Fall of Justice

Spotlight

The studio lights warmed back on, Lois grimaced against the brightness. A makeup woman stood behind her doing God knew what to her hair while Cat rambled about how great it was she had come and how grateful she was that she chose The Line to make her return. But Lois only came to Cat's show because this was the most watched in the country. And she took note that nowhere in her speech did Cat Grant ask if she was okay.

"Ready?" Cat asked as the countdown from commercial began. Lois didn't know if she was ready, she hadn't prepared anything, she just knew she had to tell the world who Superman was before people like Cat Grant did it for her. Lois nodded and the countdown began, 3, 2...

"The first question I want to ask our guest is... are you alright?" Cat turned to Lois with her most sincere look. Lois almost laughed.

"I'm fine. I've been fine, that's why I'm here. I want people to know the truth."

"The truth?" Cat asked.

"About Superman, about who he is."

"We know he's an alien, we know he's the most powerful being on the earth... what do you know?"

"You're right, he is the most powerful person anyone has ever known, and he's only used that power for good, no one can deny that."

"Well, that was true, until recently."

"He had to get his-- Supergirl out of jail."

"And where have you been? You and Superman? Were you together?"

"Yes... and Supergirl, we took her in, she lost people, we believe the Joker was behind everything that happened, that he was terrorizing her, we're not sure why, but he took a lot from her, more than anyone deserves. We couldn't let her be alone. And if her friends were targets then so were we. Well... not me especially, not until what happened."

"Can you tell us about it?"

"Yes..." she looked at the camera. "I'm sorry if you're watching Supergirl, but I have to tell them everything or they won't understand."

"You can call her Kara," Cat smiled.

"One day..." Lois began, "after she had been living with us for a few weeks, I heard Kara crying in the bathroom. She didn't know I was there, she was having an episode... the mirror was in pieces and she had a shard in her hand... she was trying to cut herself but it wouldn't... the glass didn't pierce her skin. She got frustrated and threw the glass. That's how I got this," Lois pulled her hair back and showered the scar on her neck. "It was an accident, but after that we put her in Arkham for treatment. She's not a monster, she was just a girl whose world had fallen apart. She would never hurt someone on purpose."

"But she did. She went to Arkham for treatment but she didn't stay there. She escaped, and she killed someone to do it."

"I don't believe it, there's gotta be some mistake, I know her," Lois said, her conviction true.

"Lois, before you came here today we received a piece of video. My producer's telling me it's time to play it, be warned the footage we're about to show is graphic in nature."

The studio went quiet. The monitor ahead, which had so far only reflected Cat and Lois cut to a grainy, black-and-white shot of a small room. There was no sound. Kara sat atop the orderly, her hands around his throat. He struggled against her until his arms and legs simply went limp. The monitor cut back to Cat and Lois.

"So--" Cat began.

"No, we didn't see everything... the room was all torn up, something happened before that..."

"We will look into that but, Lois... she's Supergirl, by your own admission, if Superman is one of the most powerful people on Earth, then so is she, and the world has seen what she can do. Why didn't she stop?" Cat waited for Lois to come up with an answer but she had none. "And then she was arrested in a house full of bodies, knife in hand, and before the police could interrogate her, Superman broke through the walls and took her out of there."