Chapter Eleven: Important Meetings
The first hints of being awake became evident when Caitlin Snow woke up. She shivered and pulled an extra blanket up from over the top of her. Caitlin alternated between completely hot and very chilled. She rubbed her arms against the bottom of the blanket and took in a deep breath.
'No matter what, I'm not going to get comfortable, am I?'
Those words came out of Caitlin in a very frustrated tone of voice. She prepared to kick the covers off of her from the bed. Caitlin pulled the covers back constantly.
"I'm sure you'll find something that works for you eventually."
Caitlin pulled herself out of the bed. She dressed in a way too long nightshirt which stretched down past her knees. The crystal pendant around her throat clung to the side of her neck. Caitlin brushed her fingers out of her face.
"It just gets harder every time," Caitlin said. "Every time I get my powers back. It's very tempting to unleash everything. It feels….well it feels kind of good not having to care again. You know what I mean?"
Alia, unfortunately, did know what Caitlin meant. She felt the darkness creeping in at the worst possible times. Those nightmares she had during a good portion of her teenage years, Alia would remember them. She broke a lot of rules to do what she had to do as well. She could have held back and not cared about it.
"I understand," Alia said. "And I think the problem is every time you try and hold back what you are, that other side of you comes out in an awful way. Maybe I'm wrong."
"No," Caitlin said. "You're not wrong."
Alia figured about as much. She touched the top of Caitlin's hand. The simple fact Caitlin did not need any warmth did not take away from the fact Alia's fingers felt so good and so soft wrapped around her hand. Caitlin just sighed as she felt the sense of her.
"You're not wrong. I've just….well I've seen what I could become. What she could become."
This statement demanded an explanation. Caitlin no longer felt cold when Alia moved closer towards her. She had about that much going for her at least.
"I've run into an alternate version of myself," Caitlin said. "And she was a nasty piece of work."
Alia nodded in response. Somewhere out there in the multiverse, there could be another version of her. This version might have embraced the darkness a little bit too much.
"Is it because her life experiences made her that way?" Alia said. "Or maybe she did not react to everything in the most responsible way?"
Caitlin could hardly disagree with Alia's assessment on that one. Her alternate self was more broken than Caitlin was. She pretty much threw herself in helping Iris and later Jesse because it was the only thing that kept her sane. She walked a tightrope. One wrong step would cause anyone to plummet to her demise.
'I guess I'm no exception.'
The two girls shared body heat together even though it was not needed. Alia propped Caitlin's head up against her shoulder.
"You keep locking it up, it's just going to get worse when it breaks free. You can't look me in the eye and tell me it isn't getting harder on you?"
This very true statement pierced Caitlin's icy shell. All of the times, even though there had really only been two or three where she delved into complete Killer Frost mode had been pretty hard on her. Something always pulled Caitlin back from the edge.
"It's true," Caitlin said. "I guess I've just been hiding from myself for so long that I almost forgot that….well does it really matter?"
"It matters if you want it to matter," Alia responded to her. "And I know of a woman who has a power far greater than yours are. She tried to suppress the power and it caused her a great deal of misery until she finally came terms with herself and the power she wielded. And how to use that power for good. And you've never come to terms with how you could use your power."
Caitlin shifted Alia to adjust her positioning. The cold blowing her spine was obvious. Alia put her hand on Caitlin's back and instantly, she warmed up a little bit.
"I was given the name Killer Frost for a good reason."
"Maybe," Alia agreed. "But, powers don't really make people evil. If there's a good person deep inside, then it will show through. And there were moments where it did with her."
Alia wrapped herself tightly around Caitlin. She came to the conclusion that there was something about Alia's body heat that was regenerating her just a little bit. At least, she was being regenerated in her scientific opinion. Caitlin wrapped her arms tightly.
"Figured you could use this."
Jesse came into the room and carried some piping hot chocolate. Caitlin shifted away from Alia to take the hot chocolate away from Jesse. She almost had been warmed up by Alia snuggling against her. The magic of hot chocolate did the rest of the trick.
Kara sat down next to Alia and greeted her wife with a kiss. The two pulled away from each other so Kara could talk to Caitlin.
"Are you feeling better?"
Caitlin smiled in response. "Much better, thank you."
She folded her legs together and took a long drink of the hot chocolate. She just enjoyed being close to friends. It was something which made Caitlin feel happy after losing so much in her life.
"So, how's Eliza?"
"Very disturbed," Jesse said. "We've used the holding cell to trap her. And we've done a mental scan of her mind."
She held the results of the brain scan out of Caitlin. Caitlin took the scanned results in her hand and looked at them with a frown edging on the side of her lips.
"There's something about these readings which seem really wrong," Caitlin said.
"Yeah, I thought so too," Jesse answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "I thought at first it was because of her brain being ripped apart thanks to the drug. Could that be the answer?"
Caitlin shrugged. She would have to run some more tests before coming to a more definite conclusion. She had insufficient data to come to a scientific conclusion about what Eliza's one. Her personal opinion pointed to the fact something really was wrong.
"How did she return from speed oblivion?" Alia asked. "That's something I wanted to go."
A shrug came from Jesse accompanied by a frustrated shake of her head.
"Eliza wasn't exactly too accommodating with any details when I pulled her out of wherever. So…we're back to square one, I guess."
"Yeah, I guess," Kara agreed.
She had a lot of misgivings about everything that had been going on. The fact someone, anyone could manipulate the speed force raised a lot of unsettling questions. Eliza did exist. It seemed as if someone pulled her back together. Exactly who did so was the question.
The trip to Central City ended. Kara and Alia did not make up their mind about where they were going next. Sooner, rather than later, they would have to come to some kind of conclusion. Kara and Alia moved to the front door which had been left open.
"Lucy must be at home," Kara said. "She's normally good about locking the door if neither of us are home."
Kara and Alia stepped into the room just in time to see Lucy talking on the phone. She seemed to be a bit confused about something. And frustrated, if Alia read the look on her face properly. Lucy turned and looked across the room.
"In fact, she's right here. If you want to talk to her, I'll just let you talk to her."
Lucy turned and pushed the phone into Alia's hand.
"It's for you. Good luck."
Kara raised her eyebrow in confusion. It had been a while since she saw Lucy this annoyed. Sometimes she got annoyed with Lois and often times it was rightfully so. She seemed to be more put off than ever before.
"Yes," Alia said. "This is me."
"Listen closely," the voice on the other end of the telephone said. "You've been boned. You will go to 8th Avenue for further instructions. Someone will meet you there, and you will get further instructions of what we expect from you. Tell no one of where you're going."
Alia dropped the phone down on the table. Unless she missed her guess, this was the call Amy told her was coming. She stood, and vanished with a pop.
Lucy rapid-fired one wide-eyed stare to the space on the floor which Alia just vanished. Her mouth hung open in astonished shock. Words failed her for the first time in a very long time.
Kara snapped her fingers a couple of times. She had been surprised by Alia's sudden disappearance and wanted some answers to this particular question. She kept snapping her fingers and Lucy finally came out of the trance she had been dragged into.
"I really need to lay off of the brownies," Lucy said. "Did she really just vanish before my very eyes?"
Only a small amount of relief visited Lucy when Kara confirmed. Either they were both sane and saw what they saw, or they were both insane and saw the same hallucination. At least Lucy could have some small amount of solace to know she was not alone in what they were doing.
Alia dropped down on eighth avenue. It was completely deserted to be perfectly honest.
'They told me to come here and there is no one here,' Alia thought. 'Yeah, that's pretty confusing. I don't know what they could be up to.'
'Maybe it's a trap,' Kara nervously suggested.
Alia thought about the same lines. She felt something was completely off about this particular area. Alia moved, bent down at her knees, and took a deep breath. She tried to grab onto the magic in the area and feel it come into her very being. Her heart raced a half of a step more when the energy flashed around here.
'There,' Alia thought.
She noticed a flicker of light flash high in the sky. The orb resembled a door knob in many ways. Not too many people would pick up the fact that mysterious flash of light resembled a doorknob. It was very sophisticated in its genius. Alia walked over and touched the door knob.
About how she expected, the flash of light sucked Alia through the orb of light and caused her to disappear from physical view.
The flash of light brought Alia down into the lobby. She hit the ground falling. It took a moment for her to get her wind and another minute to get her bearings. It was still not as bad as traveling by Portkey. It was not very pleasant, to be honest. Alia pushed her head back and took a look around. It looked like your average office building or maybe a government facility.
'Things are rarely what they seem.'
Several armed men stepped forward. Alia waited for them to move around. One of them held out a scanner in his hand. The palm print of the scanner activated. He held out the scanner and motioned for Alia to put her hand down. Alia put her hand on the scanner. Several minutes passed as the scanner combed over Alia's body. Her eyes flickered over.
"Your identity has been confirmed," the gentleman said. "You have also been judged to be physically able to work at the Department of Extra-Ordinary Affairs."
Alia thanked herself for small favors. Everything in her life got better ever since the growth in her head was gone. She grew stronger, faster, and more durable. She was ready to take on the world in any way possible.
Six men walked on either side of Alia leading to a total of twelve men in total. They escorted her down the hallway where a pretty brunette agent waited for her. She smiled.
"You're Hailey Evans-Potter, right?" she asked.
"Of course," she said. "But call me Alia…everyone does. Well not my enemies, they call me a lot of names I don't think it would be appropriate to repeat in a government building."
"You obviously have never been in the main office yet," the pretty agent said. "And my name is agent Alexandra Danvers, but call me Alex, and it's a pleasure to meet you."
The two walked down to the hallway. Alia gladly allowed Alex lead the way because the view from behind her was very nice and very pleasant when the two of them walked.
"I was surprised when the Director explained your unique circumstances," Alex said. "According to your file, you attended a boarding school for the gifted…for people who were able to do magic."
"Yes," Alia said. "And it was pretty eventful."
Alex picked up on the fact that her past kind of was a touchy topic. She understood. There were parts of her life Alex did not like to discuss especially with people she just met. Regardless, the two of them made their way down the hallway and through the DEO.
A loud growl echoed from one of the rooms. Alex raised an eyebrow and sighed.
"As you might have guessed, we deal with prisoners who the normal government facilities are not equipped to hold. Most of them are aliens, who escaped through a tear between Earth's dimension and a prison dimension known as the Phantom Zone a while back."
Alia nodded in response. She watched double-ugly for a second try and break out. Three eyes, with his skin made of leather, and veins throbbing out everywhere. He dressed in the ugliest pair of gray pants imaginable when trying to bust his way through the cell.
"Don't worry, we are very secure," Alex said. "Not foolproof though because anyone who thinks security is foolproof…."
"Will often be proven an utter fool," Alia concluded.
Many people had their pride completely ripped apart by establishing these so called foolproof security systems. No on could great out of Azkaban. Someone did. No one could break into the Ministry of Magic. People did. No one could enter Hogwarts. Many people did underneath the nose of the Headmaster and his staff.
Good security did not mean you had to relax constant vigilance.
"Alia, is that you?"
Alia's eyes fell onto both a very enticing sight and a very familiar face at the end of the hallway.
"Fleur, it's good to see you...I thought you were back in France!"
It took a minute for Alia to put her eyes back in her eye sockets and her tongue back into her mouth. The reason why was Fleur dressed in the standard skintight DEO suit which clung to her curves. She knew for a fact Fleur never wore any underwear underneath her clothing unless it was for purposes to entice or seduce someone.
'Then again, you do that by your hot ass just sitting there, and swaying, don't you, Flower?'
Fleur embraced Alia and pressed their breasts together. Alex watched the scene before them and also Fleur move in to kiss Alia firmly on the lips. Alex's body started to warm up for reasons that had nothing to do with the fact the air conditioner was not on the brink.
"Well, to be honest, I was for a minute," Fleur said. "I had been recruited and sent here. I thought that I could do some good here as part of the DEO, and so far, it's had its perks…."
"Agent Delacour is my partner," Alex said.
"And we've grown to know each other pretty well," Fleur said with a smile. "Although not well enough."
Fleur was always on because it was too much of a bother to turn it off. Alia smiled at the woman who had taught her more than few things. Alia had been adept and a quick learner in little time flat.
"So, are the rumors true?" Fleur asked. "Are you married?"
"You've been bursting to ask that question, haven't you?" Alia asked.
Fleur just broke out in one of the most playful smiles possible. Alia could not get too mad at Fleur when she had this look on her face. She wore the cutest smile when excitement overtook her in a blink of an eye.
"Yes, I was married."
She hugged Alia in response. Once again, Fleur gave her an all too excited kiss. Alex tried to modestly look away from his private moment. She gave up her futile attempts to do so. Alex just stood against the wall, watched them, and sighed.
'That damn woman is going to be the death of me. Both of them in fact.'
"All of the wizards who had a chance with you thought they would be heartbroken," Fleur said.
Alia snorted in response to Fleur's question. "Please, they were pretty deluded if they ever thought they had any sort of shot with me anyway."
"You did make it clear you weren't into men," Fleur said. "And barring an alternate male counterpart dropping out of the sky, I doubt that was not going to change."
"Highly unlikely."
Fleur just smiled at the inside joke between herself and Alia. Alex shook her head and smiled.
"I'm sure the two of you can get caught up," Alex said. "I'm due to taking Alia to the director."
"Oh, of course," Fleur said. "It was pleasant seeing you again. And Gabrielle also sends her love, and she will be heartbroken that another became your first wife."
"Are you sure you're not projecting?" Alia teased her.
Fleur just smiled and walked off the hallway.
'A booty that fine should be a crime,' Alia thought. 'Not that I have any room to talk. Or do I mind watching her leaving.'
"So, the two of you know each other," Alex said. "If you don't mind me for asking, how did the two of you meet?"
"I saved her sister from the bottom of the lake," Alia said. "She tutored me in how to please other women in thanks. Not before fucking my brains out, however."
For a brief moment, Alex had been thrown completely off guard by the bluntness of how Alia described her encounter with Fleur. She recovered quickly to get back to business.
"Right, right…right, this way.
Alia shook her head. She thought she might have a lot of enjoyment working with the DEO.
Kara moved as fast as possible and dropped down to the ground. It was eighth avenue and the spot Alia had been taken. There had been no Alia there.
Could it have been a trap? Kara did not want to jump to the worst possible conclusions and say it was a trap. Several of the things about it signaled a trap. Alia could handle herself in anything. It did not keep her from getting too concerned.
Kara looked for a tell-tale sign of how Alia disappeared. She noticed a glowing yellow light hovering out of the distance. Kara should have put it together sooner. Something blocked her from doing so.
'Of course.'
Touching the golden door knob caused Kara to feel like she was turned inside out and put back together very crooked. She dropped herself feet down on the ground and it rattled her.
"I've been expecting you."
Kara turned around to turn to Alex Danvers standing there. The DEO agent and one of Kara's friends just smiled at her.
"Hey, Alex," Kara said. "How are you doing?"
"I suppose I should really be asking you that question," Alex said. "All things considered, after what happened. How are you holding up?"
A long moment's pause came through the air. Kara put her attention on two government agents wielding a tube with an alien in it back into the hallway. Kara turned back around to address Alex.
"I'm fine. Really, I'm fine. Everything is fine."
"You don't sound fine," Alex said.
"I'm…you have other things to worry about."
Alex reached in and put a gentle hand on Kara's shoulder. "I'm just concerned, that's all. You did trust me enough and my family enough to bring your past self to us when she got displaced. Or maybe you got displaced….it's really hard to tell."
"I don't really like thinking about it," Kara said. "How is Kara doing by the way?"
"She's doing fine," Alia said.
Kara kicked her memories back a year to when she had to go back in time to stop Brainiac. Brainiac kidnapped Kara while on Krypton and took her into the future, or rather present-Kara's past. Time travel could make the best of them get a headache. Kara foiled Brainiac's plans, but she was incapable of returning her past self to Krypton without further damaging the time stream.
So she took them to a colleague of her cousin, Eliza Danvers, whose daughter, Alex, was a friend of Kara's who worked in the past. Kara dropped younger Kara off and five years passed from younger Kara's perspective even though for older Kara, only a year passed.
'I hate time travel.'
"Where's my wife?" Kara asked.
"Oh, I forgot to congratulate the two of you from getting married," Alex said.
Alex seemed almost sad about the fact Kara was married, something the Kryptonian heroine picked up on in an instant. She put a hand on Alex's shoulder and grinned.
"We can continue our working relationship if you would like," Kara said. "Alia won't mind and in fact, I'm pretty sure she would invite you into bed."
"Well, Agent Delacour might be talking her into dragging me into the interrogation room and trying to take me right here," Alex said. "I swear, that girl has an insane sex drive."
"Alia does indeed," Kara said.
"I was talking about Agent Delacour," Alex said. "Not that I've known from experience…she's seduced a few of my other co-workers, all females, although she's not above using her charms on men to get information. She can blow their minds with a few simple touches, more than most women can do with other…things."
"It's a gift."
Alex turned around just in time to see Alia and Fleur standing a few feet behind her.
"How long have you been listening to our conversation?" Alex asked.
Alia broke out into a grin at her new colleague. "Maybe not too long, but long enough…hey, Kara."
Kara pushed her way past Fleur and Alex and threw her arms around Alia. They exchanged their usual greeting with each other. Kara nuzzled her nose against Alia's.
"I was worried for a second," Kara said. "And you're just like Lois, where I worry about her too. Even if she's more than capable."
"Lois Lane would be a fine fit for the DEO," Alex said. "If she wasn't so reckless."
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink," Kara said. Kara turned to the other woman in the area and had momentary been struck dumb by the suit which wrapped her up like a piece of meat. She realized who she thought. "Oh, and you must be Fleur."
"And you must be Kara," Fleur said. "It is a pleasure to find the girl who Alia thought enough to marry. Many lined around the block for you. So, I hope you appreciate how lucky you are."
A grin filled Kara's face so wide that it might have been plastered on. "Oh, honey, believe me, I know how lucky I am every day."
"Good," Fleur said in agreement. "Take care of her, or I'll sic my sister on you. And she throws a mean fireball."
All four of them laughed. Fleur wrapped her arms around Kara and gave her one slight kiss before pulling away from her.
"You've chosen well with this one, I think," Fleur said. "Then, your taste in women has been always most excellent."
"Thanks," Kara and Alia both said in unison.
The woman winked at both of them. "Maybe the four us should get together some night. We'd make an amazing foursome."
Alex reached over to grab a bottle of water and downed a drink at this point. She immediately choked on the water at Fleur's not so subtle implication.
"Unfortunately, duty calls," Fleur said. "See the two of you later."
Kara would be lying if she was not excited about getting to know the woman who tutored Alia a bit better.
To Be Continued on August 29th, 2017.
