The sound of the door rolling shut was thunderous in the long narrow hallway. The guard led the way and he followed a few steps behind. When they reached their destination the guard wordlessly unlocked and opened the door, leaving enough space for him to enter.

It was a small room with a one-way mirror on one wall and a small table in the center of the room. On one side of the table sat Hades, his hair was slicked back as usual, and his fingers were interlaced on top of the table. He turned when the door opened and was staring at him.

"Hello, father," Nico said.

Hades smiled slightly and gestured at the chair across the table. It was as though he didn't wear an orange jumpsuit or have his hands chained to the table; he sat as tall and regal as ever.

Nico moved out of the doorway and took a seat, the guard closing the door behind him.

"To what do I owe this visit?"

"I can't visit my own father in prison?"

"Of course you can, but we both know you're here for a reason." Hades' gaze traveled down to Nico's bandaged hands. "You've been attacked."

"Haven't you heard the news?"

"Unfortunately no, the service here isn't quite up to par." He said, unamused.

"Apparently there are some people that aren't too happy with how I'm running the company now. Others think that evidence points to you being behind the attacks."

"You don't honestly think that too, do you? As if I could really do anything stuck in here."

He must have tried to wave his arms around at the small room, but the chains around his wrist clinked at the attempted movement; he grimaced down at the firm reminder.

"You and I both know you have your influences, and don't act like you think this place can hold you forever." Nico sighed and shook his head. "It doesn't matter what I think, I just need to hear you say it."

"You know family means everything to me," Hades said. "You're all I have left. Of course I'm not sending people after you." It's what Nico had expected him to say, but nonetheless it felt as though a tiny weight had been lifted from his shoulders, lie or not. "I have many enemies," Hades continued. "Something you've unfortunately inherited from me by taking over the company, and something you're only going to continue to gain, since we don't share the same…ambitions."

"You've always known how I felt about that."

"Yes, but now it could get you hurt." He stated it far too calmly, as a fact, not a concern.

The chair scraped against the floor as Nico stood. "I can take care of myself, it would just be easier if I knew who and where the attacks were coming from. That's the only reason I came today. Not to listen to your vague threats."

"I'm not threatening you, son."

Nico gave him a cold smile. "Of course not, we're family after all."

He pushed the button near the door signalling to the guard that he was ready to leave.

"I don't know who's going after you, but as you said, I have my influences. I'll find out who it is."

"...Thank you."

The door opened and Nico left.

Bad guys taken care of? Check. Civilians out of harm's way? Mostly. Stopped a giant building from crumbling to the ground? A work in progress.

So far this was not turning out to be a great week for Jason; they say a hero's work is never done, the universe seemed to be taking that statement literally.

The building groaned and trembled beneath his hands. He didn't know how much longer he could keep this up, it's wasn't like he could stay here forever holding the building up. Something flew past him, but before he could get a look at what it was it was gone. Moments later the building became lighter. Cautiously, Jason backed away, watching for any movements, but the building stayed put.

"I secured the support beams, which seems to have stabilized the building." A voice said behind him. "It looked like you needed a hand, hope you don't mind." He was at least thirty stories in the air, which could only mean…

"Supergirl!" Jason exclaimed when he turned around. "You're back!"

"I got back a couple days ago." A strange look passed over her face. "I leave for a month and a half, come back and suddenly my arch nemesis is in prison?"

"So you know."

"Of course I know, do you really think Percy can keep a secret from me?"

"Superman," Thalia said through the comm. "Unless you want more than your picture on the front page tomorrow, I suggest you two split up and meet somewhere more private. Preferably at the DEO so I can say hi too."

Jason chuckled and relayed the message to Supergirl. She didn't look thrilled about the location choice, given their past history with disagreements over kryptonite and who should serve who. Supergirl in the end chose to be a free agent and serve the people without the restrictions of the DEO an, albeit secret, government agency.

They flew off in different directions and met up at the DEO headquarters that were hidden in the city. Supergirl beat Jason there by half a second, but really, it wasn't like they were racing or anything.

When they entered the building together everyone in the room stopped and stared at them. Jason didn't let that deter him.

"Come on," he said. "Thalia should be here soon."

Supergirl hesitated for a moment before following him. As they made their way further into the building everyone else slowly went back to their previous tasks, sending glances their way every so often.

"Leo," Jason said as he approached his desk. "There's someone I want you to meet."

Leo spun around, completely unprepared to see Jason's guest, nearly falling out of his chair. Quickly he sat back up and looked back and forth between the two of them, wide-eyed.

"Leo, Supergirl," Jason said a bit amused. "Supergirl, this is my best friend Leo."

"Nice to meet you." She said holding out a hand.

He tried to stutter out a response until finally he took her hand and blurted out, "you're amazing!"

"Uh, thank you." She said with a hesitant laugh, Leo flushed.

"He's a big fan." Jason explained.

"Well, yeah!" Leo admitted. "I mean you're...Supergirl, no offense Jason-oh shoot! Does she know? I didn't just totally blow your cover did I?"

"It's alright man, she knows."

"We're actually cousins." She added.

Leo's eyes practically bulged out of his head. "What-!"

"Hey!" Thalia cut in. Supergirl turned and returned the smile. "It's great to see you!" She said pulling her into a hug.

Leo gave Jason a look while they did so. "We're talking about this later."

"How did things go?" Thalia asked when they parted.

"About as well as one could expect. Though I'm not really supposed to talk about it."

"Alright then. So how's Percy?"

"He's good, worry-free now that I'm back."

"Wait...how do you know Percy? Unless…." Leo looked her over and his eyes widened even more with realization. "Wait a minute…. You're Annabeth Chase?!"

"Only if you can keep it a secret."

"Of course! I mean I keep the fact that Jason's Superman a secret. But, wow, it makes so much sense now that I think about it." He leaned back in his chair. "How does everyone else not figure it out?"

"People usually only see what they want to see." Jason said.

"Not that I'm not glad you're here, but it's a bit weird timing for a visit." Thalia said, her and Annabeth shared a look. "Oh, you're not here for a visit."

"...No. I'm here about Hades' son."

"Di Angelo?" Leo interjected. "You know about the weapon?"

Annabeth turned sharply toward him. "What weapon?"

Leo shrank down into his chair laughing nervously. "What? Who said anything about a weapon? There's no weapon. I'm just going to sit quietly over there." He slowly began rolling his chair away, "and refrain from asking more questions and saying things I shouldn't."

"What. Weapon." Annabeth asked again, more insistent this time.

Jason relented with a sigh. "A few days ago I was attacked by someone who had stolen di Angelo tech, it took me down pretty quickly."

"How?"

"It had some sort of serum that mimics kryptonite." Thalia explained.

"Why didn't I know about this?"

"Because it's supposed to be classified information." Chiron said as he approached. "Hello, Supergirl."

"Chiron."

"It's good to see you back."

"Good to be back." She said. "What are you doing about di Angelo? About this weapon?"

"At the moment there's not much we can do. Superman has already questioned him about it."

"He gave us all the information he had on it for further investigation." Jason confirmed.

"And you're just taking his word for it?" Annabeth asked confused.

"Until we have solid proof of anything that's all we can do." Thalia said.

"So you're not even looking into it?"

"We've been keeping an eye on him for anything suspicious," Chiron said. "But so far we've found nothing."

He seemed to notice something off to the side and the others turned to look, someone was waving to get his attention.

"If you'll excuse me," he said. "It appears I'm needed elsewhere."

They watched him go. Annabeth shook her head and turned back to Jason.

"What about you? What do you think of him, honestly."

Jason shrugged. "I don't know. I mean of all the times I've spoken with him, both as a civilian and as Superman he seemed genuine, like he really does want to be set apart from his father."

An unreadable expression crossed her face, but Jason got the gist of it.

"Jason-"

He cut her off before she could continue. "I believe in giving everyone a chance to prove themself."

"So do I! But you have to be logical about it! Otherwise you get hurt!" She quickly composed herself and glanced around to see the reactions to her outburst. "I should go. I'm staying in town for a while, so I'll see you around."

With that she was gone.

It had only been a few days since his (unofficial) second interview with di Angelo, so Jason was a bit surprised to see that he'd received an email directly from the man.

The wording was formal and stiff as though he was reluctant to send it in the first place. But after reading the email -which basically said he suspected more tech had been stolen and that he didn't want to regret giving this information out to a reporter- Jason decided to not immediately share it with Chiron or anyone at the DEO. Instead he sent back a carefully worded email asking to talk with him about it, and oh yeah, if he could bring along Annabeth, the reporter who had done some pretty scathing articles on his father.

This could turn out to be a complete disaster, but he had to at least try to show Annabeth that di Angelo wasn't the villain she was trying to make him out to be; or at least had no signs of being.

It took almost four and a half hours for him to get a response. The contents of which were a single line agreeing to his proposal. Only then did he inform the others of the situation.

"This is probably some sort of trick." Annabeth said on their way to the building. "What if he's the one ordering the weapons to be stolen so he looks innocent?"

"He wouldn't do that. He's not what you think."

"I think I'll be the judge of that. Besides you've only known him for a few weeks and spoken to him a handful of times, how well do you really know him?"

Jason sighed exasperatedly. He really didn't want to get into an argument, especially not when they were about to enter the building.

The process at the front desk was quick and soon enough they were on the elevator for the long ride up. Jason adjusted his glasses and Annabeth tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear before curling her fingers back around her bag strap; her knuckles turning white.

The doors dinged and Annabeth strolled between them before they had even fully opened. After a brief interaction with the receptionist she walked them through to the office.

Di Angelo sat at his desk, his fingers tapping on the surface. He stood when they entered and asked the receptionist to close the door on her way out. For a few moments they all just stood there awkwardly. Finally di Angelo sighed.

"Lets just get this over with," he said and gestured to the chairs as he sat back down.

They both made their way over and took a seat, Annabeth dropping her bag beside her in the process.

"So," Annabeth began, "Jason tells me that you think your weapons are being stolen."

"Yes."

"If that's true, why tell us? Why not keep it a secret and try to take care of it yourself?"

"I can take care of it myself," di Angelo said sitting up a bit straighter. "But I thought I should tell you so if another attack happens before I can resolve the matter it won't come as a surprise." He was looking at Jason now.

"...I've already let him know." Jason told him. Annabeth looked over at him confused. "Superman." He clarified.

"Right. Of course, I forgot."

"Whoever it is," di Angelo continued, "must be working for someone who knows what they're doing, because they're getting better very quickly at going unnoticed. I've been doing inventory at least twice a week now. I planted a dummy item listed as high priority, security tags and everything, to see what would happen. Usually if something like that is even nudged I know about it, but when inventory was taken the other night, that and a couple other items were missing."

"Sounds very convenient." Annabeth said.

Di Angelo's jaw clenched. "I'm well aware of how this looks. I'm just giving you the facts I have Ms. Chase."

"If this got out it would look really bad." Jason said.

"It would. I didn't tell you all of this so you could make a story out of it." He said glancing at Jason and looking warily at Annabeth.

"You did it because you want it to be a story after it's taken care of, to make you look like the good guy."

"No, because it's the right thing to do. I know I can't control what people think of me, especially your opinion of me, but I can control what I do."

"I guess we'll all just have to see what it is you do then." Annabeth picked up her bag and stood. "Have a nice day."

Jason let out a breath as she left, he could easily catch up with her in a bit.

"She means well," Jason tried, but it didn't quite sound right for the situation. "She's stubborn, once she thinks she right it's hard for her to let go of it. Usually it's an admirable quality, because it means she doesn't stop until the job is done."

"This meeting was a terrible idea."

"For what it's worth, I believe you. And if I'm wrong, well, we know where to find you." He said trying to lighten the mood. It seemed to have worked, the tension in di Angelo's shoulders loosened and he huffed something vaguely close to a laugh.

He got additional information on the items before leaving. It took some genuine effort to catch up to Annabeth; but when he finally did they walked side by side in silence back to Jason's apartment.

She tossed her bag onto the table when they entered and when the door shut she spun around.

"You told him you 'know' Superman?" Forget beating around the bush, she was burning it, with her laser vision. "Are you insane?!"

"Annabeth-"

"No, I know you want to see the best in everyone, but you are far too trusting!"

"It's not the same as before."

"Of course not, he's a di Angelo, it's worse."

"He's not Hades."

"I know that. He's his son. Hades learned this stuff on his own, di Angelo grew up in it, was taught by him, and you don't see the threat in that?"

"I just don't think he has done anything so far that's warranted this type of prosecution. Simply existing is not a reason."

"Maybe not, but…." The fight seemed to drain out of her.

Before she could say anymore her phone rang. She dug it out of her bag and fixed her glasses as she looked at the caller ID.

"It's Percy, I gotta..."

"It's alright, go." He tried to smile but could tell it looked strained.

As she stepped into the hall to answer, Jason walked over and collapsed onto the couch. He let out a big sigh, and rubbed a hand up his face, pushing his glasses into his hair.

What a day.

The next day he talked to Chiron about what di Angelo had told him. He had also asked him to not make it a big deal; he didn't want the information to get out and scare di Angelo away. The only reason Chiron agreed was because Jason had found out more than the undercover agents that were supposed to be keeping track of him, and also because di Angelo had told him directly of his own free will.

He tried to concentrate on his work, but he couldn't stop thinking about the argument. Jason hated fighting with people he cared about, it was more exhausting than a physical fight any day. So on his lunch break he took a walk through the park to try and clear his head. It was always a nice place to go for him to just get away for a while, to think.

"Hey." Annabeth stood in front of him.

"Hey."

"Thalia said you come here sometimes." She bit her lip and shoved her hands into her jacket pockets. "I'm going back to Metropolis."

"You don't have to go, I didn't mean to-"

"No I know." She looked around at the people walking around them and gestured to a nearby bench. They both took a seat. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I thought about what you said and thought about what I said. This city doesn't need two superheroes, you're doing a great job on your own. And you're a good judge of character. I just- I hope you're right about him. You always try to see the best in everyone, but one day that could get you hurt."

"You try to see the best in everyone too, and I'm being careful, I promise. It's not like I trust him with my life or anything, I'm just being friendly and keeping promises I make."

"Which is why you're perfect for this. I'm too close to the matter." She got to her feet and gave him a small smile. "So, I'm going to go home, have a nice romantic date with my boyfriend, and stop a few bad guys along the way, while you get to stay here and deal with this."

Jason stood and pulled her into a hug. "You need to visit more often."

He let her go and she tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear.

"I will, but maybe after this whole thing boils over, whatever it is anyway. Me helping you fight isn't a visit though."

"Of course not. I still need to meet Percy." She rolled her eyes at that, but had a smile on her face. "Oh, I should show you my favorite restaurant for when you guys come."

Annabeth laughed lightly at his enthusiasm and followed him as he led the way.