"Kara." The older Alex called entering the apartment the next morning.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Kara asked looking over at her sister.
"Alex told me about your nightmare." She explained. "You okay?"
"Yes, no. I don't know."
"Want to talk?"
"Don't you have to go to work?"
"This is more important. What's wrong?"
"I don't know. I mean I don't know if it is paranoia or a memory. But even if it is a memory, what if it was an hallucination?"
"Kara, you aren't making any sense." Alex said frowning.
"Sorry." Kara said pacing. "The nightmare was about when we were both held by Tycho and they tried to make me into Imperium."
"Which they failed to do." Alex reminded her.
"I know. But it wasn't that I was dreaming about. I mean it was kind of. It is what they did to me to make me Imperium, well it is about what happened before then."
"Which was?" Alex asked feeling a little lost.
"I was on a bed and Tycho came into the room and explained his plan."
"Okay." Alex said.
"As in a real human came in." Kara said.
"In your dream?" Alex asked.
"Yes. But what if it wasn't a dream? What if that really happened? Doesn't that make Tycho real?"
"Or because you have been worried by the lack of progress in the investigation the dream could be a manifestation of those fears. I mean you never mentioned seeing Tycho before."
"I know and I don't know if I remember it, and like I said if I did it could have been an hallucination. I mean most of the time I was hearing voices … only those voices were real. And if what I saw in the dream was real, then Tycho is real and isn't trapped in some virtual prison."
"How do you know it was Tycho?" Alex asked.
"He looked like him." Kara said.
"Body double? Or maybe that is who the avatar was based on?" Alex suggested.
"Or he is a real person or like Indigo?" Kara suggested. "If so, he is out there planning and scheming. What if Worldkiller-1 hasn't left Earth, what if Lobo gave him to Tycho so that he can use him on me?"
"There were a lot of ifs in that statement." Alex reminded her.
"I know, but I'm worried."
"Weren't Lena and mom in control of you?" Alex asked. "I mean you were wearing contacts right? Wouldn't they have seen Tycho?"
"I don't know."
"Okay, get dressed and then we will go see Lena." Alex said.
"What about work?"
"Like you ever turn up anyway." Alex shrugged.
"Hey! And I meant your work."
"Looking after you is part of my work." Alex said. "Besides the rest of the test results won't be in for hours."
-00-
"Hi Kara, Alex." Lena said as the pair walked into her office. "What brings you here so early?"
"We need to talk to you." Alex said as Kara put coffee down in front of Lena.
"Sounds ominous. What's wrong?" Lena asked.
"I had a dream last night. But it may have been a memory, about my time with Tycho when he tried to turn me into Imperium, when you were helping to control me."
"Okay." Lena said not sure where Kara was going.
"In the dream, before they pumped the Kryptonite into me, I remember seeing Tycho. He was there, in person, talking to me." Kara explained.
"Do you remember that?" Alex asked Lena.
"We didn't see anyone claiming to be Tycho. But we only took control after she was exposed to Red-Gold Kryptonite. Up until that moment we didn't want to give any sign of what we were up to so were only monitoring blood chemistry and even that was remote. As soon as the Red-Gold Kryptonite was detected the nanites got to work and sent a signal to us and only after that did we take over."
"Could the contacts have recorded anything that would give us an idea of of she did see him?" Alex asked.
"Unfortunately not." Lena said. "At the time our focus was on stopping Kara being controlled by the Kryptonite, everything else was just noise that got deleted."
"What's happening with Tycho, or the thing we captured?" Alex asked.
"At the moment the programme is trying to escape." Lena said. "So perhaps we let it, only we release it into a fake, self contained virtual world where we control the narrative. We can then see what it tries to do."
"What are the risks of doing that?" Alex asked.
"Not many above what we already have." Lena said. "But no virtual world will be perfect and when it figures out what is happening it could self destruct. Although that won't cause any damage, we will lose the ability to gain more info, although seeing we aren't getting anything from it right now, its not like we are losing anything."
"How long until you can do it?" Alex asked.
"A few hours." Lena said. "The hard work has already been done for other projects I am working on."
"Then do it." Alex said before looking at her sister who was sitting quietly. "You okay?"
"If what I saw was real then he is out there planning and scheming. What do you think he is planning?"
"Right now there are too many unknowns." Alex said.
"Maybe you should open the investigation up. I mean when the IRS got involved before then turned up plenty. Maybe getting forensic accountants involved will reveal hidden accounts?" Lena suggested.
"That's a good idea." Alex agreed. "I've give my contact a call." She added as something on Kara buzzed. Taking out the small device she said.
"It's Frax. He has something. He says it is better to go to his ship."
-00-
As the sisters sat on the chairs in the small room on Frax's ship, the alien tapped at a console before facing the sisters.
"As requested I conducted a complete genetic sequencing on the samples you provided." He started. "And I believe I may have found a link. But not in all samples." He said before pulling up a chart. "Seventy three percent of the samples shared a common ingredient. It is an ingredient I had not come across before which is why the tests took so long. It is not a natural ingredient and was made. But to make it requires a rather complex process and results in cell structures that are not normally found on Earth. But those cell structures were recognised by our computers as similar to a sample you had previously given us."
"What?" Alex asked.
"They are in part Kryptonian." He said. "More specifically they originated from you." He added looking at Kara.
"What do you mean from me?"
"They have your DNA, you are the only donor." He said.
"You have been on Earth for a year. That means the street drugs weren't based on research from five years ago." Alex said.
"Could they have used an old sample?" Kara asked. "I mean when Lillian had me she took my blood."
"Although I can't precisely date the cells, I can roughly give a date. And it is within the last six months." Frax said.
"Why didn't all the samples show it?" Kara asked.
"I gave him some control samples." Alex said. "I wanted a blind study." She paused and then said. "The more important question is where did they get the sample? I can think of three places."
"I can think of four." Kara said.
"Which are?" Alex asked wondering which one she had missed.
"The DEO, Lena's lab, Tycho or Lobo."
"We can do a stocktake at the DEO and Lena's lab." Alex said. "But my money is on Tycho."
"There was something that might make your search easier. The cell structure was not normal." Frax said pulling up another image. "Or rather it was different to what the computer was expecting. The cells seemed to have amino acids that have caused a different structure in the capsids"
"Can you focus in on those?" Alex asked.
"Of course."
"I have seen that somewhere." Alex said looking at the image.
"Where?" Kara asked.
"I don't know." Alex said frowning. "Wait, yes I do. Mom."
-00-
"Mom?" Alex called entering the house.
"In here." Eliza called back from the lounge. But as Alex and Kara burst into the room she frowned and asked. "What's wrong?"
"Where's the work you were doing when you were trying to figure out what was wrong with Kara?" Alex asked.
"Why? What's wrong with you?" Eliza asked standing and looking at Kara.
"Nothing." Alex answered on her sister's behalf. "But you may have been onto something."
"Most of it is at Lena's lab, but some of it is on my laptop." Eliza said.
"Can you show us?" Alex said, her urgency putting Eliza on edge.
"I'll need my laptop." She pointed out. "I'll get it." But by the time she had finished speaking Kara had disappeared and reappeared carrying the laptop.
"Give me a minute to load it up." Eliza said powering it up and entering her password. "What are you after?"
"Do you remember when you showed me the viruses with the mutated capsids?" Alex asked.
"Yes."
"On the screen you had some other cell structures on display. I need to see them."
"Okay, let me load them up." Eliza said navigating through various directories. "Here you are." Eliza said turning the laptop to Alex who started to go through all the images. As Alex searched Eliza looked at Kara and asked. "Are you sure you are okay?"
"I'm fine." Kara assured her. "Although I might be about to get angry." She added as Alex said.
"This one. What generated this structure?" She asked pointing at the screen.
"Let me see." Eliza taking the computer back and squinting at the screen. "I'll need my glasses." She said causing Kara to disappear once more and return a couple of seconds later holding the spectacles.
"Thanks Sweetie." Eliza said as she took the glasses and then started correlating file numbers with simulation runs.
After what felt like an eternity she said. "They were based on Kryptonian cells mixed with Red-Gold Kryptonite."
"We have to go." Alex said. "Can you send me a copy of this and can you look after the kids tonight?"
"Yes but will you tell me what is going on?"
"I will later." Alex said before rushing off with her sister.