Snow.

Something completely new compared to his normal dreams was that this time Winslow Schott was standing outside a cabin he didn't recognize surrounded on all sides but one by freshly coated snow.

The strange thing even in his dreams was that he wasn't the least bit cold despite his currently short-sleeved shirt clade appearance and his DEO sweatpants weren't the best insolated against the white flaked invaders either nor where his bare feet already skin clade icicles like he knew they should be as he takes another step in the ankle-deep white stuff.

Where the heck was, he and why was it sometimes tinted in eery vies of red on every other blink of his blurry eyes?

"Snowie, Winn come on. This was your idea, and you haven't gotten a turn yet."

The sound of Maggie's happy sounding call was another strange occurrence given how down in the dumps she'd been sounding before Winn had been none so gently dragged from the control room by Papa Bear himself.

"Five more minutes. She's having fun." His own voice called back yet he hadn't spoken a single word other than greeting an eager Rory bounding around his legs wanting attention. The dog seeming to be the only thing besides himself that hadn't yet been affected by their strange yet calming surroundings. "Besides why are you yelling at us when you and Al could be having another go?"

"Yeah, Sawyer stop yelling at them and get that cute behind up here before Kara steals your sled." Alex's voice joins in as strong and intimidating as ever even when she was much happier than she had been before he'd been forced to sleep.

"Again." a voice that sounded oddly like Lena's corrected while Winn traps his way around the side of the cabin like structure toward the back yard.

"Didn't see you complaining when you were the one sitting in her lap." Kate chuckles earning a blushing sounding "Shut up Kane." From Lena.

Rory gave another happy yelp at Winn's side when he rounded the last bend leading into the back yard.

Eliza and J'onn were closest yet when Winn called out to them to ask what was going on, he got no reply. They didn't so much as flinch when after tripping over Rory, Winn stumbles right thought what should have been a very solid body of his boss and kind of Martian father landing him face-first in a snow mound he had yet to actually feel.

"Come on Lin, we're next."

Again, his own voice comes from a throat that wasn't his own but it's the soft giggle that follows that has Winn looking up at the pair now standing a little ways away from where he'd fallen.

A weak-looking Linda was hovering a few inches off the ground soaking up what sunlight she could pass the thick line of leafless trees in a kind of meditative state Winn had seen Kara do out on the DEO balcony a time or two after a particularly hard fight.

Kara always said that real sunlight helped her recharge much faster than even the DEO's best solar lamps. Only right the same idea would work for her twin.

The problem was Winn had never seen Linda looking so waxy and weak looking.

Rao what were they doing to her in the real world while she was unaware of this one?

"Lin"

His simulated copy whipped around pure rage burning in his red glowing eyed as they lock on Winn for the first time. His face seeming to crack like broken clay before the stunned man's eyes glowing red from the inside out even when his arms reach out catching the startled looking super when she started falling.

Red? Is this new Cadmus using kryptonite on her? Winn wonders the longer he studies everything that wasn't Linda or Rory still playing protector at his feet. He'd heard Lena and Alex talking about how aside from messing with a Kryptonian's emotions it also made them more susceptible to mind control.

"Winn?" his weakened Snowbird mumbles looking between the pair with glazed puzzled eyes.

"Get her inside."

Winn started at the 'agent voice' Alex uses as she and Maggie seem to materialize at his copies side with matching enraged and cracked clay faced looks.

Only Rory seemed to be unaffected this time winding around Winn's legs with low growls in warning holding the weird red glowing clay masked things at bay.

"Winn." Linda whimpered reaching for him even when she was being carried away.

"I'm right here Snowie." The Winn clone says in what the real Winn considers to be a rather perfect Russian dialect. The move earning a weak but pleased giggled from the already dozing looking blonde in his arms.

The way she smiles up at him so trusting as she snuggled in against the glowing red mass that was the clone's chest had Winn's blood boiling.

He was so going to enjoy making those Checkmate people pay.

"Just rest Snowie we'll keep you safe." Maggie promises running a hand in Linda's hair as she falls into step her other hand tightly clasped with Alex's as the couple along with Eliza escort Linda and the Winn imposter back toward the picturesque cabin leaving Kara, Lena, J'onn, and Kate keeping the real Winn from going any farther after the kidnapped blonde.

"I don't know how you got here outsider but you better leave." Kate threatened

"Linda is in good hands with us." Lena smiles

"So just run along and don't come back." Kara finishes her eyes glowing an if possible, even brighter shade of red making the nervous genius hit the deck rather than risk being hit by Supergirl's kryptonite infused heat vision.

"Winn?"

"Winn honey wake up."

Eliza's and Alura's concerned voices drag him away from once again trying to call out to Linda. To warn her of the danger literally cradling her against its chest.

"No." Winn argues his eyes still tight shut "Not me. Not us. She has to see that." He repeats trying as hard as he could to stay in that weird dreamland with Linda when the two mothers were trying just as hard to pull him out of it.

"Has to see—" Winn sniffs close to tears now.

"Who had to see Winn?" Eliza wonders helping the shaken man sit up.

"Linda." Winn answers blinking back worried tears "She's in trouble."

"We already know that dear." Alura nodes "But Kate already has a plan to track her down." She adds with a pleased smile as she offers the waking young man a glass of artic breath chilled water.

"No. I know but she's in even more trouble. Like when Kara was attacked by that black mercy stuff."

"Were you able to see what she was seeing?" Alura asks at the same time Eliza gives a panicked "Black Mercy?"

Winn nodes "I can't explain it. I mean Alex had to be hooked up with Kara to be able to go into her head and I did it just by dreaming it."

"You were in her mind?"

Winn gives an annoyed groan but gives a nicer sounding "Yes." As he finishes his first cup of water only to be handed a second by the Danvers mother this time leaving Alura to pace in front of Winn's bed.

"But besides looking weakened was she alright?" Eliza questions.

"She seemed to be." Winn shrugs "Seemed rather chummy with the weird copy of me." He grumbled jealously remembering all to clearly just how close Linda had snuggled against that other version of himself before he'd been so rudely woken up.

"Of course, she'd be closer to you silly boy she lik—"

"Did I hear that Winn was in Lin's head?" Kara interrupted "I think I heard Kal being able to do that with Lois that time he had to go to New Krypton for his betrothal ceremony."

"What—New Krypton?" Alura asked shocked but her daughter waves her off stepping closer to Winn's bedside.

"It was some other universes you know before they all merged into one." Her daughter clarifies

"You never said Kryptonians were telepaths." Lena accuses leaning against the doorway while Kara takes a seat at Winn's bedside.

"You never asked." Kara teases "But how come Lin found out how to do it before I did?"

Alura rolls her eyes at the childlike jealousy in her daughter's voice. "Because you've never cleared your mind enough to try." The mother points out leaning down to rest her forehead against Kara's. "not enough for it to work that is." She clarifies seeing her daughter was about to argue.

"You and father used it all the time. And so, did Aunt Laura and uncle Jor-El." Kara reminded "You made it look so easy."

"It was Raosent during dull council meetings believe me." Alura remembers with a watery smile.

"Felt a disturbance in the Kara force." Maggie's tired voice calls out before she and Alex had even rounded the corner into the med wing. "What's wrong this time?"

"Linda's being mind-controlled into thinking she and the rest of us." Winn pauses making a circle to everyone in the room. "are out sledding at some snow-covered cabin while that Checkmate or Cadmus—whatever they call themselves now. They are hurting her both her mind and her body just like they did with you."

Maggie recoils triggering a reproachful glare from Alex as she wrapped her arms around a trembling Maggie.

"Look I'm sorry but if we don't find her, I don't think we'll be able to bring her back this time."

"Well the trace is still running but how about we go get something to eat before we start ripping into one another again?" Kate Kane offers "My treat this time." She adds meeting Lena's questioning gaze.