A/N: Thank you again for the reviews!

Chapter 26

Barbara has been taken. Stunned, Clark barely heard Bruce speaking.

"Clark? Clark. You need to come to the Batcave immediately."

"Uh, yes. Give me a few seconds."

Numbly, he hung up the phone. Barbara was taken. She could be hurt. Or worse. If only he had been there...But no, that wasn' important. He had to leave. Snapping out of his thoughts, he walked speedily to Lois' desk and murmured urgently, "I have to go. There's an emergency."

"What wrong?" Lois asked with wide eyes as she placed a hand on his arm.

He hesitated. He didn't want to upset her, but he didn't want to lie either. In spite of what had happened, Barbara meant something to her he knew. She was searching his face worriedly.

"Bruce had a plan involving Luthor. Barbara was on the mission. She didn't come back," he whispered. As he spoke Lois' mouth dropped in shock, but then something replaced the upset look on her face with one of determination.

"I need to go with you," she said.

"No," he said shaking his head. "It's too dangerous. I don't want you to be a part of this."

"Clark, she's my friend too," she whispered fiercely. "And it's also dangerous for you."

"Please stay home. She would want you safe too," he insisted.

When she began to protest, he kissed her. It didn't matter that they were in the middle of the office, he kissed her with all the love, all the urgency, all the passion he had because if he was honest with himself he was scared too. And if he could make Lois believe everything would be fine, he would believe it too.

"Please," he pleaded. Barbara was in terrible danger; he didn't want someone else he cared about to be in danger as well.

She nodded with fearful eyes. "I'll stay home."

Clark tried to give her a heartening look then hurried as fast as he dared in the bullpen and up the stairs to the rooftop. Then flew off toward Gotham.

The world was a blur of color as he travelled with astonishing speed. Within a few seconds Clark was flying through the waterfall shielding one of the secret entrances to the Batcave, and unceremoniously, landed in front of the Batmobile. Bruce and Kassandra turned to him immediately. They were both in their costumes and they both looked grave.

"Clark, I'm glad you're here."

He wasn't.

"How could this have happened?" he asked sharply as he looked between the two of them.

"We were at another one of Luthor's facilities. We thought that was his last store of Kryptonite, but there was nothing there. Barbara told me to get out, but then so many guards came bursting through the door and threw these electricity weapons at me. I couldn't phase. I barely got out of there."

"How did they know how to stop you?" Clark asked slightly aghast.

"I don't know. All I know is that I didn't have Barbara's back," she said miserably.

"Kassandra." Clark gently took her by the shoulders. "It's okay. There's nothing you could have done. They knew how to stop you."

She nodded. "Maybe she's still there somewhere," he said gently.

Kassandra shook her head. "I went back there this morning. She wasn't there. In fact there's no evidence of us even being there. I tried to find her USB, but it was missing too."

"That's alright," Bruce said typing at the Batcomputer. "Before they captured her, she was able to remotely download information to the Batcomputer. I added some extra functions to it. I'm sure she only wanted you to take the device so that the enemy wouldn't know about her snooping."

Bruce took it from her and inserted it into the computer. A large loading bar appeared on the screen saying 80%.

"Whatever she was downloading, it didn't have a chance to finish..."

He clicked on a couple files. One labelled 'Metallo' detailing all of the upgrades provided for the mercenary. Another was information about Kryptonite: chemical composition, radiation levels, effects of radiation on various other objects including Kryptonian metal.

"This still doesn't tell us where she is," Clark said impatiently.

"Or where Luthor's real facility is," Kassandra said. "If they have the USB, can you track it?"

"Yes," Bruce said as he urgently pressed a few more buttons. The screen changed to a globe, but there was nothing to indicate Barbara's location.

Bruce slammed his fist on the console. "They must have destroyed it," he ground out.

"Haven't you been keeping track of Luthor's activities?" Clark asked hopeful.

Bruce shook his head obviously angry and frustrated and seemingly demoralized. "I have been. Somehow he circumvented me."

"How? No firewall he's put up has stood a chance against Barbara," Kassandra said nonplussed. "He couldn't hide anything on the LexCorp servor from her or from you."

"Sir?" Alfred's voice from the console made them all jump.

Bruce knitted his eyebrows together. "Yes, Alfred?"

"Miss Lane would like to speak with you, sir."

They all looked at each other in confusion and surprise. "Why?"

"She says that she can help," Alfred said matter-of-factly.

"Do you know about this?" Bruce asked turning to Clark.

Clark was just as taken aback as Bruce was. "No."

After seemingly thinking for a moment, Bruce said, "Patch her through Alfred."

"Yes, sir."

Seconds later her face appeared on screen. In the background was their book shelf, television, and furniture.

"Lois, what's going on?" Clark spoke up first. "I thought I said I didn't want you involved in this."

"You said you wanted me to stay home," she said with a slight quirk of her brow. He grimaced.

"Besides I think I have information that can help you," Lois said determinedly.

Clark looked at her confused and Lois for a moment looked downcast.

"I'm sorry, Clark, but ever since the attack on you, I started investigating Luthor. I found out about his stores of meteor rock. I noticed that most of his facilities were offline and I realized that Batman was probably the one behind it. Your call about Luthor taking Barbara clinched it."

"You know where his last store is," Bruce said

"I called my cousin and she sent me the data. Obviously he suspected that he was being watched because of all of the decommissioning of his stuff. But he didn't expect me or my cousin. The information you need was on his personal computer."

Everyone stared at her surprised. Lois was looking at Clark though, with apologetic eyes.

"How did you get this?" Bruce cut in.

"After Metallo, I got bolder. I assumed, but needed evidence of Luthor's involvement." She looked a little sheepish. "I may have broken into his office."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Clark asked unbelieving and angry. How could she put herself in danger like that?

"I thought you might stop me if I told you my plans," she said to Clark. She was right: he would have.

"Clark, I'm so sorry."

He wasn't looking at her. She had promised and she had lied.

"Show us what you've learned," Bruce said cutting into the increasingly personal discussion.

"I'm sending the data now."

Within seconds, several screens opened. Each outlining the details of every LexCorp facility they had decommissioned, including the fake one, but there was an extra one.

"These are detailed schematics of all LexCorp facilities," Bruce said in awe. "Why didn't you give us this before?"

"Had I known your plans I could have helped," she said with just a tiny bit of snark.

Clark looked away slightly ashamed. Here he was angry with her for keeping secrets when he had done exactly the same. He hadn't wanted her to worry; he had only wanted her to be safe. And she had wanted the exact same thing.

"Every single one of these we've already been to," Kassandra remarked impatiently.

Bruce clicked on one of the files labeled Project Titan.

"Except for this one," he said.

"That's the LexCorp building," Kassandra said in shock.

"With a underground floor that is lead-lined and spans the entire block."

"Of course he would hide it in his own building," Bruce glowered. "Thank you Miss Lane. Your services have been most valuable."

Clark stared at Lois a little mournfully before Bruce returned the Bat screen to normal. "You can fight about it later," he said while putting a hand on his shoulder. There was a flash of light next to them. They looked up in surprise to see Kassandra floating a little away from them, a yellow glow outlining her body.

"Where are you going?" Bruce asked a little sharply tinged with worry.

"This was my mistake. I let her get taken; I'm getting her back."

Clark flew up to meet her and stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder. "No, Kassandra. It's not safe to go alone. They know how to stop you."

"You too," she said vehemently.

"Then we go together," Bruce spoke from below them. "All three of us. As a team."

Barbara woke up to a blinding light and for a moment thought it was the light. But then her eyes adjusted and she was able to inspect herself. Her head was pounding, her body was sore and stung in places where she had healing cuts, nothing was broken, but judging from the dull pain in her back she was incredibly lucky and would only have some major bruising of her bones and muscles. That was the encouraging thought. However, she had no idea where she was and there were no clues to help her to determine her location.

Nondescript gave the room too much credit. It was metal and gray with no windows or tables, just a metal chair off to the side. The only interesting aspect of the entire situation was that she was tied to another metal chair. She didn't panic though. Instead she was annoyed because whoever had captured her had been thorough and had taken literally everything except her clothes including her mask. How courteous. It would have been nicer if they had given her a more comfortable chair, though. In vain she pulled at her bonds. They were made of nylon and she wasn't strong enough to break those nor could she shimmy out of them; her hands were a little numb from the compression. Whoever had bonded her hands and feet was a Boy Scout with a Pioneering merit badge.

Vaguely she wondered what time it was and where she was. Although the interior looked identical to where she was the last time she was conscious, she had a feeling she was in a different place. In the silence of that place she sat thinking and trying to determine a means of escape. It was hopeless to get out on her own though. She was effectively subdued. All she could do was wait for Batman or Superman or Solaris to come find her. If she lasted that long. She imagined she would be questioned severely and she didn't begrudge Luthor the sin of murder. She had very little time. If only she had some way to communicate with Bruce and the others-

Her earpiece! By God they hadn't found it! She needed to activate it. Unable to use her hands she bent her neck towards her shoulder trying to press it that way. Her neck couldn't bend far enough to place enough pressure on the device. She tried to lift her shoulder, but the ropes around her wrists were too tight. She bent her head to her shoulder, placed pressure, but she couldn't reach deep enough. Pushing harder and deeper until it hurt she heard a distinct high-pitched beep. Then there was a click from the door in front of her. Immediately she straightened and set her face to a glare. If they were going to break her, she wouldn't make it an easy task and she wouldn't give them any reason for confidence.

The heavy metal door swung open to reveal three rather beefy men in black gear: Kevlar vests, a large gun strapped to their sides, knives, a nightstick on the opposite side. They each walked to one wall of the room and stood at attention.

"Hello, ladies," she said. "Are you the entertainment?"

But there were more footsteps and finally there was the man behind all of this outlined in the door frame. Ice water filled her veins and fire filled her heart as she stared into the hard eyes of Lex Luthor.

She had seen him in person several times, but never this close. He was tall and of medium build, the light glistened off of his bald head. As he looked around he seemed very collected, but she could tell he was seething underneath. She supposed he didn't appreciate them trying to destroy the Kryptonite he had worked so hard to procure.

"Hello," he said politely, "I'm sorry about the accommodations. I've been meaning to upgrade them, but I've been busy."

Barbara shrugged or some facsimile of that which her current condition allowed. "I figured. Campaigning on top of illegal procurement of dangerous objects is time-consuming. Congratulations on the election by the way."

"Thank you." His congenial tone belied nothing of his true intentions, but Barbara knew they weren't good. They rarely were.

"You're welcome. I'm happy to say I didn't vote for you."

He shrugged a little. "That's alright. I won without it."

"Honestly, I was surprised you won at all," she said casually, but he seemed suddenly very interested.

"Oh? The people of this country want security and I am the best man to deliver that to them."

"I suppose. I just find it unusual for there to have been so many absentee ballots for one candidate."

Mild concern passed over his eyes for the briefest of moments.

"I didn't know."

"Considering the candidates in this election, I took it upon myself to monitor the votes cast." Again she made a shrug-like gesture. "I just think it's strange. Although I agree we need tighter security."

He shook his head a little. "If someone like you can hack into a national database, we definitely do."

"No I was thinking because apparently dead people are walking among us. Except they seem mostly interested in voting."

A queer smile spread across his face. "Well, that doesn't matter now does it?"

"It does a little bit," she deadpanned.

He chuckled heartily. "For someone in your situation, I'm a little surprised by your..."

"Pluck?"

"Cheekiness," he said over-enunciating the syllables.

Barbara nodded with an easy smile, but inside her heart was racing. "Well, no offence, but I've handled worse than you."

He smiled a little, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Do you know why you're here?"

She shook her head still with a smirk on her face. "I imagine because you're not a people person."

Although he smiled again, Barbara could tell she was wearing down his polite veneer. "No. You're here because you and your friend were attempting to destroy my property as well looking at private information."

Barbara's face dropped and he smirked. "Don't worry I destroyed it so you didn't do any damage. But don't you know that's against the law?"

"Why don't you call the cops then? Oh that's right. If you did, then everyone would know that you've been collecting certain unusual objects and not only would that connect you to a military investigation, it would also implicate you in the attempted murder of Superman and the attack on the Metropolis banquet. And if they start investigating you they just might discover some, uh, unorthodox campaign methods. Also let's not forget that you're holding me against my will. That's what, like 40 charges?"

He gave a strained smile then shook his head. He sighed deeply as he turned away from her. As he stood he rubbed his face and seemed deep in thought.

"You're smart," he said but then he turned and although his face hadn't changed his eyes alerted her to an immediate danger as they grew more and more steely with each word. "But not smart enough. Did you really think that after all of the destruction of my facilities that I wouldn't set a trap?"

He leaned down close to her predatorially. "You miscalculated." It took all of her will to not lean back. She stared hard into those cold, dark eyes. "I caught the wrong mouse, but you'll do just fine."

He turned away from her again and took off his gloves. "You're a guest here because I want information."

"What makes you think I know anything? You said yourself I'm not that smart."

"Oh you don't need to be smart, you just need to be honest. I want to know who it is behind this operation and I want to know why," he said with a dangerous calm.

He stepped back in disgust and his nostrils flared. But then he did something unexpected. He closed his eyes, shook his head and turned away from her. "I understand. Your loyalty to him is admirable, but foolish."

With his back turned, she released the breath she had been holding and forced herself to remain strong.

"I can forgive you for thinking that," she said bitterly. "You don't know what loyalty is."

He frowned deeply. "Can't you see what I'm trying to do? I'm trying to protect everyone. I'm the most loyal!"

She looked at him with genuine confusion. "You want to protect the world?"

"Yes," he said impatiently, "but you people keep standing in my way!"

"At the expense of everyone else's rights," she countered.

"In the pursuit of true justice sacrifices must be made," he said matter-of-factly.

"You're so full of shit. If you were really so righteous you'd be working with Batman and Superman! Not plotting against them," she said but he was shaking his head as she had spoken.

"I want to! Superman wouldn't listen to reason. I presented him with a great opportunity to fulfill his destiny, he was just too blinded by his morality and trust in humanity to see that power and control are the only ways to win this war. That is why with Batman, I plan to persuade him with more convincing arguments."

Her heart started beating rapidly. Was she a bargaining chip? It took all of her focus to not show her worry in her face.

"What do you want?" she asked slowly.

"I want to help," he said simply acting as though it should be obvious. He was frustrated and visibly agitated.

"You mean your leadership. We don't need", nor want ,"either," she said.

"Because you don't understand," he said growing more impatient and angry. "You can't save the world by gallavanting around as a vigilante. You need power and order. Rules and laws. Structure. People need to know their place in society in order for civilization to function."

"You speak so highly of the rules, yet you've broken so many," she quipped.

He turned to her with an unreadable look. "I make the rules, Batgirl."

"You're only a senator," she said confused.

He stared deeply into her eyes and spoke with a promise. "For now."

Barbara took a sharp intake of breath, but she said nothing and didn't reveal the panic and fear his words had created in her heart. How could two syllables be so threatening? When she looked up, he had his eyes closed and was breathing deeply.

"Now. No more games or distractions. I want to know the identity of whom you work for."

"Do you really think I'm going to just tell you?" she asked with her usual snark.

He sighed. "You're right."

Barbara's eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

Then a solid force slapped across her face, knocking the wind out of her and stars exploded in front of her eyes. Her face was throbbing and something warm and sticky dribbled down her cheek accompanied by her hot tears. Gasping she tried to regain her breath. But then he grabbed her face forcefully, being careful to push on the gash on her face. She whimpered. His eyes were hot coals of rage, but his voice was almost a growl as he spoke.

"Now who do you work for?"

"The Easter Bunny," she bit out.

He flicked a switch blade in front her causing her to jump a little. He deftly placed the blade on her face and took a deep breath.

"Maybe you misunderstood me. Stop playing games," He moved the blade closer to her eye until it was centimeters away. Barbara's body was stock still. One twitch and her eye was poached, "or I'll be forced to ruin those beautiful eyes."

For a few seconds he just stared at her and to her disgust lust passed over his eyes. She glared and he smiled.

"I need to know his real identity. Now I'm going to ask you one more time. Who is he? What is he planning?" he asked as he carefully traced the outline of her jaw with the knife.

"What makes you think it's a man? That's a little sexist," she ground out.

"We both know whom I'm talking about," he pushed the knife under her chin.

Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. There was no detail about her that connected her to Batman. How could he possibly know?

"Don't look so surprised. I've been studying superheroes for years. I know your moves, your methods, and skills. Just because you're all grown up doesn't mean I don't recognize you Batgirl."

The only sign of fear she allowed herself was a slight widening of her eyes. How long-how could he have watched them? The Bat family lived in shadow.

"That's right. You may have disappeared for a while, but when my facilities were desecrated I knew it had to be you. Imagine my surprise when I found your friend. Or at least a part of her. That was all I needed to study her. To defeat her." He smirked.

Her fear was compounded by rage. "What did you do to my friend?" she growled.

That disgusting smirk grew more twisted and her ire increased in heat. "Exactly what I'm going to do to you if you don't cooperate. Now tell me. Who is Batman?" he asked emphasizing every word.

She shook her head slightly. He sighed dramatically obviously disappointed and seething with veiled anger. "Perhaps you just need time to think it over."

He signaled the guards and they flanked him. One of them opened the door. When he looked at her, it was as though he was sending icy dangers through her masked by an easy smile.

"I hope that you will come to my way of thinking. For your sake. And for the sake of your friends." Digging into his pocket he pulled out a translucent green bullet. She felt a tear fall down her cheek. Luthor turned to leave taking two of the guards with him.

The one that stayed smiled at her cruelly and she shuddered.