Hi. I really wanted to get this chapter up and this story started just before the fifth season premiered, but I had an unexpected increase of work hours at my job lately, so my writing time has been sorely limited and made me a little late. So, just in case, I apologise for any dsicrepancies there are between this and the show for those who have seen the new episode already.This will be a short story; four, maybe five chapters. Enjoy.

Chapter 1 - Retribution

The L Corp building was empty, which was already being seen by the populace of National City since the beginning of the day as unusual. The regular, everyday sight was the company's hundreds of employees, the members of its Board of Directors and its renowned CEO bustling throughout the rooms, departments and offices as they ensured their financial livelihoods remained stable. In light of the Lex Luthor attacks in the prior month, L Corp was doing all it could in the eyes of the public to distance itself again from the memory of its former founder. Some thought that was perhaps the reason why it was so uncharacteristically vacant. Those more in the know about it knew otherwise.

The workers' holiday had been organised by Lena Luthor three weeks in advance. The CEO had announced it formally through the building's public address system, and via office memos and e-mails. The employees had been surprised at the time just as the public was now, many intending to enquire the need for such an occasion right after their getting the first line, but the more they learned, they began to understand. In all the avenues of information in which she had given out the news, Ms. Luthor explained that they all needed to work long and work hard to absolve the company from being viewed once more as the criminal organisation her brother had founded. The workers reacted less urgently, realising the few weeks ahead were going to be drawn out with a heavy load, but they remained sceptical about the holiday itself, doubting that anything they could do to disassociate themselves from Lex Luthor a second time around could be accomplished in less than a month, especially since the first time that claim was made took the company a great deal longer to make the general populace believe it would stick.

To the surprise of the workers, National City and even her personal inner circle of friends, Lena Luthor was both confident and adamant in her plans. The days dwindled slowly by. The level of work grew fiercer and heavier. Lena herself was hardly ever seen; half the time, she was practically locked up in her office, delegating tasks, appointments and phone calls by the hour, or going down to a specific department whenever their work had fallen behind schedule and personally helped out to get them back in order.The other half of the time had her travelling to outside meetings that on record were stated to be too important to the survival of L Corp to be handled over the phone or by video conference.

By the beginning of the third week, it appeared Lena's ambitions were paying off as she had anticipated. L Corp's more positive reputation was re-emerging in the media, with news outlets and online blogs all sharing the story that the business was in the throes of a great comeback. Sales were on the increase again. Contracts were written, renewed and fulfilled. The company's position in the stock market was rising gradually.

And through it all, Lena made no announcement to cancel the holiday. The once-doubtful employees were in fact finding themselves relieved when she sent out an e-mail the previous day, reminding them the holiday was still on and congratulating and thanking them for sticking with her on her crusade. Tired and worn, but pleased with themselves, they concluded their shifts by thinking of the nice day of rest waiting for them the next morning.

Everything was all good, except in regards for one person. In the weeks following Lex Luthor's death, Kara Danvers had been worried incessantly about Lena and their friendship. Though she never said a word, it was far too visible to everyone around her that she was feeling something was wrong. Her other friends were concerned as well, not in the same way, but they saw that Lena's single-minded determination was creating distance and maybe even friction between the two. Alex, Kara's adopted sister, suspected otherwise. The first time that Kara and Lena met to talk after that day she discovered Kara in the room that the two had the conversation in alone without her glasses on and crying miserably. With a sudden rise of fear, Alex thought Kara had done it, that she had told Lena she was Supergirl. Kara refuted the idea, telling her that she and Lena had had a really bad argument.

Alex put the event aside, thinking from that the two would soon patch things up but as time passed and Kara and Lena barely spoke in their few encounters since, the suspicion she harboured crept back into her mind. The worst of it had been Pool Night, a week before the workers' holiday. It was the first one Lena had attended since her brother was defeated. Things appeared to be looking up again when Kara and Lena formed their usual team, but in spite of Kara's attempts at camaraderie, Lena stayed as frosty and distant as she had since the argument. Once Pool Night was over, Alex asked Kara if she had lied to her and told Lena her identity, believing with a hardening heart that Lena had rejected her sister. Kara had told her no.

: * :

The evening before the holiday though, the attitude seemed to have its long-awaited change. Out of the blue while she was on her last patrol for the night, Kara received a call from Lena inviting her out to lunch the next day. Kara expressed her hope of a reconciliation wildly, first telling Lena she would be there and following it up with a text to Alex to let her know. Alex initially wished to reply to her sister that she kept her guard up but decided it was better to let matters be.

Then, early the next morning, Lena sent Kara another text to meet her outside of L Corp for their lunchdate as there were some things she had forgotten to take care of at the office. Kara smiled, rolling her eyes in fond amusment that there was always something keeping Lena busy at L Corp. Passing it off as a sign that their friendship was finally overcoming its most recent hurdle, she answered back to tell Lena she'd be waiting on the front steps for her. Her mind already looking forward to the later meeting, she donned her costume, went outside and took off on her first patrol of the day.

: * :

All the preparations were set. Or so the representative of Leviathan had assured Lena that they were. Not for the first time, Lena experienced a sense of dread about her newfound allegiance with the mysterious organisation that proved themselves to have been in league with her brother and behind Tessmacher's betrayal of her. When the representative had come to her the first time, appearing unexpectedly in her office and revealing whom it was he worked for, all she thought of was ordering him to get out but he was determined to explain to her the meaning of his impromptu appointment. He informed her that Lex had acted outside of the terms of their partnership with him, explaining to Lena that Leviathan had a set of rules and morals to live by with their operations, the chief of which was that no lives, enemy or innocent, would be taken by them. She remembered the dedicated glare on his face as he reiterated that rule; no actor or liar she knew could manage to fake that level of fanatical yet steeled emotion.

"Why are you here?" she had asked him.

"Because our goal in our alliance with your late brother," he answered, "was to show the world through fear that much like our own kind, there will be individualistic alien beings who will seek to bring harm to the innocent. We cannot just blindly allow them into society as a whole without knowledge of a singular intention.To this end, we had to make Earth lose trust in aliens."

"And you thought that making them lose trust in Supergirl was the best way," Lena concluded.

The representative nodded. "No matter what your brother did, Superman was untouchable that way. There was no conceivable way to make the people of Earth think he would turn on us, not after the knowledge that he's been here since he was a baby and raised by humans became public."

"Supergirl, on the other hand, appeared with little to no explanation. From out of nowhere, against Superman's established history, there was another Kryptonian on Earth. Now that we could work with."

"And that failed, and not just because of my brother," Lena said.

"Yes, mankind's faith in the Kryptonians has become too difficult to shake off entirely," the representative agreed. "Which is why Leviathan believes it's time to adopt a different method."

"What do you mean?" Lena asked, feeling uneasy again.

"Your brother, Lex Luthor, is dead. The only known ordinary human to bring the Kryptonians to heel," the representative said. "Not even your mother was as successful, but you could be. We know Supergirl trusts you, Ms. Luthor. We can use that against her, together."

"Why would I want to help you, after what you've caused me?" Lena replied sharply.

The representative formed an apologetic expression on his face, one Lena was sure was false, as he said, "We are also aware that Supergirl has let you down. We're offering you a chance to show her how much she has hurt you, if you'll help us."

Lena frowned, her face and emotions turning edgy as she contemplated her feelings. "What's your plan?" she asked guardedly.

"My superiors are of the opinion that the demise of your brother has instilled a false sense of security in Superman and Supergirl. Now that he's gone, they believe none of us can harm them anymore. Our new goal is to change that impression. We want them to know they should fear all Earthlings," the representative answered.

"And how do you intend to do that?"

"By torturing one of them," the representative said casually. "We want you to deliver Supergirl to us."

After the meeting had concluded and the man was gone, Lena assumed that she must have looked stricken when he stated how Leviathan had wanted her to help them as a brief bout of disappointment flashed across his face before again reassuming his cordial demeanour. She knew it certainly felt like she had; the moment she understood the meaning behind his words, her mind was bombarded with various and violent images of Supergirl strapped to a chair or onto a medical table, men and women with masks and souless clinical eyes standing around her, poking and prodding her body with knives and surgical needles, drowning her in a tank, electrocuting her, dousing her with Kryptonite gas. As much as she wanted to hurt Supergirl, all that went beyond what she ever intended. It crossed a line. But before she could voice her disgust and send the man away herself, the representative smiled at Lena, got up and departed, saying Leviathan would allow her some time to think and they would have him contact her another time.

That other time had only been a short three days after, when Midnight had appeared, and Lena had confronted Kara over the truth. The anger that was born in her after knowing Kara was Supergirl from Lex burned again and somehow Leviathan learned of it. The representative called her on her phone, informing her his superiors wanted to meet with her to discuss terms of their possible partnership.

Lena agreed.

The first meeting took place in an abandoned warehouse just outside Central City. The representative greeted Lena after she pulled her personal car up in front of the main doors and he escorted her inside, walking beside her until they entered a blank, empty room where he fell back to the door. Deeper in the room, a woman dressed in nondescript black businesswear flanked by four armed bodyguards was waiting for her.

"Ms. Luthor, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Lena's eyes roamed across the room, expecting to find more people. When it transpired there were none, she turned warily to the mysterious woman. "If I recall what your man over there," she said, pointing to the representative, "told me, the word was superiors. As in the plural sense."

"He told you the truth," the woman answered. "The leadership of Leviathan observes some very strict rules. Only one superior personally supervises a single operation. If new developments in one operation should jeopardise others, then the superiors in charge of the others are to be contacted whether or not the developments will cause them trouble. From there, it's decided if we should continue the potentially troublesome mission or not. Even then though, no names and anything outside basic enquiries are exchanged."

"So, if I go along with this, then you two are the only people I deal with?" Lena guessed.

"If you go along with this, yes," the woman nodded. "If you don't, then we scrap the whole operation."

"You'll just let me walk away?" Lena raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Of course. You don't know our names. We can disguise ourselves, change our voices," the woman answered simply. "Besides, as you've been told, we don't kill anyone in our missions. Hurt, yes. Torture, when the need calls for it. But never murder."

Lena crossed her arms. "Maybe I'd believe that, if my brother had followed it."

"Your brother," the woman said slowly. "He committed those acts in his name and without our blessing. All we've done is provide him the means and resources to combat his enemy."

Lena glowered, remembering what she had been informed of about Leviathan's original plan. "You were going to cut him loose once he had achieved what you wanted him to do."

"With what happened with the Claymore satellite and Argo City, that had become necessary," the woman responded in a dry, callous tone. "But we never had to worry about that in the end, did we?"

Ignoring the barb and withstanding the urge to flinch, Lena asked, "You say that you'll scrap the mission entirely if I say no? You won't pick it up or continue it later?"

"Oh, we'll continue it later if we find another way to get one of the Kryptonians," the woman rebutted. "It's too much of a priority to let go of it forever, but I'm going to have to say whomever we try next may not want to deliver the target in, well, one piece."

That time, Lena knew she appeared stricken, and for good reason. Leviathan needed someone to hand Supergirl or Superman to them, meaning they could only put their trust in a person that was furious with them, like her brother had been. The distressing concern there was that people who got angry at Superman and Supergirl all shared the same desire: wanting the two dead. Was she angry with Supergirl? Yes. Did she want her dead? No, but others would. Her conflict engulfing her, Lena finally realised in spite of all the hate there was dwelling within her, there was still some small part of her that cared. Not enough to drown out her desire to teach Supergirl a lesson, but enough to want to ensure that the person she once called friend did not end up dead.

Lena stepped forward, coming up close to the woman and giving her a hard stare. "If we're going to do this, then I have terms. To me, they're non-negotiable."

The woman nodded, gesturing for her to continue. Lena did. "I am not like you or my brother. I am not a villain. I don't want to kill Supergirl nor do I want her to be physcially harmed. You say that you want her and Superman to fear you? Then prove just that. When I bring her to you, make her feel fear. Intimidation tactics only."

"Is that all?" the woman asked.

"No, we'll do this at L Corp, with me there to make sure you follow through," Lena retorted.

The woman stayed silent after Lena's correction. For a short series of longlasting moments, Lena thought she had pressed things too far but remained stoic, preparing for the answer. Eventually, the woman spoke again.

"I will confer with my colleagues to see if your terms will satisfy Leviathan's aims as a whole. Whether or not they do, my man behind you will be in contact again. Good day, Ms. Luthor."

In spite of the apprehension the meeting had left her with, it took a single day for the news of Leviathan's decision to reach her. For the third time, the representative called on Lena and cited that his superiors had voted to accede to her conditions. When it hit Lena this meant the ball was rolling, she knew that she was committed. The weeks that followed were difficult to manage. Her conscience went on to plague her as she saw Kara and Supergirl on and off, forcing her to keep working and using her hatred to power her through. She kept meeting the woman from Leviathan at different locations as they arranged the plan, disguising their appointments as official L Corp business affairs. They had the last one three days before the workers' holiday, settling the last parts of the plan into stone when, as they parted ways, the woman said something to Lena that made her stop in her tracks, that made her want to throw up, and caused her to realise that even though the trap would be carried out in the way she wanted, it may be the true point of no return for her and Kara's friendship.

"Ms. Luthor, I thought it may interest you to know Supergirl has not told anyone else you know the truth. Not even her beloved sister," she bitterly recalled the woman's words.

"So?" she had replied, trying to make herself sound indifferent.

"So, she is giving you time and space to get over your anger towards her, thinking, maybe believing, the two of you can work things out. The mark of a good friend. Imagine how she'll feel after all this. She'll never forgive you. She'll even hate you. But then again, that is what you want. To have her feel the same pain and betrayal she put you through."

Lena turned abruptly, the feeling of bile rising up in her throat, and she deflected the question.

"And soon enough she will."

And it'll be a hate that I deserve, she thought privately in regret.

Since then, until the present, she had fought to contain her guilt, steeling herself for the upcoming moment. In her mind, she ran through all the preparations. Except for her and the group of Leviathan mercenaries waiting downstairs for her signal, the building was empty of anyone who might interfere. The elevator was fully operational, with all the equipment needed for the second phase ready in the basement level. Supergirl had no doubt informed the DEO where she would be during lunch and so they would not be alarmed if she vanished for a couple of hours. Everything was all set to go. This was it. The point of no return.

Lena sighed and looked down at the tiny electronic gadget she had in her hand. Summoning up her anger once more, she pressed the black button on the gadget's surface. The button flashed green for the brief second she held it down, knowing from it that the mercenaries were on their way up. Five minutes passed by slowly and then she heard them entering the floor. Hurriedly, she placed the gadget inside her desk. It was time to call Supergirl.

"Kara, help," she whispered quietly.

: * :

Kara, help.

Supergirl stopped in midflight, her eyes widening with worry as she heard Lena in the distance. Without hesitation, she concentrated her ears towards L Corp. Her worry transformed into fear as the all too familiar brutal noise of office doors being kicked open were followed by the numerous metallic clicks of safety catches releasing.

"Ms. Luthor, you're coming with us," an authoritative, threatening voice spoke.

"And if I refused?" Lena dared boldly.

"I suggest you don't," the threatening voice responded.

That was more than enough for Kara to be galvanised into action. Pivoting, she dashed off through the air, heading directly for L Corp.

: * :

Lena heard Supergirl arriving before she ever saw her. The slashing zip of airspace being penetrated at ultrahigh speed resonated clearly in her ears, pursued by the quick swish of the balcony door opening in the second it took to blink an eye and the jerking halt as Supergirl appeared, her cape fluttering down to cover her back as she stood between Lena and the Leviathan mercenaries.

"I might have something to say about that," the Kryptonian heroine said coolly.

Whatver doubt or guilt Lena was experiencing in the days before faded rapidly as soon as she physically registered the woman. Her anger towards Supergirl quietly spurring her on, Lena slipped her hand into her coat pocket.

"Lena, are you alright?"

Her head snapped up to answer Supergirl's question, wondering if the hero had heard or sensed her surreptitious movement. "I'm fine," she spoke, drawing the object within the pocket into her hands, curling her fingers around its cylindrical shape.

"Good," Supergirl said as she turned her attention back to the mercenaries. "Lucky for you, the only things you've done wrong so far have been breaking and entering. So you people can leave unless you really want a fight."

"There'll be no fight, Supergirl," one of the mercenaries replied to her. Supergirl realised from his voice he was the one she heard threatening Lena. "And as for the breaking and entering, well, that's practically nonexistent. We were invited up here."

Supergirl froze, confused by the certainty in which the man had spoken. Recognising the opportunity the pause provided her in an instant, Lena acted. She produced the object from her pocket, a metallic syringe made from lead, and plucked off the stopper to reveal the Kryptonite needlepoint fastened to the end of it. Buckling as she sensed the element near her, Supergirl half-turned. Lena leaped forward and jabbed the tip straight into Supergirl's left arm. Supergirl let out a gasp of shock. Lena ignored it and pushed down on the plunger, flushing the hidden contents of the syringe into Supergirl's bloodstream. The two women exchanged a look; one with horror, the other a cold, determined fury. Once the syringe was emptied and Lena removed the needle, Supergirl staggered away, her mind growing numb as whatever had been in the syringe began to affect her and added to the effects of the Kryptonite. She opened her mouth to speak but found she could only come out with choked sounds and hoarse, whispering breath. Lena did not respond, not even as Supergirl succumbed to the serum she had injected into her and tumbled helplessly to the floor.

The mercenary commander, also unmoved by Supergirl's plight, switched on his shoulderpad communicator and reported into it, "Inform the superiors. Target procured. Permission to start on the next phase."

"Our client present any issues?" came the reply.

"None," the mercenary answered. "She carried out her part as promised."

"Then continue."

"Understood," the mercenary concluded, turning the communicator off and motioning two of his squadmates to Supergirl.

Following his order, the duo stepped forward and lifted Supergirl up off the floor, throwing her limp arms over their shoulders. After making a thorough check that they had a secure and steady support on her, they nodded at their leader. He acknowledged their readiness and turned to Lena.

"Well, Ms. Luthor?"

"Follow me," Lena responded, discarding the syringe and forcing herself to look away from Supergirl, bitterly wanting to avoid seeing any guilt-tripping, silent pleas for help from the heroine.

The group of mercenaries separated, giving way, and allowed her the space to move past them and take the lead. As she approached the open doors, they then folllowed as asked with their commander and the two carrying Supergirl between them trailing closely behind. Like a military procession, they marched along the corridor towards the elevator, their footfalls the only sources of sound able to break the silence. Reaching the elevator, Lena pressed the button to open its doors and moved into the car, walking over to the far side to stare at the wall. The mercenaries entered, two at a time, until they and Supergirl were all inside. Standing by the controls, the commander hit the basement level on the list of floor options. The doors gradually slid shut and the car shifted, trembling as it started to work its way down.

The transit from her office floor to the basement soon became an arduous test of endurance for Lena as, without any alternate noise to distract her, the invariably tense mood of the situation turned morbid as she struggled with the temptation to glance back at Supergirl. Why, she did not exactly know. In the short span of minutes between the office and the elevator, Supergirl would have figured out aid would not be coming from her, at least not the kind of aid she wanted Lena to give her. That look of anger the woman from Leviathan had told her to expect was likely being expressed at that moment, Lena thought. But still she did not look. For some reason, she was afraid to.

Minute by minute slowly ticked by, until at last the car came to rest at the basement. Once the doors were opened, Lena did not even turn, listening as the mercenaries vacated the car the same way they had entered it. Quietly, she exited after them, insistently averting herself from looking at Supergirl by taking in the differences to the room.

The basement was originally designed to hold L Corp's storage and archive facilities; on any other day, the entire floor would be taken up and filled with carefully placed and strenuously organised filing cabinets and large cupboards, but right then, there was a wide, empty space with only a single object occupying it at its very centre. Lena was drawn to the chair, instigated by a repeat of the nightmarish visions of Supergirl being experimented on or vivisected. She was not surprised. The chair was fitted with restraints, just like a torture chair or a medical table would be in a horror or dark science-fiction film. But, as she looked around further, her fears subsided as she saw the implements the woman and the representative had demonstrated to her at their meetings, and the resolve to see this day through came back in their absence.

She looked up as Supergirl was dragged over to the chair, forced to sit on the seat and watch as her arms and legs were strapped tightly to the frame. The commander approached her, inspecting the restraints closely and then examining Supergirl herself.

"Amazing, isn't it?" he finally spoke, whispering to her but loud enough so Lena could hear him. "The serum we've put in you. The liquid, just harmless water. But why the weakness? Simple. That water was holding miniscule fragments of Kryptonite, so I'm afraid there's no you getting out of this by yourself for a long while." He turned to his squad. "Disarm weapons, and take your choice," he said, pointing to the collection of implements arranged against the wall.

For the first time, the mercenaries displayed open emotion, leering or grinning sadistically at getting the chance to inflict pain on Supergirl. Lena felt her heart pang as the thought they would forget their orders sank in. Most of them picked up the shock blasters, designed to look like conventional machine guns but the true source of ammunition was nothing more than a short spray of electricity loaded into a single cartridge that never went further than a foot from the muzzle. Lena was almost driven to act but they took their positions a full metre away from Supergirl, leading her to quietly sigh in relief. The remaining three each took up a whip that was made of foam, a spear that was fashioned to look sharp but in all actuality was blunt, and a hangman's rope that if pulled hard enough would snap in half. The commander considered all of his team's options and selected a handgun, a miniaturised version of the shock blasters.

"Once everyone else is finished with you, I'm going to level this at your temple and pull the trigger," he sneered at Supergirl, causing Lena to start, but before she took a step to intervene, the commander sent a sly wink her way. Unnerved, Lena shrank back.

The commander waved his hand, gesturing to the one holding the hangman's rope that he could go first. The mercenary accepted, proceeding over to Supergirl witn an intentful pace and hooked the noose around her neck, securing it with a jerk. The sharp pull did not even bring one reaction out of Supergirl, mystifying Lena. At last, she surrendered to the temptations plaguing her and gazed right at the heroine.

What she saw left her stunned.

Not once, never once, in the prolonging moment she held Supergirl's eyes in her own, did the Kryptonian look at anyone else. Not her captors. Not the noose that was constricting her throat, or the whip, the spear, or even the array of shock blasters being held ready. As expected when the rope was pulled, it broke off at the knot, leaving half of itself as a ring around Supergirl's neck, but the heroine never moved an inch.

The only evidence that Supergirl was acting otherwise was her reddened, tearstained face and her sparkling, sad eyes. Lena swore her heart had just leaped dangerously as she regarded the watery lines going down Supergirl's face. Not all of them could be fresh, Lena voiced mentally, she would have been in a loud sobbing fit for that to be the case. But one thing became clear to her as the commander signalled to the agent holding the spear to move in next; Supergirl did not care about the deadly threats the mercenaries were posing themselves as and maybe she never had at all. All she looked at, all she focused on, was Lena.

From that instant alone, Lena knew she was going to falter. The guilt she battled to keep under wraps was swelling uncontrollably, dominating the iron resolve she had been relying on for a whole month as it grew in size. It flowed into her mind, mixing its potency into her lines of thought and creating questions that it demanded she answer. How long had Supergirl been staring at her like that? Why was she reacting that way? Could she possibly have taken her vendetta against the heroine farther than she had intended and hurt her friend more than how she had been when it was revealed to her Supergirl and Kara were the one and the same?

She tried to answer the first question as the mercenary wielding the spear pointed the weapon at Supergirl's throat, lifting the ring of rope casually with the blade, and then with a monstrous, lustful expression on his face, lowered the tip to gingerly trace shapes across her lower abdomen. Again, Supergirl ignored everything for Lena. Lena's heart convulsed as her attempts to find an answer brought her back to her observation about Supergirl's tears.

The redness of the heroine's cheeks was an obvious indicator, since the sobbing fit was completely out of the question due to how quiet Supergirl had been, that she had been shedding tears longer than the time already spent in the basement. Had Supergirl been this way the entire time since she realised she'd been betrayed?

Lena ignored the arrival of the new question by going back to the second. The longer she stared at Supergirl as she searched for ways to answer it while the commander ordered the spear-wielding mercenary to pull away and called upon those armed with the shock blasters to get ready to fire, instructing them to target non-vital areas so Supergirl could still feel the brunt of the whip as the last mercenary struck her, the more Lena came to realise that the trauma she was exacting from Supergirl was not fear. It was not even anger, or hatred, fury or vengeance.

It was regret.

Regret and heartbreak.

Heartbreak, Lena thought wildly, reeling as she tried to locate some of her lost resolve. Why would she be moved like this from heartbreak? Supergirl was the one to let her down first.

A mere moment later, the torrent that was her confused musings came to a crashing halt when, with a mighty explosion, the doors to the elevator blew outward. The Leviathan mercenaries jumped, their work on Supergirl forgotten as they dropped the blasters and raced to get their real weapons. By the time they had, a contingency of people led by Guardian were rushing out of the car. The DEO had come to the rescue.

"Ms. Luthor, get out of here!" the commander roared at Lena. As his order registered, the doors to the stairwell leading up to the ground floor were blown apart as more DEO agents poured into the basement.

Purely on instinct, not bothering to question how they could have come so quickly, Lena concluded there was only one road of escape left to her. There was a secret door not in the original blueprints that she had constructed in the north wall, intended for use in an evacuation should access to the stairwell be barred. Her thoughts turned towards survival, Lena decided it was the perfect time to use it. So she ran, not seeing Guardian dashing to Supergirl's side and undoing and removing the noose from her neck, or that Supergirl had noticed her escape and clumsily got up to run after her, her body still afflicted by the Kryptonite serum.

"LENA!"

The part of Lena that still cared tugged at her, commanding her to go back, but the part of her that was angry and the part of her that was confused worked too well together, proving themselves to be the stronger force, and she kept running. Whether by luck or by determination, Lena reached the secret door and flung her hand to the security keypad beside it to punch in the code to unlock it. But before she could press he final number, the sharp and familiar resoanace of a handheld gun's safety catch being turned off echoed from right behind her.

Lena froze, swallowing, her hand hovering over the panel. One of the DEO agents must have pursued her, she thought, and she had a good idea on which one. Slowly, gradually, she moved her hand away from the pad and raised it and the other one in the air, turning around and sporting a false confident smile on her lips in the hope she was wrong.

She wasn't. The smile collapsed immediately as she withheld a furious Alex Danvers in her gaze. A silent gulp lobbed up her throat. Her eyes flew from the hot incense in the agent's eyes to the pistol gripped tightly in her hands, her forefingers held ready against the trigger. Lena exhaled steadily and she looked up to face Alex again.

"Well, what's it going to be, Director?" she said quietly. "Arrest me or shoot me?"

"How about something different?" Alex seethed with venom in her voice. "Like telling me why the hell you've done this to Supergirl? After every time the three of us have worked together? After all the effort and hard work you've put in to earn our trust, trust that we actually gave you? Why the hell did you pull this sick, disgusting stunt?"

This was what Lena had wanted. Anger for anger. Betrayal for betrayal. It may not be Supergirl, she realised, but this was a close second for her. Her decision made, Lena's fury at all the secrets and lies returned in its full supremacy, raging inside her. And yet she maintained a leash on it, keeping it tranquil so as not alarm Alex into discharging her weapon. Her mouth spasmed, twsting into a scowl. Her eyes burned violently in dissonant quiet as she lowered her hands.

"Drop the act, Danvers," she said.

"What was that?" Alex demanded.

"I said drop the act, Alex. I know the truth. About Supergirl. About Kara."

Alex recoiled, flinching as if Lena had just physically slapped her. Scarcely daring to believe what she had just heard, she waited for Lena to recant her words. When she did not, the disbelief Alex was holding appeared in full fruition on her face. Coldly, Lena watched her, gauging the complete reaction as Alex worked out the revelation and all it implied in her mind.

"You?" Alex tried to speak, inevitably dropping back into her contemplation upon recognising she was too caught in the throes of her emotions to mouth a whole sentence. Tears began to fall from her eyes, permitting Lena to think about resuming her escape, but just as the idea had emerged, Alex's face changed, transforming from the inducing disbelief into a cross, ungoverned rage.

"You WHAT?!" Alex spat. "Then why this? She trusted you! From the moment the two of you first talked, she trusted you when everyone else doubted you!"

"Let me be clear. I didn't figure things out, and neither you or her was the person who told me," Lena hissed.

"Then who did?"

"Lex! Of all people, Lex!" Lena screamed angrily. "He told me! Showed me security videos the day he died!"

Alex quickly found a second time that her rage at Lena was being thwarted by another of her emotions. This time it was shock. Lena had known for a month. She had known for an entire month, and from the last, worst person she could ever learn it from.

"That - - - that long," she spoke, as she put everything together. Lena's distance from Kara. The supposed argument from the time Midnight showed up. All the business meetings Lena had claimed to go out on. Everything, all of it, had led up to this day. And at the end of it all, Alex reconciled that she had been two things for that period of time, maybe even longer with the second thing. The first was that she had been blind. The second, as she recalled vividly all the times she had told Kara telling Lena the truth was a bad idea, was that she had been selfish.

"She was - - - going to tell you that day, but - -

"But what?" Lena asked, her curiosity rousing to dim her hate.

"I prevented her from doing it. Again," Alex confessed.

"Again?" Lena exclaimed.

"She wanted to tell you so much. So many times. But I always talked her out of it," Alex replied.

Her mouth nearly falling open all the way, Lena shook her head, surprised once more by a long-kept secret. Supergirl had intended to tell her all along? At multiple times? But ultimately never did because the woman standing presently in front of her with a gun levelled at her chest had convinced her not to?

Not even knowing it was coming, a small disbelieving laugh escaped from Lena. "Then I guess I'm not the only one with trust issues here," she surmised. "You have almost just as much a part in this as I do."

Her words struck Alex as though she had been the one with the gun in her hands and had pulled the trigger. Alex stiffened as that last revelation hit home, with her conscience strangely accepting that what Lena said was true. Seeing her hesitation, Lena circled back to the keypad and put in the last number. The speaker emitted an electronic buzz as the locks of the door unclamped. Lena glanced back at Alex, judging her to still be semi-catatonic, and flung the door open, running out to freedom. Alex finally came to when the door rebounded off the wall, swinging shut, and she made a half-hearted attempt to go after Lena. She halted, sensing there was someone behind her, and she turned.

Almost hanging from the grip she had on a nearby filing cabinet stood Kara. Alex very nearly cried, wanting to console her sister, but something frightening about the way Kara looked stopped her from moving. With a rush of startled misery, she discovered what it was. There was an uncharacteristic storm of hatred brewing in her sister's usually peaceful, joyous eyes. Before she recoiled, Alex had assumed from her first glance Kara's friendship with Lena was beyond repair on both sides, but then the thing that made her tremble heartbreakingly was understood.

Kara's eyes, and therefore her hatred, was not set on the escape door or the memory of Lena. Kara was looking a little too far to the right for that. Kara's hatred was directed, focused, on her.

Chapter 2 coming up.