?:?

Lena Luthor had always been the picture of poise and perfection. Growing up in the Luthor household had done that to her. Ever since she was a little girl, Lena had been a master at keeping a painted smile on her face regardless of whatever storm was going on inside of her. There were countless moments in Lena's life where she was internally screaming on the inside, but smiling on the outside. This was especially true during any sort of public outing with her family, such as the torturous dinner parties that Lillian used to like to throw. The bubbly, friendly, fraudulent demeanor of the woman who only acted like a mother when the public's eye was on her always made Lena sick to her stomach. She would play along, though. Always the good girl in the hopes that one day Lillian's motherly façade would have some truth to it. Although that wish never came true, moments such as those proved to be character building moments for Lena. Being able to keep her emotions in check and her facial features under control had been key in the various successful moments in life, including when she moved up the ranks of her family's company. There were of course the naysayers out there that asserted that nepotism was the only reason why Lena was currently running L-Corp, but she knew better. Lena was a master of figuring out situations and maximizing on every opportunity, all while appearing as if nothing could get underneath her skin.

None of this seemed to matter as her brain registered the fact that she was currently trapped in a box, buried God only knows where, with potentially no chance of escaping.

The scream that escaped Lena's throat was piercing, much worse than anything that had ever come about from one of her pesky reoccurring nightmares. As realization dawned on the Luthor, panic hit her full force, pulling her underneath the water of sanity, much like an inescapable riptide. All of a sudden, her limbs were flailing, tight fists pounding against the walls of her plastic coffin as her feet kicked out frantically. Every semblance of logic and reasoning seemed to fly out the door, right along with that cherished calm demeanor that she had spent years perfecting. Tears stung at the corners of her eyes as Lena let out a shuddering sob that quickly morphed into yet another scream.

"You're wasting your oxygen, you know."

Lena immediately froze, the scream she was releasing catching in her throat as Siobhan's menacing voice reached her ears. Tilting her head up the best she could, Lena felt around for the glow stick she had lit a mere moment ago, pulling up one of the inactive ones before managing to grab onto the object she desired. Holding it up, she turned towards the direction that the voice had come from.

"I suggest you keep the screaming to a minimum from now on or else this game is going to be ending wayyyy too soon, which is no fun. You want me to be able to have fun, don't you Lena?"

As the pale, greenish light washed over the area that Siobhan's voice was coming from, Lena spotted the small metallic disc that her fingers had brushed across earlier when she had been feeling around the box. The bitch had installed a speaker on the side.

"Don't have such a cow, Lena. You aren't the first person to be buried alive and I'm sure you won't be the last. I suggest you use the rest of your air up wisely while Supergirl tries to find you. Don't worry, I'll be giving her a clue or two. Provided that she plays along. Ta-ta for now."

Lena was almost grateful for Siobhan's words, not because they gave her any sense of comfort, but because they allowed her the opportunity to collect herself. As much as she hated to admit it, Siobhan was right. Having air to breathe was a luxury that she couldn't afford to waste at the moment. Not if she was going to give Kara enough time to find her. Or give herself a way to figure out how the hell to get out of there.

Once Lena's rationality began to return to her, a thought struck the Luthor. If the metallic plate on the right side of her head was a speaker, what had been the other one she felt earlier?

Turning her head to the left, she maneuvered the glow stick so that she could illuminate it as well. The hand not holding the illuminated rod reached up to feel it again. The metallic grate was the same size, but the holes were different. Wider. Lena could tell that it served a different purpose than its mate. What the purpose was, she wasn't sure.

12:02pm

Kara didn't need to think twice about the location that Siobhan had been referring to. There was only one place it could be.

CatCo.

Wasting no time, Kara dashed out of the DEO and flew down to her other place of business. As soon as she was up in the air, Winn's voice rung out in her ear to confirm where she was headed off to since he was well aware of where Kara and Siobhan's problems had all begun. All Kara could manage in response was a murmured affirmation.

Landing on the balcony, Kara stepped into Cat Grant's office, figuring that would be a good as place as any to start searching for clues. Much to her surprise, she wasn't alone.

"Where on Earth have you been?"

Kara stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes fixated on the woman seated before her. Cat Grant was flanked by two DEO agents, both of which had unamused expressions on their faces.

"What are you doing here?" Kara asked, the question coming out much harsher than intended. Cat was supposed to still be hidden away with the rest of the members of CatCo. At least, that was what had been explained to the Kryptonian earlier in the night.

"I asked my question first," Cat retorted, setting down her ballpoint pen and reaching for her glasses, pulling them from her face and setting them down. "You were mysteriously absent for the first part of this horrendous day and I believe the good people of National City deserve an explanation. At the very least, I deserve an explanation considering that I am your champion in this town."

Kara's head was swirling. She knew that Cat was talking, but she could hardly process the words. All she could think about was Lena.

"I don't have time for this," Kara mumbled, earning herself an eyebrow raise from CatCo's CEO. Cat went to say something in response, but Kara continued on, cutting the other woman off. "Lena Luthor has been kidnapped and I have to find her."

Immediately, Cat Grant was up out of her seat. There was this look of understanding on her face that might have given Kara pause if she hadn't been so preoccupied. It was almost as if the woman understood why it was so important that Kara locate the missing Luthor.

"What can I do to help?"

"I'm not sure," Kara answered honestly, switching over to her x-ray vision as she began to scan the CEO's office for anything that appeared to be out of the ordinary. There was nothing. "Siobhan sent me here," Kara explained, making eye contact with Cat. As difficult as it was to keep herself together, being around the first real mentor she had ever had seemed to give Kara a sliver of strength. It was hard not to feel empowered when you were face to face with the woman who had spent her life turning herself into a literal force of nature. Despite her lack of a cape and a heroic nickname, Cat Grant was a superhero in her own right. "There's supposed to be a clue here."

"A clue?" Cat echoed, her brow furrowing in thought. "You're going to have to give me more than that to go off of."

"I don't have more than that," Kara replied. The panic she was feeling was seeping into her tone and was coming off more like annoyance than anything.

Cat bristled, clearly unused to being spoken to like that. To the other woman's credit, she didn't take the opportunity to chastise Kara for it. It was out of character for her, but Cat appeared to be focusing on the situation at hand versus Supergirl's current attitude. "Tell me exactly what she said."

Kara was getting increasingly anxious as this conversation continued. It felt as if she was wasting time. However, there was a part of her that was able to recognize how valuable it might be to have Cat's help. Kara wasn't thinking as logically as she should have been and it was very possible the other woman would be able to pick up on something she couldn't.

Closing her eyes, Kara replayed the words Siobhan had spoken to her in her head, trying to recall the exact phrasing she had used when she had implied there was a clue hidden at CatCo. Leaving off the part about how it would be at the place Kara had first screwed her over since that was a dead giveaway as to her identity, she repeated the rest of the words to Cat.

"I'm sure with Supergirl's keen sense of observation you'll be able to find it in a flash."

"A flash, eh?" Cat repeated, snorting a little at the end of the sentence as if she found something to be amusing. "Assuming she's not talking about your friend, Barry, I have an idea what she means."

Kara had forgotten how Cat had easily figured out the Flash's identity back when he had first zipped his way through National City. The woman had a knack for seeing things that went over other people's heads.

"Follow me," Cat beckoned, rounding the desk and heading towards the main office. The two DEO agents went to follow as well, but Cat wasn't having any of it. Pausing in her stride, she turned around and held up a hand. One of the agents almost stumbled into her, but managed to stop in place just in time. "Not you two," she chastised, narrowing her eyes at them both. "We'll call you over if your services are needed, but don't hold your breath." Pivoting on her heel, she continued her way out of the office. "Come on, Supergirl."

Kara followed closely on Cat's heels, wondering if the other woman seriously had a lead. Hope started to bubble up deep inside of her, but she was trying not to give into it. Kara wasn't sure she could handle the crushing feeling of disappointment if Cat was wrong and came up empty-handed.

As Cat led her across the office, Kara heard the elevator chime. Both women stopped in place, turning towards the sound of the noise. Surprisingly, Cat didn't appear at all nervous about who was going to walk out when the doors opened up. Instead, she looked ready for a fight.

"Alex," Kara breathed out as a fresh set of tears sprung up into her eyes at the relief seeing her sister brought her. Maggie was on Alex's heels as the DEO agent exited the elevator.

"We were down the street when Winn paged us to head here. He filled us in. I'm so sorry, Supergirl."

Kara nodded, resisting the urge to run across the room and pull her sister into a big hug.

"We're going to find her," Alex assured, walking over to where Kara and Cat was.

"Yes, we are," Cat remarked, giving Kara another one of those knowing looks before heading towards wherever she had been trying to go when Alex and Maggie had arrived. "Chop, chop people. We have no time to waste on emotional back and forth right now."

Alex and Maggie shared a look considering the fact that they weren't used to Cat's prickly side, but Kara continued along without a thought in her mind beyond figuring out where Lena was being held.

Walking right past all of the desks of her co-workers, the women followed Cat all the way down to one of CatCo's storage rooms. Opening up the door, the CEO reached inside and flicked on the lights, illuminating a small room that had a couple of desks scattered about.

"I remember that when that backstabbing harpy was fired, we moved her belongings to here," Cat explained, her eyes glancing across the desks as if she were trying to remember which specific one had been Siobhan's workstation. Settling on one in the back corner, Cat gracefully maneuvered her way around the scattered furniture to get to it as Kara watched from the center of the small room. Alex and Maggie waited by the doorway, watching Cat, looking intrigued.

"Do you see anything?" Kara asked, switching over to her x-ray vision to check out the desk from a different perspective as Cat's hands traveled up and down its surface. Blue eyes settled onto the figure of a small, thin device fastened at the bottom of the desk at the same time Cat's fingers latched onto it.

"Gotcha," Cat murmured, pulling the object free and holding it up for everyone to see. It was a flash drive. "I know she thinks she's clever and all, but that pun was child's play," Cat remarked, rolling her eyes as she skirted her way back around the desk. Handing the flash drive over to Kara, she let her take the driver's seat this time.

Heading out of the room, Kara hurried over to her desk so they could see what exactly had been left behind for them. As soon as she got to her computer, she switched it on. However, she didn't sit down. Instead, Kara handed the slender stick over to her sister, knowing that Alex was far more equipped to retrieve the information than her if Siobhan had any technical tricks up her sleeve.

Sure enough, when Alex plugged the flash drive in and pulled it up on the computer, she found that it was encrypted.

"Winn," Alex called out, knowing that he was listening into their ear pieces.

"I'm here," the technician answered immediately.

"I need you to backdoor your way into…" Alex paused, looking over to Cat as if she didn't know whose desk they were at.

The older woman rolled her eyes. "That desk belongs to Kara Danvers."

"Kara Danvers' computer," Alex finished.

"I'm on it," Winn replied.

Within seconds, the group of them saw the icon of the mouse begin to move itself around on the screen as Winn took over the controls.

"So that's where Walter went…" Cat murmured to herself.

Both Alex and Maggie picked up on the CEO's comment, but Kara was too preoccupied. That final moment that she had shared with Lena had been replaying in her mind on a loop ever since Siobhan's announcement. Kara didn't regret the quick way she had dashed out there since, chances were, Maggie wouldn't be alive right now if she had taken her sweet time leaving. However, Kara still felt uneasy about the way things had been left between them. Why hadn't she slipped in a quick "I love you"? Would she ever get the chance to say it again?

One of Kara's hands moved to her stomach as it clenched painfully. She couldn't be thinking like that. There was no time for worst case scenarios. They were too difficult to process and accomplished nothing.

Sensing her discomfort, Cat Grant reached out, placing a hand on Supergirl's arm.

"Believe that it will be okay and it will be," the woman stated, her voice containing the same amount of confidence as it always did. Confidence that Kara wished she felt herself at the moment. "You can accomplish anything that you set your mind to. The second that you lose faith is the second that the other side has won."

Kara nodded slowly, repeating Cat's words back to herself in her mind. The woman had a point.

"We're in," Winn called out, opening up the flash drive and exposing its contents. All that was contained was a single document. The icon of the mouse hovered over it before Winn clicked into it, opening the document up for all to see. It was a link to Siobhan's resume.

Cat snorted. "I hope she doesn't seriously think that she can list CatCo as one of her references," she remarked as Winn scrolled through the document, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

At the bottom of the second page was a hyperlink. It was underneath a long list of Siobhan's so-called talents. 'My greatest accomplishment' were the words that Siobhan had attached the hyperlink to.

"Here goes nothing," Winn stated, clicking on the link.

Everyone in the room, Cat included, seemed to be holding their breaths as the webpage loaded. Within seconds, a big black screen swam into view. A cartoon image of Supergirl began to slowly fly across the screen before she was suddenly blasted out of the sky. Blue cartoon eyes turned into big black Xs as a chime sounded out of the speakers identical to the noise that would play when you died as Mario during one of his many video games over the years. As the deceased depiction of Supergirl floated down, falling out of sight, something else appeared. The words 'Actions can have deadly consequences' appeared, one letter at time, before fading away. It was at that moment that the black screen changed, turning into some sort of video camera feed.

"Oh my God," Cat whispered, sounding rattled for the first time.

Illuminated by a soft, green, glowing light was Lena's panicked face. The woman was looking around frantically, as if she was trapped. The light moved somewhat off of her face every few seconds, instead illuminating her surroundings. Lena appeared to be trying to figure out something. It looked as if she were trapped in some sort of box. However, the longer they stared at the screen, watching the woman shift around and move the light, the easier it was to make out the fact that It appeared as if the space around Lena's head consisted of some sort of dirt.

In case there was any doubt about what they were seeing, Lena's image faded from sight. New words appeared on the screen. 'I refuse to keep my hatred for you buried away any longer. If you want Lena Luthor to make it through the day, I suggest you do exactly as I say.'

Several sets of wide eyes, both at CatCo and back at the DEO where Winn had pulled it up for everyone to look at, watched as those words faded away only to be replaced by new ones.

'8:00pm. CatCo's roof. Supergirl. Be there, alone, with all of the Kryptonite you gave away to Superman earlier this year and a vial of your blood and I'll tell you where Lena is buried. Any funny business and I cut off her air supply.'

Once again, the words disappeared. This time, they were replaced by numbers. A clock appeared in the center of the screen, counting down until 8:00pm. Behind the bold white numbers, the video feed continued. Lena's worried face swam back into view.

Turning towards her sister, Alex caught sight of Kara just in time to watch the Kryptonian's knees buckle. The blonde reached out to catch herself just as the DEO agent sprung up from her seat, moving to grab onto Kara before she fell. Strong fingers curled into the solid surface of the desk, leaving deep craters where each one landed. Small fissures extended out from the indents Kara's fingers had created in the desk, shooting outwards. Both Alex and Cat took a side and held Kara upright, worried eyes trained onto her face.

"We will find her," Alex assured, doing her best to sound certain. "I promise."

?:?

Lena's head felt as if it were going to split into half. At first, her mind had been working overtime, trying to find a way out of her current predicament, but now she could barely think straight. Or move. Ever since she managed to get ahold of her runaway thoughts, she had been trying to breathe as slowly and as steadily as possible. Conserve her air. Except she had burned through a lot of it during her initial freak-out. Not to mention, Lena had no idea how long she had actually been in that box, considering that she had been unconscious at first. Thanks to her mathematical acumen, she had a loose idea of how much time she should have left considering the size of the box and the rate at which she was expelling CO2 into the air with every breath she took, but there was no way to be perfectly accurate, especially since she was struggling to keep track of time. Siobhan hadn't left her with any sort of watch or clock and, the cloudier Lena's mind got, the harder it was to keep track of anything.

Plus, it was hot. So hot. The longer she was trapped there, the more she felt as if she was roasting. It was torture.

Now, instead of wasting her energy worrying about whether or not she was going to be rescued, Lena was trying to think of the one thing that gave her the most energy and strength – Kara. The last several moments had been spent replaying her favorite memories with the Kryptonian that she had managed to fall in love with.

Lena had never intended on falling in love with Kara. Or anyone, for that matter. It was a concept that she had given up on long ago, after many failed attempts at maintaining a successful relationship. Countless nights, Lena had lulled herself to sleep with thoughts of how she was perfectly capable of having a happy life without love. After all, she had her career. As fickle as love and relationships could be, work was never that evil of a mistress. The mastery that Lena lacked when it came to dating, she more than made up for in the business world. Much like science, it was an arena that she excelled in. Lena knew that there were many other people out there who had stopped trying to find their fulfillment in life through love and were instead concentrating on their work. It wasn't a new or bizarre concept. Having grown up with a lack of love in her life, she was certain that she could too could become one of those people.

Or so she thought.

Meeting Kara shattered any hope that Lena had of being able to pull off such a task. The warmth and light that the Kryptonian brought to her world was so entrancing and addicting, that Lena could no longer imagine her life without it. Without Kara. No longer was she able to find solace in picturing her future as nothing more than a successful business woman. Now, when Lena imagined herself five, ten, twenty years down the road, Kara was always at her side. Instead of only seeing herself having her work, she pictured herself having it all. A successful job, a beautiful love, and an abundance of happiness. More happiness than Lena would even know what to do with.

It was that happiness that comforted Lena in that moment as her breathing slowly became shallower. It was becoming increasingly harder to catch her breath, but that didn't stop her from thinking of the face of the woman she loved more than anything.

Just as Lena drew in a haggard breath, seconds away from giving up the battle to stay awake and alert, a blast of cool air hit her in the face.

The Luthor's burning lungs greedily inhaled every last bit of fresh oxygen that she could as it pooled into the box, filling it back up as the CO2 that had accumulated was sucked out. Turning her head towards the source of the air, she looked at the second metal grate again, finally understanding what it was there for. A fan was contained behind it. Siobhan wasn't done with her yet.

"You didn't think you could escape this that easily, right?" Siobhan's voice called out, causing Lena to wince at the noise. Her pounding head could hardly take any sound at this point, let along Siobhan's smug proclamations. "This game isn't over, yet. At least not on my end. You'll be happy to hear that Supergirl has been presented with the option of saving you. I'm so thrilled to see if she takes it, aren't you? I'm thinking that we both agree on this one."

Lena shuffled closer to the fan, enjoying the feel of the air against her face. It was much easier to focus on that then on Siobhan's taunts. Not wanting to give her the satisfaction of provoking her into replying, Lena remained silent.

"I'm not going to be the one to end things here. Not unless I'm forced to. However…" Siobhan trailed off, sounding even more gleeful when she resumed speaking. "You are free to end this whenever you'd like. That's why I left you that little gift in there. At least, that way, you'd be free and I will have still held up my end of the deal. After all, I can't be held responsible for your every action. It wouldn't be my fault if you couldn't hack it."

Siobhan's voice disappeared and Lena was grateful for the silence that fell into its place. Rolling her head back so that she was facing upwards, her fingers reached for the "gift" that Siobhan had been referring to. Pressing her hand to the cool metal of the gun, Lena gathered up every bit of strength and determination that she had currently and shoved the object as hard as she could. The Luthor could hear it skidding its way across the plastic as it traveled down to her feet.

As much as she hated the situation she was in, Lena was determined not to go out that way.

6:15pm

Kara sat, cross-legged, on Winn's desk as the people around her argued back and forth. Her elbows were pressed to her knees and her fingers were steepled underneath her jaw as she watched the situation playing out before her, only half paying attention to what was being said.

The Kryptonian's mind was a flurry of activity. The last several hours had been a wash. They were no closer to finding any traces of Lena or Siobhan. The woman was a master of covering up her tracks. It was infuriating.

They were running out of time. If they missed the deadline and Siobhan truly cut off Lena's air supply, she wouldn't be able to last very long in whatever space she was in. An hour, maybe two, tops. Worst of all, they would have a front row view to the consequences of not acquiescing to Siobhan's request. It had already been excruciating watching Lena struggle for air, off and on, ever since they were granted access to the video feed. A video feed which Winn and his team were unable to trace, despite their best efforts. Every time they believed they had a lock on Lena's location, Kara would race out there with J'onn at her side, only to find nothing. It was one of the most draining experiences of her entire life.

Now that they were running low on time, tensions were running high. The people she had been working with were now at odds, disagreeing on the best course of action. Alex and J'onn believed that they should try one thing, while Maggie and Winn believed in the exact opposite. James had a different opinion than anyone else in the room. Kara had yet to pick a side.

As they all bickered before her, Kara's head titled to the right, her eyes drifting over to the image of Lena. She was laying there looking oddly at peace as she drew in slow, careful breaths. The numbers etched on top of the Luthor's image were ominous. It felt strangely as if Kara was watching the clock counting down to her own demise. In a way, she was. Her heart was so tied to Lena's, that Kara was certain that she wouldn't be capable of continuing on, living life the same way as before without the Luthor. Chances were that she would be nothing more than a shell of her former self if that were to happen. Having already suffered many losses in her life, Kara was sure that this one would be a devastating blow. Especially considering that she was given the opportunity to prevent it.

"We're going to give Siobhan what she wants."

Kara's voice was surprisingly loud when she finally spoke, earning her the attention of all the people surrounding her. The arguing parties temporarily called a ceasefire as they turned their attention to the blonde.

"We're what?" Maggie spat out, clearly irritated. They were all running on fumes at this point, completely exhausted to the point that most pleasantries had been tossed out the window.

"We're going to give Siobhan what she wants," Kara repeated plainly, no trace of emotion in her voice.

"We don't negotiate with terrorists," the detective fired back, earning herself a withering look from James.

"Oh so, it's cool that Kara saving your ass is what led to Lena being kidnapped, but you're not willing to do what it takes to get her back?" he stated, his voice normal since his helmet was off and was currently cradled in one of his arms, settled against his body.

"Hey now, that isn't fair James," Alex chimed in, sounding exasperated.

"I'm not going to argue about this," Kara stated, sounding oddly detached from the situation. Her mind was made up and there was no changing it. "We're giving her what she wants."

"Supergirl," J'onn started, still the most rational person in the room right now. Despite the heated conversation that had been going on, he had been the only one who had managed not to lose his temper. "I don't think it's wise to give that much Kryptonite over to the enemy."

Kara's legs uncrossed and her hands lowered to the desk as she pushed herself off of it. "Siobhan already has Kryptonite."

"And she's probably running low considering her request," J'onn pointed out. "Not to mention the fact that she wants your blood. Who knows what she could do with that?"

Kara shrugged. "Nothing that we couldn't handle. We don't have time to fight about this. Winn," Kara's head tilted towards the technician. "Put in the call to Metropolis. I know we've had them on standby and that Clark has already given the okay to release the Kryptonite. Tell them that they have an hour to get it ready. I want it all loaded up into lead lined crates. Once that's done, I'll fly out there and pick up the crates."

Winn's eyes moved from Kara to J'onn. Everyone knew that he would have to be the one to sign off on the plan.

"J'onn," Kara started, still sounding emotionally removed from the situation even though she was anything but. However, she knew that she had to come across as absolutely certain if she was going to get anyone's buy-in. If she seemed as if she was acting with her heart and not her head, nobody else was ever going to agree to this plan. "If you don't mind, I would appreciate your coming with me to pick up the Kryptonite."

The room fell silent as they waited for the older gentleman's response. Even though it was clear that everyone had varying opinions, no one was speaking up. It wouldn't matter what they all thought once he gave an order.

Taking a deep breath, J'onn's arms slowly uncrossed.

"Agent Schott, make the call. Supergirl, we leave at 7:00pm sharp."

7:55pm

Kara hadn't moved a muscle for the last five minutes. Ever since her and J'onn had situated the crates on the top of the roof and he had left, wishing her well, she had been deep in thought. Currently, she was leaning against the stack of crates, trying her best to look unaffected by everything that was going on although she was slowly dying on the inside. Kara had no doubts that Siobhan was going to stride onto that roof like some sort of proud peacock and she refused to make the other woman privy to the agony she was feeling.

Perched on top of the stack of lead lined crates was a small box. Inside the box was a vial of Kara's blood, as requested. To make her skin pliable enough to get a needle through it, she had needed to briefly hold onto a stick of Kryptonite. It had been painful, but nowhere near as painful as the strain this day had put onto her heart.

"You're early," a familiar voice called out.

As tempting as it was to snap to attention now that Siobhan was there, Kara purposefully rolled her head to the side lazily, as if she didn't have a care in the world. Behind Siobhan were two men holding onto to hand trucks, presumably so that they could carry away the crates of Kryptonite.

"Haven't you ever heard that, if you're exactly on time, you may as well be late?" she asked, sounding weirdly cool and collected. It was as if something had snapped inside of Kara over the course of the day. Tapping into her hatred for Siobhan instead of her despair, she was channeling it the best she could, not wanting to give her nemesis any sort of emotional satisfaction. "Maybe you would have been a better assistant to Miss Grant if you knew that."

Punctuality hadn't been one of Siobhan's problems, but that didn't stop the comment from going under the brunette's skin. When she spoke next, it was clear that her tone was strained.

"I don't think you want to go there considering I hold the key to finding your girlfriend," she remarked, holding up a piece of paper in between two of her slender fingers. The urge to try and snatch it out of her hands was there, but Kara resisted. Both because Siobhan was wearing her Kryptonite embedded bracelets again and because there was no telling that slip of paper was actually the key to finding Lena. For all Kara knew, it could be nothing more than a trick to see if she was going to try and screw Siobhan over. Kara was determined to play by the rules this time considering that Lena's life was at stake.

Pushing herself off of the crates of Kryptonite, Kara extended her hand towards Siobhan.

"Fork it over," she demanded. "I held up my end of the bargain, now you hold up yours."

Siobhan snorted, tucking the slip of paper into her bra before shaking her head. "Do I look like I was born yesterday? Of course I'm going to check out the merchandise before I tell you anything. Now move."

Kara's eyes narrowed, but her hand dropped. Stepping over to the side, she gestured towards the crates.

When Siobhan moved in towards the Kryptonite, Winn's voice rang out in Kara's ear.

"We have a lead on Tina Greer's location."

This news would have been promising, had it come hours earlier. It was too late to do anything about it now. Lena's air supply was set to be cut off for good in another minute, which would give Kara a limited amount of time to find her and extract her from the ground. Regardless, it was the first time they had managed to get a lead on Siobhan's only known solider in this war. Perhaps Tina would end up the key to stopping whatever Siobhan had planned for the Kryptonite and Kara's blood.

Picking up the box at the top of the stack, Siobhan flipped open the lid. Pulling the glass tube from its place nestled against the velvet lining of the box, she held it up to the light. Kara watched carefully as Siobhan set the box down and used her now empty hand to reach into the pocket of the pea coat she was wearing, pulling out a small electronic device. Holding it up to the vial of Kara's blood, a blue beam shot out, running up and down the length of the glass before chirping.

"Good girl," Siobhan murmured, tucking the device back into her pocket before returning the vial to its box. "It's actually your blood. To be perfect honest with you, I thought you would be stupid enough to try and pull a fast one on me."

"Then you don't know me at all," Kara remarked, keeping her response short and sweet. The Kryptonian had no interest in this banter. All she wanted was to go and find Lena.

Siobhan seemed to be taking her time analyzing each and every crate and its contents, but Kara was determined to appear as if she was waiting patiently. While she waited, she attempted to use her x-ray vision to see through the note that had been waved around in her face, but failed to get anywhere with that plan. Kara suspected that the outside of it had been brushed with some kind of lead paint.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the wicked brunette turned to face Supergirl. Snapping her fingers, she gave the cue for the men to take away the crates. As they did that, loading them up and carrying them away into the building where they presumably had some sort of escape route mapped out, Siobhan settled her eyes onto Kara's.

"Fair is fair," Siobhan announced, reaching back into her bra and extracting the folded up piece of paper. "It was good doing business with you, Kara, but don't think this is the last time that we'll see each other."

"Oh, I'm counting on it," Kara remarked, going to grab the slip of paper.

Just as Kara's fingers grasped onto the note, pulling it from Siobhan's hold, the other woman tensed up.

"I told you to come alone," Siobhan hissed, fury flashing through her eyes.

Confusion hit Kara squarely in the chest as she turned her head to see who had betrayed her. Everyone on her team had promised not to show up, since it was clearly stated that Supergirl was to come alone.

"Mon-El," Kara breathed out, her eyes narrowing at the Daxamite who had just leapt up onto the adjacent roof. There was a mixture of determination and pride on his face. He looked as if he had just managed to single-handedly save the day, simply by gracing them both with his presence.

"You're going to regret this," Siobhan called out, already dashing across the rooftop, escaping along with her men as Mon-El jumped over to the building that Kara was on.

"I'm here as your back-up," he called out as Kara's calm demeanor began to shatter. Frantic fingers fumbled to open up the folded up piece of paper.

"I was to come alone!" Kara called out, her voice verging on a shriek.

"Yeah, but, don't you see how stupid that was? What if she tried to kill you? I came as soon as I heard about your cockamamie plan. Thanks for keeping me in the loop throughout today, though, I really appreciated being sent to patrol the outskirts of town while you all handled everything else. Poorly, I might add." The sarcasm in Mon-El's tone was thick, but Kara wasn't even trying to pay attention to his rant.

The note tumbled from Kara's hands as she worked to get it open. Both she and Mon-El reached for it at the same time. Before she even realized what she was doing, Kara was using one hand to pick up the paper and the other to forcefully shove the intruding Daxamite away from her. Buried underneath her worry over Lena was rage. Rage that Mon-El had managed to, yet again, cause major issues by sticking his nose where it didn't belong.

Mon-El's body slammed into ground, leaving a deep, Daxamite shaped indent in the concrete as Kara finally managed to get the slip of paper opened up.

"This is the thanks I get?" he called out, sounding angry himself now.

The part of Kara that tried really hard to never do any harm to others unless it was absolutely necessary felt a pang of guilt over shoving him to the side, but she didn't have time to be concerned about that. Blue eyes traced over the small, carefully written script on the page.

'Polis Park' were the only words on the page. Luckily, Kara knew exactly where that was. It was far from National City and was closer to her hometown of Midvale. It was a park that the Danvers family had taken her to many times when she was younger.

Before Mon-El could get himself back up into a standing position, Kara was gone.

?:?

Lena set down the emptied granola bar wrapper on the ground next to her. At first, she had been dead set on eating anything, as her stomach was a tangled mess of painful knots, but eventually her hunger got the best of her. Figuring that it was unnecessary to suffer from hunger pangs on top of a headache, she had slowly worked her way through the bar, pulling it off piece by piece to make it last. It gave her something to occupy her mind as she waited for Kara to find her.

Even though the Luthor remembered reading something about escaping from enclosed spaces a long time ago, late one night when she had been suffering from insomnia and had ended up in the depths of the internet, she didn't dare try anything. Lena knew that her ability to escape was contingent on how deep in the dirt she was and how solidly it was packed above her. As much as she hated to be that person who waited around to be saved, the Luthor realized that it was a better bet putting her eggs into Kara's basket instead of trying to make her way out of the box herself, potentially causing herself to suffocate under the weight of the earth above her.

Plus, the Luthor was very low on physical strength. The continued lack of oxygen and the limited area she had to move about caused Lena's body to feel both stiff and heavy. Several times, various limbs had fallen asleep, and she had done her best to ease them back into a position where the blood flow would wake them up.

Just as her hands moved to rest against her stomach as she breathed in and out slowly, the whirring of the fan could be heard next to her head.

'That's strange…' Lena thought to herself, not daring to speak the words out loud because of the oxygen they would waste. The fan ran like clockwork every hour and had only just turned off several moments ago. Lena only knew this because during one interval earlier in the day, she had counted every second in between bursts of air. Since she was the type of person who found comfort in numbers, it was calming to count her way through an hour. Also, it helped keep her mind active, despite the overall feeling of lethargy she had been fending off.

While she wasn't going to argue with being provided with extra oxygen, Lena had a feeling that wasn't what was going on.

"The bitch broke the rules."

As Siobhan's voice rang out one final time, Lena simultaneously came to realize that she didn't feel any sort of air brushing against her cheek as she normally would when the fan was on.

Reaching over towards the metallic disc that contained the fan behind it, the Luthor was horrified to find that it wasn't blowing air out towards her. No. It was sucking it out of the box instead.

A strangled groan escaped Lena's lips as her chest constricted. Her lungs burned as the oxygen she had was slowly taken away from her.

A hand moved up her chest, settling against the base of her throat as she frantically gasped for air that simply wasn't there. Thoughts of Kara and the moments that they had shared together played through her mind in flashes, much like a rolodex of memories. Every interaction, every date, every kiss, even every smile danced across her mind as she focused on the only person that she wanted to think of if these were to truly be her final moments. Although her body felt as if it were on fire, her heart was full. It was impossible to think of Kara and not be able to achieve some level of contentment.

As Lena basked in the memories of the woman she loved more than life itself, she was only struck with two regrets – one, that they wouldn't get more time together and two, she hadn't told Kara that she loved her nearly enough.

Accepting her fate, Lena closed her eyes and prayed that it would all be over soon.

8:16pm

Once Kara made her way to the park, finding where Lena had been buried took no time at all, thanks to her x-ray vision.

Standing to the side of where she had managed to spot the long rectangular container that Lena was trapped in, Kara drew in the deepest breath she could and blew at the dirt at her feet, dislodging it and blowing it out of the way. Kara's lungs screamed for relief the longer she blew, but she didn't stop until the first traces of the plastic coffin swam into view.

Scurrying into the hole that she had created, Kara dropped down to her knees and used her hands to brush away the final bits of dirt in her way, revealing Lena's face. The Luthor was clutching her throat and squirming around, seemingly fighting for any last trace of oxygen she could get.

As Kara's fingers curled into the edge of the lid, green, frantic eyes snapped open. The Luthor's hand slammed to the top of the lid, splaying out against the plastic.

"Lena, hold on, I'm getting you out of there!"

Lowering one hand to press against Lena's, Kara used the other to rip the lid backwards. As soon as the plastic gave, she gripped back onto it with both hands and tugged, shifting backwards as she pulled the lid away from Lena. The material gave easily, no match for Kara's strength. Flying up into the air, she pulled the lid with her, before flinging it off into the distance.

Diving back down to the gasping brunette below her, Kara scooped her girlfriend up into her arms and pulled her from the box, moving them only over to the side of it so that she could give Lena the chance to catch her breath before trying to take her anywhere. There were no words to describe the feeling of relief that washed over her. Lena was alive. Exhausted, hurting, and completely drained, but alive.

"Breathe, Lena, breathe," Kara cried out cradling the Luthor in her lap with one arm as her free hand brushed Lena's sweat soaked hair out of her face. Even now, her beauty was breathtaking.

"Kara," Lena gasped out, her breathing becoming less and less frantic as time ticked by. "You came, I knew you'd come for me."

Lena's words managed to open up the floodgates of tears that Kara had been holding back for hours. They now flowed freely, leaving salty streaks on her cheeks as they streamed down her face.

Blinking them away enough to see her girlfriend clearly, Kara leaned down and pressed a kiss to Lena's forehead.

"I'll always come for you," Kara said, her sobs surfacing every other word. "Always."

Weakened arms reached around the Kryptonian's body as Lena clung to Kara.

Returning the embrace while still being careful to give her enough room to breathe comfortably, Kara pressed periodic kisses to Lena's head as the Luthor settled down in between their whispered declarations of love to one another.

Even though Siobhan was still out there, armed with a couple of brand new potential weapons, Kara currently didn't have a care in the world. No matter what happened next, she knew that she could face it with Lena at her side.