"What's happened?" Lena asked as she entered the conference room.
"I read the mind of the prisoner. Lex set this up." J'onn said.
"That son of -" Lena started before Lucy cut in.
"We don't know for sure." Lucy said.
"Pretty sure we do." Alex argued.
"If Steve is right about Cam there is a Shapeshifter in play. So the prisoner may believe it was Lex, when in fact it was a shapeshifter." Lucy argued.
"What's going on?" Kara asked entering the office. "Why are you all here?" She asked seeing her sister and Steve.
"We have strong reason to believe Lex was behind the attacks." J'onn said.
"But he is locked away." Kara pointed out.
"He set it up before he turned himself in." Alex said.
"But, why hand himself in? There was no need to." Kara said.
"Probably to gloat. But he would have had an escape plan." Lena said. "We need to figure it out."
"We need to go over everything that should have happened the night of the stabbings." Alex said.
"We've got that list." Lucy said as Vasquez walked in the room.
"Are any of you capable of following medical instructions?" Lucy asked.
"How are you feeling?" Alex asked Vasquez, ignoring Lucy.
"Won't be weight lifting anytime soon, but I'm okay." Vasquez said walking to a chair. "So what have we got?"
"Lex set it up. We are trying to work out what the plan was." Alex said. "Lex wanted something, but we haven't figured it out yet."
"Maybe we are asking the wrong question." Lucy said. "Try this one. What would have happened if the military had taken over?"
"They would have transferred every bit of tech into their labs." Alex said bitterly.
"So why wouldn't Lex want that?"
"He must need something." Lena said. "I need to look at the inventory."
"I'll look at the background of the attackers we have identified." Kara said.
"As for you three." Lucy said looking from Alex, to Steve, to Vasquez. "Go home."
00
"You're up." The older Alex said as she returned home with Steve and saw her mother sitting in the lounge.
"But still in the house." Eliza pointed out. "The kids are worried about you."
"I'm okay. And the sooner we figure out the details, the safer we will all be." Alex said carefully walking to the smaller couch.
"Any progress?" Eliza asked as Steve sat on an armchair.
"It was Lex. But how, why, we still don't know." Alex explained.
"Where's your sister?"
"At CatCo. She's taking it pretty well, all things considered."
"And you?"
"Feel like I walked straight into one of his traps."
"As smart as Lex is, he is not smarter than all of you combined."
"Doesn't feel that way right now." Alex said as she stiffly sat down, wincing as she did so. Seeing her mother's concerned frown she added. "I'm okay, but I may have over done it, so I am just going to sit here and not move for a while." She paused then asked. "How did you get down here anyway?"
"I walked, slowly. And with Alex's help."
"Where are the kids?" Alex asked.
"Gone to buy some food. They'll be back soon."
"I'm surprised they left you alone."
"I think they trust me." Eliza explained as they heard the door open, moments before Chewie charged into the room and jumped up on Alex, causing her to grimace.
"Sorry." The younger Alex said lifting the dog off her aunt.
"It's fine." The older Alex said before noticing her daughter's expression and added. "I'm resting."
"Why do you both look so miserable?" MJ asked. "Has something happened?"
"We figured out Lex was behind the attacks." His mother said, knowing there was no reason to hide it.
"But he's at the DEO." Mel pointed out.
"He set his plan in motion before he turned himself in."
"Why did he turn himself in?" MJ asked.
"That is what we are trying to figure out." Alex sighed.
"Can we help?" MJ asked. "I mean we will look at it in a really different way."
"Sure. Everything is on that tablet." Alex said pointing to the table.
"You are letting us help. Things must be bad." MJ said picking up the tablet.
00
"I have something." Kara said walking into the lounge. As she did so she saw her family sitting round the table in deep discussion. "What's going on?"
"We're figuring out what Lex was up to." MJ said before asking. "What have you got?"
"Four of the attackers were metas who went missing when Indomitable was gaining popularity."
"So how did they end up with Lex?" The older Alex asked.
"Maybe he rescued them, after I gave up searching for them." Kara said.
"You didn't give up. You did everything you could." Her sister reminded her.
"We should go make dinner." The younger Kara said realising their presence may not help. Once the younger generation had gone the older Alex said to her sister.
"None of this is on you."
"Isn't it? It feels like it is."
"Kara, part of Lex's plan is to get in our heads. If you let him, he wins the first battle."
00
"Could this be linked to fake you?" MJ asked his mother an hour later.
"What?"
"Back when you had been switched out, fake you had access to the DEO, could they have found something that Indomitable didn't understand, but Lex did?"
"They were after Cyberwalk and they got what they needed." Alex said.
"But did they take more than that?" MJ pressed.
"You may be onto something." Alex said looking like she was about to stand.
"We'll call whoever you need to come here." Her daughter said.
"Fine." Alex said. "Get Ruby, Lucy and Vasquez over. And tell Ruby to bring the Lab Theta inventory from two years ago."
"I'll get Lena." The older Kara said flying off.
00
"You moving in?" MJ asked Ruby when she entered the house carrying several boxes.
"I hope not." Ruby said as she put the boxes down.
"You sure, because mom didn't ask you to bring that much."
"We were trying to be preemptive." Ruby said before looking at Alex and asked. "What exactly are we looking for?"
"Any item that the army may have knowledge of and is now at Beta site." Alex explained.
"How will that help us figure out how Lex planned to escape?" Lena asked.
"No idea, but if we know what he was looking for that is a start." Alex said.
"How exactly are we meant to know what the army knew?" Ruby asked.
"I may be able to help." Lucy said. "Or at least narrow the search. I managed to get the list of who would have taken over the DEO. On that list were four Colonels and two Generals."
"No Colonel Abbott?" Alex asked.
"Should there be?" Lucy asked.
"No, but that doesn't mean he didn't get on the list."
"Who is Colonel Abbott?" The older Kara asked.
"The idiot with the truck convoy." Her sister explained.
"Oh, yeah, he'd be bad." Kara said. "How come you didn't pick the short list?"
"I was asked my opinion, but the President gets final say." Alex explained. "And this isn't a bad list."
"What makes it a good list is I pulled their files. I know where and when they worked." Lucy said as Lena scrolled through photos.
"Wait, I may have something." Lena said.
"What?" Alex asked as Lena passed her a tablet with a photo on the screen.
"You know what this is?" Alex asked not seeing any description of what the device did.
"Not exactly. But I recognise the picture." Lena explained. "Twenty five, maybe thirty years ago, Lex had a picture of it in his study."
"Where did he get a picture from?" Alex asked.
"Probably my father." Lucy said.
"Why?" The younger Alex asked.
"My dad is pretty closed minded. He dislikes aliens. At one stage he and Lex worked together on weapons that could stop Superman."
"So if Lex got that from your father, he must have thought it could kill Superman." Alex said rereading the file. "We have had it for thirty years and still don't know what it does?"
"If fell to the bottom of the list." Vasquez said. "There are plenty of items that have been sitting gathering dust."
"Someone must have an idea." Alex commented before adding. "We really need J'onn."
"He should be here soon." Lucy said. "He said he was checking out a lead."
"Why has it come out of Lab Theta?" Kara asked.
"Every so ofter items are moved and rescanned." Vasquez said. "We want to make sure they haven't activated."
"Can I see the picture?" Kara asked.
"Sure." Lucy said passing her the tablet.
"Do you recognise it?" The older Alex asked her.
"No." Kara said. "Actually wait." She added zooming in. "I don't recognise the object, but the markings look familiar."
"From where?" Lucy questioned.
"I don't know." Kara said trying to recall, just as J'onn walked in.
"Sorry, that took longer than expected." J'onn apologised. "Have you found anything?"
"Maybe, do you remember this?" Alex asked passing J'onn her tablet. "It was something that was collected during your time as Director."
"My father probably had a strong interest in it." Lucy said.
"That doesn't narrow it down that much." J'onn said as he read the accompanying report as Kara suddenly said.
"Mongul."
"What?" Alex asked.
"The markings they are the same ones used by Mongul. This is Mongul tech."
"From thirty years ago?"
"It was found on a crashed ship." J'onn said. "We were hunting another alien at the time and when the ship came down, the army got there first. They had already taken the ship's computer by the time we arrived. We didn't get the artefact until three weeks later, after the President ordered it. We were pretty sure they didn't hand over all the data, but we go the device. However, we never figured out what it did."
"But Lex would have had access to the computer data, so he may have figured it out." Alex mused.
"Even if you are right, we still don't know who he was planning on breaking it out, or himself for that matter."
"We have to be missing something with the prisoners who we caught that night, who we didn't transfer to Beta site." Lucy said.
"Maybe not." Lena said. "Maybe you are focusing on the wrong thing. Beta site, to take over, would need more staff as well right?"
"Yes." Vasquez confirmed. "We have a back up shift of staff, including techs, engineers and Agents, who would get called up."
"We need that list." Alex said.
"I'll head back to the DEO and look." Lucy said.
"I'll come with you." Ruby said standing.