A/N: Good news :D You can expect regular updates now! Probably posting of chapters on a bi-weekly basis, but sometimes weekly if I'm lucky.

It was a long, hushed walk back to Kara's apartment, with neither woman letting so much as a peep out of their mouths the entire way back. Ellis' lips remained shut as she paced behind Kara, following her lead back to the safe meeting place that she assumed would give them apt privacy for the conversation that was about to follow. Ellis could tell without even looking at Kara's face that her mind was a jumbled mess of emotions at the moment. Any reminder of the place that she had evidently tried so hard to leave behind was sure to send her into a frenzy, but the sole reason why she had found a way to calm that storm was because the reminder came in the form of a person, one who was a descendant of one of her closest friends.

Ellis eventually found herself in a quaint, though rather untidy apartment unit. But compared to her small joint back home, she would take this a thousand times over.

"This your place? Ellis asked as she entered.

"Yeah. There are some drinks in the cooler, uh, fridge if you'd like. The green bottle in there is non-alcoholic if you don't drink or whatever," Kara replied, walking to the window at the furthest end of the living area and shelling out an empty gaze.

"I'm fine, thanks," Ellis replied, taking a seat at the dining table.

Another short silence followed, being broken by Kara before it got too uncomfortable, "I'll be asking the questions, alright? And you're going to answer truthfully. No bullshit."

Ellis nodded, "Gotcha."

"What's your name?"

"Ellis. Ellis Reed."

"How did you find me, Ellis?"

"I'm a metahuman. My power is psychic navigation and tracking. It was really difficult, the further I am away from someone, the harder and more exhausting it is to zone in on them."

"How long you been looking for me?"

"Three months. What helps is if I have an object that belongs or belonged to who I'm looking for, that's how I managed to find you so soon. Relatively speaking."

"You have something of mine?" Kara asked, waiting patiently as Ellis reached into the inner pocket of her jacket, pulling out a pair of lead-lined spectacles. She tossed them to Kara, whose eyes struggled to deviate from them. Another relic, another reminder of her past. The hōzen, her old glasses… at this rate, she was fully expecting Ellis to cough up Barry's ring next.

"Got them from Cora," Ellis said.

"Esme's daughter," Kara remembered, realising she must have held on to them after Esme's passing.

"Yeah. Things have changed since you've been gone. A lot."

"Like what?"

"Ridiculous technological innovation. Rampant transhumanism. Societal decay, to an extent. Corporations got their hands in everything, they seem to run things more than the government."

Kara's eyes rolled. "Saw all of that while I was still there."

"It's worse now. I'm talking alien tech reverse engineered, anti-ageing tech extending lives by decades, complete limb and organ replacement, weaponry that could probably do serious harm even to you. And Knight City is where it's all on full display, out of control."

"Knight City?"

"Oh, it was called National City when you were there. I'm sure you remember Joseph Knight. Renamed the city in his image."

Joseph Knight. Kara hadn't forgotten.

There was plenty of blame to go around for the progressive deterioration of National City, some of which could be attributed to Kara even. Knight, however, carried a lot of it. An American Polynesian born in 2035, he was given a better start than most in the cruel universe. The Togiola were one of the more influential crime organisations on the American West Coast. They weren't near the top of the list, but they were a far stretch from the bottom of it. Their influence had stretched all the way up to Star City as well, causing her and Oliver to have worked together on thwarting some of their operations.

Joseph's father, Fatu, sat at the head of the Togiola's table. When the transition of power from father to son didn't come quick enough, Joseph took matters into his own hands and murdered Fatu, usurping his throne. His vision for the organisation differed in that he craved power and status. He took the Togiola from strength to strength until they were the most powerful organised crime syndicate in National City, at which time Joseph began entering the political sphere. The last Kara had heard of him was through a news announcement that he was planning to run for mayor in 2083, which she now found out he had won and used his newfound power to stroke his ego.

"It's hell now," Ellis explained further, "The corpos all stay in their little safe zone while the rest of us are either exploited or left to fend for ourselves. It might be the worst place in America to live as an alien or metahuman. That is, unless you strike luck by finding the right work with the right corpo."

"Knight still around?" Kara asked, remembering Ellis' earlier mention of anti-ageing technology.

"No. He, uh, died in 2085. Name stuck though," Ellis replied. She seemed to have second-guessed her words, becoming slightly flustered when cooking up her answer. It was subtle, something that not a lot of people would have picked up on. But Kara did and kept that in mind before moving onto her next question.

"Okay, what's the deal with your sister?"

"Cody's my older sister. Our parents were burned by the corp they worked for when I was 12. She's taken care of me since, always tried to keep me safe from a world that's out to get me. She was… taken."

There it was again, the slight hesitation in her voice which Kara noted.

Ellis continued, "Taken by a megacorp. I need your help to break into a highly secure facility to get her back."

"Why'd they take her?"

"They were after us because we hijacked one of their convoys to steal tech. She gave herself up so that I could get away."

"How secure are we talking?"

"Maybe close to a hundred guards, armed and enhanced. Enhanced not just in metas, I mean humans equipped with the best cybernetics and weapons in the world. Like I said, stuff that might be able to put a hurting on you. Not just human guards, drones and mechs too. The place is a tower. Biometric scanners and nanocameras at probably every corner."

"So, stealth wouldn't really be an option?"

"The scanners would make us out immediately. If we fooled them, cameras pick us up. It honestly might be better to go in guns blazing. Use that element of surprise to our advantage."

"Oh, so a suicide mission, basically," Kara griped.

"Maybe."

"Uhh-huh." Kara finally stepped away from the window, walking towards Ellis and leaning closer, "Listen, kid, your great, great grandfather was one of my closest friends. I owe him a lot, more than you'll ever know and be able to comprehend. And I hate to break your heart, but just because you are part of his bloodline doesn't mean that debt is now conferred to you. I'm not travelling thousands of light years just to end up getting skewered in a suicide run. I gave 67 years of my life on Earth fighting to make things better and I accomplished nothing. I left for good reason, and I don't ever plan on going back. I'm sorry, Ellis, I truly am, but I can't come with you."

"You'd really sit back and let an innocent woman die when she doesn't have to?"

"It's not my fight, kid, it's yours. I'm sorry," Kara said, turning around to go to her bedroom. She was stopped halfway there when Ellis spoke up.

"Guess it's true… Never meet your heroes, right? You know, I heard two kinds of stories about you when I was growing up. There were the stories fed to us by the system. The ones calling you despicable, hateful, narcissistic. The ones that painted you out to be a murderer, a terrorist who had no respect for humanity's self-determination. Then, there were the stories told to me by the people who once knew you. They told me about you all, Supergirl, Superman, The Flash, Green Arrow – The mighty defenders of Earth. Paragons of justice and hope. They told me how you might have been the best of them all. A woman who charged headfirst into dire situations without care for her own life so long as she could save those in danger. I heard all about how hopeful, inspiring, and admirable you were."

The more Ellis spoke, the quicker the fire of rage that was inside Kara burned brighter. She was not intent on being condescendingly lectured by a human who had a superficial attachment to who she used to be. She found few things more disrespectful than people mistaking you for who you used to be, and for her, that meant mistaking her for someone else entirely.

"I came here wondering which stories were going to turn out to be true. Now I know. What happened to the woman in the other stories, huh?" Ellis asked with a hint of venom in her voice, standing up and approaching Kara, "What happened to Supergirl? The woman who stood for hope, help and compassion. And what, now you're just a merc who only steps up when there's a quick buck to be made? I can see that she's still within you. Deep, deep down inside. Kara Danvers is still there even though you don't want her to be."

That was enough to finally snap Kara, who spun around to grab Ellis by the collar and tug her close. "Listen to me, you little shit! I am not who you think I am… not anymore."

Ellis' eyes stared back at hers with a tangible fear within them. That told Kara she must have gotten the message, so she shoved Ellis back before continuing.

"Just like you said, things have changed. I've changed too. I'm doing what I have to do to survive. I don't think you know what it feels like to lose every person you have ever loved. You understand me? Everyone!" Kara exclaimed.

"I know that you should continue to fight in their memory."

"Oh, fuck off," Kara scoffed, "Fight in their memory for who? Maybe you haven't fully realised it yet, but the world didn't want us anymore. And yet we still gave everything we had to it. They all did until their very last breaths. "Hope, help and compassion"? Bunch of fucking bullshit. I accomplished nothing."

"Accomplished nothing? You've been gone for 64 years, and you are still an inspiration to me and my sister and millions of other people out there."

"Congratulations, I inspired you," Kara sarcastically clapped, "You're still living in a fucking hellhole under the boot of the elites. And just from the fact that you're here in front of me right now means that you have it better than most."

"Alright, you lost your loved ones. So, along the way, you must have lost the person who meant the most to you. The person who was your world. Cody is that person for me. Sure, you can't bring back yours, but I'm asking you to help me bring back mine. You may not be willing to die in the process of doing that but I am. With your help, maybe I won't."

The shakiness in Ellis' voice as she spoke told Kara just how much Cody meant to her. She wasn't lying. She was willing to die to get her back. And the reference to Alex reminded Kara that she would have done the same if she had the chance. That was enough to stir the most empathy out of her in years, but it wasn't enough to convince her.

"Sorry if I sound selfish, but after giving so much of myself to everyone and everything else for most of my life, it's not a goddamn crime to put myself first for a change. There's nothing for me in this… You must have known that coming here because while you're naïve as fuck, I don't take you for an idiot. So, why me? Why did you come all this way to find me, so sure that you'd be able to convince me to uproot whatever I'd have up here just to help you?"

"Because there actually is something for you in this."

Kara scoffed. "And what is that?"

"A chance to finish what you started in 2031."

The reference to an all too familiar date agitated Kara even further, "What do you mean by that?" she barked.

"I never told you who took Cody. She was taken by Maxwell Lord."

Instantaneously, Kara felt a wretched twist in her stomach. "What?"

"Maxwell Lord is still alive. Or rather, he came back from the dead."

"You're fucking bullshitting me-" Kara growled, pacing towards Ellis.

"I'm not lying! He's alive."

Ellis' uneasiness when speaking earlier suddenly made all too much sense. The wretched twist in Kara's stomach was now accompanied by a dull aching in her chest, while she became frozen in place by her now numbing legs. Ellis wasn't lying, she was only speaking a truth that Kara would have so much preferred to be a lie. The images of that night 115 years ago were suddenly clear in her otherwise cloudy head. She could viscerally see it – Lord's limbs scattered across the room, his crushed heart next to the jumbled mess of his brains amidst a floor painted red with blood. There was no way he could have come back from that.

"How?" Kara muttered.

"You gonna have to sit down for this."

Still frozen in shock, Ellis gently nudged Kara to a chair before taking her seat once again.

"Right before you killed him, he started working on developing engrams, digital personality constructs," Ellis began explaining, "A way to digitally copy someone's mind and consciousness. He managed to develop a prototype right before you killed him, and guess whose mind was put on it?"

"His own."

"There was just one problem. He hadn't yet figured out a way to transfer the engram to another body. Veronica Sinclair, the lady who took over Lord Tech after his demise, she continued funding the program. Transportations into synthetic bodies have been unsuccessful, so he opted to find a real person for his construct, the only hiccup being that his mind would need to be compatible with the body, whatever that meant. The construct transfer procedure overrides the other's person's mind and thereafter assimilates control of their body. Lord eventually found that person…

"Joseph Knight. He faked Knight's death, kidnapping him and transplanting his construct into Knight's body. What happens when you mix a billionaire with a disdain for all aliens and metas with a megalomanic crime lord with grandiose ambitions of power? You get a fucking nightmare. Lord Tech has grown to be one of the biggest corps in the world and they fucking run everything. Lord basically has control over the whole city."

Maxwell Lord and Joseph Knight. The two men Kara had despised the most in her life, the two men who were each responsible for taking the things she loved so dearly away from her, now fused into one. Knight's mind being destroyed in such a way would have brought Kara solace if it didn't mean that it brought Lord back from the dead.

"How the fuck did you and Cody get trapped in his crosshairs? Because you're metas?" Kara asked.

"Only me. Cody doesn't have powers. We heisted a Nitro Corp tech transport. We got away clean, but we were found a few days later. Thought it was them wanting their shit back, but it was Lord's enforcers. I lied saying that they wanted me. They wanted her. Sinclair's old body was deteriorating and Cody was marked as a bio-match for her construct. And the transfer was successful."

"How do you expect to get her back if her mind has been wiped from her own body?"

"A few days after she was taken, Cody made contact with me through the Net. She told me that Lord Tech developed a program called Soulkiller. It creates a construct of the original mind, but at the same time fully separates the old mind from the body, effectively making it a blank slate for the next construct to then be programmed into. Cody, or her construct, I guess, told me that she escaped into Lord Tower's cyberspace after she was hit with Soulkiller. Soulkiller is in Lord Tower, and so is the only tech that is capable of transferring constructs between bodies. If we could get in and get our hands on Sinclair, we could hypothetically transfer Cody's construct back into her own body. That's the only way I get her back."

"And what about Lord?"

"He's what's in it for you. Like I said, finish the job you started. You help me get my sister back, I'll help you end Lord for good."

"I… I still don't know. I don't know, Ellis. I need, uh, I-I need a minute to think about it," Kara stuttered, rising from her seat.

Ellis said something again, but Kara didn't have the wits to comprehend it. She stormed into her room and out onto the balcony, attempting to control her now erratic breathing while her heart hastily thumped against her chest. The shock was still strong, having not even begun to subside. Her mind had become a muddled plight of mixed feelings that clouded any sort of thought process she was attempting. Her hands tugged at her scalp as she leaned against the balcony railing, squeezing and pulling at her hair. She didn't know what to feel, how to react, how to think, or what she was going to do.

The destitute, sinking feeling in her abdomen became unbearable, stemming from the realisation that none of it had been worth it. That one day that had changed everything for her, the day she killed Lord… it was all for nothing. Whether or not it had been the right decision to take his life that day, she had at least taken comfort in knowing that she did do it. She took solace in knowing that Lord was dead and that he would never hurt anybody else ever again. And that had all been stripped away from her in the blink of an eye.

Her sense of time had been severely warped. She had no idea how long she stayed out on the balcony, but it felt like hours spent going back and forth in her mind.

Here she was with the descendant of one of her friends who was facing the same predicament as her. Another woman who had lost her sister to Maxwell Lord, but with the one difference being that there was a chance to get her back. The gun that she had put to her head that day was never loaded, but the one that she and Ellis had here right now might just be. But it didn't seem like it to her.

Just as Kara had said, she had given everything and had everything taken away from her. She fought for so long for nothing. She had finally accepted that not every battle was hers to fight, and the truth was that if Ellis was any other ordinary woman whose sister was kidnapped by anybody else, Kara probably would have had less than a speck of inclination to get involved. But Ellis wasn't any other ordinary woman, she was Oliver Queen's great, great granddaughter. And her sister wasn't taken by just anybody else, she was taken by the same man who had taken Kara's sister away from her.

It was a second chance to make peace with her past. She hadn't been able to save her own sister from Lord, but she could at least save someone else's. The truth was she never felt true gratification from killing Lord. No more than a few seconds after the deed had been done, she felt hollow, like that it had meant nothing in the end. But she was different back then. She was fuelled by a blind rage that had sent her into a vengeful frenzy of bloodlust, and she was driven to kill him because she felt she had lost purpose. But now after her mind had cleared, she felt like she was thinking clearly, the clearest she ever had in decades. The prospect of killing him and making sure he stayed dead this time gave her purpose, something she thought she had lost forever. Her second chance at vengeance just seemed far, far too sweet to pass up.

Ellis hadn't even noticed Kara return from the balcony, turning her head to see Kara leaning against the doorframe to her room as she gave her answer.

"I'll help. Not because I really give a shit about you or your sister, but because I've got a score to settle with Maxwell Lord."

Though Ellis would have preferred Kara's help to come out of altruism, she never truly expected her motivation to come from anything but retribution. "Fair enough," she replied.

"I'll help you get Cody back so long as I get to kill Lord properly this time. That means destroying the backup constructs of himself he probably has stored somewhere. How would we do that?"

"Lord probably stores constructs on a subnet in the Tower. We could access it once we get in and destroy it."

Kara nodded. "Give me some time to pack my shit. We'll be out of here by sundown. I just need to make one stop before we leave."