Maggie slowly pulled herself out from underneath the body of the large man she was currently trapped under, and turned his face towards her. When she saw his eyes, large and bulgy, she knew he was dead.

That made ten.

Even back when it was the four of them as Phoenixes, she hadn't killed that many people in one night. But she couldn't focus on that guilt now. She had to keep moving. There were only two remaining. Two standing in the way of her and a direct confrontation with Lillian.

She hadn't seen Alex anywhere since their argument, so she hoped that she'd at least taken her advice. Now that Lillian was in the atrium, mingling after her grand entrance, Maggie knew that she had a direct eye on every move she made.

Her phone buzzed for the fifth time that evening.

Upstairs. Top floor, penthouse office.

Maggie frowned, as it didn't specify a hiding spot for the file. But she figured it would sort itself out, so she headed towards the elevators away from the atrium, and got inside, riding it all the way up.

Back in the atrium, Lillian was talking to a few acquaintances when she spotted a certain figure in the crowd. She excused herself from the conversation quickly, as she took a few steps into their direction, before stopping with a smile.

The brunette agent hadn't noticed her staring. That meant that her little Phoenix had all the time in the world.

Exactly as planned.

Maggie stepped out of the elevator, drawing her gun. Something felt off about Lillian sending her all the way up when the previous files had all been in the general vicinity of the party.

She heard muffled voices coming from a door at the end of the hallway, and she slowly shuffled towards them, her back never leaving the wall.

When she was close enough, she could hear the conversation the voices were having.

"… could be anywhere. I don't even know where to look."

"She probably has it on her, Kara. She's downstairs."

Kara…?

Maggie turned the corner and ran into the room, her gun raised. The two women in front of her looked up at the noise, and Kara jumped sideways to shield Lena immediately.

"Kara? Lena? What…" Maggie frowned, lowering her gun. "What are you two doing here?!"

"We're…" Kara shook her head, interrupting herself. "Why are you here?"

"None of your business." Maggie shot back. Lena sighed at the exchange, and looked at the detective. "Maggie, we're trying to find a way to deactivate the implant. She has a control somewhere, but we can't find it."

"You three are idiots." Maggie grunted. "If you'd just stayed out of it…"

"I agree."

Maggie's head shot up, and she spun around at the sound behind her. Lillian was standing in the doorway, in the elegant suit she'd been wearing downstairs. "Nice of you two to join us tonight. Though, miss Danvers, I don't remember sending you an invitation."

"Good thing I could bring a +1, then." Lena spat back at her mother. Lillian's smile didn't falter. "I know what you're thinking. You're trying to find a way to deactivate her. The off switch to the chip I installed in her."

Neither of the two women responded, but everybody in the room knew Lillian was right. And the woman seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. "Too bad you'll never find it. Because at the end of the day, she'll always come back to me. And the phoenix will rise from the ashes as it has before."

"God, I'm so tired of those stupid analogies." Lena grunted. Kara opened her mouth to protest against her girlfriend's ridiculous rebellion, but as Maggie stepped back, she realized that Lena was trying to distract Lillian. To prevent her from doing anything to Maggie.

"Oh, Lena, my dear. You were always the smart one." Lillian turned to Maggie. "Your final two names, Maggie."

Maggie frowned, expecting Lillian to elaborate. But when the woman stayed silent after it, she turned around. Until she realized what Lillian meant.

Lena and Kara.

Eleven and twelve.

"No." Maggie shook her head and stepped back, reaching into her pocket. She locked eyes with Kara one more time before making a desperate last attempt, grabbing a poison syringe from her pocket and running over to Lillian.

When the blonde raised two fingers to her forehead, Maggie froze, slowly lowering the syringe.

Lillian smiled. "That's it, my phoenix. Come back to me."

Maggie dropped the syringe from her hand, but stayed frozen. Kara and Lena watched the exchange with wide eyes.

"Now…" Lillian looked at her, her hand still touching her forehead. "Your targets. Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor. Dispose of them. Now."

Maggie turned around to face Kara and Lena, and the blonde superhero's stomach dropped when she saw the same vacant look in her eyes that she'd seen at the CADMUS facility.

Kara used her super speed to fly past Maggie, knocking her over in the process, and shove Lillian away. The woman's fingertips disconnected from her forehead, and Kara looked around, but Maggie was on the ground stumbling to get up, and she couldn't tell if it had worked or not.

"Kara!" She heard Lena yell behind her. Clearly, Lena had seen the look in Maggie's eyes, and it didn't seem good.

Kara turned to Lillian. "How?!"

The woman laughed, and pushed Kara away with a force Kara hadn't seen humanly possible. "You really think I wouldn't have some more tricks up my sleeve, Kara Danvers? You're never going to be able to stop it."

She shoved Lillian back into the wall, using her freeze-breath to freeze her in place, before she turned around and ran towards Lena, tackling Maggie to the ground.

"Supergirl…" Maggie grunted with a smirk. "Good thing I brought candy."

Kara frowned at the statement, before Maggie pulled kryptonite rocks out of her pocket and threw them towards her. The blonde shrieked and jumped away from the burning pain.

Lena crawled over towards her girlfriend, and Maggie got up again. "How simple."

She reached into her purse to grab her gun, and raised it. "Who goes first?"

Kara closed her eyes and tried to think. Something, anything that could help them. Save them.

Her prayers were answered in the form of Maggie's body crumpling forward onto her knees, and toppling to the ground, unconscious.

Revealing a panting Alex Danvers behind her, holding a heavy looking silver tray in one hand, and her gun in the other.

"Alex…" Kara sighed in relief, as Lena moved forward to throw the kryptonite as far away from them as possible.

The agent looked around, seeing Lillian looking bored, frozen to the ground up to her waist. She dropped the tray and stalked towards the woman, grabbing her by the suit and shoving her back, pointing the gun at her throat. "I'm going to give you five seconds to talk. And if nothing comes out that I like, I'm going to enjoy killing you slowly and painfully."

"As opposed to… What?" Lillian shot back. "Ten bullets into my skull?"

"At least." Alex hissed threateningly. "It's not a threat, Luthor. It's a fucking promise. Now, how do we deactivate the implant?!"

Lillian laughed. "Well, surely you realize that I'm never going to tell you a thing, agent Danvers. And since I'm the only person that knows about project Phoenix, I don't think you'll get very far without my help."

Alex knew that she was right. But there had to be another way. She turned around, to see Maggie lying on the ground, unmoving. Kara was standing upright, her hand linked with Lena's, who looked as scared as Alex felt.

Their eyes met for a brief second, yet that was all Alex needed to realize that Lillian had once again outsmarted them.

"Checkmate, agent Danvers. I always win." Lillian smiled proudly. "Now, you can kill me. But that'll mean breaking the connection with Maggie immediately, and effectively killing her. Your choice."

"You're the host." Lena said, behind her. For a second, Alex wondered whatever the hell the party downstairs had to do with anything.

Until she got it.

Lena took another step into her mother's direction. "You're the host, the hive that the bees return to. Your implants, your phoenixes."

Lillian raised an eyebrow, looking unimpressed. "I think we've already established that-…"

Lena interrupted her mother, turning to Alex. "The implants. They're not chips, they're nanobots. That's why they're called phoenixes, the nanobots can come out of the body at will to move on to another, and start over again."

Alex's head was spinning, as she was thinking about how it all fit together, and why that actually meant something significant.

"Like I said." Lillian smiled. "The smart one. But it won't help you. Isn't that right?"

Alex turned around, but before she could react she felt herself getting body-checked onto the ground. She grunted in pain, as she realized that it was Maggie, conscious again, and looking absolutely pissed.

Kara raced forward to help her, but due to the still near kryptonite, she was weakened, and it was hard to overpower Maggie's rage, even with the two skilled fighters. The detective was throwing punches and kicks all around, and both sisters took hits. Alex wasn't holding back anymore. She knew that her girlfriend was still in there, but she couldn't reach her. She'd tried before, and that had resulted in Kara almost getting killed.

Lena scrambled to reach her mother, and looked her in the eyes. "Where are the other three nanobots?!"

"Two of them were destroyed through the poison Hunter and Dylan took. It's a shame. Such expensive projects wasted on two low-life idiots."

"What about the third?!"

Lillian laughed as she watched Alex and Kara fight a losing battle against Maggie. Her Maggie. "She was malfunctioning. Taylor's wasn't. I needed to switch them so that detective Sawyer wouldn't resist my commands again."

Kara heard what Lillian said, and froze momentarily, remembering what Maggie had told her.

"Something happened out in the field when I was supposed to bring an alien in for experiments, and all of a sudden I didn't want to do it anymore."

Her nanobot had been malfunctioning, so that she no longer was under CADMUS control.

And that's when Kara remembered everything.

Suddenly, she knew how to solve the problem.

So with one last glance at Alex, she turned to Maggie. Grabbing her by the arms, looking her in the eyes.

And blasting her heat vision into Maggie's head, until the detective fell backwards.

"NO! MAGGIE!" Alex screamed at the sight.

Lena's eyes widened, as she pulled Kara back, seeing Alex stumble closer to the scene, and dropping to her knees next to her girlfriend.

Maggie didn't move.