and he said nothing. He knows how to make kryptonite and he kept that hidden from us. Leo is leading his own double life."

"You are making him sound like a Luthor." Kara still held hope that Leo would turn around, yet Alex was writing him off as a villain.

"Maybe that's because he is one!" Alex snapped. She sighed then, "We can't put our faith in some distant hope that he's gonna do the right thing. When every single action that he's taken so far points to the contrary, we have to stop him Kara. The safety of the world depends on that."

"He is not Lex! I will not treat him like a villain!" Kara said firmly.

Alex nodded, "I know you won't that's why I have to."

Kara's brow furrowed, "What are you talking about?"

"When you went to speak to him, we used the hologram to piggyback a virus into the bunker's mainframe." Alex admitted, she knew she went behind Kara's back but Kara would have never agreed to be deceitful to Leo.

Kara's mouth gaped open, "Alex, you used me?"

Alex had her arms crossed, "In a few moments Leo's defenses will be down and myriad will be stalled. By then if we have to take more drastic actions claymore 3 is re-positioned above Mount Norquay…" Alex could tell her sister objected against this and she raised a hand up. "and I will give him time to surrender. Kara, we have to start thinking with our heads not with our hearts." She pressed firmly. She was the Director of the D.E.O she had to take preventative measures, even knowing how much it would pain her sister if Leo had to be killed.

The Harun-El worked and James was healed, and it was a good thing he did. If he hadn't come James would have died on the operating table when the power went offline. Brainy, Nia, Alex, Kelly and Kara were standing around James' hospital bed. He was awake but stable. "I only got shot once. You didn't have to come all this way." He looked up at his sister.

Kelly smiled, "Aw, you never invite me to visit. How else was I going to meet your friends? They're pretty great by the way. One of them even saved your life." Kelly's eyes rested onto Leo who was standing behind Kara.

James gave a nod. "Yeah, about that… thank you."

Leo shook his head. "Anyone would have done it. I'm just glad you're okay. Besides, Supergirl was the one that found you. You should be thanking her."

"Yeah." James smiled he had been wrong about Leo. So many times he thought Leo was just another Lex. Kara gave a small smile at James. He was alive, and she didn't have to say goodbye to a good friend.

Kelly's cell rang and as she looked down at the caller id she grimaced, "Oh I know you just came back from the dead but you're about to wish that you didn't because I called mom." She answered the phone and handed it to James.

"I think that's our cue." Kara stated before she and the rest of the gang began to walk out of James' room.

James shook his head. "No, she…" He began to beg. "…don't leave me alone. Guys…" However they just kept walking.

"Good luck, honey." Kelly gave James a supportive thumb up.

Kara looked at Leo, "You saved him."

"I couldn't just sit back do nothing to help him. He's our friend." Leo's eyes soon rested upon two workers that were fixing the lights in the hospital and when the electricity came back on so easily it soon hit him. It wasn't a coincidence that the power went off when James was in surgery. It was planned and he knew exactly who planned it, Lex. "Kara, something came up, I need to get going."

"Is everything alright?" Kara asked concerned over the sudden urge to leave.

Leo smiled. "There's nothing to worry about." He pressed a soft kiss against her lips and she kissed him back. "I'll call you later."

"It's ready Mr. Luthor." Hope replied however Leo didn't respond causing the A.I to turn and she walked forward toward Leo. "Supergirl, caused you a great deal of pain I can see it in your eyes."

Leo was leaning against one of the tables his hands resting in his pockets. "After my family and after Andrea I knew better than trust in relationships anymore." Kara's words echoed in his mind and doubt lingered in his mind about what he was doing.

"All of the anguish that you're going through doesn't seem worth it." Hope noted.

"It inspired Non Nocere, it inspired you." Hope walked back to the main computer terminal and his eyes lingered down to the bracelet on his wrist. He had gotten one for Kara and for himself and his eyes focused on the white bead that symbolized Kara. "Who needs love when you can save the world…" He said under his breath.

"Myriad is ready to launch." Hope turned to Leo, "Mr. Luthor this is your moment shall I activate." Leo stepped forward standing next to Hope and simply nodded. It was too late to turn back. "Three, two…"

"One." Leo said and upon Leo's word Hope activated Myriad only for the screen to display a connection error notification. Hope frowned and pressed the button again only for it to display the same error message. "What's happening?"

"It won't lock onto the satellite something is interfering with the dish's ability to move. It's a virus, it's working through our mainframe. Mr. Luthor the hologram…"

Leo shook his head his jaw tightening. Another lie, her words were just a way to allow time to upload the virus. "It was a Trojan horse. Of course, how could I be so naive that Supergirl wanted to talk."

"If the virus spreads the D.E.O will be able to deactivate our security defenses in twenty minutes. We need a work around before then. We could manually unlock the array."

Leo waved his hands in front of him. "No, Lex has booby-trapped this entire place there would be a lethal fail-safe if I try to tamper with the dish."

"Then I'll go." Hope suggested and without waiting for a confirmation from Leo turned and began to walk away.

"Wait even if you could manually reset it there's no telling the extent of the virus's damage. If we could replicate the virus we could reverse engineer it and override the virus directly." Leo motioned Hope toward the computers. "I'll need some help."

"Very well."

More lies and deceit, if he had just shut Supergirl down the moment the hologram had been activated they wouldn't be in his mess yet again. He had once again been weak, falling for Supergirl's words and caving into his feelings for her. Leo and Hope were frantically working on a fix for the virus. Still they only had limited time and it was an annoyance that the D.E.O continued sending warnings to surrender. "The D.E.O has sent another warning in 9 minutes our defenses will be disabled do you want me to…"

"Delete it." Leo hissed. The ground began to shake violently and his eyes widened. Was this Leviathan again? Now of all times they decided to act now? "What was that?"

"That felt like a residual aftershock..." Hope began to make a scan of the area and nodded. "Yes a 5.2 magnitude earthquake right in the heart of national city."

Leo slammed his fists down on the desk. "It's knocked the entire satellite array offline no way I can reverse engineer anything now!"

Hope straightened her back and her hands lowered to her sides. "I can still try a manual override and reposition the dishes myself."

Leo eyes rested onto Hope, his A.I was so willing to take such a risk. He designed her that way. Still part of her was Eve. "You could be killed, both Hope and Eve gone forever. You sure you want to do this?"

"But it will be worth it because I believe in you. Eve did too, I have seen the depravity of humans, I have seen betrayal and the pain. Let me help so we can prevent them from committing these horrible acts once and for all." Leo gave a nod and Hope left Leo alone while she headed to reposition the dishes. It took a few minutes before he heard Eve's voice though the computer. "I'm here Mr. Luthor."

"Ok careful." If she set off any traps set by his brother they'd either have the whole bunker destroyed or just the immediate area that was set. "Now at the base of the nearest dish there should be an access panel."

"It's locked and the keypad's rigged to blow."

Leo hissed, "Dammit Lex…" Even from beyond the grave his brother was still causing him anguish. "We only have three minutes."

"Well it's a group of satellite dishes aimed at the sky. Lex loved symbolism perhaps the code has something to do with heaven?" Hope suggested, she had all of Eve's memories of Lex and Eve had been obsessed with Lex. Integrating Hope with Eve had been one of the most important decisions he had made. She was highly useful in a number of ways.

"Or hell."

"John Milton."

Leo nodded. "What was Lex's favorite quote from Paradise Lost?"

"Arise or be forever fallen…" Hope keyed in the password and smiled as she gained access. "It worked manually positioning the dishes elevation 14.9 azimuth 253.1 Mr. Luthor we are locked and ready to launch Myriad."

"Great work Hope you've done it and now so will I." Leo launched Myriad. This was it, this would fix mankind, and it would fix Kara. However before Myriad had launched it notified there was a system error. "No, no! What the hell?!" Leo tried to see what was preventing Myriad from fully launching but there was nothing he could do. He was powerless to prevent the D.E.O and Supergirl from stopping Myriad. He'd lost, he lost everything.

The only thing to do was prepare for the fallout. He had plan for Hope to take the fall just in case he had failed in his plans. He used his transmatter portal watch, taking Hope with him into his lab. Leo pulled out a small case and after opening it he picked up a gun. "I'm sorry I failed. I wish there was more I could do for you Mr. Luthor." Hope said sadly.

Leo loaded the gun and then handed the weapon to Hope. "There is." Hope's fingers lightly grasped the weapon in her delicate hands. She seemed confused at first but out of the corner of her eye she noticed that the FBI had arrived.

Hope smirked lightly understanding what Leo meant. "I see."

The FBI rushed in their weapons raised up and yelling. "Don't move! Leo Luthor hands in the air!"

Hope quickly pulled her arm around Leo's neck her other hand pointing the gun at his head. "It wasn't him it was me I did all of it!"

"Drop the gun you're surrounded." One of the FBI ordered.

"Eve, please." Leo begged, he did his best to look frightened for the FBI. They had to fully believe that he was innocent and that he had been framed by Eve. Eve let her grip go from Leo and dropped the gun and raised her hands up in the air. One of the FBI came up and handcuffed Eve behind her back and took her away.

"Mr. Luthor, are you alright?" Leo gave a nod and watched as Hope was taken away. Good work, shame you have to take the fall for me.

Alex once again saw her sister out on the balcony her hands fiddling with her cape. "Are you ok?"

Kara motioned to her cape and let the fabric hang, giving up on cleaning out the mud for now. "Ughh I'm going to be scraping mud out of my cape for a week."

Alex shook her head. "No… I mean are you okay." She clearly meant about Leo, Alex had threatened to have Leo killed if necessary. She never thought she'd be having this disagreement with Kara about this.

"I don't know." Kara sighed. She didn't know if she'd ever be okay again.

"Me either… when the FBI went to arrest Leo, Eve Teschmacher was there. She confessed to the whole thing had proof that she impersonated Leo had proof for all of it."

"I wish that were true." Kara hung her head.

Alex gently placed her hand on Kara's shoulder. "Well we recovered myriad… but you know Leo he's not going to stop."

"I know, but he's alive thanks to you."

Alex didn't deserve the thanks, she was ready to pull the trigger if necessary. "Well and you too, I mean you were right about saving Leo and Malefic he changed."

"Well thank you for trusting him and me." Kara smiled softly at her sister.

"You had a lot more faith about that than I did."

"Well if we can save Malefic's soul…" Kara still had Hope for Leo to turn around. All she wanted was him to be the man she had fallen in love with again.

"Maybe we can save Leo's but that is for another day. Kelly and I are gonna get some sushi you wanna join?" Alex suggested, she knew it would be hard for Kara to be alone tonight.

Kara shook her head. "No no you go ahead." She had no appetite, how could she eat when all she could think about was Leo. What he'd done, what he planned to do. Would she ever get him back? If only she had the courage to tell him sooner, then they wouldn't have been in this mess. If only she had the power to change things then, then she'd have a chance to keep the man she loved.

Author's Note:

So I did update on the cover photo for the story and I finally picked an actor to portray Leo Luthor. The actor in the picture is Aiden Turner, he played Kili in the Hobbit and he also plays Ross Poldark in the Poldark TV series. He doesn't have green eyes but hey this is fanfiction and we can change that. My second choice for a Leo Luthor would be Ian Somerhalder. Chapter 10 hopefully will come out on Saturday or Sunday this week if I have time.