"Jaime, we need to hurry," Kara said, turning to see Jaime attempting to break the lock of a door leading into a room that they hadn't yet tried.

"I'm trying to hurry up... have you ever tried to break and enter a top-secret facility before? It's not easy."

Kara sighed and stepped toward him. "Are you sure it's in here?"

"It has to be... I can feel it... It's in there. This scarab and I... It just... It belongs to me, you know? But that probably sounds crazy."

Kara nudged him out of the way. "Not at all. Alright, go and keep watch."

Jaime shrugged and stepped away, while Kara broke the lock with her laser vision and pulled the handle. "Okay, it's unlocked."  

Jaime turned to her, astonished. He motioned to the large burn mark on the door. "What are you? A pyro or something?"

Kara pushed open the door, but the moment she did, the deafening security alarm blared over their ears. "We need to hurry!" Kara said, running into the room, filled with gadgets and alien technology that was entirely out of this world. She kept her fingers in her ears in a bid to block out the blasting sound of the security alarm, which was bound to bring in the attention of others.

Jaime paced in after her, his eyes scanning the room. He detoured to the left as Kara took to the right of the room. Kara's eyes fell to a green ring with a peculiar symbol. But a weakening feeling forced her to turn her gaze to a large chunk of green crystal resting beside it. She stumbled back slowly, just as Jaime's voice garnered her attention. "I found it! Let's get out of here!"

Kara turned to him, "Not without Crystal, we need to find her!"

"Are you kidding me? She's evil!"

"No, she's not evil. We need to help her, please..."

Jaime sighed and stared down at the small blue beetle scarab in his hands. "Okay, I'll help. This is going to come in handy anyway."

"Put the scarab down now, kid!" An intruding voice stunned them both into silence as they looked to the doorway, where a group of security guards were now standing. They were holding large guns aimed in their direction.

"Get behind me, Kara," Jaime said.

Kara gave Jaime a side-eyed glance but did not obey. She kept her eyes focused on the security guards, daring them to make their move. Finally, the alarms stopped blaring and one of the security guards spoke into his two-way radio. "Henshaw, we have two intruders inside the artifact room. What do you want us to do with them?"

Kara's eyes grew wide as they waited on the response.

Hank's voice came in quick and abrupt. "Deal with them as you will. I have other matters to contend with! Now, lock down the facility... I've left the facility!"

The security guard pocketed his communicator and spoke with a sneer. "You heard the boss. Let's deal with them."

"Jaime, get to safety!" Kara demanded, but as she turned to him, she was met by a remarkable surprise. The scarab that Jaime had been holding, had attached itself to his chest and began to engulf him into a metallic blue suit within a matter of seconds.

The event had caused a hesitation from the security guards, but they did not back down. "Get them!"

Thin metal wings emerged from Jaime's back and began slicing the air in a rapid circular motion. He certainly was not defenceless, but he had also underestimated Kara, for she didn't need a suit to protect herself from this battle, nor from any battle.

The security guards let off a flurry of bullets, in Jaime's direction. But they ricocheted of Jaime's blue suit and bounced about the room. "Get down, Kara!" Jaime shouted.

But Kara didn't listen. Sure, his suit might be bulletproof, but her skin was bulletproof... and certainly, she had to be faster than him too. All it took was for one bullet to slip past his defences... She could not let that happen.

Kara flew in the way of the bullets faster than they could travel. They bounced off of her face and body and landed on the ground... every single one of them. She quickly returned to her position beside Jaime as time sped up again.

The security guards stared puzzled at the bullets on the ground. "The suit," one said. "It has to be bulletproof."

Jaime grinned, unaware that it had been Kara that had saved him. "That's right, it's the suit... and now I'm gonna kick your ass... because I'm the Blue Beetle!"

Kara chuckled. "Go get them, Blue Beetle!"

Rocket boosters ignited from the back of Jaime's suit and he charged in the direction of the security guards, knocking items off the table along his way.

The security guards reacted by moving backward, unsure at what the large human crossed beetle had in store for them. But Jaime resisted hurting them. "Now, tell me! Where is the ice girl, known as Crystal!" he demanded.

"She's been moved off base!" one declared.

Kara ran toward them. "Off base? Where?"

"We don't know!" the same security guard replied.

Kara looked to Jaime. "I think he's telling the truth!" Jaime said. To Kara's dismay, she knew it was the truth. But she still needed to know just where Crystal had been relocated, and by the look of the increase in security agents, she and Jaime needed to find a way out fast.

"We need to get out of here!" Kara demanded.

"Where's your sister?" Jaime mouthed to her.

"She's fine. My father took her home." 

Jaime was clearly puzzled, but he said nothing of the sort to reveal it. "I'm running a scan of the facility... Okay, I have a pathway out of here, follow me!" Jaime took off in the direction behind them, leading Kara through the facility via a series of narrow hallways.

The agents were catching up... they wouldn't make it. Kara turned to face them and breathed a stream of ice into the form of a solid wall, blocking the security guard's path.

She had thought that it had gone unnoticed by Jaime only to hear him say "Kara... How did you do that?" She turned to see him staring at the frozen wall. "You're not just some regular girl, are you?"

"No time to explain, Jaime... Let's get out of here."

They managed to flee the building and hid in a nearby playground, where Jaime's suit disappeared into the scarab again. They sat on the swings and stared at one another, both curious in relation to the powers of the other.

"Care to explain?" Jaime said finally. "The ice breath, the hole burned into the door... how you broke into the facility so quickly... how you could hear Alex when we were nowhere near her... How did you do all that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Kara said, toeing the dirt nervously.

"Please don't lie to me... I showed you my biggest secret... Now it's your turn. Friendship is based on trust."

"Friendship?" Kara asked, intrigued by the word. Could this be her very first friend in Midvale?

"Well, yeah. I guess it has to be... You're not going to tell anybody about my suit, are you? I guess it's a relief to share my secret with somebody."

Kara thought about what he had just said. She prepared herself to respond when she felt her phone ringing and pulled it out of her pocket. Relieved to see Alex's name on the caller ID, she answered it instantly. "Alex? Hey, what's up?"

But Alex's voice was filled with shock, sadness and, regret. "Kara... Where are you? You need to come home, please!"

Kara pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at Jaime in silence. "I really need to go home."

Jaime nodded. "Sure... Did you want me to walk you?"

"No, I'm fine... I travel faster by myself." Kara got to her feet and Jaime offered a polite smile. "I hope everything's okay. My father will be finishing up at the garage soon, so I might catch a lift with him." Kara smiled and headed home in a hurry to find out what had made Alex so deeply distraught.

#

When Kara arrived home, she found Alex, Eliza and Jeremiah in the living room having a tense family conversation. Believing that she was in a world of trouble for the break-in at the D.E.O, she was shocked to be pulled into a tight hug by her foster father. "What's going on in here?" Kara stammered.

Jeremiah pulled away from Kara and gestured for her to join the others on the couch. "I am very disappointed in you girls for going to the D.E.O tonight," Jeremiah began. "But at the same time, there are many secrets and many crimes that they are committing that need to be overturned. That is where I am going tonight."

"What do you mean?" Kara asked.

Jeremiah knelt down in front of Kara. "These secrets are far greater than all of us, even you, Kara. The D.E.O is supposed to protect us... But it is only harming innocents. Your friend Crystal was killed. I have to carry out this one last mission and then no more... I will cease my involvement with them for good."

"Oh, thank god," Eliza said.

Jeremiah kissed his wife on the hand. "But if I don't make it..."

"What do you mean if you don't make it?" Alex demanded.

Jeremiah shook his head, telling them more than they needed to know before he continued. "If I don't make it back... Don't let Hank ever find out about Kara. Please, Alex, you need to protect her. Just like tonight how you lied to keep her safe. Please..."

Alex nodded through sobs and then all three women simultaneously got to their feet. They hugged Jeremiah goodbye before he left out the door in a hurry.

"What, what was he talking about?" Kara asked.

"Did you happen to find anything out of the ordinary, Kara?" Alex asked. "What about Jaime's scarab?"

Kara nodded. "Yes, he did. I also found... this." She pulled her hand out of her pocket, revealing the green ring that she had found earlier that night.

"Maybe you should hand it over to Clark," Eliza suggested. Kara nodded, that was what she had intended on doing in the first place. After sitting in a long period of silence, time seemed to escape from them. To disarm the tension, Eliza turned on the television and left to prepare some hot chocolates.

"Can we talk, sister to sister, Kara?" Alex asked.

Kara moved her eyes from the television and gave Alex her full undivided attention. "Yeah, you know you can tell me anything."

Alex averted eye contact for a matter of seconds as if she was afraid of what she was about to say. As if her words alone had the power to swallow her up whole. "I want to apologize to you. There's a reason I asked you to lie for me this morning... I haven't been very fair to you... and tonight I found out that Agent Henshaw is terminating aliens and people that he thinks poses a threat. I could have lost you... My sister. The only person in the world, who I know I can trust with my own secret, as you have trusted me with yours."

Kara shook her head. "Alex, it's okay. You're only trying to push me away. Your mom told me you have a tendency to push people away when you're afraid... Anyway, you? What would you be hiding?"

Alex averted eye contact again. "Do you remember my friends, Amber and Nicky?"

"Yeah, the girls you were going to the mall with?"

Alex nodded. "Kara, I like Amber."

Kara smiled. "That's good. She's your friend, you're supposed to like your friends."

"True, but that's not what I mean. I like-like Amber. As in, I wanted to ask her out."

Kara's eyes opened in realization. "Oh. Then why don't you?"

Alex smiled. "I was going to, you know, at the mall earlier... But..."

"But I ruined that for you." Kara felt the full weight of her guilt lay heavy on her shoulders. "I'm so sorry."

Alex brought her arm around Kara's shoulder. "It's okay... That's what I've been trying to get at. You're my sister and I will never put anything before you... ever! I promise!"

Kara rubbed at her eye where a tear had formed. It had been a while since she had felt like she was in the presence of someone she could trust wholeheartedly.

"You won't judge me, will you?" Alex asked.

"Judge you for what?"

"You know, for me liking girls?"

Kara laughed. "No way! Love is love! It should be shared with everybody. Does anybody else know?"

Alex shook her head. "No, you're the first person I've told... and damn it feels so good to get that off my chest."

They both grinned just in time to hear something smash from within the kitchen. Quickly, they got to their feet and ran into the other room to see Eliza kneeling on her hands and knees surrounded by the pieces of broken ceramic cups and spilled hot chocolate all over the floor. She held the phone tightly to her ear and her face was covered in tears.

"Mom!" Alex stammered as she ran to her aid. Using her speed, Kara cleaned up the mess all around them before joining Eliza and Alex on the floor. Eliza pulled the phone from her ear and stared intently at the girls. "Your... your father... He... He's dead!"