The Scars of Our Love Ch 9

"No one has ever stood up for me like that."

"Well, now you have someone that will stand up for you. Always."

"Well, Supergirl may have saved me, but, Kara Danvers, you are my hero."

Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor

Earth 38 (The present)

The lights have dimmed and the sound of gunfire echoes in the background. However, all of that is secondary as Alex focuses on getting Kara to safety. "Come on..come on.." she mumbles under her breath as she tries to open the vault, the biometric control panel seemingly not working even as she adjust her palm, slick with blood and sweat over the sensors.

"Alex.." Kara absolutely detests how weak she sounds, and she knows that physically, she's probably just on the cusp of regaining some of her strength, if she can just hold on a bit longer and give her cells more time to metabolize the artificial yellow radiation they have absorbed. "Where's Lena...and Winn? Is J'onn?..." She trails off when she hears Alex curse, the swear word not as jarring as the direct hit Alex aims at the control panel, the butt of her revolver breaking through to the circuitry underneath. Her fingers busy pulling on certain wires until she finally gets the outcome she desires and the vault door slowly swings open.

"They're next on my list..right after I get you some place where you have a bit more time to recover." She half carries, half drags Kara into the vault, the bright lights inside highlighting its intended original purpose. The rows of metal shelves holding every piece of alien tech collected by the DEO. "Lillian wants to get Lena and Cadmus wants to get their hands on all this tech." Alex knows what she's asking Kara to do and wishes that they could stay together but there was no time and she needed to get to Lena and maybe even find out if Maggie was ok.

"No..Alex...I.." Kara tries to stand on her own, gritting her teeth as she takes a step away from Alex, swaying on her feet but at least upright. Her strength still not returning fully as she feels the wound in her side bleeding sluggishly and not healed. She turns to look at Alex and can see how worried and frightened she is. Though the fear bleeding through her features is not for her own safety as Kara's hearing faintly picks up Alex's wildly beating heart.

"I need to find Lena and the rest and I need to know that you can defend yourself." Alex takes a Maldorian laser from the shelf and holds it out to Kara. "Please Kara...you have to trust me here. I can't...Maggie's out there too." Alex knows exactly what Kara is going through, their connection amplified by the fear they share for their loved ones out there. She straps a few electric grenades to her belt, her gun already out of its holster as she turns to face Kara.

"Cadmus won't get their hands on any of these weapons. Alex, promise me you'll be careful." Kara pulls her into a tight embrace. Innately, she gets that Alex would do everything in her power to ensure the safety of the ones she loved even to her own detriment. It was what had got her killed in their original timeline.

She wants to extract a promise from her sister even if she knows that ultimately, Alex would always make the right decision even if it meant that she got hurt or worse. It was what made her Alex and Kara just hopes that her powers would return soon so that she could do what she did best and save everyone she loved.

"I will...I'm going to shut the vault when I leave...here.." She thrusts a comms device into Kara's hands even as she puts in her own ear piece. "You'll know when I do..."

Kara stays silent as she listens to Alex's breathing as the door to the vault slams shut, leaving her as their last defence against Cadmus getting their hands on alien tech that could destroy worlds.

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Maggie had just been about to grab the snickers bar that had dropped to the bottom slot of the vending machine when the explosion jolts her off her feet. Her hand immediately going to the gun strapped to her back as she gets to her feet and runs towards the action. Stopping quickly to turn back and collect the candy bar because she wanted to give Alex something when she saw her.

The lights already switching to emergency mode as they flicker and the sound of gun fire becomes background noise, mingling with noise from the alarms going off and people shouting. Maggie knows that she'll have a difficult time telling friend from foe but it does not stop her as she rushes headlong into the fray, shooting at the men in masks even as she recognises one of the agents giving her cover fire when she runs across the room and dives into a small alcove.

"How many and which direction?" Lena's voice does not waver nor does she flinch even as she feels the heat from the various blasts and hears the bullets whizzing by her. She has her own gun in one hand while the other is anchored around Vasquez's belt, a compromise that neither of them liked but at least the agent handn't followed through on her threat to lock her up in one of the rooms downstairs.

"Three at twelve o'clock, one at two and the last two at nine o'clock. More on the way though.." Susan recognises the Detective that came in with Alex yesterday as she and Lena try and take out the Cadmus agents that seem to just pour into their top secret facility. Her other fellow DEO agents all doing their bit to push back at the intruders, shooting back or protecting their non combat exposed colleagues. Susan knows though that without clear direction, it was just going to be guerrilla tactics and whichever side ran out of munitions first.

She almost curses out loud when she sees Maggie Sawyer come barreling towards them, diving to the ground as one of the Cadmus agents throws a flash bang device in their direction. The sound and light blast, almost incapacitating her though she does not drop her gun even if the Detective does, diving at the last moment as she skids to a stop, her body colliding with the wall. But its Lena who surprises her the most as she continues to take aim, following the instructions given earlier and taking a few more of the Cadmus agents out.

"We won't be able to hold out much longer..not without a plan of some kind..." Lena's voice surprisingly calm even as she continues to fire, now just cocking her head as she listens for clues as to where the Cadmus agents were firing from.

"Have you seen Alex?" Maggie recognises Lena and takes in the fact that they are probably on the same side given that the brunette was still providing cover fire.

"You're Detective Sawyer?" Susan sees Maggie nod though the words were meant for Lena, "We were on our way to find her and Supergirl but ran into these idiots instead. Lena, four o'clock." Susan takes out the spare gun she had commandeered and holds it out to Maggie before turning back to support Lena. All three of them returning fire, joined by the other scattered DEO agents. The tide slowly turning in their favour with Maggie taking out the last Cadmus agent.

Explosions and shouts still sounding throughout the facility and she's no where closer to Kara but Lena does not give up. "Agent Vasquez, I'm going to need your help. I need to find Kara and Alex." Lena holds her hand out, unsure of her bearings and not caring that she's showing her one weakness.

"Here." Maggie reaching out instead, slowly putting together all the information in her mind. "You've been working with Alex...infiltrating Cadmus, haven't you?"

"Yes." She feels Maggie gripping her hand. "We need to get to Alex, I can stop my Mother but I'm going to need her help and she's probably protecting Kara." Her voice wavering as she says her name, hoping that Alex had managed to remove the chip from Kara and that she was awake and healing and Alex was keeping her safe.

"So what do you need me to do?" She wanted to find Alex as well, needing to see that she was whole and alive. Not wanting to think of the worse because Alex Danvers deserved more and Maggie knows that if given the opportunity, she was going to show Alex just how special and beautiful she was.

"I'm blind. But I can still predict my Mother. She'll be here soon, wanting to witness first hand the destruction she's caused. " Lena knows that Lillian was aiming for her death but that was secondary right now and there really was nothing the Detective or Agent could do. She needed them focused on saving Alex and Kara and not on her. "And she knows that there are weapons here she can use to further her fight. Weapons Lex had only dreamed of. Agent Vasquez was leading me to the vault before we got caught in this ambush."

"You think Alex is there with Kara?"

"If she is, we need to get there before my Mother does."

#$#$#$#$#$#$#$

They've been pinned down in one of the server rooms for the past ten minutes, J'onn's hurt though he's been leading the charge as he again fires at the Cadmus agents swarming in the hallway outside. Winn's still on his laptop, trying to bypass all his security protocols to override current emergency systems and break the connection Cadmus had initiated. "Are you in?"

"Just another minute..Come on..come on...Yes..Yes..uh oh..no..no..No" Winn runs his hand through his hair in frustration as he takes in the Cadmus feeds he's been able to tap into. At least he finally severs the link that they created into the DEO mainframe.

J'onn takes a second to glance back at his tech expert, "Do I want to know?" His deadpan voice belying the worry that's building up. The attack catching all of them by surprise and even if he has faith in his DEO agents, Cadmus had one goal and absolutely no qualms about killing them all.

"They have..or had eyes and ears on us since the attack started. I've shut it down but..." He knows that J'onn been protecting him, ensuring that he got the time needed to hack back into the system and that he was safe.

"They know where and how many we are..but we can still surprise them." Finally shifting into his Martian form, his speed taking the enemy agents by surprise as he takes them out, his scattered team of agents providing backup though its not needed as he unleashes his pent up fury and clears the way to the vault.

"J'onn" Alex rushes to him, not caring about protocol or rank as she embraces him, noting the bullet wound to his shoulder even as he touches the bruise forming at the side of her temple. "Have you seen Lena or Maggie?" She can hear Kara in her ear, relieved to know that J'onn's fine.

He shakes his head and can see that she's conflicted. "I left Kara in the vault. I..." She's torn between duty and love and everything in between. Wanting to find Maggie and Lena but also needing to ensure her sister was safe.

She takes a deep breath, knowing that she'll always do the right thing and spending the past two months with Lena, getting to know her, to see what kind of person she was, how strong and selfless and how much she loved Kara. Her decision made easy. "Lillian's going to kill Lena if she finds her. I can't let that happen."

"Lena, Maggie and Agent Vasquez are on the sixth floor. There's about thirty Cadmus agents between us and them but I do know of a short cut.." He's never wanted to be a hero, always more comfortable in the background, providing tech support and quips. Only he can tell that its time for him to step up. "Alex, I can do this."

He's spent the past decade looking out for his two surrogate daughters and can see that Alex needs some direction here even if he knows she's already made up her mind. "I'll be at the vault with Kara and Alex..." He pulls her into another hug, "Be careful."

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"Status report?" Lillian wants confirmation before she sends in Metallo and Cyborg Superman.

"We have confirmation that Lena Luthor and Supergirl are in the building. It seems that Supergirl is guarding the vault storing the weapons. What are your orders?"

She knows she can just enjoy all the destruction from outside but there's this need to be there when they take down Supergirl and the Green Martian. Not to mention the score that she wants to settle with her daughter. "Send in Hank and Metallo, tell them to get to the weapons and take out Supergirl. I'll take care of Lena myself."

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"There are four of them armed with automatic weapons and probably trained in all sorts of combat skills..." Winn peers around the corner, the door to where Maggie and the rest were, so close though almost impossible to get through considering Alex had one grenade left and her laser gun needed recharging.

"I've had worse odds." She doesn't mention that she was also better armed then and less hurt but she's determined to get through the door, already readying herself to charge only to be stopped by Winn.

"What if...what if I can give you winning odds?" He's already taking out his laptop, keying in stroke after stroke of code, "They were using our network to communicate, still are...it gave them full access to all the secure areas until I shut it down. But if I can reconnect their link, it would allow me to do this." Winn finishes with a flourish as he enters the last piece of code, sending a high pitched sound through all of Cadmus's agents comms.

Alex sees the Guards all drop to the ground as she and Winn both rush forward, knocking each enemy agent out before rushing into the room.

"Don't shoot..please." Winn raises his hands even as he tries to step in front of Alex only to breathe a sigh of relief when he sees Maggie and Susan lower their guns, leaving Lena still holding hers out until Alex rushes forward, slowly taking it from her hands as she puts her arm around the shaken Ex CEO.

"Is it over? Is Kara.."

"She's awake and J'onn's with her. Here.." she puts the comm link in Lena's hands.

"Kara?"

The connection not clear but she can recognize the warm tone of Kara's voice, finally hearing the intonation of her name as it falls from Kara's lips, at once so familiar and intimate somehow. "Lena"

"Is that really you?"

"I remember everything."

Theirs words overlap and Lena legs almost buckle except Alex is next to her, strong arms holding her up, giving her strength even if she doesn't really need it because of what Kara says next.

"You did it...I knew you could. You really did it Lena. I.." Kara's message lost as the line goes dead.

"Kara?..Kara..can you hear me...Alex?" There were a myriad of reasons why the line could have died though Alex doesn't believe in glitches though she does believe in J'onn and her sister.

"Winn can you get visuals?"

"I'm on it."

"Vasquez, lock and load, we're going to the vault."

"Yes, ma'am"

She turns to see Maggie arming herself, grabbing the automatic weapon from the fallen Cadmus agent next to her. "Maggie..no.." Alex shakes her head.

"Ride or Die, Danvers." She doesn't give Alex a chance to respond as she uses both hands to pull on her black DEO shirt, their lips crashing together. Alex responding immediately, as she pulls Maggie closer, needing to convey so much in that one kiss. Not because she thinks that this is her only shot but more on showing Maggie that she was all in as well.

"Oh...Fushioot..."Winn's feeble attempt at cursing not going unnoticed as he turns his monitor towards Alex.

"What is it..Alex.."Lena's tone demanding an answer, "Is it Kara?"

"Metallo and Hank are trying to enter the vault..."

"We need to..I need to get to the vault.."Lena does not hesitate as she walks away, already half way across the room, hoping that one of them would lead her to where she needs to be.

"Vasquez, get every available agent down there right now...Kara, do you copy?"

"You don't let Lena anywhere near here..Alex..Promise me." Her Super hearing coming back and allowing her to pick up everything that has been going on with Alex, including the kiss her Sister had shared with Maggie. Giving her ideas about the one she wants to plant. On Lena when all of this was over. "You keep her safe."

"Copy that. You do what you have to do and I'll see you later." Alex has always had so much faith in Kara even if her instincts have always been to protect her little sister. She's finally realising that believing in Kara also meant letting her fight the battle she wanted to fight and ensuring she had something to look forward to and something to fight for.

The focus of the group so intent on what needed to be done that all of them don't notice Lilian until she grabs Lena, the energy gun pressed to her temple and a triumphant smile on her face.

End Pt 9