Alex woke to find an IV in her arm and medical equipment near her bed. It took her only a second to realize what it was. She tore out the IV and got up.

Once she made it into the main room, she saw her mom standing at the kitchen counter on her computer and Maggie was lying on the couch, apparently asleep. Alex wondered what time it was and she glanced toward the window and saw it was dark outside. How long had she been asleep or had she been sedated? She did feel groggy, which made her lean more toward sedation.

"I went into hiding for just this reason," she said, walking toward her mother, her veins again lighting up red. "So, you wouldn't do something stupid like try and take it out of me. Dialysis equipment, really? What were you thinking? Do you want Kara to die? Do you want countless others to die?"

"I want my daughter to live," Eliza said, getting in her face. "I want my daughter to not have to sacrifice herself anymore than she already has. At least if we take this out of you, the aliens have a shot at a life somewhere other than Earth. What shot do you have? I can't lose you Alexandra. I won't lose you."

"You're not taking it out of me," Alex said, and she turned away from her mom, only to find Maggie standing there. She smiled at Maggie, "Out of my way."

"I will get out of your way, but only if you sit down," Maggie said. "Sit down and talk to us. You believe you have been doing the right thing all along – fine, sit down and convince us."

"I don't have to convince you or anyone else," Alex said.

"Actually, you do," Maggie said. "You see you aren't leaving this apartment unless it's to go back to the DEO – a place you say you can't be right now. Your own agents are outside so it's not like you can escape. If we need to we can get those agents to help restrain you and then we will go your mom's route and take it out of you. Now I am not convinced that your mom's plan is the right way to go here, but if you don't start explaining things a little better, I'm sure as hell not going to stop her from doing it. Now sit down."

Alex looked like she was about to challenge Maggie on this, but then the red in her veins dulled and she merely moved around Maggie and took a seat on the couch.

"What more can I possibly tell you that will make a difference," Alex said. "This is simple, the cure needs to incubate in me and once it has, it can be administered to the alien population such as Kara. I don't do this, they die, because if you really believe that Lillian Luther will keep her word about these ships that will take them to safety then you don't know her at all."

"The ships aren't real?" Maggie asked, as she took a seat on the opposite end of the couch and Eliza sat on the chair.

"They probably are real," Alex said. "Otherwise, how will she get all the aliens in one place. I just don't believe they will take the aliens to safety."

"Tell me what this did to your father," Eliza said. "Because surely Lillian would have noticed if his reaction to this cure was the same as yours."

Alex looked away for a moment. "It never got this far with him. Like I said the incubation period takes a long time. I was here for weeks afterward and nothing. I wasn't even sure it was working. I'm not sure I cared if it was working after … after … then the day you showed up here," she said addressing Maggie. "I was in the bathroom and I looked down at my wrist and that is when I saw the first tendril of red. That is when I knew I had to get out of there because if I didn't we would end somewhere stupid like we are now where you are considering taking this out of me."

"Is it so bad that I don't want my daughter to die?" Eliza said.

Alex refused to even look at her mother, much less respond to her, but the red tendrils in her arms were getting slightly darker – something Eliza and Maggie noticed.

"This is our one shot to end this, to stop Lillian forever," Alex said, the tendrils getting a deeper red and spreading. "I'm not going to let her get away with this. I will stop her."

"What is more important to you – saving Kara and the others or getting Lillian Luther?" Maggie asked. "Ask yourself that, because if the answer is Lillian then you are doing this for the wrong reason."

"She needs to be stopped, why can't you see that?" Alex challenged. "Why have you never been able to see that? Everything I did I did to make this world safer. I used to think I was doing that so you and I could live and be a family in that safer world, but you walked away. You left me."

"I walked away because I had already lost you," Maggie said. "We can keep going over and over this, but you left first. You were never home, never relaxed, never willing to see that you endangering yourself all over the chance you could find Lillian Luther. I used to think you were doing it to find your father, but more and more I see what you have always wanted as revenge."

"It's not revenge, it's justice," Alex yelled and all her veins flared up so that she was now more red than anything else. Maggie took a step back, truly afraid for perhaps the first time. "Cadmus destroyed my life!"

"No, it didn't," Eliza said softly. "But what you are doing now, it will destroy your life unless you let us help you. Please Alexandra. Please don't let Cadmus kill you. Let me take this out of you and I will find another way to help Kara and the others. I can't … I can't bury daughter. Please don't ask that of me."

Eliza started to cry, and she stepped toward Alex. "Please, not that."

Alex backed away from her mom as she got closer.

"You can't take it from me," Alex said. "It's all I have left."

"I told you I will work on another cure. I will do everything in my power to save Kara," Eliza said.

Alex smiled at her. "When I said all I have left," she said. "I meant my justice. It's all I have left."

She started coughing and backed up more. Eliza and Maggie exchanged a look.

"If you or Maggie or anyone else tries to take it from me, believe me when I say this, I will kill you with my bare hands if I have to. No one will stop me from taking Cadmus down. No one."

The coughing got stronger, and Alex hunched over in pain, as both Eliza and Maggie came over to her, leading her to the couch and that is when Eliza saw blood on Alex's hand where she was blocking her cough.

"Alex, I have to do something," Eliza said.

"No," she said. "It's not done yet."

"How do you even know?"

"I know," Alex said. "It won't be much longer. Not much longer. I promise. Mom, please, I can do this. For once have faith in me. I'm strong enough to see this through," Alex squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them, they were entirely red. "I can do this," she said before passing out.

Maggie stepped away from the couch, trying to figure out what they needed to do. She watched as Eliza checked Alex over, and she thought about the risks involved in letting Alex continue on this path versus Kara and all the other aliens.

"Let's do it," Maggie said finally. "Tell me what you need me to do with this equipment to get it out of her."

Eliza turned to look at her. "We aren't going to," she said.

"What?"

"We're not taking it out of her," Eliza said. "She's asking me to trust her, so I'm going to trust her."

"How can you say that? Look at her!"

"I know," Eliza said. "I don't want her to have to go through this. I don't want her risking her own life, you know this. But it seems no matter what I do Alexandra does not think that I value her. She thinks I'm disappointed in her and nothing could be further from the truth. I need to do this as much as she needs me to do this."

"That is the kryptonite in her talking."

"No, it isn't. These aren't things that she hasn't expressed before," Eliza said. "She wants me to stand by her side on this, so that is what I need to do."

"She could die!"

"I won't let that happen."

Maggie shook her head and walked to the door, grabbing her jacket on the way.

"Where are you going?"

She stopped and looked back at Eliza. "I just need to take a walk or something, clear my head."

Leaving the apartment building, she took a left and just started walking. She didn't have a destination in mind or anything, she just knew she couldn't be there in that apartment right now. Her mind went back to the night she had walked out of it without her engagement ring on. She had confronted Alex that evening about her reckless behavior and while she was trying to handle it delicately, almost immediately Alex got defensive with her.

"I'm doing my job!" Alex said raising her voice, after Maggie had asked what she thought she was doing by ignoring J'onn when he ordered her to fall back. "Cadmus is a threat and needs to be eliminated."

"I'm not saying that the DEO shouldn't be looking into finding them and stopping them," Maggie said trying to keep her voice calm. "All, I'm saying is that it's the DEO – all of you, not just you that should be doing the work. This isn't or at least it's not supposed to be some one-woman crusade."

"Well I seem to be the only one that cares to be doing anything," Alex said. "And if it just me then it's just me. I'm not going to stop until Cadmus is no more."

"Are you even listening to yourself?" Maggie said.

"I thought you had my back on this."

"I do, but Alex, come on, take a step back for a moment," Maggie said. "You are letting Cadmus become the most important thing in your life right now. When is the last time you had a sister night with Kara or the last time you and I did something that didn't get interrupted or outright canceled because you had just had to respond to the very hint or rumor of Cadmus?"

"So, what this is really about is you being upset that I haven't spent enough time with you?"

"No," Maggie said shaking her head. "Listen to what I am saying, please, I'm worried about you. You ignored J'onn's order to pull back. You put yourself in danger needlessly. All I'm asking here is that you be more mindful and don't let revenge cloud your judgment."

"This isn't revenge," Alex said. "What Cadmus is doing, has done, needs to be stopped before more lives are ruined."

The conversation devolved from there and ended with those fateful words.

"I can't do this. I can't keep watching you risk your life like you are doing. I won't. I'm asking you right now, to hit the pause button on this. Just take a break and really consider what you are doing," Maggie said.

"And what if I don't?" Alex said crossing her arms in front of her.

"Then, I can't be with you. I can't be here waiting for the call from J'onn that says you have been seriously hurt or worse that you are dead because you went after Cadmus on your own," Maggie said. "That is why I'm asking you step back from this. I'm not saying you give it up completely."

"You don't think I can defeat them."

"Again, not what I am saying," Maggie said shaking her head. "You aren't even willing to listen to any opinion that isn't what you want to hear when it comes to Cadmus. It's an obsession with you and it needs to stop."

"Well, I'm not going to stop hunting them down until I dismantle it piece by piece."

Maggie paused. She felt like no matter what she said Alex wasn't going to listen. She didn't want to give her an ultimatum, but she felt like she needed to do something to get Alex to see that her actions were getting out of hand.

"You need to choose – Cadmus or me?" Maggie said.

Alex looked away from her a moment and then replied. "I'm going to take Cadmus down. If you can't support me in that, then maybe it is best you go."

Maggie could hardly believe Alex said it, but she realized there was no getting through to her at this point. She merely nodded, took off her engagement ring and sat it down on a small end table and walked out.

When she had left that night, a big part of her believed that Alex would call her – apologize and ask her to come back. That hadn't happened.

Instead, they had cut off all contact until that day Alex had come to the hospital.

Now everything felt vaguely unreal to Maggie. The idea that Alex's life was still in danger and yet she was still determined to bring Cadmus down.

It always came back to Cadmus.

…

Maggie returned to the apartment but saw Alex was no longer on the couch. She walked to the bedroom and heard Eliza and Alex's voices coming from the bathroom.

"She still cares about you," she heard Eliza say. "Do you think she would be here if she didn't?"

"I messed things up," Alex replied.

"No, honey," Eliza said. "You and Maggie just need to sit down and talk with each other after this is all over and more importantly listen to each other. I get the feeling from what little you have told me, that you didn't do such a good job of listening to her prior to the breakup."

"But you understand why I have to do this, right?"

"I understand why you feel you need to do this," Eliza answered. "I just wish you didn't always feel like you have to do things on your own. Maybe that's my fault. When we first thought your father was dead, you sort of took control of things at least in regards to Kara and I let you. At the time, I thought maybe you were doing what you needed to do in order to deal with your own grief. Perhaps if I had …"

"No," Alex said. "Kara's my sister. I would do anything for her."

"Alexandra, about your father," Eliza said. "I can't imagine what that must have been like for you. And I don't want you to hold that against yourself like I know you must be doing. Your father made some bad choices but his love for you never wavered. I want you to remember that always."

"That's why I need to finish this, for him," she said.

"Then we will finish it," Eliza said. "But we have to do it together and you dying isn't an option. Now, five more minutes and then you are back in bed to rest."

Eliza came out of the bathroom and saw Maggie standing there. She motioned for her to go out to the main room.

"She's taking another ice bath," Eliza said. "Her temperature is worrisome."

"Everything about this is worrisome," Maggie said. "Like how is she going to magically know this cure is done being a cocktail in her body?"

"I don't know but she says she will know."

"And we should just take her word for it?" Maggie asked. "Look, I get it, you want to strengthen your relationship with her, but how do we know she is even telling the truth?"

"What do you mean?"

"You heard her. This is and has always been about bringing down Cadmus, so you tell me how does her curing a bunch of sick aliens bring down Cadmus?" Maggie said. "Would it thwart Lillian's plan, yes, but it doesn't destroy Cadmus which is what she really wants. Something isn't adding up here. There is something she isn't telling us."

"What do you think it is?"

"No idea," Maggie said. "But I'm telling you, she is holding something back."

"Then you need to find out what that is."

"Me? I thought you would. You are the one bonding with her."

"Did you hear us talking in there?"

Maggie nodded.

"She still has feelings for you, and I know you have feelings for her," Eliza said. "And I'm going to tell you what I told her – which is that you two need to speak to and listen to each other. Now it's time she gets out of the bath so go in there and make sure she is ok and try talking to her. Maybe you will find out if you are right and she is hiding something."

"And what if she is?"

"That will depend on what it is," Eliza said. "If she is needlessly risking her life though, I will intervene and I will take it out of her. But if she is right and this needs to happen, then we have to let it run its course."

"Is there anyway to find out if the cure is actually done inside her?"

"I suppose if I took a blood sample and did some tests then maybe I could find out. But why would she lie about that? You heard her, she will do what it takes to save Kara's life."

"I don't know," Maggie said. "Something is just off about all of this."

"Then go find out what it is."