Kara was tired. Constantly tired as of late. She finds herself slumping over her desk when she can't read the text on her screen anymore. It's been a week since her incident with Max, and things have been quiet since. Lucy and Alex were running surveillance on him, attempting to figure out his angle before he makes his next move on Supergirl. Kara wasn't very happy with DEO agents risking themselves by following Max around, but wasn't given much say on the issue, because Lucy just declared that she's protecting her assets.

She hears a blast in the distance, and immediately jumps to action. Her phone goes off as soon as she takes to the air.

"Supergirl, it's an alien. Wait for DEO backup before engaging," Lucy commands.

"You know I actually don't work for you, right?" Kara answers sarcastically, "I'm not gonna stand by if it's hurting people, Lucy," Kara answers as she arrives to the scene. The commotion was coming from inside a building, and people were rushing out. She uses her x-ray vision to find the alien. "There are too many people, I'm gonna try and lead him out."

"I repeat, Supergirl, standby. We have been tracking him, and we already have a plan of action to minimalize civilian casualties," Lucy insists.

"Minimalize? Lucy I'm there right now, no one has to get hurt," Kara charges forward not waiting to hear Lucy's response. Punch now, think later, she says to herself as she hurls herself at the red creature. She hurls them both out of the building, and they fall to the ground with a thud. Kara is surprised to feel pain in her back from the fall.

Before she can get up, the alien was already attacking her, throwing punch after punch. He mostly misses as Kara uses her super speed to evade his attacks, but he manages to land a punch or two at the end. He turns his attention to the building again, but Kara uses her heat vision to distract. His skin glows, and his size increases.

"Bad move, bad move," Kara says out loud, and touches the ear piece, "Lucy what do we know about this thing?"

"Oh now you ask," Lucy answers irritated, "we don't know the name, but he derives his powers from fire. He's been attacking building at the city's edge with old gas lines. Very flammable."

Kara uses her freeze breath this time, but ends up coughing after a few seconds.

"Supergirl! Are you alright?" The creature grips Kara by her neck before she can answer. She tries to use her super strength to break free, but it doesn't seem to be very effective.

"Kara Zor-El," the creature sneers.

"Oh for Rao's sake, let me guess. My mother sentenced you to Fort Rozz, and you're mad at me for it," Kara finally breaks free and flies the creature right into a building.

Before she can make another move, she hears shots being fired at the creature. She rolls her eyes at what the DEO thinks is a good plan, till she notices the blue impact the bullets leave on the creature's skin. In anger, the creature lunges at the DEO agents, and throws 2 of them into a wall. As the bullets continue, the creature starts shrinking in size, until he's as small as a human. Kara recognizes Alex as she knocks the creature out and apprehends him, leaving a couple of agents to lead him away.

"Alpha team, secure the parameter. Bravo, look for survivors and injured," Alex barks her orders and walks towards Kara. She was pissed at her sister for not following orders. A recurring theme as of late.


Back at the DEO, the tension between the 3 most powerful women in the room had all agents quiet.

"Supergirl, you can't keep doing this!" Alex says angrily.

"We had a tight plan," Lucy adds as she surveys the damage from the fight on the screens.

"Well obviously your plan wasn't tight enough," Kara answers angrily, "He was going to kill those people if I didn't interfere."

"And look how that ended. A building got destroyed, 2 DEO agents and you got hurt," Alex points at the bruising around Kara's neck.

"I don't get hurt Alex," Kara replies despite feeling the soreness around her neck, "and those agents wouldn't have gotten injured if you had just let me handle it. I did just fine saving the world on my own during Myriad."

Lucy saw that Alex was about to lash out so decided to interfere, "And we are all grateful for you, AND J'onn, Supergirl."

Alex doesn't take the moment to calm down, "Is this what this about?" Alex asks incredulously, "Some hero complex from saving the world? The DEO has been doing that for years, long before you, and even I joined."

"And how effective was the DEO, when Hank and you were arrested, and the army took over, or when its acting-director, who actually works for the army in case anyone is forgetting," Kara waves at Lucy, "was about to release all the prisoners, and her father wanted to drop a bomb on the city," Kara felt her anger surging through her entire body, but paused when she saw the hurt on Lucy's face. She knew that Lucy had been feeling guilty about her actions under Myriad, and her conflicting feelings when it comes to her father, General Lane. They have talked about this, Kara had assured her it wasn't her fault.

Alex immediately stepped in, even taking a physical step in front of Lucy, as if physically protecting her from the emotional blow, "You know that's not fair."

Kara felt her anger drain as she saw her sister protecting someone from her. Alex always defended her, not this way. She felt her tiredness take over, her neck was not healing as fast as it should have, "I know… I'm sorry, Lucy," Kara apologizes but sees the damage has been done. Lucy wasn't just the director of the DEO, she was her friend. "I just… I am just gonna go." Kara retreats before Alex or Lucy can stop her.

"Vasquez, I want a complete mission report on my desk before the end of the day," Lucy orders and stalks out.

"Yes ma'am," Vasquez answers and looks at Alex, who nods.

Alex follows Lucy to one of the conference rooms. Lucy was breathing heavily, trying to keep her emotions under control. This was not the first time someone doubted her abilities, or judged her by her father. It was the first time it came from a friend though.

"Luce…" Alex can see how hurt Lucy was, "She didn't mean it…"

"Of course she did. Don't think I don't know that's what everyone at the DEO thinks," Lucy let's Alex see her tears. "I'm not one of you, Alex."

"But you are!" Alex wipes the tears from her face, "You are not your father! You've proved yourself over and over. We trust you. We've been implementing your strategies, and have not failed to apprehend a single alien we were after since you took charge."

"But Kara—"

"Kara knows this!" Alex insists, "She has talked to you about this. I don't know what's up with her right now, but you did nothing wrong," Alex takes one more step closer to Lucy, "You are Major Lucy Lane, decorated soldier of the United States Army, and current director of the DEO. You are perfect." She closes the distance between them and kisses her softly, then hugs her. Lucy immediately relaxes in Alex's embrace.

There wasn't anything official between them yet, but they have been growing closer and closer since Alex returned to the DEO. After long days of working, they would end up at Lucy's or Alex's just to finish up paperwork as they ate. They were both workaholics, but soon enough the paperwork was forgotten, and they found themselves talking about each other's lives, about the army, about growing up with a sibling that overshadows everything they did, about literature, and favorite movies.


Kara lands on Cat's balcony in CatCo. She wasn't paying attention when she was flying and somehow ended up there. Somehow she always ended up there. She looks up at the city view from the balcony. It always amazed her how when she was flying, everything seemed so small, but from her position now, everything was big enough to engulf her.

"I should start charging you for using this balcony," Cat's voice startles her. She didn't hear her despite all her super senses.

"I should start charging royalties," Kara half-heartedly replies pointing at the symbol on her chest, which has become one of CatCo's main sources of revenue these days.

"Something tells me money is not what you are after," Cat stands next to Supergirl, to overlook the city. She rests her glass of bourbon on the ledge, "something on your mind?"

These late night conversations had become more frequent since Myriad. Supergirl ends up on her balcony, and they talk in metaphors, sometimes not, sometimes about nothing, sometimes about everything.

"You're here late," comes Kara's reply.

So it was a talk about nothing kind of night, Cat muses. "We both have jobs to do."

Kara snorts, "Apparently I'm not doing a really good job at mine."

"The alien from this afternoon?" Cat's question turns Kara surprised, allowing Cat to see her injured neck.

"That made the news…" Kara ducks her head at Cat's lingering gaze.

"Anything you do is, you know that..." Cat inches towards the girl, "Are you alright? Maybe you should go home and sleep, Supergirl." Cat longed to call the girl by her name. End the charade. But she knew this wasn't what Kara wanted. So she keeps quiet, just so she can be there for the girl, a comfort for the superhero in nights like this.

"I don't feel very super lately," came Kara's reply.

"Whether you feel it or not, what matters is what the people think. Draw your strength from them."

"I don't think they appreciate—"

"I think the city appreciates you plenty, Supergirl. You saved our world. I don't know how it is on your planet, but that's what putting a statue of a hero in the middle of the city means." Cat answers almost bored, referring to the statue of Supergirl that has been put up after the whole Myriad fiasco.

"Was."

"What?"

"How it was on my planet…" Kara corrects, "We didn't put up statues of people. No one was a hero there," Kara looks at Cat, eyes filled with tears, "No one saved my world."

Kara shoots in the air before Cat can reach out to her, not allowing herself the comfort she knew the other woman would offer. She didn't deserve the comfort tonight.


Next morning at CatCo, all employees were tuned in to an interview on the TV with Maxwell Lord.

Cat rolls her eyes as she exits her elevator, "Who decided that Max Lord deserved that much screen time at my company?"

Cat enjoys seeing her employees immediately scramble. Her assistant, Jill was it? Ran up to her with a cup of coffee.

"Your coffee Miss Grant," Cat frowned at how unfamiliar that sounded. Why did she promote Kara again?

Cat takes a sip, and narrows her eyes at the girl, "This is surprisingly not terrible." That was as good as compliment as the assistant was going to get. Cat notices Kara standing in the back, sipping from her own cup of coffee. Pumpkin spice latte, no doubt. The girl makes eye contact briefly then ducks her head with a blush.

"Don't get me wrong, I have worked with Supergirl during Myriad. There's no doubt that she saved the day, despite her questionable methods," comes Max's voice from the TV.

"Questionable methods?" Cat asks no one in particular as she stops looking at Kara and enters her office, finally understanding why her employees were watching this. He was making some ridiculous statement about Supergirl. Again.

"But as I said before, this sort of power cannot remain unchecked. If anything, Supergirl has proved to us how much power she has. How much more advanced these aliens are. All of National City was under mind control, and if I hadn't already taken experimental protective measures and didn't fall under the control of Myriad, who knows what would've happened? What Supergirl would've chosen to do? What if unmonitored, she had decided to join the other Kryptonians to rebuild THEIR dead planet on OUR earth?"

"Oh for goodness sake, the man wanted to nuke the city," Cat turns around to find Kara, but isn't surprised that the girl isn't there anymore. Maybe she went to give Max Lord a piece of her mind, Cat hoped.


At the DEO, Max's face was plastered across the big screen. Everyone angrily watching the interview. Supergirl was their hero, and they were all in her debt. No matter what.

"Whatever government agency Supergirl works with, do we actually believe that she takes orders from them?"

"Is he seriously going to expose the DEO to the public?" Vasquez asks nervously.

"No," Lucy answers, "he was working with the army during Myriad. The DEO technically is part of the army now." A few agents grunt in anger at the last part.

"Listen to this, and tell me that the public can guarantee that Supergirl won't go rogue again. We all do remember that incident, right?"

"You were the cause of that incident," Alex says angrily. She wished she was right there so she can just punch him in the face.

"Supergirl, it's an alien. Wait for…backup before engaging."

"You know I actually don't work for you, right?"

Everyone gasps in shock at what they're hearing. The recording was ragged, and the Lucy's voice a little distorted, but the agents recognized the conversation that took place over the comms the previous day.

"I'm gonna try and lead him out."

"I repeat, Supergirl, standby. We have been tracking him, and we already have a plan of action to—"

The recording of Lucy's voice is interrupted by a loud blast.

Max says, "This blast you hear is when Supergirl destroyed the building she was supposed to protect."

"How the hell did he get this recording?" Lucy asks angrily, there was a leak in the DEO.

"And I'm not the only one who thinks this," Max continues, "I've been in conversation with the army, and they completely support me on this."

At this statement, a few agents stood up. Alex inches closer to Lucy, getting a bad feeling.

"They have witnessed firsthand Supergirl's insubordination. They are closely monitoring the situation—this is how I got this recording."

Four agents pull out their guns, pointing them at Lucy, who was still completely focused on the interview. Her focus is broken by the sound of a gun next to her being cocked; Alex was aiming her gun out at the agent who was pointing his gun at Lucy. She sees 5 other agents, including Vasquez, also had their guns out, pointed at the agents aiming at Lucy.

"I have a duty to the public to expose the truth if it's within my powers to do so. We all need to understand the danger that Supergirl, and whoever supports her pose."

There's a loud thud as Supergirl lands in the base, with one hand punching the ground with enough power to smash it, sending dust flying in the air around her.