Chapter 9
Alex was definitely not hiding from her mother in her lab in the DEO. Kara was accompanying her boss to check on a comatose Leslie Willis after the incident the day before and Alex had faked an emergency at work, hoping to find El, at least. To her surprise, El actually arrived after her, having apparently spent the night and better part of the morning out.
“Where were you?” She asked as El pilfered one of the ultra-high calorie meal substitutes Alex had developed in an effort to supplement Kara’s diet. Unfortunately, they tasted like asphalt and sawdust, according to her sister, so the project was going to be scrapped before El asked if she could have them.
“Stakeout,” El mumbled. She clearly didn’t enjoy the bars either, but she put up with it without complaint. Unlike Kara, who would happily declare eating to be one of her favourite pastimes, El seemed to view it as more of an inconvenience. Most of her meals consisted either of Alex’s meal bars, or the bland food served at the DEO’s barracks for the agents who stayed on base. “How’s Kara after yesterday?”
“A little shaken up,” Alex said. “This is the first time she’s really failed to save someone and she blames herself.”
“Leslie will be fine,” El said, opening a second meal bar. “Kara just activated her meta gene. She’ll be back up soon enough with the ability to manipulate electricity.”
“Wait, what?”
El nodded. “She’s gonna try to kill Cat once she wakes up. Just make sure to get her wet before you slap the meta dampeners on her.”
“And where will you be?” Alex demanded, annoyed that El hadn't warned them about this beforehand.
“I have to get back,” El said. “Odds are Willis is going to cause rolling blackouts throughout the city, and Diana said she would help with the relief efforts. She just needs to go back to her hotel and sleep for a few hours.”
“Wonder Woman is in town?” Alex asked, trying to hide her excitement. “What are you two working on? Do you need any help?”
El rolled her eyes and smiled fondly. “That’s kind of you, but we’re fine for the time being. We’re just watching a safehouse to see who comes by. You just need to focus on supporting Kara and stopping the Fort Rozz escapees.” She paused. “Also, you need to talk to Eliza.”
Alex scowled, crossing her arms. “Why, so I can listen to her berate me for letting Kara become Supergirl?”
“Has she yet?” El asked.
“No,” Alex admitted. “But I can tell she wants to. You were alone with her yesterday, how angry did she seem with me?”
El chuckled. “We didn’t really get past the whole ‘adoptive daughter from the future’ thing.” Walking over to her, Alex stayed remarkably still as El wrapped her in a hug before pulling back and cupping her face. “You are without a doubt, one of the most amazing people on this planet, Alex. You’re an incredible agent, and an even better bio-engineer. You’re ambitious and stubborn and caring. Eliza loves you, but you deserve to be treated better. You’ll feel much better if you clear the air between the two of you.”
Alex sniffled and nodded, leaning forward to hug El. “Is this what being the little sister feels like?”
El laughed, her raspy voice blowing over Alex’s ear. “You, of all people, deserve someone in your corner.” The two separated and El reached up to wipe a stray tear from her eye. “I have to go now, I’ll be back around dinner to terrify Winn.”
“See you later,” Alex said. She watched as El left, feeling somewhat better.
Later that day, they had all gathered back in Kara’s apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. Kara had spent most of the day fretting; the news that Leslie Willis was going to recover had been a relief for all of five seconds before Alex relayed that she was also likely going to be a super villain. Alex had assigned agents to keep an eye on her, but for the time being all they could do was wait.
Hopefully, though, Thanksgiving dinner would be enough to distract her. Kara had invited her friend Winn, ostensibly because he planned on being alone and her little sister refused to let one of her friends celebrate the holiday alone, but Alex was quietly grateful for the attempt at providing another buffer between her and her mother. Though, Alex’s mom had been oddly subdued for the past day or so - likely from the shock of whatever she and El discussed.
“How are things?” El asked as she drifted through the open window.
“Strangely peaceful,” Kara observed. The two of them joined the others at the table where the food had been laid out neatly.
“Kara, do you think you could top off the turkey?” Eliza asked. Kara grinned and lowered her glasses, blasting the turkey with a short burst of heat vision.
“She comes in handy,” Winn quipped.
“I have to admit, the first time she did it I was a little worried,” Eliza teased. “What if we were all eating radioactive turkey?”
“It’s no worse than the microwave,” Alex replied, taking a sip of her wine.
“Alex is right,” El chimed in. “It’s largely ultraviolet. You might as well have cooked it outside with a magnifying glass.”
“You’re having a lot of fun, Alex,” her mother observed as she took another drink. If she was going to talk to her mother, she needed all the courage she could get. “Let’s get some food in you, hm?”
“Yeah,” Winn said, saving Alex from the wave of irritation she had just felt. “Everything looks great. Especially the pie.”
“Oh, yes. That is the best pie in the galaxy,” Alex snarked. El reached over and placed a hand on her arm, looking at her with a complicated expression that was equal parts stern and supportive. She shrank in her seat and looked away. “Or, so I’m told,” she muttered.
Kara looked between her and El with her eyebrow raised, but El simply shook her head and she turned back to the rest of the table. “So, before we eat, I thought it would be nice if we went around and shared what we were grateful for, or any other feelings that we might want to share with family and friends,” she suggested. “So, let’s share.”
Alex’s chest tightened and she scowled. Maybe El was right that she needed to talk to her mother, but she wasn’t about to do so in front of Kara’s friend.
“Okay,” Kara said slowly. “I’ll go first. Um… I am grateful for everyone here. My best friend in the entire world,” she gestured to Winn who smiled crookedly then turned to Alex, “my sister who’s always had my back,” next she turned to their mother, “the woman who has always treated me like a daughter.”
“Thank you, Sweetie,” Eliza whispered.
“And lastly, for you, El,” Kara finished. “We’ve only known you for a few weeks, but you’ve already taught me so much. Sometimes… I’m afraid that I’m forgetting my roots. Having another Kryptonian around, even if it’s another version of me, makes me feel more at home.”
“Thank you, Kara,” El said softly. “It’s… nice not to be alone anymore, and I largely have you to thank for that. If you hadn’t believed me when I first came back, I have no idea what I would’ve done.”
Kara grinned brightly, only for her phone to chime before it then began ringing. “Oh, sorry guys, I’ll turn it off,” she said. Alex watched her quickly read the text and grin brightly. She was about to respond when her phone rang a second time. “Oh, it’s James. Um, sorry, sorry,” she apologized, standing up and placing her napkin on the table. “I’ll make it quick.”
The four of them watched her rush off.
“Thanksgiving call?” Winn muttered. “That’s nice. Very thoughtful.”
El smirked and patted Winn on the back. The man’s crush on Alex’s sister was obvious, though, judging by how El treated him, she figured it didn’t end how he hoped in the future. Winn seemed to realise he was being transparent as he looked at El with wide, frightful eyes, but El had already turned away.
“How’s the stakeout been going?” Alex asked, desperate not to deal with any more relationship drama.
“Nothing so far,” El admitted. “The odds aren’t great that we find anything, but it’s the only lead we have at the moment.”
“Wait, why would you need to go on a stakeout?” Winn asked. “Shouldn’t you, like, already know everything?”
“It’s complicated,” El replied. “For one thing, I was busy stopping Reactron when the robbery would have happened in my timeline, if it happened at all.”
“This is why I’m happy to stay in the lab,” Eliza quipped. “At least there, if you run into a roadblock, you don’t have to worry about people getting hurt.”
“There’s something I need to tell you,” Alex blurted, suddenly cursing the wine she drank for loosening her lips.
“Okay,” Eliza said slowly. “Everything all right?”
Alex took a deep breath, thankful when El reached over and gripped her arm once more. “When I was at Stanford, I was doing research in genetic engineering,” Alex confessed. “And my work, and connection to Kara… it came under scrutiny. And I was recruited by the government.” Alex took a deep breath, fear constricting her chest. “I’m not just a doctor. I’m an operative for an organization called the DEO. We monitor alien life on Earth.” Kara chose that moment to return to the table and Alex nodded towards her. “I work with Kara in the field.”
Eliza sat back in her chair and took a deep breath. “So… when Kara’s out there, you are too?”
“Well, yeah,” Alex said. “That-that’s my job, Mom. I look out for her.”
“I see,” Eliza said slowly.
“I would be happy to carve this, Eliza,” Winn said, pointing at the turkey.
“Mom?” Alex asked, thoroughly confused. She didn’t know what she was expecting when she told her mother the truth about her job, but this quiet contemplation was not it.
“I don’t know what to say,” Eliza said quietly.
“Say you’re proud of her,” El said firmly. “For years, Alex has devoted her life to Kara. She put relationships and careers on hold so that she could join an organization that promised to help her protect her sister. She climbed the ranks of that organization, and is now one of the top agents they have. Even now that Kara has come out as Supergirl, Alex - who is very much not bulletproof - still puts her life on the line to back her up. You told a fourteen year old to set aside her childhood so she could help you raise another child, Eliza, and she did. The least you can do is say you’re proud of her.”
Alex didn’t know when she started crying, but once the tears started she had a hard time stopping them. No one had ever stood up for her like that. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying unsuccessfully to contain the feelings pouring out of her as the blurry figure of her mother knelt in front of her.
“Is that how you feel, sweetheart?” Eliza asked softly.
“I just…” Alex mumbled. “Why can’t I be good enough for you, Mom?”
“Oh, Alex,” Eliza gasped. She shot forward and embraced Alex, holding her almost as tightly as Kara did when she forgot about her strength. “I wanted you to be better than me, but I see now I pushed too much. When Kara joined us I had no idea how to help her. She was a child from another planet who had lost everything, all I could do was accept her and try my best to keep her from being discovered. Then your father… suddenly I was alone with the two of you and just so lost. I’m sorry,” she said. “To both of you.”
Kara joined them and wrapped her arms around both of them. “I think we’ve all made mistakes,” she said softly. “But now that it’s all out in the open, maybe we’ll be able to move forward.”
The three of them separated only to realise that El and Winn had both left.
“Um, where’d everyone go?” Kara asked.
“Winn probably left when we started airing our dirty laundry in front of him,” Alex said, sniffling as she wiped her eyes.
“What about El?
*(OoO)*
“You’re back early,” Diana observed as El joined her on the rooftop across from David Cheng’s apartment.
El and Winn had both left the apartment when it became clear that Kara, Alex, and Eliza . She may have stepped up to defend Alex in the way she wished she could have years ago, but seeing the three of them embrace like that just served to remind her of what she lost. That she was an outsider.
“What can I say, I can’t resist your company,” El teased. “Any news?”
“Not yet,” Diana said, lowering the binoculars she had brought with her.
“Well, Leslie’s awake,” El said. “So at least you’ll have something to do soon.”
“And Kara is prepared to face her?”
El sighed. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I know that she can do it, if for no other reason than the fact that I did it in my timeline, but I look at her and Alex and all I can think about is how unprepared they are for what’s really out there.”
Diana smirked. “You sound like their mother.”
El snorted. “Motherhood and I don’t mix.”
The two of them fell into silence with Diana backing off to move through some exercises while El watched the apartment below.
“Trouble staying still?” She asked.
“Unfortunately,” Diana admitted. “It used to drive my mother and sisters mad when we went hunting together.”
El chuckled. “You must have been a handful growing up.”
“You have no idea,” Diana said. “I was the first child on Themyscira in millennia, and the queen’s daughter at that. My fellow Amazons didn’t stand a chance.”
“I can only imagine,” El replied. “I grew up with the Danvers after I lost my family, they helped me piece myself back together and showed me I could be loved, but I was always so focussed on staying hidden. Even later, I was always either Kara Danvers or Supergirl.”
“That must have been difficult.”
El shrugged. “It had its highs and lows. Ironic as it may seem coming from me, I tried my best to live my life without regrets. I just want to help Kara and everyone else learn from my mistakes.”
“I know what it is like to feel chained by your past,” Diana said, having finished her exercises and rejoined El at the ledge. “When I first left my home, there was a man by the name of Steve Trevor. He and I became… close, and when he died I lost myself. I spent decades mourning him, convinced that I would never love again. That it was too painful.”
“I felt something similar when Lena died,” El admitted. “For years, she was the only thing that kept all the pain and rage I had been feeling under control. Even now, I feel it, simmering, just below the surface. I pray to Rao all the time that Kara doesn’t have to experience the same thing.”
Diana smiled sadly and placed a hand on El’s shoulder. By now, she could hear the sound of lightning and breaking glass across town, indicating Kara had engaged Livewire. Extending her hearing, El listened to the rest of the city and froze as she caught the sound of a heartbeat high in the air, floating above where Kara.
“We have to go!” She exclaimed.
“What’s wrong?” Diana asked, following El into the sky.
Rather than answer, El activated her comms, calling J’onn at the DEO.
“J’onn! General Astra is in National City!”
“The closest team is ten minutes from your position,” J’onn said. “Supergirl is still occupied with Livewire as well. You and Wonder Woman are on your own.”
“We’re more than enough,” El replied. She turned to Diana. “Are you with me?”
“My blade is yours,” Diana said firmly, a grim smile on her face.
“Hang back. When this turns violent, I’m going to push her out of the city. When I do, whatever reinforcements she has nearby will follow.”
Diana nodded and El grabbed her by the arm. “Be careful, Diana. These are Kryptonian soldiers. They are just as strong as Kara or Kal-El, but they are fully trained in combat.”
Diana’s smile turned slightly vicious. “A challenge worthy of us, then.”
Smirking, El shook her head fondly. She had forgotten that Diana of Themyscira, paragon of truth and compassion, was also a warrior. She was familiar with the thrill that came with truly pushing oneself against a worthy opponent. Pouring on the speed, El was across the city in less than a minute. Luckily, Astra had seemed to be content simply floating in the air. She was focused on the building beneath them, likely watching Kara as she fought.
“Keeping an eye on your niece?” El asked.
Astra didn’t jump, she was too aware of her surroundings to be surprised by El. Her eyes did widen, however, when she looked up and saw another version of her niece floating across from her.
“What trickery is this?” Astra demanded. “Who are you, and why do you look like my niece?”
“I go by Flamebird on this world,” El said, switching to Kryptonian.
“You are the Daughter of Destruction?” Astra asked skeptically.
“I bear her mantle,” El said diplomatically. “I am Kara Zor-El from more than fifteen years in the future.”
Astra narrowed her eyes. “Manipulation of the time stream is only possible in theory.”
“But wouldn’t it be fantastic if it were?” El asked rhetorically. “You could go back and speak with the founders of the Great Houses in person. Learn directly at the feet of Vohc the Builder himself. We’ve had this conversation before, Aunt Astra, when I was nine and we were covering quantum displacement in my Natural Logics courses.”
“Then, if you are really my niece, you would also remember Jor-El’s longwinded lecture on the potential ramifications,” Astra said evenly. “In which case, the question is: why?”
“I didn’t come back to stop you, Astra,” El explained, guessing where the general’s mind was going.
“My traitorous niece comes bearing the title Flamebird when I am on the cusp of building something great,” Astra observed snidely. “You’ll forgive my skepticism.”
“If your idea of greatness is enslaving a planet, then you lack vision,” El remarked.
“I would save this planet!” Astra snarled.
“And I would save a thousand,” El barked. “Darkseid is coming, Astra.”
Astra froze. “That’s impossible,” she muttered. “Darkseid is a myth.”
“Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant when you are watching millions be slaughtered every day.”
“All the more reason to complete our mission, then,” Astra concluded.
“Then I’ll stop you,” El said. “I have preparations to make, Astra. Lives to save. I would like for you to be one of those lives.”
“It’s clear that you’ve grown, Little One,” Astra said. “Your eyes are those of a warrior - one who has seen much. But I have known combat longer than you’ve been alive. Even if the other you, inexperienced as she is, abandoned her human distraction and joined you, it wouldn’t be enough.”
“Aunt Astra?” Kara called out, as if summoned. Judging by the hiss of fire sprinklers inside the building below them, and the sirens outside, it seemed that Kara had managed to soak Willis and take her down.
Astra glanced over at Kara as she approached, and, in that brief moment that her attention was diverted, El rushed forward and grabbed her by the throat, throttling her through the air at multiple times the speed of sound. Within seconds, the two of them were flying over the ocean and El pitched Astra down towards the water, watching as the general spun through the air before skipping across the waves like a well-thrown stone for several hundred meters.
Behind her, she could hear Diana engaging another Kryptonian while Kara tried desperately to keep up.
“I have this under control, Supergirl,” Diana grunted.
“But I can help!” Kara pleaded.
“Oh, please, feel free to join,” the familiar voice of Mur snarked. “Maybe then I could be entertained before I kill you, Daughter of Alura.”
Trusting Diana to handle a mere grunt like Mur, El focused on Astra as she came to a stop and hurtled back through the air towards her. El met her halfway and the two collided with a boom that shook the air around them.
The fight had begun.