"Tell me you not working too hard." Eliza said as she entered Kara's apartment the next day.
"I'm not." Kara said looking up. "What are you doing here? Not that you aren't welcome."
"It was that or killing your sister."
"What has she done?" Kara asked.
"She's pushing herself too hard." Eliza said. "And when I tell her to stop she gets angry and then I get angry and she gets more angry. I thought a break may be good for both of us. Besides I kind of feel like I have been neglecting you since you got your powers back."
"No you haven't. Besides Alex needs you more right now." Kara pointed out.
"That doesn't mean you don't need me."
"I'm okay." Kara said.
"That didn't sound very convincing."
"I'm worried about Alex, my Alex. She won't talk about what happened when she was exposed to Silver Kryptonite. All she has really said is she thinks she is a burden to Kara and MJ and she is closing herself off from them. How can I help her if she won't talk to me? And if she thinks she is a burden why would she ask for help from anyone?"
"Kara, you have both been through a lot. It will take time to get over it. And just like you won't talk about everything that happened to you, Alex needs time before she'll be ready to talk. But just like you she has so much inner strength. She'll be fine." She said as the door opened and the teenage Alex walked into the apartment with MJ.
"Hey guys." Kara greeted.
"Hi." Alex said as she hugged her mother while MJ said.
"Hi." As he did so he tossed his bag on the corner.
"What's going on?" Kara asked.
"Mom is super crabby so we're going to hang here." MJ said.
"Define super crabby." The adult Kara said.
"Um, she's on my case more than she's normally on Kara's." MJ explained.
"Well she's in pain." Kara reminded him.
"I know. But she is still being …. Perhaps you could talk to her?"
"At this stage you are the best person." Eliza said.
"Okay." Kara said. "But only if you finish your homework." She said looking at the two teens.
"Fine." MJ said.
"Before I go, where's your sister?"
"Do you really need to ask?" MJ asked.
"Okay, does your mom know she is with Diz?" Kara asked.
"I was guessing that was accounting for 45 percent of her mood." MJ said.
"Only forty five?" Kara asked. "That's progress."
-00-
"What are you doing here?" Alex asked when Kara entered with a pizza box.
"Sisters' night."
"I'm not in the mood."
"I know. MJ told me."
"He's at yours?"
"Yes." Kara confirmed. "He mentioned something about you developing a super power. Super grouchiness."
"I'm not super grouchy." Alex said as Kara sat next to her on the couch.
"The witnesses say otherwise. Although technically he said crabby. So I'm here to cheer you up." Kara said.
"You don't have to. I'll be okay."
"Eliza thinks differently, she is also hiding at my place."
"I may have lost my temper with her earlier." Alex sighed.
"I know." Kara said offering Alex a slice of pizza. "So movie or tv boxset?"
-00-
"I don't mean to criticise, but I thought you'd come over to cheer me up." The adult Alex commented to her sister a couple of hours later when she saw a frown etched on her face.
"Yes." Kara confirmed.
"Only you seem a little miserable." Alex said.
"What? Me? No I'm fine."
"Want to try again?" Alex asked.
"I've not been sleeping well. I've been having really vivid dreams and they seem so so real. Then I wake up and the day goes on and it feels like. I don't know. Like I don't know what is real anymore." Kara said.
"Is it any surprise?" Alex asked.
"What do mean?"
"From what mom and Lena told me you were pumped full of so much Kryptonite your cells didn't know which way was up. Your brain functioned differently and to top it all off mom and Lena took control of you using those contacts. I'm not surprised you don't feel like everything is real."
"I get that and I know I am clear of it now. But I guess I'm wondering if what I'm feeling is real or just a side effect."
"Like what?"
"Take Alex, when I worry about her is that justified worry or paranoid worry?"
"That's easy, nine times out ten, paranoia fuelled worry." Alex said.
"I'm serious." Kara said.
"I know, but when it comes to Alex you will always worry more than you should."
"But sometimes that worry is right, how do I figure out the difference?"
"Trust your heart." Alex said. "Besides I'll always be there to back you up."
-00-
"Hi." Diz said awkwardly when the adult Alex answered the door the following afternoon.
"Hi." Alex said, trying not to grimace in pain. "Kara's not back yet."
"Oh. I'll just wait in the car."
"You can wait inside." Alex said opening the door wider. Reluctantly Diz stepped into the house and followed Alex as she slowly limped to the kitchen.
"I won't say anything." Diz said.
"Okay." Alex said confused before waving a bottle of water at him.
"No thanks." He said before clarifying. "I mean you don't need to be fake about this. I won't tell anyone about Alex."
"Alex?" The adult Alex asked confused. "What has Alex done?"
"I was there. I could see what she could do. I won't tell anyone she's a meta so you can drop the act."
"Act?" Alex asked lost.
"This." He said pointing at the water bottle Alex had been holding.
"Wait you think I am being nice to you because you think you know something?" The adult Alex asked.
"Yeah, and it makes sense you accepted I was a meta. But you cut the act. I won't say nothing." He then paused and corrected. "Anything. I won't say anything."
"I'm not sure what you think you know. But I don't care if you are a meta or not. Having powers or not doesn't make you a good or bad person. The only thing I care about is my family. Whatever it is you think you know about Alex has nothing to do with this."
"So you're saying you don't have no issue with metas?" He said. For a moment Alex tried to work through the negatives in the sentence.
"I have no issues with metas. Why would I?" Alex asked.
"My parents tried to beat it out of me." Diz said.
"I can't change what happened to you." Alex said. "But in this family everyone is accepted regardless of DNA or powers or anything else." She explained. "But that works both ways, you don't get special treatment because you are a meta and if you hurt Kara you being a meta will be the least of your worries."
"Then why do you always look at me like you are trying to figure out where to bury my body?"
"Because you are dating my daughter. And when I see you I see hundreds of ways Kara could get hurt."
"Don't that work both ways. I mean there are plenty of ways for Kara to get hurt without me."
"I know. That's why no one is looking for your body." Alex said.
"Everything okay?" The teenage Kara asked walking into the kitchen and seeing her boyfriend talking to her mother.
"It's fine." The adult Alex said. "How was school?"
"Okay I guess."
"You ready to go?" Diz asked desperate to get out of there.
"Yes." Kara said throwing her bag in the corner.
"Don't be back late." Alex warned kissing her daughter goodbye.
"I won't." The teen said. "But you shouldn't be standing." She added as she followed Diz out of the house, surprised with how fast he was moving.
"You okay?" The teenage Kara asked as they drove off.
"No your mom was being nice to me. It is freaking me out."
-00-
"Hi, how are you doing?" Kara asked entering Alex's house a little later.
"Diz turned up early so we got talking."
"By talk do you mean you threatening him?" Her sister asked.
"No we talked. I mean there was a threat, but mainly it was talking."
"And?"
"Diz thinks Alex is a meta."
"What did you say to that?"
"I neither confirmed or denied." Alex said. "He thought I was being nice because I wanted to buy his silence."
"He thought you were being nice? He must have had a bad childhood." Kara said.
"Yeah, he kinda mentioned it." Alex said, causing Kara to feel guilty about the quip.
"Where is he now?"
"Kara got back and they left. Diz was doing his best Flash impression." Her sister explained before asking. "Where is Alex?"
"Out with Martin and some of the chess gang."
"Chess gang?" Alex asked.
"What would call them?"
"If I were MJ, Chess nerds." Alex said as J'onn entered the house.
"You were right." J'onn said to Alex.
"About what?"
"The disappearing act being a meta."
"You found them?"
"Not exactly. But one of the metas who is missing is Emil LaSalle. A.K.A Warp." J'onn said.
"I remember headlines about him, from, well a long time ago." Alex said. "I thought he was in jail."
"He was. There was a break out."
"When?"
"A few weeks ago. It was covered up."
"Who is he?" Kara asked.
"A meta who can fly and create portals. He can take as many people as he wants through those portals." J'onn said.
"Any link to Stagg?"
"None that we could find. If we are right about Stagg's experiments he may have found a way to control him."
"So what do we do?" Kara asked.
"Ruby has gone over to S.T.A.R. labs to look for information." J'onn said. "But if we are right about this it will make it a lot harder to catch those responsible."
-00-
"Kara? What are you doing here?" Lena asked when her friend walked in.
"Well I keep seeing the news and it is getting hard to fight the urge to be Supergirl so I thought I could make progress here instead so I don't give into temptation."
"Well at the moment we are hitting a lot of dead ends." Lena said. "Although there is one thing."
"What?"
"Do you remember when Diz was taken, they put a collar on him?"
"To stop him using his powers?" Kara checked.
"Yes. So the DEO tested it, in order to figure out how it worked and if it offered any leads."
"I thought they hadn't found anything."
"That's right and then other events took over and it was kind of forgotten. However, Vasquez signed it over to me and I have been looking into it." Lena said.
"And you've found something?"
"Maybe. Some of the electronics looked familiar."
"Electronics? As in boards and chips?" Kara asked.
"PCB design can be fairly standard and nowadays there is plenty of software available to optimise layout. But there are still many skilled PCB engineers out there who think outside the box to make designs more efficient. Their work stands out."
"Like a signature?" Kara asked.
"In a way." Lena said. "The thing is I recognise this work."
"From where?"
"Therein lies the problem." Lena replied. "I know I have seen it but I can't place where."
"But you can't have looked at that many circuit boards." Kara commented.
"On average one a week for thirty years." Lena pointed out. "So at least 1500."
"Really? That sounds really dull." Kara said. "Maybe what you need is a distraction."
"What kind of distraction? Karaoke won't help."
"I beg to differ. But how about lunch?" Kara suggested.
"Lunch I can do."
"And then how about going to the theatre with us tonight?"
"Let me guess. Chess?"
"Alex told you?"
"She did."
"So do you want to come? There are still some tickets spare and seeing you hung out with some of the chess parents you are kinda one of us now. Besides, it will be a good distraction."
"Fine." Lena agreed.