"Maggie, wait…"
The detective huffed, and ignored the blonde that was running to keep up with her.
"Where are you going?!"
Maggie rolled her eyes. "As far away from you guys as possible. If they come after me, I don't want any of you caught in the crossfire. So get back, and stay with Alex. I have to do this alone."
Kara sped up so that she was standing in front of her sister-in-law, blocking her path. Maggie jumped back, and growled. "Kara, I'm serious. Leave."
"No. Not when you're like this. I may not agree with the things you did, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you get hurt." Kara shook her head. "I'm staying with you. Where are we going?"
"Stay out of it, Kara. I'm not going to ask you again." Maggie leaned forward, glaring threateningly. For a second, even the Girl of Steel cowered under her gaze, but then Kara swallowed thickly, and her gaze softened. "Maggie, please. You know Alex is never going to forgive herself if anything happens to you."
Maggie chuckled dryly. "There won't be much forgiving to do if she ends up on the bad side of a knife. Or worse."
After that, she shoved past Kara – ignoring the pain shooting up in her shoulder from feeling like she hit a wall – and continued down to where her bike was parked.
"Okay, fine." She heard Kara say behind her. "But I want to know where you're going."
That sentence made Maggie stop and turn around for a second to shoot her an incredulous look.
Kara raised an eyebrow. "I promise you I won't come with you, but I want to know where you're going if you're in trouble."
Maggie took a deep breath. "I'm going back to the factory, to look for another portal to the Room, to try and see if I can figure out what their next move is."
"If they see you there, they'll kill you on sight." Kara frowned.
The detective raised a challenging eyebrow in reply. "Yeah. But at least I'll have a chance to make things right."
"The portal in there got deactivated, from what I could tell. I went to the building when we first heard about Cerberus." Kara said. "I heard voices though, but I couldn't see anybody. Maybe they were in that other dimension that you talked about. Be careful."
Kara pressed her lips together, and shot up into the sky. Maggie nodded slowly, and walked to her bike.
"Not that I don't appreciate two visits in such a short period of time, agent, but I'm afraid I have nothing else to add to my stateme-… Hank?!"
Hank smiled weakly at the sight of Lyons' wide eyes.
Lyons was an acquaintance of his. They had met at a private event and occasionally went out for drinks together. He figured that using the friendly approach was the best way to go to get Lyons to lower his guard.
After that, reading his mind would be a breeze.
"It's been too long, Hank! Jesus Christ, you look buff! What kinda workout are you on?"
J'onn chuckled weakly, and tucked a hand in the pocket of his suit. "Jordan, I need a favor."
"Ah, man. You never just drop by for pleasantries, do you?" Lyons raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Were those your guys coming in earlier? The girl was hot. Feel like I've seen her before somewhere… Come in, come in!"
Lyons pulled him into the hallway of his ridiculously large mansion in one of the richest neighborhoods in National City, and escorted him to a sitting area in the living room by the fireplace.
"Can I get you a drink? I have a bottle of the good stuff, single malt, twenty years old…"
J'onn let the man ramble on about the drink and watched as he poured two glasses and handed one over to him, raising his own. "To hot DEO agents, Hank."
J'onn smiled politely, and raised his own glass, before taking a sip. For what it was worth, the whiskey was incredible.
"Now, this favor… What are we talking?"
"I assume you've been following the news?"
"Yeah… man, it's your building, isn't it? Thank God you weren't there when it happened."
"I wanted to ask about Tristan."
Lyons froze for a second, then slowly brought the glass to his lips. "Yes… They wouldn't tell me anything earlier. But something's wrong, isn't it?"
J'onn sighed. "Someone killed him. In the hospital room. It looks like an execution, but we don't know who did it, and there's no camera footage."
Lyons' eyes widened, and for a second J'onn honestly wanted to believe that the surprise was genuine.
But they both knew better than that.
"Oh… That's… God." Lyons trailed off, getting up and walking towards a drawer. J'onn assumed that he was going to start raking up fake memories of him and Tristan, and figured this was the only window he was going to get.
His eyes lit up red as he glared at the man standing in front of the cupboard, already mumbling about Tristan.
But before he could focus on the man's memories and read his mind, Tristan turned around.
A cocked gun now pointed at J'onn's face.
"Don't worry, Hank. I made sure that you were nice and toasty by the fire first. I assume that's what you Martians like most."
J'onn froze.
Maggie took a deep breath as she stopped her bike a block away from the factory. It was well past sundown – her phone told her it was close to midnight.
But she knew that there was a big chance she wouldn't sleep ever again.
As she neared the building, she considered her options.
Barging in would mean certain death instantly. She had to be sneaky about it. Especially if Greene was there.
She sighed as she remembered the conversation they'd had outside the morgue. Standing up to him, ensuring him that she'd figure out what happened on that mission.
All of it had been fake, but there was at least a sliver of truth.
Maggie was going to find out everything about that Room and its corrupt agents, if it was the last thing she did.
Keeping Alex and her friends safe had really been all she ever wanted anyway.
She slipped into a back entrance, reaching for her gun and pulling it out of its holster.
Unsurprisingly, the main hall of the factory seemed empty. A thick layer of dust coated everything around her.
If this was what Kara had seen, then, yes. It would seem deserted.
But she knew better.
She ducked behind a machine at the sound of footsteps approaching, accompanied by muffled voices, but lifted her head behind it to see.
Two men were now standing in the center of the room, in black DEO gear. Maggie vaguely recognized them from seeing them around the DEO, but she was convinced that the one on the left was one of Alex's trusted right hand men during missions.
"…Can't wait any longer. They're closing in on us."
"Just as we expected." The man grunted. "I'm telling ya, letting Danvers live was the worst mistake we could have made. If they don't know anything by now, I'm sure Sawyer told them about it. Should've killed her too when we had the chance." The one on the left replied.
"Everything's going according to plan. Lyons is taking out Henshaw, that'll be one less thing to worry about. Danvers can become acting commander of whatever's left of the DEO. Well, I think that's just her and that pathetic Schott kid."
"Don't forget her sister."
The man on the right laughed. "Right, how could I forget? Now come on, hurry. Boss says the next attack is planned for sunrise, let's go hear what he has to say."
In front of Maggie's eyes, the men walked over to the wall and tapped one of the bricks. A portal appeared. As they stepped into it, Maggie ran over to the right of the portal, staying out of sight for anybody looking out, but still close enough to hear whatever was on the other side.
The hole started closing down slowly, and she realized that she had a choice to jump inside and risk everything to get answers.
But nobody could do anything with her information if she was dead… damn it.
The choice was made for her, though, when the portal re-opened again, and a voice was audible.
"… Snyder is still on his way, leave it open."
Maggie wondered for a second how they could be so careless, before she remembered that nobody was supposed to be able to see the portal anyway.
Whatever happened on that mission must have made her able to see whatever was going on in that secret dimension of theirs.
She leaned closer until she was almost touching the portal with her shoulder, keeping her gun ready in case somebody stepped through and saw her.
"We're moving on to phase 3." A grunt from the other side. "9 AM. Nine more hours to get it done. Get to work. Oh, and…" A pause. "If you happen to see Sawyer anywhere, feel free to put a bullet in the back of her head. For the greater good."
Maggie froze.
Not exactly because of the words, but the way they were said.
How familiar.
It struck her a second later, as she pulled herself away from the portal, feeling her throat close.
The man in charge, the one leading the operation.
Jeff Greene.
Had it really been him all along, masterminding everything? Pretending to work alongside her?
Oh god, she couldn't breathe.
As she moved further away of the portal and towards the corner of the room, she saw a group of three men step out, into the building.
For one quick second, Maggie thought that she could get away unnoticed.
Then, her eyes locked with the last man walking. The man from earlier. Alex's trusted second-in-command.
She was met with a hail of bullets, barely managing to dodge out of the way.
Three guns between her and the exit.