“I’m on the way, Alex. Wait for me.”
Alex crept around a corner, shoulder pressed to the concrete wall and gun thrust forward. “I can tranq him,” she said, keeping her voice as quiet as possible, and edged nearer the flickering light of a barrel fire at the far end of the warehouse. “I’ve got him in sight. Just need to get in range.”
“No, Alex,” Kara said in her ear. “Wait for me.”
“I’ve got this, Kara. Trust me.”
She saw a ripple of movement, a shadow skirt through the orange light on the far wall, and then the rogue alien came back into view. Swiping a hand over his neck, he pulled free a glob of what they believed to be some sort of naturally secreted poison, and flicked it into the fire. The flames hissed and climbed higher, and Alex raised a brow.
“I do trust you,” Kara said. “But he’s already killed one agent this week. I’m not taking any chances with my sister.”
Alex startled when, eyes fixed ahead in the dim light, her shoulder smacked into something. Instantly, she whirled on her heel, gun still up and at the ready, only to find its barrel nearly tip to tip with another. Eyes widening, Alex lowered her weapon and shifted closer. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Lowering her weapon as well, Maggie let out a slow breath and glanced over her shoulder before locking back on Alex in the dark. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I’m doing my job,” Alex snapped under her breath.
“So am I.”
“We don’t need you on this case.”
“He’s taken out two of my m–”
“Not this one,” Alex hissed, heart thumping wildly in her chest. She had been avoiding Maggie Sawyer at all costs, ever since her blow-up in the parking garage, and Alex honestly had no desire to be anywhere near her at the moment. Her heart was too sore, too raw. But the thought of Maggie being here, on this particular scene, within range of a rogue alien they had yet to even classify beyond Kara’s best guesses and that had already proven more formidable than any at the DEO had expected or predicted, scared the ever-loving hell out of her. “You’re out of your depth here, Sawyer.”
Maggie blinked, hard, and then gave a small shake of her head. “Wow,” she said. “Okay, so that’s how this is going to go? You know damn well I’m not out of my depth, Danvers, and if this is pers–”
Both startled from their back-and-forth when the hard thud of Kara’s boots hitting concrete echoed around the warehouse.
“You should have known I’d catch up to you eventually,” Kara announced as she landed. “Enough of this. You can either turn yourself in now or I can take you in by force. Either way, we can’t let you hurt anyone else.”
The alien seemed to weigh the options for a moment, and Alex held her breath. Pulled her weapon up into her eye line again. Steady. On target. “Just turn yourself in,” she muttered, and when he took one step toward Kara, she felt the tiniest burst of relief.
It vanished a second later when he thrust off the ground, leaping over Kara’s head, and landed sideways, crouched, on one of the thick, concrete columns holding up the structure. As soon as Kara shot after him, he leapt again, and Alex didn’t have a chance to process before he was suddenly right in front of her. Yellow eyes fixed on her in the shadows.
Before she could even think to react, her gun hit the ground, her back slammed into Maggie’s chest hard enough that she heard the wind expel from Maggie’s lips, hitting the back of Alex’s neck, and then they were both being jerked up off the ground.
“Alex!”
Kara’s voice sounded desperate, dangerous, but Alex couldn’t spot her. Couldn’t focus. The goddamned frog of an alien kept leaping from wall to wall to ceiling to wall again, dizzying her, and the only thing Alex could do was close her eyes and try not to vomit. She could hear Maggie wheeze behind her, still pained from impact, and Alex smacked around with her hand until she found Maggie’s arm and gripped it tightly.
“Breathe, Sawyer,” she said through gritted teeth, eyes still clamped closed.
Maggie’s hand scrambled, fingers locking around Alex’s, and she squeezed. Hard. Sucked in a sharp, gasping breath that made Alex’s insides unclench just the slightest bit.
Good, she thought. One good thing.
“Kara,” she said, swallowing down the bile that kept rising and falling in her throat. “Do you have visual?”
“I’m on him.”
Alex took a shaky breath.
“But I can’t hit him, Alex,” Kara said then. “He’s using you as a shield. Anything I try … it could kill you. Or Maggie.”
Fear spiked in Alex’s chest but she held it down, held it back, and forced herself steady. “Stay close then.”
Alex forced her eyes open again when a burst of cool air blasted against her face, and suddenly, they were outside. Still moving, leaping, too quickly for her to process anything; for her to retain any detail or configure any kind of plan. They were just going to have to ride this out and hope he didn’t drop them off the side of a building.
At the thought, Alex squeezed Maggie’s hand and felt the hard pulse of her fingertips press back in return.
A flash of red and blue, and Alex felt a spark of hope. It disappeared a second later when they leapt again. She caught a glimpse of their reflection in the side of a building, felt another blast of breeze as they leapt from building to bridge, and then before Alex could even begin to process what was about to happen, they plunged downward.
The water hit her like a thousand needles stabbing at every inch, cold and sharp and shocking, and Alex’s chest immediately began to strain. Pressure squeezed and pushed from the inside, lungs empty as she hadn’t had time to take a breath, to prepare. Clenching her eyes closed, she squeezed Maggie’s hand to the point of pain and tried to keep herself calm. Her throat tightened until she choked and began to splutter under the water.
The fear she had pushed down screamed its way to the surface and flooded every cell, and for a moment, Alex was absolutely convinced she was going to die. Captive and cold and pressed against the girl she had both pulled close and pushed away and had never gotten the chance to love.
And Kara.
Oh god, Kara. This would shatter her.
Alex’s eyes burned and burned, as hot and hard as her chest and throat, and then suddenly, they broke the surface and she could breathe again. One hard, gasping breath ripped down into her lungs, still too wet, and Alex coughed so hard she thought she might vomit. She heard Maggie do the same behind her, rocking against her back with the force of her spluttering, and Alex barely got another breath in before they went under again.
At the lurch of Maggie’s chest against her back, the water-muted sound of her gargling, the loosening of her grip around Alex’s fingers, Alex panicked. She translated that fear into action a second later, twisting in the alien’s hold to the best of her ability. Her eyes stung under the water when she opened them, everything a blur at first but rapidly defining into a warped sort of image she could work with. She let go of Maggie just long enough to curl her fingers into a fist and thrust it up toward the alien’s head.
It was slow, pressured and held back by the push and flow of the water they were ripping through at an ungodly speed. The impact she made felt weak. A pathetic knock. So, Alex began to thrash in the alien’s arms. Anything to shake his hold, break them free, so she could get Maggie to the surface. Get air into her lungs.
When the alien’s webbed fingers wrapped over her face a moment later, Alex jerked. She felt a warm rush against her freezing flesh, and then everything began to go numb as they jerked up out of the water again and she was able to draw another breath.
“Alex.” It was choked, Maggie’s voice cracking and coughing around the syllables, but Alex tried to respond.
Her hand jerked, just the slightest bit, reaching back as they went down again, but her body felt heavy. Eyes drooping closed, Alex’s body curled down on itself, and she could feel her heartbeat in her temples. Hear it in her ears. Feel it at the back of her throat.
And then it was gone.
“Come on, Danvers.”
“Don’t do this to me.”
“Come on.”
The words bumped and blurred in Alex’s ears as she felt pressure against her chest, hard. Too hard. She buckled under it as reality flooded in, pain shot through her cells, and then she rocked back up as her mouth wrenched open and air shot down into her screaming lungs.
“Oh god,” Maggie said, voice quaking around the words. “Alex?”
A shaky hand slipped under the back of Alex’s head, the pressure on her chest easing, and she groaned. Sucked in another hard, aching breath and tried to open her eyes. Focus.
“Alex?”
Blinking, the world came into view again. Hazy at first but then defined, and Maggie Sawyer’s face, wet hair hanging around and clinging to her cheeks, hovered over her, blotting out the dim overhead light. Big brown eyes stared at her from above, and when Alex groaned again, relief flickered through them; eased them down from wide and pained to calmer, gentler, encouraging.
“Dammit, Danvers,” Maggie said, bottom lip quivering and teeth just slightly chattering. Her entire body trembled, as cold as Alex felt, all the way down to her bones, and an uneasy laugh squeezed free. “You scared the shit out of me.”
Rocking up further, Alex wheezed and coughed and spit up a bit of water. It burned in her throat, in her nostrils, and she felt her stomach lurch at the taste of it. “Wh–” She coughed again, shook with the force of it, and spit up a bit more water.
“Don’t,” Maggie said, one hand still cupped around the back of Alex’s head, supporting her. She pressed the other atop Alex’s chest, rubbed small circles over her sternum, and Alex realized that her gear was gone. Removed. And she was shaking like a leaf in Maggie’s arms, soaked and stripped down to only her thin, black long-sleeved shirt. “Just breathe.”
Alex took a moment to catch her breath before trying to push up into a sitting position. Her arms felt numb, though, shaky under her weight, and when she looked down at her hands, she could see her veins. Darker than usual. Prominent. A fresh wave of fear rolled through her.
“Don’t panic,” Maggie said, helping Alex sit up and put her back against the wall. She wiped at her own cheeks quickly, which did little to comfort Alex but made her heart ache at the sight, at the worry and care Maggie obviously had for her. She touched Alex’s hand. “I think he did something to you, when you tried to fight. One second you were thrashing and then you just, you went limp.”
“Where’s the alien?”
“I don’t know,” Maggie said, eyes still fixed on the visible veins in Alex’s hand. “Gone. Fled.” Her voice shook, words chattering between her teeth. “Dropped us here and took off.” She tilted her head toward her right. “I think he just used us to get away.”
The last word choked in Maggie’s throat but she managed to push it out, managed to keep herself steady. She reached toward Alex’s face. “There’s some kind of residue on your forehead. Stuck in your hair.”
Alex took a deep breath and jerked her head out of the way before Maggie could touch.
“Don’t,” she croaked, trembling. “Don’t touch it.”
“Why not?”
“Poison.” She flexed her fingers, tried to feel the stretch of it, but they barely moved, and she couldn’t feel her toes at all. “We think he naturally secretes it from his skin.” Another deep breath. It stung, sharp. Her ribs ached, and Alex wondered if one or two might be broken. How long had Maggie been pumping on her chest? “It’s what killed one of our agents this week.”
Maggie swallowed, thick enough for Alex to see the way her throat bobbed with the action, and then gave one hard nod. “Stay here,” she said. “I’m going to find a way out.”
“No.” Her fingers twitched liked she wanted to reach for her, stop her, but everything felt heavy. Too heavy to lift. Too numb to function. “You don’t even ….” Closing her eyes, Alex breathed through the nausea that rolled through her gut. “Know where we are.”
She glanced around. There was only a dim bit of light, but it was enough for Alex to discern that they were in some sort of drainage pipe or sewer. The smell hit her a second later, and she grimaced. Mildew. Waste. “We might not even be in National City anymore.”
“I can still find a way out.” Maggie tilted her head up to look at the damp walls and concrete overhead. The flickering row of dim lights along the tunnel. “I can hear traffic.”
Alex quirked a brow at that. She couldn’t hear it. She couldn’t hear anything beyond the thumping of her heart in her ears and Maggie’s voice. It warped a bit around the edges, and Alex felt her eyes sting with tears.
“That means we’re in the city,” Maggie said. “Or a city.” Her gaze flicked back to Alex. “I can get us out of here.”
“Supergirl.”
Maggie shook her head, her dark, wet hair unsticking from her cheek before slapping back in place. “I don’t think she’s coming.”
“She’ll come,” Alex said, though she could feel that her earpiece was gone. The tracking device that had been clipped to her belt wasn’t pressing into her stomach. She couldn’t feel it, and when she glanced down, she could see it was gone as well. The more she looked, the more she realized was missing.
Her vest lay on the ground beside them, Maggie obviously having pulled it off to revive her, but her watch was gone, too. Her phone. One of Maggie’s shoes. All torn from their bodies with the force of being rocketed through the water.
Pushing her hair off her face, Maggie licked her lips and glanced down the tunnel again. “When we came out of the water, I couldn’t see you. Just mud and grass and I thought … I thought you were–” Swallowing hard, she shook her head again. “But then I realized I couldn’t see him either. I couldn’t see my own fucking hands.”
Alex took the information in, brow furrowing, and then it clicked. “Camouflage.”
Maggie nodded. “I think he lost her at some point. I … I couldn’t keep track. We were moving too fast.”
The reality of what they were saying sank in, and Alex nodded.
Kara had no idea where they were.
They stared at one another, and Alex shook her head.
“You never should’ve been there,” she said, closing her eyes when the breath between words wheezed in her lungs. Squeezed and burned and hurt. Despite still trembling, she could feel herself getting hot. “Then you wouldn’t be here.” She opened her eyes again, locked onto Maggie. “And you’d be safe.”
Glancing upward, Maggie blinked rapidly. Blinked like she was trying to ward off tears. Like she was trying to kill some kind of feeling, bar a breakdown. And then she met Alex’s gaze again. She tried to force a smile but it never reached her eyes; never showed her teeth. Her cheeks dimpled just the slightest bit, though, and Alex sighed.
“You getting soft on me, Danvers?”
The words escaped in only a whisper. Shaken. Impacting. Taking her back. Drawing up all the feelings Alex had been trying to mash down and out.
Alex held her gaze, took a breath. Let it go. Let herself go, and nodded. “Maybe I am.”
Another sigh drew up and out when she felt pressure around her hand, glanced down to see Maggie squeezing until Alex’s skin turned a sharp white with the force. She barely felt it.
“How long?”
Alex knew what Maggie was asking, and she felt breathless with it. Terrified. Tears flooded her eyes as she leaned her head against the wall and didn’t bother holding them back. They slipped down and were lost to her. She couldn’t feel them against her cheeks.
“About five hours,” she said. “But he was feverish in two. Delirious by the fourth.”
“Alex.”
Alex choked down a sob, heard it squelch in her throat, and steadied herself. Steadied her voice. “We spent the last hour trying to revive him. He just kept flat-lining.” She shook her head, the back rubbing against the damp concrete wall. “We had to let him go.”
She had no idea how long it had been, but the look on Maggie’s face told her it had been long enough.
Maggie was on her feet in seconds, kicking off her only remaining shoe for better balance. “I’m finding a way out.”
“Don’t.”
“I have to.”
“Sawyer.”
“Just keep breathing, Danvers,” Maggie said, dismissive as she headed toward the tunnel to the right. “I’ll be back.”
“Maggie, stop!” Alex coughed up the protest, and Maggie whirled on her.
“No, you stop, Alex!” She snapped, eyes wide and more terrified than Alex could begin to process. “I have to go, because if we stay down here, you’ll die. Okay? You’re going to die, and I’m not just gonna sit here and watch it happen. So you stop.”
By the time the last words left her mouth, her hands were clenched into fists and her entire body shook almost forcefully in the dim light.
“Okay,” Alex said, voice cracking. “You’re right.” She nodded, held Maggie’s gaze. “I just–” An unsteady, uncomfortable laugh shook free, and then her voice dropped to a rough whisper. It still managed to echo around the damp space. “I’m scared.”
Maggie’s shoulders caved at the words, the tension leaking free, and she crossed back over to Alex. Dropped to her knees. “So am I.”
“Please,” Alex whispered, clamping her eyes closed as another wave of nausea rolled through her, and her cheeks and chest grew hot. “Don’t leave me alone.”
Fingers squeezed around Alex’s thigh, and she opened her eyes again.
Maggie’s jaw was set, eyes hard and determined. “I have to.”
Another sob squashed in Alex’s throat, sent a painful choking sound over her lips, and she forced herself to nod as fresh tears slipped free. “Yell for her,” she said, the words a mess on her trembling lips. “If you find a way out, yell for her.”
Maggie’s eyes widened with realization. “Supergirl?”
“She’ll come.”
“What if we’re too far?”
“She’ll come.” Head beginning to throb, Alex closed her eyes again. “She’s my sister.”
The words were met with nothing more than another hard squeeze around her thigh and then the sounds of Maggie’s splashing steps, dwindling into nothing.