"Morning." Kara said entering Vasquez's office the next day.
"Hi." Vasquez said looking up from some reports.
"Hey, how is the dragon?"
"Dead."
"What?" Kara asked eye wide.
"Last night he kind of melted."
"Melted?" Kara asked.
"Got so hot the floor melted and then he died."
"You think he was another experiment?"
"I'd put money on it."
"Any idea where it came from?" Kara asked.
"Not yet. We are looking at all the IR sensors. But no luck so far." Vasquez said before asking. "Are you going to Argo?"
"Should I be?"
"I thought you were going to ask your mom about Grattlok."
"Not yet." Kara replied.
"We can send Ruby if you prefer?"
"No, base on what my mother said I'm not sure Ruby's presence would go down well." Kara said before quickly changing subjects and asking. "Have you got anywhere with the chemical?"
"Yes, Lucy's list of ingredients had a few components we were missing, our guess is they had evaporated by the time we looked. But we are still some way from figuring out exactly what it was made of or how to counter it, but maybe those journals will help."
-00-
"Sorry I'm late." Kara said entering the apartment that evening. But when she saw her friend rather than her daughter on the couch she asked. "Hi Lena did I know you were coming?"
"Only if you read your messages, which you clearly didn't."
"Sorry." Kara said. "Is everything okay?"
"It's fine. I just needed a break. And seeing Alex is still house bound I thought we could go over the road and have fun. I have wine."
"Alex doesn't drink and it has no effect on me." Kara reminded her.
"I know. It's for me." Lena said. "And pizza is already ordered."
"You are going to eat pizza?"
"No. Of course not. But I assumed you would."
"But Alex, my Alex is-"
"Fine with it." Lena cut in. "She is out with Martin."
"How do you know?"
"She told me when I asked if it was okay to borrow you tonight. So come on." Lena said guiding her out of the apartment.
00
I don't want to show off my inner Luthor and make it sound like everything revolves around me, but the point of tonight was to cheer me up. Yet I feel like I would have more fun at a funeral. And by that I mean the funeral of someone I like." Lena said an hour later, fed up with the gloomy mood. "Alex I get, but aren't you meant to be Earth's cheerleader?" Lena asked looking at Kara.
"That was never my role."
"It kinda was." Alex said. "Perhaps you should spend more time out there helping rescue snakes."
"I want to help Alex."
"That's going to be hard to do while she is worried about you." Lena said.
"She's not worried about me. Is she?"
"Of course she is." Lena said. "And she thinks it is her fault."
"Still?"
"Yes. She thinks if she had fought off her attackers she wouldn't have nearly drowned. And if she hadn't assumed her DEO guard was there, they could have protected her."
"Has she told you that?" Kara asked.
"Yes."
"When?"
"Over chess."
"How can she have such an unreasonable guilt complex?" Kara asked.
"Pretty sure if you look in the mirror you'll get your answer." Alex said.
"Why won't she talk to me about it?" Kara asked ignoring the remark.
"Because she knows you get angry." Lena said.
"But not with her." Kara argued.
"I don't think that matters." Lena replied. "But seeing you are going to be angry until you have caught the bad guys why won't you ask Argo for help?"
"What?"
"The journals. Ruby said you didn't want to ask your mom for help. What's wrong? Did something happen on Argo?"
"No. Not exactly."
"What happened?" Alex pressed.
"Do you remember we offered to treat mom on Earth or take a solar grenade and we were firmly turned down?" Kara asked.
"Yes." Alex confirmed.
"Well it turns out Argo isn't the same place it was before I disappeared, My mother said sometime after that some of the population chose to leave. Out of those that remained the desire to remain isolated grew."
"Makes sense." Lena said. "I mean before you disappeared it was clear a lot of the people on Argo wanted nothing to do with Earth or any other planet. They were probably balanced out by those who ended up leaving. Once they were gone, the isolation desire would have grown."
"But regardless of what is happening on Argo if your mom thought you were in danger she'd help." Alex said.
"I know. But I don't want to do anything to make things worse, especially if there are other options."
"I get that, but are there other options?" Alex pressed.
"Luzano." Kara suddenly said.
"What?" Lena asked lost.
"Professor Luzano. He's an alien professor. Master Jailer took him and-"
"I remember." Alex said. "What's he got to do with this?"
"He may be able to help."
"Kara, from what I remember he had difficulty grasping English and that has less dimensions. Plus we'd be asking a former Fort Rozz prisoner for help translating a recipe that could kill every alien and meta."
"No, we'd be asking him to teach us Grattlok, more specifically, teaching Pete Andrews and/or any alien linguists you have at the DEO."
"Wait do you mean aliens who are linguists or humans who know alien languages?" Lena asked.
"Are there actually the first type?" Kara asked her sister.
"Not really." Alex said.
"So the second type then." Kara said to Lena.
Seeing Alex wasn't going for it Lena said.
"Although I know Alura would help, there is no guarantee she could. And although others on Argo could, what is stopping them using it against us. I mean some of them sent us the Worldkillers."
"You don't even know if Luzano is still in the city." Alex pointed out.
"But you do. I mean your job is to track him. So why don't I talk to him and you talk to Pete and see if it feasible?" Kara suggested.
"Fine, I'll call Pete tomorrow." Alex conceded.
00
"How was Martin?" Kara asked when she got home and saw her daughter watching TV.
"Okay. How was Lena?" The teen asked turning off the TV.
"As of two minutes ago a little drunk." Kara replied. "Have you eaten?"
"Yes, Steve made dinner. He gave me leftovers for you." She replied as Kara sat on the couch and hugged her.
"What's wrong?" The teen asked.
"Can't I just want a hug?" Kara questioned.
"Sure, but this feels different."
"I'm sorry." Kara said holding her tightly.
"For what?"
"Not being what you need."
"What are you talking about?" The teen asked pulling away.
"I know you aren't talking to me about what happened because you don't want me to be angry. But I am not angry at you."
"But you are still angry?"
"Whenever you get hurt I will be angry, that's a mom thing." Kara said. "But all I want is for you to be safe and happy. And I know you are not the latter right now. And I know from my own experience keeping it to yourself isn't going to help. So what's going on?"
"I feel like I'm letting you down." The teen said after a minute.
"What? Why?"
"I couldn't protect myself."
"Alex, you are still a teenager. You aren't meant to protect yourself. That's my job."
"Then whats the point of having powers?"
"Just because you have powers doesn't mean you have to help anyone." Kara reminded her. "But if you do want to use them for that, it just takes work and I will help you with that. But I can only do that if you talk to me."
"Okay."
"So." Kara said.
"So what?" Her daughter asked confused.
"So what's going on in that head?" She said gently jabbing her daughter's forehead.
"Shouldn't we do this tomorrow, when you aren't tired?"
"I think we should do this now. So what's going on?"
"I just … sometimes … sometimes I feel I don't belong, that I am too different and can never belong."
"It doesn't matter where you are, no one is the same as you. You and everyone else is unique. That is what connects all of us." Kara said. "But as long as you are loved you belong." She then paused and sighed. "But I remember how different I used to feel and that made me feel so alone and it didn't matter that I had Alex or Eliza, sometimes there was still a void."
"How did you fill it?"
"Well in case you hadn't noticed your aunt and grandmother can be pretty stubborn. They'd spot the signs and then force me out of my funk." Kara explained. "I know you have had a tough life having to change planets every thirty seconds, and for that I'm sorry. But no matter where we are you will never be alone, I'll always be there for you." She said before pausing again. Eventually she added. "But no matter how hard I try I can't protect you from everything. I wish I could."
"I think it may have been my fault." The teen said.
"What was?"
"What happened on the pier."
"There is no way what happened was your fault." Kara said. "Why would you think it was?"
"When I was on the pier, one of the them said something. They said they were after compliance and that I had been causing their friend trouble." The teen said. "But I don't know who they were talking about."
"It might be that that wasn't a message for you, it might have been a message for me. My investigation led to the attack." Kara said hugging her. "I'm sorry." She eventually pulled away and said. "Why don't we go to the desert and practice using powers? We both have some anger to burn off."