Chapter Text
Kara bounced nervously from foot to foot as she looked at Kal out of the corner of her eye while they rode the elevator down to the lobby. They had just concluded their interview, and he had yet to voice his opinion on the matter. She had been glad to have his help slowly easing the Venture to the ground, but as the investigation had turned towards Luthor Corp, she found herself wishing that he had returned to Metropolis after the rescue. Against all reason, however, she was holding out hope that he might finally be getting over his prejudice-
“I don't trust her.”
-or not.
“Just because her brother was a madman, it doesn't mean she is too. Why would she give us that drive if she had something to hide?” Kara shot back.
“I've learned through hard experience that you can't believe anything a Luthor says, or does in this case.”
“But-” Kara started retorting.
“I know you like to think the best of people, but you don't know them like I do,” Kal broke in, “I know you remember Lex and I used to be best friends, just like you and Lena used to be. For years Lex seemed to be nothing but an upstanding businessman and humanitarian, until one day he wasn't. It wasn't until it was too late that I realized he might never have been my friend at all. I know you have a hard time accepting the same might be true of Lena, but I don't want you making the same mistake I made.”
Kara took special care in returning her belongings to her bag, careful not to break anything, before taking a deep breath and responding, “I know how you feel about them, Kal, but Lena doesn't read that way to me. Not when I met her, not for the years we were friends, and not now.”
Kal looked at her for a brief moment as Kara exited the lobby before him, sighing deeply as he followed. Blowing out a frustrated sigh of her own, Kara was glad to drop the topic, knowing nothing more would come of it now than had the previous times they'd discussed it following Lex's descent into villainy.
It wasn't that Kara blamed Kal for feeling this way. She had seen the battles that embroiled them for years, as Kal did his best to stop Lex and Lex did his best to kill Kal. A brief glance at his face showed a dark expression as he too relived his past with Lex.
“Look Kara,” Kal said, grabbing her arm gently and pulling her out of the flow of pedestrians on the sidewalk, “I know how you feel about this, and you know how I feel, but I turned a blind eye to Lex when people were warning me about him, and look what happened. I believed the same of Lex that you do of Lena, that he could never turn on me, and blinded as I was, I let things get out of hand, and in the end, it nearly got Lois killed. If there is even a slight chance that Lena might follow the same path, we must remain vigilant and act before it's too late.”
From the fervor and conviction with which he spoke, Kara knew for him it wasn't a 'slight chance' but a certainty that Lena would be the same as Lex. In his mind, she was already guilty. He, like many others, judged Lena solely by her name, without ever bothering to listen to anything she had to say for herself, driven on in his belief by years of conflict between him and Lex and the near-death of his wife.
Kara knew Kal had only phrased it that way in an attempt to placate her ire, but Kara leveled him with a look that told him she wasn't fooled, “Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty, Kal? We are not judge and jury, acting as we see fit without proof. Lena gave us that drive to help us, and need I remind you that Lex kidnapped Lena because she was unwilling to join him?”
“The information on that drive could easily be fake, or designed to mislead us, and for all we know she went willingly, or was even helping him the whole time,” Kal replied heatedly, brushing aside her arguments.
Opening her mouth to let out a blistering retort, Kara heard something that made her head snap up, cutting her off.
"Kal!” She called sharply, redirecting his attention from their argument to the drones closing on Lena's helicopter as she whipped off her glasses.
Kara took off before he could respond, hoping Kal's figure had masked her transformation and knowing that despite his hatred for the Luthors, he would do the right thing and assist her in saving Lena.
Kara rocketed upward, quickly unleashing a blast of red heat vision that destroyed the farther of the two drones before flying straight through the second, reducing it to dust as she turned to scan the skyline of National City for any threats.
“Supergirl, what's happening?” Superman swooped in, looking slightly confused at Kara getting the jump on him in both noticing and reacting to the threat.
“I took care of the two drones here, but there are more spaced throughout the city, likely to get us to divert our attention. I'll stay here and make sure Miss Luthor is safe, you take care of the rest of the drones. I'll join you as soon as I am able.”
If Superman was perturbed about being ordered around, he didn't show it as he quickly turned to go save the day. As he departed, Kara turned to the helicopter, which had hovered in place since being confronted by the drones, and signaled the pilot to land.
As soon as the helicopter touched down, Kara was at the door, the metal crunching slightly in her hand as she quickly pulled it open. She was met with a shaken-looking Lena, who she gently helped out of the helicopter as she let out a sigh of relief.
“I've got you,” She murmured as she stabilized Lena, who had tried and failed to take a step away from the helicopter.
She led Lena a few steps away, waiting until the other woman regained her footing before quickly checking the pilot was uninjured. As she returned to Lena, she scanned the building for any threats that may have been lingering within.
Lena looked up at her as she approached, still looking shocked, but whether that was from the assassination attempt or the fact that not one, but two Kryptonians had come to save her, Kara wasn't entirely sure.
“Come on, let's get you back to your office,” Kara said gently, unclenching her fist so she could lay her hand softly on Lena's back as she guided her toward the stairwell.
Lena was silent as they headed back into the building, saying nothing as they entered, then descended the stairwell, still trying to process the unexpected turn her day had taken.
When they were alone and safe in Lena's office, she finally turned to Kara and shakily asked, “What the hell was that?”
“Someone is trying to kill you,” Kara replied firmly, a troubled look on her face.
Before either woman could say anything more, the doors to Lena's office swung open. Kara immediately slid in front of Lena, putting herself between her and the newcomers until she realized it was only one of the security teams employed by Luthor Corp. Relaxing slightly, she turned back to meet Lena's still frightened gaze.
“Promise me you'll stay safe,” Kara said, looking back at Lena's security detail as if to appraise their effectiveness, before her eyes slid once more to Lena's, hardening as she spoke, “Someone is still trying to kill you, but there are more drones out there targeting civilians. I need to go help Superman.”
“It's okay,” Lena responded to the unvocalized apology, “I promise. Now go save the day. I'll see you next time, Supergirl.”
With one last look back at the somewhat mischievous look attempting to cover Lena's disquiet, Kara flew off to track down the rest of the drones.
“How did you notice the drones so quickly?” Kal asked as the pair landed on the DEO balcony, either still confused at having Kara get the drop on him, or just genuinely curious.
“Well, Eliza did always say I was a better listener than you,” Kara replied, not really answering his question.
“Seriously,” Kal pressed gently.
Kara turned to him, keeping her face impassive, “This is my city. I know how it sounds. Those drones didn't sound like anything that I usually hear. They stuck out.”
Kal seemed to accept this answer, turning to walk further into the DEO, but Kara frowned slightly as she followed him.
“Hey, what happened?” Alex called to the pair as she looked up and put down the report she was reading.
“Someone used weaponized drones to try and shoot Lena Luthor's helicopter out of the sky, while more drones targeted civilians throughout the city to distract us,” Kal answered for them, as Kara stood nearby, her troubled expression deepening as she got lost in her thoughts.
“Did you guys handle it?” Alex asked, her attention now solely focused on the pair of Kryptonians.
“Yes,” Kal responded, “I took care of most of the drones while Kara saw Miss Luthor to safety, then we cleaned up the remaining drones together.”
“Good, I'll send out teams to collect the remains of the drones, so we can determine who sent them,” Alex said, gesturing at some nearby agents to ready themselves.
As Alex finished directing the other agents, she looked up and noticed that her sister was standing, unaware, her brow crinkled, as the DEO bustled around her, “Kara, you okay? You're being awfully quiet about this, and your crinkle is back.”
Pulled from her troubles, Kara looked up to find both Kal and Alex looking at her expectantly. Rubbing her hand over her wrist nervously, she met Alex's gaze. She could tell from the look in her eyes and the tone of her voice that her silence and body language had her sister worried. Kal was looking more closely at her too, slowly picking up on the hints of distress that Alex had read within moments of looking at her sister.
Kara reached up and ran her hands over her face, smoothing out the all-revealing and traitorous crinkle as she did so.
“Yeah, I- I just. I know it doesn't bother either of you, but she is- she was my friend,” Kara hedged, ”I know it's been almost four years, but seeing her nearly die still upset me.”
Alex nodded, seeming to feel Kara's upset was justified, and turned to finish preparations for the DEO's investigation into the matter. Kal also nodded at her, his face shadowing once more with his past with the Luthors as he looked towards a screen showing footage of the attacks.
With no one's attention on her, Kara left them to it, leaving the way she came in to go check in with Lena.
Kara flew into the DEO earlier than normal the next morning to find everyone else already there.
“Hey, what's up?” She called over.
“We found him,” Alex responded, eyes breaking away from Brainy's monitor to look over her shoulder at her sister, “His name is John Corben.”
“We managed to isolate several partial prints from the drones you destroyed, which I then cross-referenced against known assassins and their MOs to identify the culprit," Brainy stood and led them over to the table as he spoke, indicating the remains of the drones Kara had destroyed yesterday, “I would've identified him sooner if there had been more of the drones left intact.”
“Thanks Brainy, I'll keep that in mind next time killer drones are targeting people,” Kara said sarcastically.
“Thank you, Supergirl, but I assure you need not make such considerations. I am, after all, a twelfth-level intellect. I calculate that with as much as 89.9243 percent of the remaining evidence destroyed I would still have been able to identify the assailant.”
Sharing a look of exasperation with her sister behind Brainy's back, Alex spoke up, “We still need to find him before he can make another attempt on Miss Luthor's life.”
“I have already tasked-”
“There is no need to find him,” Kara interjected, “I already know where he is going to be later today.”
“What-Where-How?”
The look of confusion on Brainy's face that Kara had beaten him to this information was almost enough to make her laugh, but the severity of the situation kept her from doing so.
“I talked to Lena. I flew back to check on her last night after I left the DEO. She is holding a press conference this afternoon to officially announce the rebranding of her company to L-Corp.”
“Well why didn't you try and talk her out of it? There is an assassin on her tail, and he has proven that he has no qualms hurting civilians to accomplish his goals,” Alex said with a concerned look on her face, although Kara felt it had much more to do with Kara going to talk to a Luthor alone without anyone knowing where she was, or even possibly concern for the civilians at the press conference, than anything to do with Lena's safety.
Unclenching her jaw, Kara responded, “She is too stubborn to be convinced, and I am not stupid enough to try. This is our best chance to catch Corben. Between you, me, Kal, J'onn, and the rest of the DEO, we should be able to keep everyone perfectly safe and apprehend Corben at the same time.”
Alex wasn't completely convinced, but at the determined look on Kara's face, she eventually agreed.
As she nodded and turned away, Kara couldn't help but add, “And don't look so shocked that Lena didn't greet me with a Kryptonite bazooka when I talked to her last night.”
Alex, turning back and looking slightly chastised, didn't bother to apologize, “I just worry about you.”
“I know,” Kara said, watching her sister go back to work before whispering, “but you don't need to worry about this.”
Kara stood next to Kal, waiting with no small amount of trepidation for the presentation to start as she re-reviewed the security preparations for the hundredth time in her head. She knew that Corben had to be somewhere nearby, waiting to make his move, but so far he had managed to evade them. She glanced at Kal, who was in turn looking off towards the screen behind the podium, where any minute Lena would ascend to give her speech.
Kara picked out the plainclothes DEO agents spaced throughout the crowd of reporters that was waiting in anticipation for the announcement. Having double, then triple-checked their locations again, she looked at J'onn, then Alex, who occupied opposite sides of the crowd, waiting to either engage Corben or lead the crowd to safety, depending on how Corben had planned his attack.
Kara knew Brainy was nearby in a DEO command van watching the venue and all angles approaching it, looking for anything out of the ordinary and ready to direct those in the field should the need arise. While Brainy was himself very capable in the field, Kara felt reassured knowing he was on overwatch today, knowing that no detail or inconsistency would escape his notice.
“Brainy, are you seeing anything?” Kara asked for the dozenth time.
“Negative Supergirl, facial recognition has yet to register Corben's presence, and the satellite is not picking up anything unusual. Either he isn't here, or he has so far managed to elude our detection methods. I will keep you informed.”
“Understood.”
Kara had no doubt that he was nearby, though. After failing to execute a remote strike, she knew he would make sure the job was done right this time. Personally. Whatever his scheme was, Kara was unable and unwilling to wait and react to it. She was determined to preempt the danger before it arrived. To sate her restless urge to do something, she once again scanned the surroundings for anything unusual, despite the fact that both she and Kal had already done so numerous times.
Seeing something glint oddly underneath Luthor Corp, she quickly began to slip through the crowd as she spoke into her earpiece, “Guys, I see something. Hold positions while I check it out.”
“Keep us apprised,” was all the response she got as Brainy maintained his vigil in the command van.
She passed the screen separating the press from the back of the stage and quickly looked up, briefly catching Lena's eye as a look of understanding passed between them. Kara felt a pang of regret in her chest, but quickly pushed it aside to focus on the task at hand.
As she approached the soon-to-be-rechristened Luthor Corp building, Kara focused on the sublevels, looking for what had drawn her attention earlier. Updating the group as she went, Kara quickly made her way to the subterranean parking garage beneath the building. Back in the distance, she could hear the crowd fall silent as Lena approached the podium.
“It's a bomb,” she called out as she changed into her supersuit, “It's attached to one of the central pillars beneath Luthor Corp.”
As she waited for Brainy to pull up the schematics to the building, she sent him several photos on her DEO-issued phone, before intently studying the bomb, as if she expected she might find a big button labeled ‘DEFUSE’ if only she looked a little harder.
“Supergirl, if that bomb goes off, the entire building will likely collapse,” Brainy replied after a few moments of studying the bomb and schematics.
“Well, any ideas how I can avoid that?” Kara asked, impatience coloring her voice.
“Give me a moment. Superman, please begin scanning the surroundings for more bombs. Alex, J'onn, keep your eyes sharp, Corben will likely try and make his move while we are distracted.”
As Brainy began addressing the other agents while simultaneously analyzing the explosive, Kara tuned into Lena's speech, listening as she spoke of getting out from under the shadow of her brother's crimes and making the newly rebranded L-Corp a force for good.
Smiling faintly, Kara's attention returned to the bomb. Without Brainy's help, she had no hope of defusing it, but if worst came to worst she could absorb most of the blast with her body.
As she had the thought, a sharp beep sounded from the bomb as it primed to explode. Without thinking, she blasted it with her freeze breath and ripped it off the support column, attempting to wrap it in her cape. Before she could fully enclose the device, it detonated, the force of the explosion funneling through the gaps in her cape, throwing Kara clear across the room and shaking the foundations of the building.
Kara blinked rapidly, trying to clear the smoke from her eyes and the fog from her brain. In the back of her mind, she could hear the crowd panicking in the aftershocks of the explosion, but it was nearly impossible to focus with the deafening ringing in her ears.
Taking a few dazed steps towards the door, Kara shook her head, trying to clear her mind and stop the explosions that were still echoing in her ears. As she stumbled into the wall closest to the door she had entered, she faintly heard everyone talking in her earpiece as they sprung into action.
“Alex, the police officer at your nine o'clock is headed straight for Miss Luthor, that is most likely Corben.”
“J'onn, I've cleared the left side of explosives, you and the other DEO agents direct the civilians that way while I check the rest of the buildings.”
“I've got Corben, engaging.”
Kara did her best to force her mind to process all that she was hearing. When she heard her sister's voice cleave through the chaos coming over the line as the DEO attempted to control the scene and lead the civilians to safety, she stopped and peered through the ground toward where her sister was violently exchanging blows with a man whose face she couldn't make out.
Corben.
Anger burned through her, searing the fog from her brain, clearing her head and propelling her from the building with a single-minded intent. Within moments, she was outside, but she was still too far away to stop what was unfolding before her eyes.
Corben had managed to get the upper hand on Alex, and there was no way Kara would be able to catch a bullet from the gun now angled at her sister's head in time, not without causing catastrophic damage to everything between her and Corben, Alex included.
Kara felt her breath leave her as she saw, as if in slow motion, Corben's finger begin to squeeze the trigger. Despite the fact that she didn't need oxygen, she still felt as if she were suffocating as fear sunk its talons deep into her chest. She forced herself to move, blitzing across the space between them, but she was too slow.
She heard the gun fire.
Once.
Twice.
She felt the scream clawing out of her throat, her eyes blazing with unholy fire as she prepared to smite Corben from the very surface of existence for what he had done, but at the last moment before she unleashed herself upon him, before the apocalyptic heat tore from her eyes, she saw that it wasn't Alex's body falling to the floor, but Corben's, and it wasn't he who was holding a smoking gun, but Lena. Lena.
Before she could think, before she could even process, she had Lena wrapped in her arms, “You saved her, you saved her. Thank you.”
“Of course,” Lena mumbled, clearly in shock, having just shot a man.
Kara reached out and gently took the pistol from Lena just as Alex looked over her shoulder from where she was checking on Corben, “Both shots were through-and-through. He needs a hospital.”
“There are no more explosives and the civilians are safe. Good work finding that bomb, Supergirl,” Kal said as he floated down from where he had been scanning the surroundings.
And as much as Kara would normally preen at her cousin's praise, she couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed at the standoffish way he was eyeing Lena.
After everything else had settled down at the scene, Kara had seen Lena back into the arms of her security detail before flying back to the DEO to debrief with the others. As Brainy worked to figure out who had hired Corben, the rest of them discussed the events of the day.
“Good job out there everyone,” J'onn said with a look of fatherly pride for Alex and Kara, and a tense look that Kara didn't understand at Kal, “No civilians were injured and we caught the culprit. And an extra good job to you, Kara. If you hadn't seen that bomb, the whole building might've come down, and who knows how many people would’ve been hurt.”
“I'm just glad we caught him,” Kara replied, letting out a relieved breath, “I feel much better that there isn't an assassin on the loose anymore.”
“I have something,” Brainy announced, drawing the focus of the other four, “I was able to locate the account that Corben used to receive his payment. The origin of the payment is still unknown, but I was able to find a name associated with that account: Luthor.”
“Can you tell which Luthor it was? Was it Lex?” Kal pressed, fury lighting his gaze.
“Unknown, I am still working on it.”
“Great,” Kara huffed, “Now Lena's mother is trying to kill her, and we don't know why.”
“We still can't count Lena out, Kara,” Alex said.
Kara shot her sister an incredulous look, “You think Lena paid someone to try and kill her? Twice?!”
“We still don't know what Corben was trying to accomplish,” Alex answered, “He is a professional assassin, and you don't find it odd that Lena never received so much as a scratch in either attempt.”
“She didn't get a scratch,” Kara spat disbelievingly at her sister, “because we were there both times to save her.”
“Ladies-” J'onn tried cutting in, attempting to dispel the tension, but Kara bulldozed right over him.
“Or don't you think that getting her helicopter shot out of the sky would've left her with worse than a scratch?”
“I'm just saying it is too soon to rule her out as a suspect. She could've had an ulterior motive to hire Corben, and the assassination attempts were just a ploy to distract us.”
“She saved your life, Alex!!” Kara shouted at her sister.
“And now she looks completely free of any wrongdoing. Coming from a Luthor, I find that extremely suspicious.”
“Look, Kara,” Kal interjected, “We know that your previous friendship with Lena might be clouding your judgment, but as I reminded you earlier, and as I will continue to remind you, I felt the same about Lex. I ignored every piece of evidence and every sign that he wasn't the person I thought he was, and it nearly cost me everything. Lena is a Luthor, and until she has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she isn't like her brother, she cannot be trusted.”
Shooting Alex and Kal venomous looks, she rounded on J'onn and demanded with far more anger than he deserved, considering he had yet to say anything on the matter, “And you?”
J'onn stared stoically back at her, letting her anger wash over him without comment as he gathered his thoughts.
“Seeing as she has yet to do anything to indicate herself, we can treat her as a friendly for now, but we can't just ignore her family history,” Holding up his hand to forestall Kara's objection, he continued, “We won't act without evidence, but if she does anything to indicate she might follow in her brother's footsteps, we will have no choice but to bring her in before she can do significant damage.”
Kara knew he was being fair, and that if the choice was up to Alex or Kal, they wouldn't have been so generous with their trust, but she was still angry. Rather than staying and yelling, she turned sharply on her heel and walked away.
Alex watched as Kara spun and stormed away, perturbed by the way her hair blew away from her face from the wind generated by the speed of the movement, and the anger it belied in her sister. After Kara had marched back to the landing pad, Alex looked back towards Clark. As she met his eyes, she could tell they were thinking the same thing, but it was Clark who voiced it.
“I don't understand why she is defending Lena so vehemently.”
Initially, Alex had shared his confusion, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Alex knew if there was one thing Kara could be described as, it was loyal. She would never hesitate to defend her friends, and defended her family even more fiercely. The difference, she thought, is that Kal and herself were usually on the other side of the equation, being defended by Kara rather than having Kara defend someone from them.
“I know you know this, but maybe sometimes we forget,” Alex responded, “Kara is the most loyal friend you could ever hope to have. She will never abandon someone because of the actions of another.”
“But Lex-” Kal started, his anger overtaking his reason.
“I know, I know,” Alex agreed, “but that is the difference between her and us; She can see beyond what Lex did in Metropolis, but we will never forget. You will never forget that Lois was nearly collateral damage of Lex's plan, and I will never forget that Kara could've very easily gotten killed if Lex had known she was there. We will never look past Lena's family unless we know she is nothing like them, whereas Kara never truly considered it a factor.”
Kal nodded, although he still didn't look very happy about Kara's defense of a Luthor. Alex didn't blame him, knowing that Lena could very well pose as great a threat, if not an even greater one, to Kara's life than Lex had to Kal's, but without some form of evidence, Kara would never abandon someone, even someone that she hadn't considered a friend in years.
She pondered the various methods she could pursue to gather evidence, legal or illegal, when she suddenly had an idea.
“J'onn-” she started.
“No Alex, I won't do it.”
“I didn't even say-”
“I don't have to be a psychic to know what you were about to suggest and I won't do it,” He said firmly, “It is a great invasion of privacy, and unless I have a very good reason to suspect Miss Luthor, I am not willing to cross that line. Until you come up with some proof, we will have to stick to our usual methods.”
“Well then,” she turned to address Clark and Brainy, “I guess we will just have to keep our eyes out for evidence then.”