Many Plans In Place

Chapter Summary: Max's plan comes to fruition with mixed results. Lena's involvement becomes clear. Lucy Lane gets everyone's ass in gear.

Notes: It's coming to a head y'all. Probably the last chapter where our lovebirds are separated from each other.

I know this has turned into a wild ride. But much like life, you can be flirting with your crush one second, and fighting for your life against a madman and your genetic identical while your friends who work for a secret government agency try to rescue you in the next. Right? Well, figuratively anyway...

I present to you as a peace offering for my angst: Lucy Lane in army fatigues.

And then… and then the whole room, which has now gathered several other agents watching the events unfold, goes stiff in terror at the sight of Maxwell Lord exiting a vehicle after shooting three projectiles into Kara.

Alex drops to her knees. J'onn breaks the table as his fist comes down.

"Vasquez," Maggie says, "Get Major Lane."

Lena looks into the small room through a slot in the door. Walls of concrete studded with kryptonite are emitting a garish green light. She can hear the soft hum of the large amount of electricity being used to power the security systems in place. The elaborate setup, all for one prisoner. One prisoner who has yet to regain consciousness.

Lena looks at Kara lying on the floor, her hair splayed, limbs at awkward angles. The black and blue bruises that have yet to fade from this morning's attack stick out in sharp contrast against the green hue of her skin as it absorbs the kryptonite's radiation. She wants to reach out and feel Kara under her fingertips. To feel her chest rise and fall with each breath. To comfort her. To heal her.

She wants to rip the door off of its hinges and scoop Kara up and get her as far away from this place as possible.

"Why are you doing this?" she asks, her voice heavy with emotion.

Maxwell Lord comes to stand behind her, leans his head forward so that's it's hovering just above her left shoulder. "It is time, Ms. Luthor, to rid the city of this menace."

"Menace?" Lena scoffs. "I fail to see how Kara Danvers..."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Max places his hands on Lena's shoulders and gives a slight squeeze. "Are we really going to insult each other's intelligence by pretending we don't know that our very own Kara Danvers and Supergirl are the same person?"

Lena's fists clench at her sides. "No. I suppose not," she replies coolly.

"Good," Max says chirpily. "So then, about National City's number one threat then?"

Lena tears her eyes away from Kara and turns to face Max, an incredulous look on her face.

"Come now, Lena. You can't tell me that the first daughter of Cadmus doesn't think that there should be more measures in place when it comes to these fantastic creatures? That these visitors to Earth shouldn't have to play by our rules, be under our wise guidance as to what they can and can't do?"

Lena watches Max walk up and down the hallway, his gestures becoming more dramatic as he goes on.

"You mean control them?" Lena feels sick at the thought.

"Now, now. I would never presume to think that I, a lowly human, could control Supergirl. But what I can do, is replace her with someone that is, shall we say, more easily persuaded to humankind's cause."

Lena turns when she hears a door to another cell open and is horrified again to see the likeness of Kara walking towards her. She can feel herself shrinking away in spite of herself.

"Maxwell… what did you do? Who is this?" Lena can feel the bile rising in her throat.

Lord walks over to his creation and strokes her hair, tucks an errant strand behind her ear. Lena fights against the memory of the same loving gesture she made to Kara some hours before. Fights to remain present. To remain clear headed.

"Someone who was forgotten, hmm?" he says to the woman before him, her face blank despite the interaction. "Someone who will do what we tell her to do." He turns to Lena. "We are at a crossroads, Ms. Luthor. You were not a part of my original plan. But…" he steps up to Lena, crouches slightly so that he can look her in the eye. So that she can see the maniacal look there. So she can see that there is no room for debate.

"But here we are. A happy turn of events if I do say so myself. You, Ms. Luthor, are going to help me remove Supergirl's powers for good. Personally, I would have been happy to see her rot in a kryptonite cage. But I think," Max can barely contain the gleeful laughter bubbling up, "... it would be better to remove her powers and not kill her. It's a win-win really. You get to keep your girlfriend and I get to lay my head on my pillow every night knowing that Supergirl will live the rest of her days absolutely powerless."

Lena looks back through the slot in the door. The decision, it would appear, has been made for her. Kill Supergirl to save Kara Danvers.

She turns to look at Max again, seeing the triumph on his face. "You can never truly control people, Max." Her eyes flicker over to Kara's carbon copy for a moment and then the pain is sharp and temporarily blinding as it radiates from knuckles to shoulder when she makes contact with Max's jaw. Max holds his hand up before Supergirl's double apprehends Lena.

"Glad to know we have a deal." He wipes away the trickle of blood from his split lip and then waves his hand for Lena to be led away.

Alex and Maggie shield their faces from the powerful gusts of wind coming from Major Lane's helicopter as it lands on the helipad of the DEO. She steps off, clad in her camouflage army pants, double thigh holsters in place, and khaki colored t-shirt. Her dog tags bounce against her chest with each determined step. She lowers her head for the blades spinning above her and rushes over to Alex and Maggie.

"I want a full briefing in fifteen minutes, Agent Danvers," she yells over the roar of the helicopter taking flight again behind her. Alex nods as she holds open the door and they descend the stairs.

It's all hands on deck in the DEO command center. If an agent wasn't tasked with something critical they were at attention while Alex briefed Lucy. She followed along in silence as Alex walked her through the timeline of the last ten or so hours. It was methodical and thorough, but Lucy has worked with Alex long enough to know that there are pieces missing from her telling of events. And even more disconcertingly, is the obvious absence of Director J'onzz.

Alex wraps up her briefing with the last known whereabouts of Supergirl.

"What are your orders, Agent Danvers?" Lucy asks. She may be there to take lead on this, to bring a clear head to an emotionally charged situation, but she knows every agent in this room works for Alex, no matter the title attached to Lucy's name.

"We have four tactical teams ready to survey here, here, here, and here," Alex starts, pointing to the two crime scenes and the two most likely routes of escape on a map. "Agent Schott is running algorithms to search for kryptonite signatures in the area. Detective Sawyer is our NCPD liaison. She'll be putting out some quiet feelers in the community to see if there's been any rumblings about an alien who can not only shapeshift but also assume another's powers. I'm running multiple extraction plans with Agent Vasquez to coordinate a strike once we know Supergirl's location."

Lucy looks around at the teams already grouped together, sizing them up. "Agreed. Except I want Hanson to take a team of five to the safe house as well." Lucy sees the look of worry on Alex's face. "I'm not saying Ms. Luthor had a hand in this, Agent Danvers. But I'm not doing my job if we don't take the time to prove that. Hanson, choose your people. I want team lead reports every hour on the hour. Head out."

There's a sudden rumble of boots on concrete as the teams march out. Lucy walks over to Alex.

"Three things, Agent Danvers. One," Alex is frozen under Lucy's intense glare, "the moment I see you lose your head, the moment I see you become Kara's sister and not an agent of the DEO, I'm benching you."

Alex wishes she were shocked by this, but she was expecting it the moment the call was made to bring Lucy in to run the op.

"Two," she rest her hand on Alex's arm, "we're going to get her back. Both of them. Safe and sound."

Alex nods, her emotions threatening to take over as she feels the depth of Lucy's conviction in her bones.

"Three," she pulls Alex in by that same arm and whispers harshly, "where the hell is Director J'onzz?"

When Kara wakes again it feels as though the intensity of the kryptonite has ebbed a bit. It takes a couple of tries but she can finally stand on her own. The pain she's in is excruciating and the fatigue she feels is amplified with every step she takes.

She tries to remain calm, to remember the training Alex has given her over the years.

"Survey the room. Top to bottom, left to right. Be methodical about it. Look for discrepancies. Investigate them as you can without tipping off your captor.

"Look for anything that can be used as a weapon. Don't forget that you yourself are a weapon, even in a weakened state.

"Keep your wits about you. Do anything and everything to keep your mind alert. Trust your instincts, even when being presented with what seems like an absolute truth. If you know in your heart it's wrong, then it's wrong."

Kara starts looking around the room. As far as she can tell it's just four walls of concrete with the rocks embedded in them that make her insides feel like they're turning in on themselves. The only difference between them is the two-way mirror that she saw Lena through earlier on the wall in front of her.

Lena , Kara whispers to herself. She still doesn't understand what was happening before. What was Lena doing? She hobbles over to the glass and is shaken at her reflection. She brings a hand to her face and traces the lines of bruising and a particularly nasty cut on her lip. She stumbles backward when the viewing window is suddenly turned on but rushes forward again when she sees Lena. She runs her hand over the glass affectionately before trying to pound on it. It doesn't break under her fists. It doesn't even vibrate. Lena is oblivious to the fact that Kara is just inches away from her.

Kara stops screaming Lena's name and her heart drops into her stomach when she sees Maxwell Lord enter the room and approach Lena. She startles when a speaker in the ceiling fills her room with the sounds of Max and Lena's conversation.

"How are you doing, Lena," he asks as if making small talk with a co-worker.

She turns her head slightly in his direction but does not take her eyes off the work in front of her.

"It's nearly ready," she replies, her voice void of any type of emotion.

"Good, good." He walks up to her workstation and reaches for a vial of blue liquid.

"Don't touch that!" Lena yells and he rips his hand away as though it had been burned.

"It's like you've never worked in a lab a day of your life. That ," she points to the small test tube rack with a half a dozen or so vials of the same blue liquid , "will only take away Supergirl's powers for good. But it will kill you."

Lord eyes her suspiciously but seems to trust what she's saying at the moment.

"Very well," he says lifting his eyes to look where Kara stands on the other side of the mirror. It's as if he knows exactly where she is, knows exactly where to look to make eye contact with her. "It's time to put our plan in motion. I'll be back in two hours. I expect you'll be ready to administer your concoction to Supergirl then."

Lena doesn't answer, just puts her head down and scribbles down some more notes.

The viewing glass goes dark; the speaker releases a small bzzt of static as the line goes dead.

Kara falls to her knees.

Alex has finally filled in Lucy on the gaps from her briefing. The concern J'onn had about using Lena's safe house, the powers slowly coming back to Kara - under what she'll admit later - a hilarious set of circumstances, J'onn believing the video evidence against Kara. And now, his sudden absence from the room since he broke a table with his fist after watching Kara and Lena being taken.

"Is there a reason you weren't at the briefing, Director J'onzz," Lucy asks harshly as she storms into the director's office.

His back is to her. He doesn't look up from the papers that he's shuffling aimlessly around his desk. "I trust you and Agent Danvers had things well in hand."

"J'onn," Lucy does not back down. She lets out a frustrated grunt and rolls her eyes when he doesn't respond. " Sir," she starts again, the bite in her voice unmistakable, "what, if you'll forgive me, the ever loving hell?"

"Excuse me?" J'onn turns around to face his assistant director, hands on his hips, anger overtaking his features.

"J'onn," Lucy starts again, softer this time. "What is going on? Kara is attacked and you think she's a part of some dubious plot against herself?"

"I followed the evidence as it presented itself, Major Lane. You should know that we cannot allow our feelings for certain members of our team affect our decisions. I held Supergirl to the same standards I would any agent."

"She's not just any agent, J'onn!"

"You don't think I know that?" he bellows back and several agents who were milling around stop suddenly to gawk at the argument unfolding between their first and second in command.

Lucy turns, barks out orders to the onlookers to get moving, and closes the door to J'onn's office. She is about to start again when he interrupts her.

"About ten of your Earth years before I left Mars," he starts, his eyes seeing memories instead of Lucy in front of him. "I was head of the resistance against the White Martians. We were making gains against them. I was being hailed as a hero. The savior of the Green Martians." J'onn's eyes fill with tears suddenly. "And then… then they found my wife and daughters. They were in hiding but we were betrayed by someone in our ranks. Those monsters killed my wife and daughters."

J'onn slumps into a chair and drops his head into his hands, wiping at his face angrily. "After that, after losing everything, I couldn't do it anymore. I lost all sense of direction. How could I save an entire people when I couldn't even save my family? I… I left the resistance. I destroyed all of my hard work. I set them back nearly a year in their efforts. And they…. even after I came back. They still lost. Lucy, they still lost."

Tears are in both Lucy's and J'onn's eyes. Lucy pulls up a chair next to J'onn.

"Kara has lost so much, Lucy. And she's so young. I guess I just thought…" J'onn takes a deep steadying breath. "I thought that I wouldn't blame her for doing it. For destroying something that keeps her Supergirl. For doing something that would give her some release from all of that responsibility. And then I was so angry, because I expect her to be better. To be better than me."

"She is. She is better, J'onn. Than all of us."

"I know. She's the hero we need, that we don't deserve. And it was my mistake that got her captured, Lucy. I've destroyed everything again."

"You haven't, J'onn."

J'onn looks at Lucy like he doesn't believe her.

"You do, however, owe her one hell of an apology. And honestly, sir, I'd really like to be there when you tell her how much of an ass you were. Consider it my own version of sweet revenge for taking the directorship out from under me."

J'onn laughs at that, deep from his belly and it's obvious he lets go of something in that moment. Lucy would never try to define what it is. Who could - except maybe Kara - know what that would be? Who else could come close to knowing what J'onn has been through? And Lucy knows that's exactly why she'll forgive J'onn, eventually.

J'onn wipes at his eyes. "Bring me up to speed on the op, Major Lane."

"With pleasure, sir."

"Uh, directors?" Winn is yelling over his shoulder.

J'onn and Lucy come over to Winn followed by Alex. He clicks something on his keyboard and there are several different news feeds on the group of screens in front of them.

"We're not exactly sure what we're seeing here, Aisha."

"Coming to you live from downtown, we've received reports that Supergirl has been hovering in the same spot midair for the better part of an hour."

"Yes, strange behavior indeed," Cat Grant says, her interview on the evening news show suddenly interrupted, "very bizarre indeed."

"That's not…" Winn's voice trails off as the several sets of cameras suddenly follow Kara's look alike shoot toward the earth. She stops just short of the street and lifts a commuter bus full of passengers off the ground and flies them higher and higher before balancing them precariously on a nearby rooftop.

J'onn and Alex are already running out of the room as the garbled voices of several reporters detail what they're seeing in shock.

"What is it with this chick and rooftops?" Lucy asks angrily before dialing Maggie.

"Sawyer! Yeah… I know you're on your way. Did you hear anything yet about this bitch?"

"My contacts were all dead ends," Maggie says regretfully.

"Yeah, alright, thanks." Lucy goes to hang up before bringing the phone back to her mouth for just long enough to say, "good luck."

"Agent Schott, I want every patent, tech spec, and hidden projects of Maxwell Lord. I don't care and don't want to know what you have to do to get the intel. I don't think we're dealing with an alien anymore."

"Hell yes, "Winn raises both fists in the air in victory. "Eat my hack, Lord."

Lucy rolls her eyes at the nerdy agent and by the time she looks back up at the screens, J'onn as Martian Manhunter has appeared and is working furiously to grab hold of the bus that is teetering over the edge of the building. He has to let go when a blonde flying in at superspeed comes straight for him.

He flies upward and starts a zigzagging motion to lure her away from the rooftop. She's smart though and only follows him a short way before returning to her perch next to the bus. Like a dragon protecting her stash of gold.

"Supergirl! Save us!" a man shouts.

"Please! Supergirl!" the driver of the bus is crying.

"Save my son, please, take him. Save him!" a woman holds her toddler up to the window.

There pleas are rewarded only with silence and a curious stare.

"No, Aisha, we can't tell what's happening."

"I don't know who this Bizarro is," Cat's voice cuts through, "but she certainly is not Supergirl."

"Wait! There's someone approaching!"

The cameras zoom in to see a man walking out on the rooftop where the bus is.

"Is that Maxwell Lord?"

"What is he doing here?"

Lucy taps her comm. "J'onn! Lord on the roof. Circle back! Danvers, status?"

Alex grunts as she pulls herself up into the cockpit of a crane at a construction site next to the building where the people are being held hostage. "Winn! I need instructions on how to operate a crane, now!"

"Oookay…" Winn rolls his chair over to another computer station before switching Alex to a separate line where he can talk her through whatever crazy plan she's about to hatch.

"It would appear that Mr. Lord is trying to talk Supergirl down!"

"Yes, this brave man is taking on a super!"

"Can you hear what they're saying?"

"What Maxwell Lord is saying?" Cat replies haughtily. "Whatever it is I'm sure it costs more than it's worth."

"Supergirl!" Max can be heard yelling over the screams. "You don't want to do this. Let me help you. Let these people go." Yes. Max thinks to himself. Yes. That's right, zoom in on me. See a human save all of these people. Watch the fall of Supergirl.

"It appears as though it's working! Supergirl is leaving the bus alone…. Oh… oh my god!"

"Noooo!" Max shouts as he runs forward futily to stop Bizarro.

Every camera in the city has caught who they believe to be Supergirl give a final push to the bus and send it over the edge of the building.

Screams fill the air from several stories up to the onlookers on the street below. As the back tires of the bus pitch over the side of the roof, the hook of the crane Alex is operating catches the back window's steel frame and stops it's plummet. Passengers jostle violently against their seats.

J'onn who was in route to seize Maxwell has to change plans. He positions himself under the front tires of the bus and lifts it so that it is vertical again. He screams with the effort. "Together, Alex!" he yells. She nods though he can't see her and helps J'onn guide it down while manning the hook on the backend.

As soon as it's safely on the ground police and emergency personnel rush the bus. J'onn takes off again into the air.

The rooftop is abandoned by the time he returns.

"I told you!" Lena says calmly.

"Arrgghhh!" Max shouts as he runs his hands over a nearby workbench, scattering glass and instruments to the floor.

"Give it up, Max. You were always a second rate scientist. A second rate businessman. And now you're a second rate Frankenstein. Your creation failed you. Let Kara and I go before you fail at that too."

"No! No! I will not!" he runs straight for Lena, spit landing on her face as he speaks. "I may have lost this round but I still have Supergirl. Forget this pet project of yours. We revert to my original plan. Supergirl dies. Tonight."

"No…" Lena is choking back sobs. "No. Max. You can't do this!"

"Plan on what you want to say as your last goodbyes, Ms. Luthor," Max says as he turns away from Lena to exit the lab.

Lena falls against the workbench and slides down to the floor. She brings her knees to her chest and lets out a strangled wail at the sight of Max's retreating figure.