AN: A final chapter count of 36, so it should be completely posted in a week or so. Thanks to everyone for reviewing, following, and favoriting. You guys rock.
Warnings and Disclaimers in Chapter 1. Enjoy.
"You need to plant your feet," Alex growled as Winn lunged at her again. She easily blocked the wild punch before lightly jabbing him in the shoulder. At least she intended for it to be a light tap, but it was enough to send him to the mat.
"You never plant your feet," Winn complained, slowly getting to his feet and resuming his fighting stance. "You're always twirling and kicking and jumping."
"And we're much more experienced," a third voice interrupted. Winn dropped his fighting stance and turned.
"James," he greeted, moving to fist bump his friend. "What brings you by?"
"Dontay wanted me to come and give a little pep talk to the group," James explained. "It seems their trainer collapsed a while ago and they're a little down." Alex snorted.
"They hate me," she said, reaching for a water bottle and handing another to Winn. "I doubt they shed any tears over me."
"You're wrong Alex," James said, coming more firmly into the room. "They might have hated you at the time when you were kicking their collective asses, but you won their respect. They're just not sure how they can show it."
"And Dontay thought Guardian could help?" Alex asked, gesturing to James's outfit. He shrugged.
"He asked Guardian to step in when you collapsed. You know, help with the physical side of training, and I just sort of hit it off with the group. They needed someone larger than life to fill your shoes, and Guardian did it." Alex nodded and smiled in gratitude.
"So the recruits get off okay?" she asked as she resumed her fighting stance. Winn groaned but followed suit. James nodded.
"A quick pep talk and they loaded up as excited as a Boy Scout troupe," James told her. He checked his watch. "They should be nearing the jump coordinates now."
"Jump?" Winn asked, momentarily distracted. Alex took advantage of his distraction and quickly brought him down. "Owe," he complained after she swept his legs out from under him. James smirked.
"You got to move your feet," he said, reaching out and offering the computer tech a hand up.
"But she said to plant my feet," he said, frowning in confusion. "Which is it?"
"Both," Alex said, resuming her fighting stance. "You have to dance so your opponent doesn't get an easy shot." She started sparring with James.
"Assume anytime they get a hit in its gonna hurt," James added as Alex threw a few punches. He easily dodged them. "If you're gonna hurt, you gotta make them work for it. Otherwise you might as well just lay down and take it."
"But when you get your opening," Alex continued, "You need as much power behind your punch as you can get. You get your power by planting your feet." She looked at James, who nodded and stopped dancing. She threw the punch slowly, so Winn could see exactly what she was talking about. James could have easily blocked or dodged, but he took the hit, staggering back a few steps while Alex maintained her follow through pose.
"See," James said, pointing at her stance. "No dancing. Her feet are planted nice and wide, letting all the force flow through her arms."
"I'm never gonna figure this out," Winn sighed dejectedly. "This is like advanced fighting or something."
"You'll get there," Alex encouraged, coming over and resting a hand on his shoulder.
"We'll help every step of the way," James added, standing next to his friend. "Let's go again." They nodded, but before they could start again Alex's phone dinged. She grabbed the phone.
"It's an alert from one of my projects," she said, frowning slightly. "I need to go check something in my lab."
"Go ahead," James said, assuming his attacking stance. "I've got this." Alex nodded and left, leaving the two boys to their antics. They started sparring, not noticing the time fly by until Winn got a text on his phone.
"Kara," he said as they sat down, breathing heavily, not bothering to read the message but stopping at the sender. "Oh shit. I completely spaced the time. We are so late for game night."
"What?" James asked, checking his own phone while Winn sent a quick message to Kara. "Come on," he said, "we can clean up really quick and I can give you a ride back on the bike. It's a little faster than cars."
"Kay," Winn nodded, following James to the locker room and then towards the parking lot. They both frowned when the bike was gone. "Did you park somewhere else?"
"No," he shook his head. "It was here. It's always here." James looked around in frustration before moving toward the guard shack. He rapped on the window.
"Mr. Olsen?" the guard asked in confusion. "I thought you left over an hour ago."
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"I saw you leave on your motorcycle," the guard told him. "About an hour ago. I waved you out myself."
"What?" James asked again while Winn scooted around to the guard's computer. He quickly typed in a command and they were soon watching the recorded security feed. "There." Winn slowed the footage and they watched as someone dressed all in black started the bike and drove away. Winn managed to follow the bike for a few more seconds until it roared out of range.
"Whoever they were, they kept the helmet on and visor down," the guard said, pulling up additional cameras to try and get an image of the intruder. "We have no face."
"But they still had to use a card reader to open that door," Winn said, typing furiously. The guard nodded but didn't stop his search. "And the person who opened that door was… Alex?" He looked to James questioningly. James quickly turned around and ran back toward the Bunker, Winn close behind, while the guard made a call. They arrived at Alex's lab in minutes.
"She's not here," Dontay said. He was already there, looking over the pristine lab. "Eddy is checking her quarters, and I've sent someone to check med bay or the commissary. I've even sent someone to check on her father's cell. So far, nothing."
"Do you think she was abducted?" James asked, mentally going over the list of people who would like to harm Alex. At that minute Winn's phone rang.
"Kara," he said distractedly as he turned on Alex's computer and started typing. "I'm sorry about game night, but something has come up." He listened. "How did I hear about what? How did you hear?" He stopped typing and turned pale. "What?" he whispered. He looked to James, the phone slipping out of his hand. "Edith is dead." There was a shocked silence before James grabbed the phone, turning on the speaker.
"Kara," he said gently.
"She's dead James," Kara said, her voice thick with tears. "Eliza and Lena are trying to figure out what happened, but she's dead. That little girl is dead."
"When did she die?" James asked seriously.
"We got the call about an hour ago," Kara said, her voice sounding much less cheerful before turning deadly serious. "Are you still at the Bunker? Whatever you do, don't tell Alex."
"I think she already knows," James said as Winn started typing furiously.
"What?" Kara demanded. They heard a whoosh and knew Kara had taken flight. "Where is she?"
"We're not sure," James admitted, just as the agents looking for Alex came back. They shook their heads.
"I'm on my way," Kara said. A few minutes later she was stomping into Alex's lab. "What happened? Where is Alex?"
"I don't know," Winn reluctantly admitted, never stopping typing.
"She's not on the base," James said, grabbing Kara's arms to stop the hero from rushing off. "We've searched everywhere." He shared a quick look with Winn, who gave him a tight grimace. "We think she took off on my bike."
"What?" Kara inhaled quickly. Motorcycles were definitely on Alex's list of unauthorized activities. "Use her tracker."
"I've tried," Winn reluctantly admitted. "She somehow found a way to disable it. I have no idea how."
"Can you track the bike?" Kara asked. Winn shook his head.
"I was able to track it as far as the city," he told her, "but then it got lost in the crowd." Kara nodded and called Maggie to update her on the situation. They could hear Maggie's shouts even though the phone wasn't on speaker. After a minute Kara hung up.
"Maggie and J'onn are going to start looking for her in the city." She put down her phone and looked at them, the worry clear to see. "What exactly happened? Was she being coerced? Is it another trap?" James sighed.
"We were sparring with Winn and she got a message. Said she needed to check something in her lab. About five minutes later she took my bike and left. That was the last we saw of her."
"This has to be about Edith's death," Kara mumbled, turning to Dontay. "Dr. Storm wasn't notified, was he?" Dontay shook his head.
"J'onn's orders were very specific in the event Edith died," he told them. "In no way are we to let him know of his daughter's death. Eddy is even in there for their weekly chess match so he doesn't get suspicious.
"So how did she find out?" Kara asked, growling in confusion and helplessness.
"She was alerted," Winn said, frowning at whatever he was reading. They both looked over his shoulder, but they couldn't follow any of the computer code. "But how?" His eyes suddenly got big and he quickly opened a second window. "Oh God. She hacked me."
"Winn?" Kara said threateningly, but he was already typing.
"The bio monitor," he said. "Alex is still wearing it. It has very basic privacy measures now, nothing like what it will need when it hits the market, or even for its real-world testing phase. It's the first prototype so I didn't think anything of it, but I just realized it wasn't the first. Edith was wearing one too. Alex must have figured out a way to be alerted to changes in Edith's condition. How did she manage that?"
"I don't care how she managed," Kara said sharply. "If the tracker isn't working, can you track her through her bio monitor."
"Already on it," he said, only to frown. "How did she manage to do that?"
"What?" James and Kara asked at the same time.
"She turned the WiFi off on it," he said, looking up briefly.
"She turned it off?" James asked. Winn shook his head.
"No, it's still on and recording, but it's not transmitting anything. And until it starts transmitting again I can't use it to find her."
"Can you turn it on remotely?" James asked hopefully. Winn shook his head.
"I guess were back to searching the city," Kara said. "I'm going to update Maggie then start searching." Winn nodded.
"I'm going to keep searching through the traffic cams," he told her. "We might get lucky."
"I'll help you guys search," James added, "that is, if you don't mind giving me a ride back to town so I can pick up my car." Kara nodded and reached for his hand. She picked him up and ran through the halls and outside in less than a second. A second later she was airborne.
"You okay?" Kara asked when James groaned.
"Fine," he told her, trying to calm his stomach down. "You've just never gone this fast before."
"It's Alex," Kara said simply. James could only nod his head. A few minutes later they were touching down at Alex and Maggie's apartment. Kara gently set James on his feet and flew off again.
"Anything I can do to help?" James offered as soon as Kara let go. Maggie shook her head.
"I've put an APB out on your bike," she told him. "Hopefully one of the officers will see it and call it in. Kara and J'onn are searching from the skies, and there's about a dozen volunteers from the DEO hitting the streets. And Vasquez is combing through any video she can get her hands on."
"Winn too," James said, stepping toward her. "We'll find her." He pulled her into a gently hug.
"And then what?" Maggie asked, breaking down in his strong arms. "I don't know if I want to throttle her or hold her and never let go."
"That's tomorrows problem," James told her gently. "For tonight, we just need to find her."
"Right," Maggie said, as she pulled away. "I guess we should go join the search." James nodded and followed her out of the room.
"Damnit Danvers," Maggie cursed as they hit another dead end. James looked over to her worriedly, but wisely remained silent. "Let's try Catco."
"Catco?" James asked even as he turned the car onto the right street. "Catco is more Kara's thing."
"We've tried all of Alex's places," Maggie said. James nodded and drove the car silently. A red and blue blur in the sky showed Kara swooping away, searching the city in her own way. But Maggie couldn't search the same way Kara did. She couldn't fly over the city at close to the speed of sound, listening for a single heartbeat in a city of over a million people. She had to look the old-fashioned way, by physically looking. She left the searching to the DEO teams and instead focused on the places that meant something to Alex. Meant something to both of them.
"Detective Sawyer," a voice suddenly came over the radio in her police cruiser. She grabbed the intercom while James looked hopeful.
"Go ahead," Maggie said, pushing the button harder than she needed too.
"A patrol unit spotted that bike you put the APB on," the dispatcher told her. Maggie closed her eyes.
"Address?" she asked, voice thick with relief. The dispatcher quickly named a street in the bad part of town. James quickly changed direction. "I'm on my way."
"Do you need assistance?" the dispatcher asked.
"Negative," Maggie said. "I've got it covered. Cancel the APB."
"Roger. Good luck." Maggie closed her eyes tightly before replacing the intercom.
"It's okay," James repeated over and over. "We'll find her."
"What is she doing in this part of town?" Maggie asked as her cruiser neared the destination. Minutes later they pulled to a stop next to the bike. It was lying on its side, the keys still in the ignition. It was a miracle it wasn't stolen. James quickly righted the bike.
"No blood," he said, pointing a flashlight around the bike. "No sign it was in an accident. It looks like she just left it here."
"But why?" Maggie asked, looking around desperately. This was a favorite area for the city's drug dealers. It was an intersection of many of the main alleyways for the neighboring businesses, which gave plenty of ways to escape. "Nobody comes here unless they're looking to score."
"But Alex's drug of choice is alcohol," James said in confusion.
"Of course," Maggie said, hitting herself in the head for being stupid. "How many bars are in walking distance of this point?"
"A lot," James finished for her. He took a second to pocket the keys of his bike then turned to Maggie. "You take east. I'll start with west." Maggie nodded, and they went their separate ways. It wasn't until she checked her fifth bar that Maggie found her. Alex had commandeered a small booth in the very back corner. She watched as Alex downed a shot then promptly filled up her glass. Maggie's relief was slowly morphing into fury. She quickly sent out a message to James before stepping into the bar.
"Hey pretty lady," a drunk man slurred, trying to hit on her. "How about I buy you a beer?" His friends started grinning.
"I'm here for a lady," Maggie said, having no patience for this tonight. She pulled her leather jacket to the side far enough for the drunk to get a look at her badge and her gun before covering up again. "But I can be here for you instead." The drunk man stared at her as if trying to figure out what she was saying, but luckily for him, his friends pulled him away. Maggie stalked past them.
"We don't want any trouble," the bartender said as Maggie approached.
"Me neither," Maggie said sincerely. She pointed to Alex. "How long has she been here?"
"Couple of hours," he told her, glancing toward the back booth. "But this isn't her first bar. I could tell she had a few before she made it here. I was going to cut her off, but she can hold her liquor. Better than most of my patrons." He looked to the drunk man and his friends, who had started the jukebox and were singing very badly with the song.
"She is officially cut off," Maggie told him. He nodded. She passed over her card to settle the bill then made her way to Alex. "What the hell do you think you're doing Danvers?"
"Mourning," Alex said, her voice surprisingly steady. She held the shot up. "To death." She downed the shot before Maggie could stop her. She went to pour another one, but Maggie pulled the glass from her hands. Alex just shrugged and drank from the bottle.
"Stop!" Maggie ordered, pulling the nearly empty bottle out of Alex's hand.
"Right," Alex agreed. She looked at the bartender. "Another bottle."
"No," Maggie said sternly. "You shouldn't even be drinking. You are on some serious meds that don't interact well with alcohol. Are you trying to kill yourself?"
"I don't need to try," Alex said, swiping the bottle back and taking a swig. Maggie took a step back, trying to curb the anger that she felt towards her fiancée at the moment. Right then James entered, scanning the bar for a second before spotting them and heading over. She met him halfway, never taking her eyes off Alex.
"Everything okay?" he asked quietly. Maggie sighed.
"As okay as it can be," she said wearily. He squeezed her arm.
"I can stay," he offered. She shook her head. He nodded knowingly. "I told everyone we found her. J'onn called off the search, but Kara's probably already on her way over." Maggie sighed but nodded. There was no way the younger Danvers was going to leave her sister right now.
"At least I won't have to carry her ass home," Maggie said, trying to make a joke but falling short. Her forced smile fell from her face as she thought about Alex. James smiled sadly.
"If you need anything," he offered, pressing the keys to her cruiser into her hands.
"Thanks," she gave him a small, but genuine, smile as she turned back to Alex. She settled herself into the booth across from Alex. Alex ignored her, instead focusing on the whiskey bottle she was cradling. She drained the rest of the liquor in one gulp.
"Another!" she yelled to the bartender. He just shook his head at her and turned to help other patrons. "Did he just cut me off?" Alex asked, focusing on Maggie for the first time.
"On my order," Maggie said tiredly. "Alex, what are you doing?"
"Edith is dead," Alex said somberly.
"I know," Maggie said, emotionally drained at this point, "and it's sad and tragic. But, babe, you've never even seen her. Why are you mourning someone you don't even know?"
"Mourning Edith?" Alex asked, laughing slightly. "Oh Mags. You've got it all wrong. I'm not mourning Edith. I'm mourning myself."
"What?" Maggie asked, not sure where that came from.
"Don't you see Mags," Alex started. "The only reason I'm still alive was because Edith was. Now that she's dead, Storm won't help us. So, in a way, I'm just as dead as she is."
"You don't know that," Maggie said.
"Yes, I do," Alex countered, reaching over and holding Maggie's hand gently. "You're just in denial, but I've come to terms with my death."
"You're being overly pessimistic," Maggie told her. Alex shook her head.
"I'm being a realist," she said simply.
"So, you're just going to give up?" Maggie asked, feeling her anger reignite. "You're not even going to fight?"
"Of course I'm going to fight," Alex said, "but I've had two of his traps triggered already. I know I won't survive the third. Not without him to cure it, and we both know he's not going to help now. And I know what it's like, being close to death because of him. There's no reprieve, no last-minute hurrahs. If I'm lucky, I'll be unconscious when the time comes, or drugged up so much that I don't notice anything. So yes, I am mourning my life now, while I can still remember who I am." She slammed the empty bottle down on the table and got to her feet. Maggie, who was shocked at the words coming out of her lover's mouth, was a bit slow to follow her. She watched as Alex stumbled and started to fall, to shocked to move.
"Woah." Kara emerged from nowhere and grabbed her sister around the waist, keeping her upright. It was enough to get Maggie moving.
"Let's go," she said, sparing a quick look at her passed-out fiancée before marching past and out of the bar. Kara followed behind her, basically carrying her sister. In a few minutes they were at her car. She opened the doors, helping Kara maneuver Alex into the backseat. As she climbed into the driver's side, she glanced at Kara's tear stained face.
"How much did you hear?" she asked, starting the car but leaving it in park for the moment.
"All of it," Kara told her. "Is it true? Is she going to die?"
"I don't know," Maggie admitted, letting herself be vulnerable for the first time that night. "All I know is I'm gonna fight like hell for her, whether she wants me to or not." Kara nodded as she pulled her sister closer. Maggie put the car in gear and drove home, a newfound determination coursing through her veins. She wouldn't lose Alex. Not even to Alex.