As Kara stepped out of the elevator she was met by Cat's assistant who said.
"She wants to see you."
"Were you waiting for me?" Kara asked confused.
"She said she wanted to see you as soon as you were in." The assistant explained.
"You could have emailed me." Kara pointed out.
"But if I wait here it looks like I'm doing something. And Ms Grant can't see me."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Kara said walking towards Cat's office, stopping in the doorway when she saw Cat was on the phone. But when Cat silently pointed to a chair Kara quietly entered the office, shutting the door behind her. After several minutes Cat ended the call and looked at Kara and said.
"Well you are keeping the telcos in business. Your article has gone viral. It is sparking a lot of debate."
"Debate about what?" Kara asked.
"What it is acceptable to do to get powers. How much of your humanity are you willing to lose, which I think will be the title of my next editorial." Cat said. "So far this morning I have been asked for you to appear on over twenty current affairs shows. I turned down every request and told them to wait until the January follow up. But after that you will be busy." She then paused and asked. "Have you read the comments board?"
"No."
"I suggest you don't."
"Why?"
"The last thing anyone needs at the moment is to be reminded of human stupidity."
"That bad?" Kara asked.
"Only some of them, and the good comments far out way the bad. But one stupid comment is too many." Cat said. "But that's not why I wanted to see you."
"It's not?"
"No. I was reading your follow up article."
"And?"
"I feel you should return to it in the New Year."
"That bad?" Kara asked looking like a kicked puppy.
"It's passable. But lacking something. It read like you were holding back."
"I was." Kara said. "You always said I should not let my feelings cloud my articles."
"True, but the reason why people responded to your missing meta articles was because your desire to help came through. But your article to find the relatives of those bodies feels like a robot wrote it. Yes you don't want to editorialise, but we hire humans not robots for a reason." Cat said. "Think about it over the break and give me the next draft in January."
-00-
"Here you go." Kara said putting a coffee cup down in front of her sister.
"Tell me it has caffeine."
"It has caffeine." Kara confirmed.
"Thank you."
"But I ate your muffin."
"A noble sacrifice I'm sure." Alex said dryly.
"And I needed the comfort food."
"Why?"
"Cat didn't like my next article. Not enough emotion."
"Well she probably wants it to read like you wrote it." Alex said as Vasquez entered the office.
"We have the final test results back." Vasquez said.
"And let me guess, nothing?" Alex asked.
"Yes." Vasquez confirmed.
"And when you say final?" Kara questioned.
"There are probably more tests we can run, but we don't know what they are." Vasquez said.
"So we have nothing." Alex sighed.
"We will keep searching for causes, but none of us are optimistic." Vasquez said.
"And Tycho?" Kara asked.
"No evidence one way or the other. We have no leads but we will assume he is real and missing until told otherwise." Vasquez said. "Agent Bell has had a warrant issued for his arrest and the IRS are doing their thing. But we could be waiting a long time for their findings."
"And the drugs?" Kara asked.
"The good news is there has been no sign of any drug use. But we have all hospitals on alert." Vasquez said.
"And the bad news?" Alex asked.
"Not sure it is bad news or not. But after the publication of the CatCo articles today, share prices in every company associated with Cale went down over sixty percent." Vasquez said. "Which sounds bad, but the price had gone up recently due to the good hype round the drugs. So in fact compared to a couple months ago it is about thirty seven percent wiped off the value."
"That's still a lot." Alex said.
"It is." Vasquez confirmed.
"What if this has nothing to do with drugs or powers?" Kara asked. "What if it is about money? What if it is extreme acts of corporate sabotage? I mean the hyper loop attack cost Max a lot of money. This will cost Cale and all her investors a lot of money."
"That's a very cynical theory." Vasquez said.
"I saw it on the Blacklist."
"It should be fairly easy to find out who has benefited financially from this." Vasquez said.
"It seems a bit far fetched." Alex said. "I mean there are easier ways to sabotage a company." She then looked at Vasquez and said. "But look into it anyway."
"Of course." Vasquez said before noticing a strange expression on Alex's face causing her to say. "Don't."
"Don't what?" Alex asked.
"Think about cancelling. You need the break."
"I need to solve this."
"Alex, go. We have this." Vasquez said. "You need a break. If anything happens I will let you know. Besides it's not like you couldn't be here in five minutes."
-00-
As the adult Alex and Kara walked into the house they were met by silence. "It seems far too quiet." Alex said walking into the lounge where she saw her daughter and Diz sitting very deliberately on opposite ends of the couch, both looking a little ruffled.
"Hi mom." The teenage Kara said slightly breathlessly.
"Hi." Alex said looking suspiciously from her daughter, to Diz, who was avoiding eye contact. "Where is everyone?"
"Grandma and J'onn went out to dinner and MJ and Alex are at a party." The teenage Kara said.
"My Alex?" The older Kara asked confused.
"Yes." The teen confirmed.
"Really?" The older Kara asked.
"Yeah. She said she sent you an email with the details." The teen said causing Kara to look at her phone. As she read the message she said.
"Wow, she is at a party."
"Had to happen sometime." Her sister said.
"You two staying in?" The teen asked.
"Is that an invitation to all watch a movie together and take my mind off what might be happening at that party?" Her aunt asked.
"Not exactly what I was going for." The teen shrugged.
"Do you not want us to stay?" Her mother asked.
"Don't worry, we are having a sisters' night." The older Kara said.
"We are?" Alex asked.
"We are. We'll see you later." The older Kara said leading her sister out of the house.
-00-
"I'm not sure we should have left them alone." Alex said entering Kara's apartment.
"I'm sure they'll be fine. And at the house they are safe." Kara said.
"I can't wait until Alex starts dating." The adult Alex commented. "And I can throw all your comments back at you."
"She's not dating." Kara said.
"She's at a party right now." Alex reminded.
"Where she is probably playing chess." Kara said.
"As long as you don't lie to me you can lie to yourself as much as you want." Alex replied as Kara placed a food order on her phone.
"Food should be here in thirty." Kara said. "Which will help me get back to my happy place."
"So what else is keeping you from your happy place?" Alex asked.
"I keep thinking about the dream I had."
"The one with Tycho?" Alex guessed.
"Yes. And I keep seeing his eyes and they were so … I don't know how to describe them. Almost manic and full of evil and-"
"Kara, even if the dream was a replay of a memory the details won't be an exact match of what happened. You are seeing a dream that may be based on a memory, not an actual memory. Every thing that has happened since then will have clouded the memory. Your fears will colour the dream."
"I guess." Kara said before taking a notepad out of a drawer before facing her sister and saying. "Last night, I couldn't sleep."
"Nightmares?"
"In part. And Alex wasn't wearing the inhibitors so I wanted to make sure she didn't hurt herself. But when I couldn't sleep I started to make a list."
"Of what?"
"Who Worldkiller-1 may try to take over."
"And?" Alex asked.
"Well there was me and Kal and J'onn at the top of the list." Kara said handing her sister the notebook.
"But you are all okay." Alex said.
"So then I thought maybe Lobo took Worldkiller-1 to Argo. I mean my mother must be high on the target list for both of them."
"Only he doesn't know where Argo is." Alex argued.
"We don't know that for sure."
"True, but your mother knows both Lobo and Worldkiller-1 are out there and unlike us, their defences are reliable." Alex argued. "So who else was on your list?"
"Any of Fels's family."
"Only Worldkiller-1 wouldn't be interested in that. I mean don't get me wrong if Frax or his parents got taken over it would put Alex in danger, but that doesn't align with what Worldkiller-1 wants does it? I mean the Dakrans are basically accountants not super soldiers. Worldkiller-1 wouldn't want them. Going after them would be a Lobo thing."
"Unless Lobo told him it was a way to get to Alex." Kara argued. "And at the end of the day if Worldkiller-1 comes back any of us could be taken over and we wouldn't know."
"Kara, at the moment we can detect Worldkiller-1 based on blood anomalies. But after what happened, Lena and I used the information your mother gave us and started to work on a remote sensor. There is a very small chance we will get anything working and I didn't want to mention it until we had some proof it would work. But I want you to know we are working on."
"Thank you." Kara smiled before asking. "Why do you think Worldkiller-1 hasn't bonded with Lobo?"
"Taste?" Alex asked.
"I'm serious. They'd make the ultimate team. I'm surprised Worldkiller-1 hasn't gone for him." Kara said.
"Maybe they aren't compatible?" Alex said. "I know you are scared, but stewing on this won't help."
"I know. But it is hard to think about anything else."
"Maybe that is what Lobo wants." Alex suggested. "Say you were right when you said Lobo was behind everything, then this is just to distract you."
"Or toy with me." Kara said.
"Either way it is a distraction and the easiest way to win is to not play his game." Alex said.
"And if I am wrong? If it is something we should be worrying about?"
"The DEO is already investigating." Alex said. "If they find anything I will let you know. But the truth is we don't know what will happen. It could be anything. The best way to deal with that is to be ready, mentally and physically."
"Are you suggesting we go back to the training area you made?"
"In part. After the holidays we are going to start training properly. But before you get that far we need to work on your emotional state, starting with the not sleeping and the nightmares."
"They aren't that easy to fix." Kara said.
"I know that. But ignoring them won't make it go away." Alex pointed out. "And neither will over analysing them."
"So what's the middle ground?" Kara asked.
"Still haven't found it yet." Alex said. "But I'm sure we can figure it out together."
"I hope so." Kara said resting her head on Alex's shoulder.
"I was thinking what you said last night about being afraid of losing everything again. And closing yourself to protect yourself."
"And?"
"I understood everything you said. But I'm not going to let you do it anymore."