As Lucy entered the DEO she headed straight to Vasquez and asked.
"Any news on Supergirl?"
"No ma'am, she is the same. The pod seems to be keeping her stable."
"That's good, I guess." Lucy said before asking. "Is Agent Danvers in her lab?"
"No Ma'am, she has not made it in yet today."
"You sure?" Lucy asked concerned.
"Yes Ma'am. I definitely haven't seen her," she said as she typed at her terminal before adding, "and her access code has not been used today."
"Damn it." Lucy muttered.
"Problem?" J'onn asked as he entered the DEO with Eliza and Jeremiah.
"Director, Drs danvers." Lucy greeted, surprised to see the elder pair.
"Has something happened to Kara?" Eliza asked assuming the worse.
"No, the pod solution is working." Lucy assured her.
"Then what's the problem?" J'onn asked.
Lucy glanced towards Eliza and Jeremiah, not wanting them to worry further before confessing. "It's just that Alex hasn't made it to work yet." The comment causing concern to etch itself on J'onn's face.
"Have you tried her place?" J'onn asked.
"I went by there and Kara's on my way in."
"Are you sure she actually left last night?" Jeremiah questioned.
"I took her home myself." J'onn said as he tried ringing Alex, going through to voicemail.
"She could have gone via CatCo to see if the guys found anything?" Lucy suggested.
"Vasquez." J'onn called. "Please take the Danvers to Alex's lab." He then turned to Jeremiah and Eliza and assured them. "I will find Alex." When they were gone J'onn turned back to Lucy who offered.
"You want me to go to CatCo?"
"No I'll go. If Alex has done what I think she has done it is better I deal with it."
"Maxwell Lord?" Lucy guessed.
"Maxwell Lord." J'onn agreed. "In the mean time, I need a favour."
"Anything."
"I need you to keep an eye on Jeremiah. If he is as we hope, he will be a huge asset to finding out what is wrong with Kara, however, until we know for sure keep a watching brief."
"Of course." Lucy agreed.
-00-
"Any news on Kara?" Cat asked as Winn entered her office.
"Nothing good."
"Do they know what's wrong with her?"
"No. They don't have any idea, but she's getting worse." Winn said clearly concerned. "Alex looked completely defeated when I saw her last night."
"Can her cousin help?"
"We don't know. I mean he's trying, but nothing like this has happened to him. But James is with him now and they are looking through his archives to see if there is anything that can be used. I mean we are all going through everything, but there is a lot of information in the archives, all the archives and-"
"You're rambling." Cat said, immediately silencing him before he quietly mumbled.
"Sorry."
"So no one knows anything?" Cat asked.
"No."
"Someone must have a theory or a suspicion." Cat pressed.
"Alex thinks Maxwell Lord maybe involved." Winn gave up.
"I wouldn't put it past him." Cat said. "But I assume there is no proof."
"Nothing."
"In that case perhaps we should get the latest update from Agent Mulder." Cat suggested noticing Henshaw was marching towards her office.
"What's happened?" Winn asked fearing the worse as J'onn walked through the door.
"Alex is missing."
"Since when?"
"Last night. I was hoping she was here."
"No, but you probably want to talk to Lord." Winn said.
"Why?"
"She was going to visit him last night."
"Alone? And you knew and didn't try to stop her?"
"I tried." Winn said. "But she is like a trained killer and I'm just the IT guy. Besides when it comes to Kara there is no stopping Alex. She also kind of implied that you knew."
"I didn't." J'onn said.
"Would you like me to contact Max?" Cat offered.
"No, I'll go." J'onn said glaring at Winn before he left.
-00-
"You son of a bitch." Alex snarled at Lord as she woke up, hands tied in front of her, and found him starring at her. "I swear I am going to kill you."
"You are really holding me responsible for you coming to my house and launching a drunken tirade before collapsing unconscious on my couch?" Max asked amused as Alex struggled to sit up.
"I didn't collapse. You knocked me out." Alex said trying to free her hands from the cable ties that were securing them.
"That wasn't me. It was my security guard who saw a crazy lady attack me and chose to do his job."
"He tasered me."
"For his protection, you had punched him." Max said.
"And he punched me." Alex said.
"Technically, you struck first." Max countered.
"And going all Fifty Shades on me?" She asked nodding at her cable tied wrists.
"That's a reference I didn't expect to hear from you. Did Kara make you watch it? But in answer to your question it was for my protection." Max smiled. "You're a dangerous woman Danvers. And I assumed your mood would not be any better when you woke up. So why did you charge in here?"
"I need to know what did you do to her?"
"Who?"
"Kara."
"Nothing. Well not intentionally anyway." Max smiled as he placed a glass of water and bottle of pills in front of Alex. "For the hangover, and the head, you took a nasty bump when you fell, and of course for the hand, what happened?" He asked.
"It was an accident." Alex said before moving her wrists indicating that Max would need to release her.
"You're a clever girl, you'll figure it out." He said unsympathetically. "So what exactly has happened to your sister? And why do you assume I am behind it?"
"Because you have admitted to hating her and have a track record of trying to kill her."
"So do hundreds of escaped prisoners from Fort Rozz." Max pointed out. "And compared to her family I'm quite harmless."
"Red Kryptonite." Alex said.
"A minor oversight. And it wasn't deliberate."
"Bizzaro?"
"A failure."
"Have you been doing any Kryptonite experiments?" Alex asked.
"Of course. I take human survival seriously."
"Has Kara been exposed to any of them?"
"How should I know? I have not set any traps if that is what you mean. And unless she has broken into my labs I don't see how she would have been." He then sighed and took out a knife. "I understand that you and your sister are close and I have seen first hand how protective you are of her, which is why you are here now. But I had nothing to do with what has happened, whatever it is. I can't give you the answers you are looking for, but because I care about you I will try to help. Tell me what has happened and I will try to help with a solution."
When Alex reluctantly nodded Max cut the cable tie and sat down opposite her.
-00-
"Alex!" Eliza called as her eldest walked into her lab at the DEO.
"Mom? What are you doing here?" Alex asked confused by her presence. Fearing the worse she asked. "Kara?"
"She's the same." Eliza assured her before explaining. "J'onn said Kara was ill and then we got here and you were missing. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"You don't look it." Jeremiah pointed out as he saw her hand in a cast and her face was bruised.
"Dad?" Alex asked suddenly seeing her father.
"What happened?" Jeremiah asked.
"It's nothing."
"It doesn't look like nothing." He said arms crossed across his chest before repeating. "What happened?"
"We think Kara has been exposed to a type of Kryptonite, which has amplified her powers."
"I meant to you. J'onn has already briefed us on Kara. What happened to you?" Jeremiah pressed.
"Something I would like to know too." J'onn said approaching the trio.
"It's nothing." Alex said, not needing telepathic abilities to know that J'onn was angry.
"Really? Because I was told you got drunk and marched off to see Lord." J'onn said.
"That is accurate." Alex confessed avoiding eye contact with everyone, whilst feeling Eliza's disapproving stare on the back of her head.
"He said you attempted to break in." J'onn pressed.
"No, I was shown to his study." Alex said.
"Did he do that?" J'onn asked pointing to the bruises on Alex's face.
"Not exactly." Alex said. "Technically it was the security guard."
"What did you do?" Eliza asked.
"Nothing." Alex said.
"Go get Hamilton to check on your injuries."
"I'm fine."
"That was not a suggestion." J'onn replied.
"I don't have time to waste seeing Hamilton." Alex countered.
"You should have thought about that before you went in without back up. If Hamilton clears you meet us back here."
"But-"
"Go." J'onn said causing Alex to storm out of the lab.
"Suddenly the regret of missing the rebellious teenage years is dwindling slightly." Jeremiah commented.
-TBC
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing.