It wasn't that she didn't trust Maggie Sawyer with every inch of her body. It wasn't that she would ever doubt the woman that had turned out to complete her in a way that Alex never thought possible outside of fairytales and romantic movies.
She'd give her life for Maggie. And she knew that the detective felt the same.
But as Alex soared through the sky in a helicopter, in full tactical gear and cramped up, surrounded by three other agents, she felt her heart clench painfully at the thought of what would happen in the next hour.
The last time she'd seen Maggie, had been four weeks ago. An entire month without seeing or touching her. The only time she'd heard her voice was when she'd check in. Risking her own life three times a day just to be able to tell Alex the things she was seeing inside the walls of the community.
Undercover in a cult that wouldn't hesitate to kill her the second they noticed she wasn't like them. Brainwashed, idolizing a creature that they thought a god. A creature that they had to catch from the inside, to avoid it feeling cornered and taking his followers down with him.
She'd hated that Maggie volunteered.
The agent in her would have been the first to recommend Detective Maggie Sawyer as the woman for the job. She was a great negotiator, had done undercover ops before, and was no stranger to dangerous situations.
But it was Maggie. Her wife. The woman she was going to spend the rest of her life with.
They both knew how dangerous the mission was. They were both present during the joint taskforce meetings with the DEO and the NCPD, setting up the operation.
They knew.
And yet, flying over the desert and seeing the small, isolated town in the middle of nowhere appear, Alex regretted the day she agreed to send Maggie off, watching her march into the gates, disappearing into another life.
She'd lost Maggie Sawyer four weeks ago. The woman inside that town was Margaret. She wasn't married, she was straight, and she pledged her life to some alien, hoping that he would notice her, show interest in her.
Alex had seen Maggie undercover before, but only for one evening or night. Infiltrating a party, or a drug deal. Never the long game.
Never this.
And now, Maggie hadn't checked in for the past 24 hours.
And her gut told her that something had gone very wrong.
"Approaching target." The pilot's voice rang in her ears through her earpiece. She glanced out of the chopper, seeing the town now in full view.
She'd never seen it up close, and in person. The small houses, built from scrap metal and wood. The big building in the center, probably a church to worship their savior, Alex scoffed to herself.
And still within the gates of the town, but stretched far out in the corner, a large patch of green, with trees and grass.
Maggie had told her they called it the Garden of Eden. Obviously, the alien had been studying up on his Biblical terms. An oasis in the middle of the dry and barren desert. An actual forest. One of the leader's… less subtle miracles.
If Alex didn't know any better, she'd say she was impressed.
But with her mind still on her lover, she found it hard to take any of it in. As much as Maggie had told her about the place - by now, she almost felt like she was living there herself - she had to stay focused on their mission.
Find Maggie, and get her out of there as soon as possible.
Alex didn't care if she had to shoot that alien herself to make that happen.
She jumped out of the chopper when it was a few feet above the ground, and raised her rifle immediately, finding cover behind the nearest shack. Behind her, the three other agents did the same.
"Alex!"
Her sister's voice in her ear. She tapped her earpiece quickly, glancing up at her colleagues. "We're in position, Kara. What's your status?"
"Alex, something's wrong."
The agent didn't like the way that sounded. She braced herself for bad news, resting her head against the wall in front of her.
"... The entire village, Alex, there's nobody here."
Over the sound of the chopper taking off into the sky, she noticed her sister circling around the perimeter of the town.
She had to have misheard her.
"Repeat?" Alex yelled into her earpiece, hoping that whatever horrible thoughts were bubbling up in her mind weren't reality. That Maggie wasn't…
"There's no sign of life anywhere. All the houses are empty."
Alex motioned for the agents to move in, in pairs. Her own partner put a hand on her back, to show that he was ready.
"GO!" Alex yelled, as they poured into the town, kicking open doors and clearing building after building…
Kara had been right. It was a ghost town.
"Ma'am?" One of her agents approached, as they regrouped back on one of the dirt roads. They were waiting for instructions, for a plan…
Alex had neither.
Rendered speechless and numb by the uncertainty creeping in her mind.
Finally, she forced out words, trying to regain some composure in front of her team. "Whiteley, Sullivan, go check out the church building. Me and Johnson will check the forest. Stay alert, keep updating."
A chorus of 'yes ma'am's', and the group scattered. Alex held her rifle close to her chest, ready to fire the second anything pointed to a trap. If the alien had brainwashed his followers into thinking the DEO were some sort of demonic bad guys, they could be outflanked and dead within seconds.
A drop of sweat trickled down her forehead, as they approached the Garden. Johnson raised his rifle and motioned for her to stop, as the both of them watched Supergirl fly into the forest.
Alex counted the silence with her own heartbeats.
And finally, what felt like an eternity later…
"Alex…"
She hadn't imagined the shocked tone, or the disgust in her voice.
Alex knew then that everything was wrong. She slung her rifle over her shoulder, and ran into the forest without looking back, Johnson hot on her heels.
It didn't take long for the agent to notice what exactly Kara seemed so terrified about.
The second Alex stepped past a few trees, she saw a big clearing in the middle of the forest. The trees surrounding it were dense enough to ensure that it couldn't be seen from above. A patch of grass surrounded a few big, circular stones in the center.
She assumed it was an altar.
But it wasn't the stones that caught her attention.
It was the bodies.
More than fifty, strewn all across the clearing. All wearing the same, white clothes.
Alex was frozen. Nailed to the ground as she took in the sight.
Women, men, children. Old, young…
All of them dead.
"Holy shit…" She heard Johnson curse next to her as he finally caught up with her.
Alex stumbled forward numbly, as she looked around at all the lifeless corpses. Checking them one by one.
One of them.
The love of her life.
She turned over body after body, her devastation growing with every passing second that she couldn't find her.
"Alex...!" The same, traumatized voice in her earpiece. Alex looked up from the woman she'd been turning over, to see Kara running from the other side of the clearing to something behind the altar that Alex couldn't see.
Without even seeing her, Alex knew that Kara had found her.
She took a few steps to walk around the stones, and finally saw the figure Kara had been running towards.
Sitting upright in a pristine white dress, propped up against the altar, gazing at the ground without seeing anything.
Alex's world shattered, as she fell to her knees and stumbled towards her, crying out her lover's name. But it was Kara who pulled her back by the shoulders. "Alex! Alex, she's alive, she's breathing."
Alex stilled completely, turning her head to look at Maggie's form once again. The woman wasn't blinking, and she had to strain to see her chest rise and fall. But no matter the state Maggie was in - she was alive.
Surrounded by devastating death, but alive.
"This is agent Johnson, we have secured the target, repeat, target secure."
Alex ignored him and reached for Maggie, pulling her into her arms. But the detective didn't respond in any way to her presence. She looked like she didn't even know where she was.
"What happened to you…?" Alex whispered, more to herself than to Maggie. A hand on her shoulder from Kara snapped her out of her focus, as she looked up to meet her sister's eyes, and nodded weakly.
She pulled Maggie into her arms, kissed her forehead, and carried her towards the chopper.
And vowed to kill that alien the second she got her hands on him.