Author's Note: Just a few weeks after she nearly lost her life protecting her sister, Agent Alex Danvers is once again put in an impossible situation. Torn between family and duty, her decision could decide the fate of the world as we know it!


"Danvers I need you!"

Those four words were enough to make Alex blood run cold. She was pacing the DEO command center quite nearly on the verge of a panic attack because J'onn was down, another father possibly lost, and Kara was panicked and the whole city was covered in alien invaders, and the love of her life needed her and there was NOTHING the agent could do for her.

"Maggie! What's going on?"

"The NCPD is under attack!"

"Hold on, okay! Promise me you'll hold on."

The line went dead before Maggie could respond. Alex didn't get a chance to truly process what that might mean because Daxamite soldiers materialized right in front of her, intent on subduing the active director or killing her if they must! On instinct she dropped the first solider she saw with a center mass shot from her favorite sidearm.

"Everyone evacuate! Now! Go, go, go!"

Energy blasts were rapidly destroying the area around her and she knew there wouldn't be much left of the DEO by the end of this. They needed Kara. She needed Kara because Alex was far from ready for this and already her breathing was ragged and labored.

Hold it together Danvers! You are the Acting Director of the DEO and you damn well better act like it! She chastised herself, taking a quick moment to focus on her breathing.

She couldn't fight if she couldn't breathe and she couldn't protect her people if she didn't fight. Turning her head, she spotted Winn making his way to the evacuation point, tablet cradled to his chest. Several Daxamite soldiers were tracking his progress. He wasn't going to make it. Not without a distraction. Alex made her decision as she tapped her comm.

"Supergirl we need you! The DEO is under attack! I'm evacuating the facility now!"

"I'm on my way! " Came her sister's panicked response. "Meet you outside!"

Alex barely processed Kara's words as she was already in motion. She fired on one solider before sliding on her knees past another. Taking the stairs to the balcony two at a time, she barreled towards an uncertain landing. When she leapt from the balcony, she turned midair, taking down two more invaders with precision accuracy before she was falling. Too fast, too far and for a split second she doubted Kara's speed. She closed her eyes, bracing for the inevitable impact when a strong arm wrapped around her waist and she was swooping upwards.

"Just couldn't wait for me, could you?" Kara huffed indignantly; relieved she had been fast enough to rescue her reckless sibling. "Let's get somewhere safe."

Alex didn't respond, just focused on controlling her breathing because she really didn't think throwing up and passing out would be good for her badass image.


"J'onn?"

Alex couldn't control the tremor in her voice as she approached the makeshift medical bed the Martian lay upon. His breathing was labored and his green skin shown sickly with sweat. Every so often he would murmur names; hers, Kara's, even Maggie's and she knew what kind of nightmare J'onn was trapped in. They were hurting them, his children, right before his eyes, just like they had on Mars.

Hang on J'onn! We need you. I need you!

She still couldn't believe the state her mentor was in. He had always seemed so strong, so formidable and yet he had been felled by something so small. Distantly she wondered if he had felt this helpless when she was raging with fever, unconscious and in pain. Kneeling by his bedside, his hand limp in hers, Alex contemplated their next move. They were outgunned and outnumbered.

The DEO was completely overrun, as was National City. She glanced around the abandoned bar at the few dozen agents she had managed to locate and grimaced. She was used to operating in tough situations but this? This was like nothing she had ever trained for and J'onn was in no condition to offer advice. The sound of the door opening drew her attention and she looked up to see James rushing through, his Guardian armor already scorched in several places from drawing Daxamite fire.

"James!" Kara exclaimed, rushing to hug him. Alex found she could use a little comfort too and accepted his warm embrace as well.

"Any word from Clark?" He asked, hesitation in his voice.

"No," Kara shook her head in disappointment. "Hopefully he's out there already fighting."

"If he was, I didn't see him."

Alex head snapped up as she heard a familiar voice from the doorway. She was running before she knew it, didn't register the movement until she had cupped the other woman's face and their lips met.

"Maggie..." she breathed, foreheads pressed together. "I was so worried."

"Me too, Danvers. Me too." The other woman responded with a watery smile. "Are you okay?"

Alex knew why she had asked. Just this morning she was still on "desk duty", still traumatized, still recovering and now she was commanding what could literally be the worst possible situation for her to return to the field.

"I'm okay." She assured her, trying to dissuade the worry written all over Maggie's face. Kara scoffed behind her.

"Yeah, you should have seen her a few hours ago!" Recalling her sister's swan dive off the DEO tower.

Alex shot Kara a withering look and the superhero mimed zipping her lips shut before wandering away to converse with Winn and James. Maggie stared at her quizzically but she quickly waved it off. She needed Maggie focused on the problem at hand, her recovery could wait until the world at large was no longer in danger.

"I'm okay." She repeated, gently tucking a lock of hair behind her girlfriend's ear. "If that changes, you'll be the first to know."

"I better be." Maggie replied softly as she covered Alex's hand with her own.

"I was coming for you." Alex stated fiercely, needing to reassure the other woman that her safety was the first thing that came to mind.

"I know." Maggie replied without hesitation. "It just so happened that James was in the mood for a drink too and here we are!"

Maggie smirked and she joked but Alex could see the pain in her eyes, the worry. Worry that she couldn't make it to Alex, worry that Alex would be killed trying to get to her, worry that she'd saved Alex just a few weeks before only to lose her more suddenly and more violently. Alex felt it too, all of it, and when her eyes met Maggie's again she found the love and strength she needed to carry on. The agent allowed herself one more quiet moment with her girlfriend before her features hardened. She turned to address the room when another familiar but unwelcome voice cut in.

"Good to see you all made it out alive. I need your help."

Alex had her gun aimed at Lillian Luthor's chest before the woman's words even registered. Her vision was a field of red and all she could see was the woman who had ripped apart her family, tortured her sister and made her father unrecognizable. She would have pulled the trigger had a smaller, slightly calloused hand not wrapped around hers.

Maggie.

The grip grounded her for a moment and she realized then that the entire group was backing her up, weapons drawn and gazes wary. Maggie tugged at her gently and she backed up, just a step, just enough to avoid spraying herself with gory bits of the woman lest she lose control. The detective tugged again and Alex lowered her gun a fraction more. She absently wondered how the smaller woman could have such a profound effect on her and she filed that inquiry away for later introspection.

"What do you want, Luthor?" Kara stepped in front of her sister and Alex felt a brief moment of panic because the Luthor's never played fair and the older woman had used kryptonite to hurt her sister before. She tried to reverse their positions but the grip on her wrist tightened and she glanced over her shoulder to see Maggie shaking her head imperceptibly.

"We have a common enemy, Supergirl. Everything I warned you about has come to pass and now our city and our families are caught in the crossfire."

"Get out!" Alex growled and she felt Maggie tense behind her in anticipation of holding her back. Kara, too, adjusted her position to keep Alex away from the woman.

"Don't be blinded by your hatred, Agent Danvers." The woman chastised her and oh, was Alex seething at that.

"Where's my father?" She demanded as Maggie's hand moved from her wrist to her bicep, gripping tighter and Kara laid a gentle but firm hand on her chest reminding her to stay in control.

"I don't know." Luthor replied nonchalantly. "He's hardly important right now. We need each other. I want my daughter back and you want to keep this city safe."

Alex took a moment to focus on her breathing, the weight of her sister's hand against her chest, Maggie at her back. She allowed the two women to ground her before she addressed her enemy again.

"We don't need your help to save the city." She spat out as she pushed past the older woman and walked away. Maggie followed her hastily, both women missing the exchange between Lillian and Kara, an exchange that would deeply impact their decisions in the near future.


Four hours later, Alex found herself in the exact position in which she hadn't wanted to be. She'd been given her orders, she was supposed to destroy the ship whether Lena and Mon-El could be rescued or not. She had to admit she felt guilty about Lena, knew the woman had been a good friend to Kara, but Mon-El? Not so much. Kara had been reasonably upset with her, not understanding the demands placed upon a solider, a leader. That's who Alex was now, who J'onn trained her to be, who the people of National City needed her to be. Still, she couldn't shake her little sisters pleading words.

"What if it was Maggie? Would you still fire?"

Kara's words stung, brought unbidden tears to Alex eyes, because as much as she loved Maggie, she was a solider first. And that meant following orders, making the hard choices, pushing your personal feelings to the side. She knew what J'onn would say, knew what he would do. He would destroy the ship, for the greater good. And she told Kara as much.

That knowledge hadn't sat well with the younger Danvers, had sent her seeking advice not from her big sister, because Alex was deep in "director mode", but to the one other woman whose advice she had so coveted over the years, Cat Grant. It made Alex a little jealous that Kara turned to someone else and definitely more than a little angry because now she was forced to work with Cadmus. With Lillian Luthor.

To strategize with the same woman who would tear her limb from limb in the name of "science" and put a kryptonite bullet in her sister's head the first chance she got. Alex wouldn't let that happen, and she made sure Luthor knew it, ensured that the woman understood returning without Kara was tantamount to suicide. Because Alex Danvers would kill her; slowly, without regret, if anything happened to her sister on the older woman's watch.

The enemy of my enemy...

She kept reminding herself that, loathe to ever finish the adage and call Lillian Luthor her "friend". J'onn would see the collaboration for what it was, an opportunity. To save everyone, to save the people her little sister loved, to remove the hurt and judgment from her sister's eyes every time they met since she received the order. Yes, she would work with the murderous scientist but she would not do so without taking precautions. Lillian Luthor was a viper and Alex was not foolish enough to expect to handle her without the threat of being bitten.

She pulled Winn to the side and relayed her commands, casually, without the authoritative tenor in her voice because she wanted their "guests" to believe it was a simple conversation between the faux-siblings; Winn wishing her luck and she doing likewise. She squeezed his arm knowingly and walked away to speak to her sister, to hold her for what could very well be the last time.

"Be fast." She whispered to her sister, on the verge of tears." I mean, I know you're fast, but you need to be faster this time. Faster than me."

"I will." Kara promised, her voice sounding broken too. "Faster than a speeding bullet."

The sisters reluctantly pulled apart and Alex felt her heart splinter with every step Kara took towards the door, towards uncertainty, towards destruction if she couldn't accomplish her task before Alex. In that moment, the eldest Danvers knew she couldn't do it alone, knew there was only one person she could rely on when she was feeling this weak, this unsure. She raised the Walkie-talkie to her mouth and spoke the one name that could ground her.

"Sawyer. Get your ass back here, NOW."


Alex felt as if her whole world was crumbling before her very eyes, her entire existence, as the voice that came over the radio was decidedly not her sisters. It was Mon-El who informed her that they had been double-crossed, something she had expected all along. Planned for, in fact. But Kara staying behind? Mon-El abandoning her like the spineless coward she had suspected he was? That she could never have predicted.

"Agent Danvers, are you in position?"

She turned to Maggie, eyes panicked. Maggie shook her head wordlessly, mirroring her panic.

Kara, Kara, Kara...

Her sister's name was all she knew. Her face, her smile, the strong arms that were just wrapped around mere hours ago. The president's annoyed voice rang in her ears, urging her to shoot, destroy the ship, casualties be damned.

Kara be damned.

She couldn't. They needed more time, she told her leader as much. "Ma'am! Supergirl is still up there! I need more time!"

"There is none, agent! Do it now! That's an order!"

Alex trembled as her hand hovered above the button. Just a few weeks before she had insisted her sister leave her to die; let her die in the place of aiding a greater evil. But Alex found that she couldn't do what she had urged Kara to. When it was her sister's life on the line, Alex couldn't put anyone above Kara, wouldn't condemn her sister for the sake of strangers.

For the sake of orders.

It was almost a relief when the canon exploded, when the choice was no longer hers because she knew she would have picked Kara. Would have disobeyed a direct order, would have let the world burn to save her sister. And Maggie would have stood by her side, was standing by her side, holding her close as trembled with the realization of the horrors to come.

What have I done?