Chapter 42
Maggie sauntered through the DEO city office, waving at a few of the agents that the recognized as she made her way to the gym. She’s visited Alex at the office numerous times during the course of their friendship and their brief stint at dating, so she knew quite a few of the agents. Several of them even joined her softball league with the other agencies and first responders in the city, though under the guise of FBI instead of a secret, clandestine organization.
She found her wayward friend laying into a punching bag, stripped down to a pair of shorts and sports bra, sweat dripping down her back and shoulders. “Hey sexy,” Maggie greeted as she walked up to the woman. “I brought coffee and donuts for breakfast.”
Alex gave one the bag one last punch, and watched in satisfaction and is broke off of the chain and clattered to the floor, landing with a loud thump. She turned around and saw that Maggie was smirking at her as she eyed her up and down, and rolled her eyes. “Keep it in your pants Sawyer,” Alex said, tossing a towel at her friend. “You have another lady love you’re trying to win back.”
“Doesn’t mean that I can’t look,” Maggie shrugged, handing over one of the coffees. “And it’s hard to woo a lady love when said lady love is busy tracking a drug smuggling ring around the world.”
“Just a long distance relationship Mags, it’s not like you’re the first one to have to suffer through them,” Alex replied, grabbing one of the donuts out of the bad. “Aren’t there enough jokes about cops and donuts?”
“I fully admit that I will follow a line of these delicious, glazed dough rings under a box,” Maggie told her friend, sitting down on a stack of mats. She fished out a donut and bit into one, moaning loudly at the taste and wiggling her eyebrows.
“Why are we friends?” Alex groaned as she sat down next to the woman.
“Who else would be friends with you, you dork.” Maggie studied Alex’s pensive look as she sipped at her coffee and picked apart her donut. “Alright Danvers, spill, what’s eating at you?” She asked, taking another bite out of the glorious fried dough in her hand.
“Nothing.” Alex realized her mistake before she finished speaking, her word was too quick, too harshly spoken, something the keen eared detective would’ve caught on to easily.
“Oh really?” Maggie hummed, sipping her at her coffee again. There were only a few things that could really rile her friend, and while she suspected what was eating at her, she needed more concrete proof. “So how’s your mom?” She started, eliminating possibilities, “Have you told her about Jeremiah?”
“She’s still on her lecture tour, and I didn’t really want her to drop everything to fly here and see a terrorist,” Alex replied. “She knows he’s alive, I told her as soon as we received proof of that, but I haven’t told her that we have him, what he’s become…”
Maggie nodded, “So you haven’t made any progress with your dad? Still preaching about ridding the world of aliens and other xenophobic ideology?”
“More like he keeps insisting that he did this all for me, as a way to make it up to me, for neglecting me as a kid,” Alex gestured with her free hand in frustration. “It’s annoying.”
“So the family is the same as ever, so whatever’s eating you must have something to do with Kara,” Maggie commented. Her words finally pulled a reaction out of Alex as her eyes narrowed and hardened, and her grip tightened on the cup, causing the fortunately empty cardboard container to crumple. “So Kara is the reason for the mood you’re in.”
“I’m not in a ‘mood.’”
“Tell that to the innocent coffee cup you just crushed,” the detective said, pointing at the crumpled pile of cardboard. “Now spill, what’s eating at you, finally reconsidering ending your marriage with the sunny, bubbly blonde?”
“What? No, just no, that has to happen,” the agent stated firmly. “She knew this whole time, she lied to me.”
“Yes but think about it, you already got over the hard part, getting a kind, smart, insanely attractive woman to marry you,” Maggie pointed out. “And fidelity to boot, so I still don’t understand what your problem is.”
“She lied,” Alex grit out. “Or withheld information, whatever you prefer to think of it us, she still knew something about me and didn’t share.”
“It wasn’t just about you though, it was also about her, and she was hesitant to share with you something about herself. Kara had significantly more to lose by you finding out this information, than you did for finding it out.” Maggie took a bit out of one of her donuts and shrugged a little, “I guess you proved her fears correct when you basically shut her out after finding out the truth.”
Alex looked away from her friend, knowing she was right but not fully ready to swallow that pill. She liked Kara, she could very well love the blonde, though skipping straight to marriage without really getting to know the other woman, it was more than she could really deal with. “Her ex is in town,” Alex said finally after a few moments of silence.
“Which one?” Maggie mused, “She has a few, not a lot of course, but a few. You know Lucy, so I don’t she’d be pulling this kind of reaction from you, unless she stepped up her flirting game to make you jealous, worked really well last time.”
“That wasn’t- I’m not- I’m not jealous,” Alex protested, rolling her eyes. “And it’s not Lucy, it’s District Attorney for Star City Laurel Lance.”
Maggie whistled, “Laurel Lance is in town? The Laurel Lance, that Laurel Lance, Kara’s ex Laurel Lance? Girl has some nerve showing back up in town, I heard about what went down between them from Kate, and it was not good. I wonder what brings her to town?”
“She claims to be looking for her sister, but from what I’ve seen she’s not so much looking for her sister as she is looking at Kara,” Alex spat out, briefly missing what Maggie said about Kara and Laurel’s breakup. “I’ve seen them a few times around town, at Noonan’s, at CatCo…” Maggie wanted to point out that it seemed like Alex was following the blonde around a lot for someone who was supposed to be angry with the other woman, but thought better of it and just waited. “She’s just…” The auburn haired woman continued, “She’s hanging around Kara all the time, and I wonder what she wants…”
“What does it matter to you?” Maggie asks and Alex turned to look at her with a wide-eyed expression. The detective just shrugged, “What? It’s a valid question. Look Alex, you’ve made it very clear that you want a divorce, or annulment, and basically nothing to do with Kara since she ‘lied’ to you. However you seem to have a hard time letting go, or actually moving on.” She shook her head, but kept going, “I don’t know if you noticed, but in order to actually see Lance meeting up with Kara, you’d have to either be following one or both of them, too often is too great a coincidence Danvers.”
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you don’t.” Maggie sighed and wiped at her face, “Look, Alex, you’re one of my best friends, and I want you to be happy, but you’re being ridiculous. Either let the girl go or pull on your big girl panties and do something about it Alex. You’ve been sticking your head in the sand for weeks, ignoring the problem.” She placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder, “You need to actually make a decision, a real one, and not just run away from it.” She glanced around for a moment before meeting Alex’s eyes again, “Hiding in here and punching it out doesn’t really solve anything.”
After polishing off her donuts, Maggie hopped off the stack of mats and made her way to the door before turning back to look at her friend. “Danvers, keep in mind, you were in here pummeling away at that punching bag because you were irritated that Kara’s ex was sniffing around her, you might want to take some time and think about why that was bothering you.” She turned around and waved her hand as she left, “Remember drinks tonight, don’t die out there today because you’re buying.”
“Bye Sawyer,” Alex called after her. She sat in the gym for a little while longer, Maggie’s words swirling through her head. She knew that her friend was right, but she wasn’t ready to face those truths just yet.
Harsh light assaulted Astra’s eyes as she blinked into awareness, immediately slamming them closed again. Her body felt odd, old almost, tired, as if all of the life was drained out of her and part of it was siphoned back in. When she moved past the odd feeling, her mind registered something that she hadn’t really felt in a long time, not since before her induction into the military guild, pain. Not the burning, soul-tearing pain she endured as the liquid kryptonite roared through her veins, but more of an intense ache that settled in her bones.
Her trainers in the military guild instilled within her a high pain tolerance, so feeling something this unsettling, this deep of a pain in her bones without it being induced by a toxic mineral was disconcerting. Astra let out a groan as she forced herself into wakefulness, her eyes flinching against the harsh light but quickly adjusting. She took in her surroundings, noting that she was in a small room with bright lights, lying on a bed with stark white sheets. There were strange devices attached to her left hand and a tube in her arm. She tried to yank the alien devices off her arm, but found that she could barely move. Her limbs felt like lead weights and for the first time on the planet, she could fully feel the effects of gravity on her body.
“Don’t try to move too much Sleeping Beauty, you’ll only end up hurting yourself even further,” a voice came and Astra shifted to her eyes to her right and spotted Cat Grant sitting next to her bed, flipping through documents on her tablet.
“Strong One?” Astra mumbled out what she named Cat in her head, her voice rough. Her mouth tasted of sandpaper and felt like she had been chewing mouthfuls of cotton, her head was heavy.
“Strong One?” Cat asked, her brow quirked as she looked at the woman.
“First impression I got of you,” the Kryptonian whispered out. “Strong, unrelenting What happened, where is Kara, why does everything hurt, where am I?”
“Astra, Astra calm down,” Cat said when she saw the heart rate spike on the machine. When the heart rate continued to rise, the blonde woman looked down at the panicking alien in concern. “General!” She barked out, drawing Astra’s attention, “You need to calm down, you are safe, Kara is safe, getting yourself worked up is just going to hurt you even further.” Astra stared at Cat wide-eyed as she slowed her breathing and sucked in large, lungfuls of air, her heart rate steadying out. “Better,” Cat nodded, sitting back down. “Now, to answer your questions, Kara is fine, she is currently with my son Carter at a hockey game.” She rolled her eyes, “He’s going through another sports phase, I’m just thankful that he doesn’t like watching football or basketball. I refuse to take him to anymore sporting events after a baseball headed straight for my face, so Kara takes him now.”
“Baseball…” Astra muttered in confusion.
“Perhaps you’ll go to a game in a few months with Carter and see how truly annoying the sport is first hand,” Cat replied. “Anyway, what happened, Cadmus launched an attack with a creepy glowing psycho, and he attacked L-Corp. Kara was there and jumped into the scuffle, and the walking science experiment, tackily named Metallo, attempted to attack her with a different type of kryptonite Cadmus located, gold kryptonite. You knocked her out of the way, you saved her.”
“She’s my niece,” the woman murmured. “More than that, she’s the child I never had. I’ve done a lot of terrible things in my time, more than my fair share, I’ve hurt her repeatedly, without care or concern about her emotional and physical well being. I needed- I need to make it up to her, to tell her that I’m sorry.”
“You saved her Astra,” Cat told her. “This gold kryptonite, it rendered you completely powerless, and it appears to be permanent. Kara was devastated when she learned the news, but completely grateful, she wouldn’t have been able to continue being Supergirl if Cadmus had succeeded with their plans.”
Astra struggled a bit to sit up in the bed, and Cat pushed the button to raise it slightly so that the woman didn’t end up hurting herself in the process. “I guess that explains why I feel like death warmed over,” she chuckled, wincing a little as the movement sent pain racing through her body. She slumped back against the raised bed, her fingers absently tracing designs against the fabric under her fingers. “I was initially displeased when Kara chose to be like that disgraceful cousin of hers,” Astra said, her focus on the wall in front of her though she looked at it unseeingly. “I always knew that Jor-El’s boy would grow up to be weak, just like his father, incompetent man, Zor-El was far superior and I was pleased when my sister was paired with him rather than his brother.” Cat opened her mouth to comment but Astra just shook her head. “When I first landed on this planet, I was amazed by the vivid colors, the bright greens and blues, the numerous varieties of flora and fauna. I had never seen birds before until coming to Earth, none of the other planets I visited had such creatures.”
Cat cracked a grin at that, “Birds were Kara’s favorite too, she would just sit and watch them for hours.”
“I know,” Astra murmured. “I watched her. While I was amazed by the beauty and bounty Terra had to offer, I was horrified by the damage already caused by you humans, and I knew that if something wasn’t done immediately, this world would meet the same fate as Krypton.”
“So you chose to become an eco-terrorist basically, but why did you wait until after Kara became Supergirl?”
Astra shook her head, “We didn’t wait, we just kept a low profile in this area. My men and I traveled around the world, studying your history, your technology, your behavior, most of the damage has occurred within the past century and much of it could still be reversed if humans were given the proper tools and… motivation. That’s when Non and I started making our plans. Fighting with Kara though, warring with her, being on opposite sides, it wasn’t worth it. She was right, both of you were right, there are other ways, but I fear that it may be too late…”
Before Cat could question her on what she meant, the door to the lab slid open and Lena walked in. “Oh good, you’re awake,” the brunette said, “The monitors informed me that that was the case but I couldn’t be sure-”
“Lena,” Cat interrupted before the girl could continue to babble. “Your lipstick is smudged, either you’ve been biting a lot of napkins or your girlfriend came for a visit and distracted you.”
The younger CEO blushed and stubbornly looked at the tablet in her hand rather than at the older woman who she considered her mother, or sometimes her annoying aunt. “Um, right, so Astra,” she said, addressing the woman on the bed. “Has Cat filled you in on what happened and where you are?”
“We got sidetracked on the last part, but I’ve been made aware of my current situation,” Astra replied, wincing again as she shifted.
“You’re at L-Corp in my lab,” Lena told her. “No one knows that you’re here, so you’re safe. I have you hooked up to a heart rate monitor and an IV to pump in fluids and medication.” She indicated the bag next to Astra’s bed, “Since you no longer benefit from the miraculous healing from the sun, I’ve been pumping you with pain medication as well as immunizations to boost your immune system. At this point, you could catch the flu and be bedridden for weeks.”
“The flu?” Astra looked puzzled, causing Cat and Lena to sigh and roll their eyes.
“Nevermind, just know that you’re staying here for a few days while I boost your immune system. After that, well…” Lena’s voice trailed off, “You’ll have to be taught how to be human, find somewhere to live, have someone look after you while you adjust. Kara was a walking disaster the first few times she lost her powers, she’d burn herself, cut herself.”
“First time she stubbed her toe, you’d have thought she broke her entire leg,” Cat chuckled, smiling at the memory. She didn’t like seeing Kara in pain, but it was hilarious to watch her hop around holding her foot, groaning and moaning like she had chopped her foot off.
“Right, so I don’t want to deal with another dramatic Kryptonian, someone will need to look after you while you adjust,” Lena commented.
“She’s moving in with me,” Cat said unthinkingly, drawing looks from the other two women. “I- I have the room, and I do have experience dealing with Kryptonians.” She looked at Astra as she spoke, “And you’re my daughter’s aunt, I think she’ll appreciate having her family close.”
Before Astra could reply, the lights in the room flickered before shutting off completely. “What the-” Lena muttered. A few moments later, the lights came back on followed by a distinctive hum. “Those are the backup solar generators kicking in,” she said, striding out of the room.
Astra pulled the heart rate monitor off her thumb and was about to pull the IV out when Cat stopped her. “Don’t even think about it,” the blonde woman warned as she helped Astra out of bed and had her grab the IV rack. She led the wounded kryptonian out into Lena’s office and they starred out in shock at the National City skyline which was almost completely dark.
“L-Corp donated similar solar generators that we use to National City General,” Lena murmured, gesturing to one of the only buildings still lit among the dark city. “Along with CatCo of course. They’ll hold for a few hours, but a power outage across the entire city?”
A few seconds later, Kara landed on Lena’s balcony and set Carter down. “Aunt Astra!” Kara cried out, striding into the office to embrace her aunt, “You’re awake!”
“Woke up a few minutes ago Little One,” Astra replied, patting the girl on the shoulder to get her to let her go.
“Right, good, maybe you can help,” Kara said, moving away from her aunt. “Do you know anything about an alien named Indigo?”
“Indigo?” Astra murmured in confusion.
“Green skin, red hair, completely psycho.”
“Ah,” comprehension entered the older woman’s eyes. “You mean Brainiac, one of the Brainiac’s anyway, she did like to go by Indigo. She was a prisoner on Fort Rozz, imprisoned for many years for attempted genocide on Kryton. She was there long before your mother and I were even born, it is unclear how long exactly she’s been a prisoner.”
“Genocide,” Kara whispered, a horrified expression on her face. “Why- why did she…”
Astra shook her head, “The Brainiacs desire control, they're androids that can communicate with any form of technology. Brainiac 8, Indigo, was especially dangerous for causing the extinction of numerous species before setting her sights on Krypton. She thrives on fear and wiping out organic lifeforms for her own kind to flourish.”
“Is… do you think that’s what she’s doing here?” Lena asked, looking out over the dark city. “But why disrupt the power grid?”
“Perhaps she didn’t account for the generators at the hospital, maybe she needs the power for something else, maybe this is serving as a distraction,” Kara listed off as she paced. “I feel so… so helpless! There are people out there that need power and I can’t do anything about it because I can’t find the person responsible!”
“Kara, Kara darling,” Cat said, trying to halt her daughter’s pacing. “Kara, we’ll figure this out. Now how did you know it was this Brainiac person?”
“She appeared on the jumbotron at the hockey game before the power went out,” Carter said from his place on Lena’s couch. He had helped Astra sit down and was setting up Lena’s chessboard as a way to pass the time until this crisis was solved. The teenager wasn’t concerned, his family would save the day, and it would give him the chance to get acquainted with his new family member. “She was kind of psycho, sickly green skin, red hair, crazy look in her eyes.” Carter shivered, “She didn’t say what she wanted, just that she wanted to see how we felt trapped in the dark, after that the lights cut out. Kara got us out pretty quickly after that, and then we came here.”
“She isn’t to be trifled with Kara,” Astra said as she watched Carter curiously. “She may retain a humanoid form, but she’s a monster with no heart. There’s no telling how many planets she’s wiped out, how many species she’s eradicated.”
“We have to find her first,” Lena commented. “You said she’s basically like a living computer right?”
Before Astra could reply, Winn burst into the office, followed quickly by Sara, though it looked more like he was running away from the blonde as she sauntered over to her girlfriend. “Hey um,” Winn said, pulling on the collar of his t-shirt. “Did you guys notice the power is out? People are going crazy, first responders are answering traffic accidents, fires, rioting, it’s a mess out there.”
“Winn,” Carter interrupted, “Are you wearing Supergirl pajamas?”
The man blushed and shuffled a bit, “N-no… Well okay, but I didn’t expect to be pulled out of bed and dragged here.” He shot a glare at Sara who just shrugged innocently.
“Crazy sounding green lady shows up on every screen in National City before the power cuts off? Sounds like something techy, so I decided that the two best techy people I know should be in the same place to solve the problem.” The blonde had met the newest member of their little ragtag group a few days ago, and while Winn was terrified of her, she liked him and thought of him like a geeky little brother. “Hey babe,” Sara greeted, kissing Lena softly before turning her attention back to the group. “So who are we punching?”
“Genocidal techno alien that managed to shut down National City’s power grid,” Kara told her. “Probably planning something that will kill us all.”
“That sounds fun,” Sara commented, moving over to stand next to the blonde superheroine. “So I will do the punching, and you can stand there and look sexy, or should we switch roles?”
“If this Indigo woman is like a living supercomputer,” Lena continued, ignoring her girlfriend as she opened her laptop. “Then we can track her, especially since it seems like she can travel through computerized devices.” She handed Winn a second laptop, “Would be faster with two people, Sara, Kara, go… help some people or something, whatever heroes do, we need to concentrate.”
Sara rolled her eyes and nudged Kara, gesturing towards the balcony, “I’ll go hit some thugs upside the head, and you can deal with wrecks and fires. Give me a lift?” Supergirl nodded and Sara pulled a spare White Canary suit from one of Lena’s closets, donning it before running and jumping off of the balcony.
“I should just let her go splat, serves her right,” Kara grumbled, taking off after her friend.
Astra growled in frustration as she watched her niece fly off into the night, her hand tightening around the IV pole. “I hate this,” she muttered, her eyes hard and her knuckles white. “I can’t- I feel so useless, I should be out there helping her, not trapped in here, waiting…”
“You saved her Astra,” Cat murmured, sitting next to the woman. “You protected her from Cadmus plans, and because of this, she’s able to go out there and help people.”
“But I want to be able to help her…”
“You can, by supporting her, being here for her when she comes back,” the blonde woman said. “Lifting the weight of the world on her shoulders can be a heavy burden. Kara needs all of the love and support that we can give her.”
“You’re sure this plan is going to work?” Kara asked, looking down at the usb in her hand.
“Dude, I built that virus myself,” Winn’s voice crackled through her earpiece before she heard several thumping sounds.
“Winn? Anyone?”
“Sorry, Winn got a little excited and I had to hit him,” Lena replied.
“That’s so sexy,” Sara chimed in and Kara resisted the urge to roll her eyes and pinch the bridge of her nose.
“Guys! Focus!” She yelled.
“It should work Supergirl, Indigo works like an invasive computer program, so attacking her with a virus should do the trick,” Lena answered. “You just need to get it into the computer she’s inhabiting.”
“And you think she’s all the way out here in the desert?”
“Underneath you is a defunct, Cold War era missile silo,” Lena said, “It was decommissioned in the 90s, and were later purchased by Maxwell Lord, who modernized it.”
“Why did Maxwell Lord need a secret missile silo, and why do you know about it?”
Kara heard Lena hesitate for a moment before clearing her throat. “Eh, well, with Maxwell Lord facing trial for terrorism charges, his shareholders are deserting left and right, so I’ve started to slowly buy up the company, dirt cheap basically. When I became majority shareholder, I hacked into their servers to see what they were up to, you know, since it was technically mine, and I found this silo that Lord buried under different shell companies.”
“Did it say what was in it?”
“No, but it’s Lord, so nothing good. Just be careful.”
“Kara!” Sara called from the ground and Kara looked down at her friend who waved her down. “I’ve found a way in.”
Supergirl landed next to White Canary and handed her the flash drive while she prepared to deal with whatever Indigo had in store. “You’re too late Supergirl,” Indigo’s voice echoed across the sound system as they entered the storage facility. They wound their way back to the control room and found the alien bent over the computers, a sinister look on her face. A satellite image of National City was on the screen in front of them, along with a timer counting down minutes and seconds. “Did you like my little distraction Supergirl?” Indigo smirked as she turned around, staring in confusion at the woman in white leather. “And friend, who are you? Doesn’t matter, you’re here to witness the beginning of my triumph.”
“Your triumph?” Kara questioned, gesturing subtly for Sara to start moving around towards the hard drives. All they had to do was infect a computer that Indigo was connected to and the virus should, in theory, take care of the rest.
“Why yes,” the woman cackled. “The destruction of National City or course. I’ve been floating around Maxwell Lord’s computer server for some time now, such a shame he was arrested, he had such fun ideas.” She purred, a wicked glint in her eyes, “After he was gone, I found out about this place, and I realized it would be perfect to start over my plans.” Indigo sighed in feigned sadness as she walked up to Supergirl, “Such as shame I couldn’t deal with Krypton the way I did those other worlds, but I didn’t really need to did I? You did everything for me, all I needed to do was get out of that infernal Fort Rozz, which is where you came in, darling Kara Zor-El, your pod led me straight to Earth.”
“You’re lying…” Kara muttered, her teeth clenched.
Indigo smirked, and backhanded the blonde, sending her flying, “Oh no Princess, I’m not, I reactivated the system in your pod and ‘woke’ you up. You brought us here, you and the guidance system on your little contraption. I guess I should be thanking you.” She grinned again, large and full of teeth and malice, “Though, I guess seeing another home go up in flames makes us even.”
“No!” Kara yelled, just as the countdown ended and several launch doors opened, shooting missiles into the air. Sara slammed the flash drive into one of the usb ports, activating the virus to contaminate the system. A blonde and blue streak blurred out of the room, chasing down the missiles, while Sara dealt with the android alien writhing around the control room.
“What are you doing to me-e-e?” Indigo screeched out as her body distorted and morphed, pixelating before Sara’s eyes.
“If you learned anything about human medicine while on our planet, Violet, it’s that we cure diseases with other viruses,” Sara replied, kneeling next to the alien. “Fun fact there, many of our vaccines have viruses in them to teach the human body how to deal with the virus.” She hummed a bit and gave the woman a thoughtful look, “The more you know, right Magenta?” Indigo screeched and disappeared in a pixelated cloud while Sara took off out of the bunker and to her motorcycle. She could hear Winn and Lena debating over the coms how best to stop the missiles while Supergirl continued to fly into them, punching them into submission. There were far too many missiles though, and National City was getting closer. “Guys, guys! What about that shady organization?” Sara suggested, “The one with the… the alien hunter government alphabet soup people, wouldn’t they have something to tackle this problem?”
Lena let out a loud sigh, “I guess that means I’m putting in a call to the wife Supergirl…”