Rewatch. Rewind. Replay.
She'd been at it for the last hour and a half with minimal breaks other than to refill her tea before she was back at it.
Rewatch. Rewind. Replay. Rewatch. Rewind. Replay. Rewatch. Rewind. Replay. Rewatch. Rewind. Replay.
"This isn't healthy."
She didn't look away from the screen as she brought her steaming teacup to her lips and took a long sip. No matter how many times she'd watched before she still recoils at the sight of Maggie's soundless scream as she thrashes against the restraints following an injection of Rao knew what by one of the Cadmus doctors spilling the murky gray she was laying in over the sides of the tank Cadmus was holding her in.
Even in the black and white of the video feed, Eliza knew what that water like substance was.
Liquefied kryptonite.
Apparently, Cadmus had found a more stable conductor for the Pandora project according to Lena and Jamie.
Kate lets out a low breath pushing off the doorframe to jerk the tablet away before Eliza could hit the replay button.
"You should be resting." Kate reminds topping off her coffee cup as she spoke. She brings the cup closer but instead of taking a drink the closeted veganity takes a long smell of its scent instead.
Eliza shakes her head her fingers gripping the leather jacket she'd smuggled out of the lab tighter in her lap the longer she watches. Not that Alex seemed to realize Maggie had claimed one of her daughter's jackets as her own anyway. Not even when both had been hanging side by side in the hallway just two nights before. "I'm fine." But Kate isn't fooled one bit. "I noticed the Bat has been radio-quiet since helping us crack that last formula equation from the fragments Jamie brought back from the Cadmus lab."
That she wasn't ready for. Shifting in her seat Kate tried to keep her cool on the topic knowing from Maggie that at least one of the many agents in the building could read her mind. Although she hadn't seen much of J'onn Jones in the last two hours so she couldn't know if he was still around or not.
"Come on. I've helped raise a literal superhero and one of the finest government agents of her generation. On top of that, I am rather smart myself when it comes to the more 'costumed' crowd." Eliza reminds as she brings her teacup to her lips draining the remainder of the liquid inside in one slip. "Don't worry I haven't told anyone." She soothes seeing Kate shifting uncomfortably in her seat once again.
"Yeah, Mags said she put the pieces together from me just walking into the bullpen after taking the captain job at the GCDP the day after she met up with our new city bat the second week she was back." Kate confesses feeling a bit better once she felt Rory's head resting against her leg under the table.
That earns a soft laugh from the Danvers mother. "Well, she is a detective after all."
Kate giggles at that "Yeah thats our Mags alright. Always detecting." She agrees while therapeutically running her fingers threw Rory's fur when the pup decides she wanted to become a lapdog rather than just sitting on the floor between the chairs.
"She was broken. When she came back. That first seven months all she talked about was either work or Ror here." Kate confides "She would keep tabs on blondie of course especially after the Reign thing."
Eliza shuddered at the reminder. Kate did too remembering how she stayed up all night holding a sobbing Maggie in her arms as she cried herself to sleep that night. "She was upset at learning James was shot. Not as much as when Supergirl was beaten to a pulp but she still took it hard."
"I'd thought she'd left town by then."
"She had but like I said. She liked keeping tabs on her friends and chosen family here." Kate reminds with a shrug of her shoulders as she leans back in her chair getting more comfortable.
Eliza represses a shudder at the reminder.
Her chosen family.
If only Maggie was her family now. Sure, it would hurt more with her being taken, but at least she'd have more to hold onto in her fight against whatever it was Cadmus was doing to her.
"You know it was Alex that helped Nova here get her name?"
Eliza blinked her face changing from guilty unease to confusion at Kate's comment.
"Her real name is Aurora Sawyer." Kate tells with a goofy sleepy smile on her lips when Rory looks up at the sound of her name. Her head tilted to the side just like Maggie would do from time to time. "Rory is just a nickname."
When Eliza still seemed lost Kate carefully unbuckles what everyone else including Eliza herself thought to be some kind of high-grade anxiety and safety harness. Looking at it now the Danvers monarch could see that while their previous predictions weren't entirely off the mark another hidden feature was a hidden pocket in the vest lining.
"Hey easy pup." Kate soothes when Rory lets out a growled whine at the loss of its weight around her shoulders. "I don't know where Mags keeps the first one, but she had a friend of mine duplicate about a hundred of these as soon as she realized Ror had grown attached."
Eliza fought to keep happy tears away as she reaches out to take the too bright orange shirt Kate had just pulled out. Almost at once Rory's head swiveled around to look at it her paw moving to rest against Eliza's arm as if to keep her from pulling it too far away.
"This was just supposed to be a kind of joke. Alex isn't exactly the cheeriest woman in the world first thing in the morning. At lest not before she's had a morning surf or run to get her blood pumping." The mother explained her free hand going to the dog's head while the other traced over the yellow letters across the front of the shirt.
"Neither is Mags before coffee." Kate agreed "It had been the first thing Maggie had laid hands on after we gotten Ror cleaned up." She goes on massaging Rory's back as she reminisced. It had been a little awkward but also downright adorable, to say the least. Her in full Batwoman attire standing in what would end up becoming Maggie Sawyer's apartment while the feisty detective hummed an alien lullaby to a shivering pup wrapped in a bright orange shirt that seemed too big for even Maggie to wear.
"Jamie said Mags packed hers before leaving Gotham, but her duffle seems to have vanished so I can't be sure." Kate shrugged trying to hide a yawn behind her hand.
Eliza glances at her watch with a low sigh at just how late it had become. Well past midnight. Several hours past in fact. "Come on. We'll need at least an hour or two of real sleep before we start the hunt again." The mother decides stretching her arms over her head as she stood up. Kate taking some coxing before she gets up herself.
Even her time roaming the dark Gotham streets dressed as a bat hadn't prepared her for the last two days of little to no sleep while running on a mix of anxiety, determination, and coffee.
Kelly catches them in the hall just shy of the one leading to the in-house sleeping quarters. "Have you seen Al recently?"
Kate and Eliza shook their heads "Have you tried…." Kate tired but Kelly cuts her off "I've already checked hub and the med wing. Lena, Winn, and Alura are there all watching over Kara and Lin, but none of them have seen Al since one in the morning and she isn't in the break room and I just checked barracks. Nothing."
"What about her office." Eliza offers after all she and Kate had just come from the conference room.
Kelly walks with them until they'd reached the barracks then leaves with a grateful smile and a whispered: "Sleep well". Rory pads along a few steps behind her as she turns around and winds her way in the maze of hallways and staircases toward the director's office.
Almost as soon as she'd cracked the door open enough to step into the room Kelly has to reach down to grip the dog's collar to keep her from leaping up onto the too small sofa and risk disturbing the angel of an agent sleeping on top of it.
For once Alex doesn't look like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. She looks calmer than Kelly's ever really seen her in her waking hours. Happier too. Although where in the world Alex had been keeping that bright orange shirt she was wearing instead of her normal black colored tank top was a mystery considering that by now Kelly was sure she'd seen all of Alex's 'after work' shirts.
Rory tugged again against Kelly's hold as she closes the door behind them, but she holds the dog back "She needs to rest." Kelly reminds earning a huff in answer from the dog followed with a low growl and another tug against her grip.
Kelly reluctantly lets the dog go not wanting the steady increasing growls to wake Alex.
Rory trots over to the bed tugging the slipping blanket back over the sleeping director's shoulders before laying down on the floor in front of the couch with her head on her paws.
The feel of fur under the hand dangling over the edge of the couch seems to rouse Alex enough for the agent to roll over onto her back with a sleepy huff at the premature awakening.
"Hey, you." Kelly smiles meeting Alex's sleep-filled eyes.
"Hi." Alex answers more asleep than really awake at the moment.
"Go back to sleep babe it was just Rory making sure you were warm enough." Kelly explains pulling out the book Alex kept for her as she takes the armchair across from the couch.
"Mkay." Alex yawns snuggling back into the cushions of the couch returning a hand to Rory's back with a happy smile as she settles back against the couch.
"Night Ally." Kelly chuckles opening her book.
"Night Maggie." Alex murmurs letting sleep overtake her.
"What are you smiling about?"
Linda blinks feeling her cheeks coloring up as her eyes refocused onto emerald green ones set into the angel face hovering over her. "Nothing." She says her voice rather dreamlike as she sits up with Lena's help.
A grim-faced Brainy's arrival halted any more questions on the subject as all eyes turned toward him as soon as the doors slid open.
"Nothing yet on another chemical trace." He tells them seeing the mixed looks of anticipation and dread from each face in the small room.
"Then what is that?" Lena asks keeping her arm draped across Linda's shoulders while on the other side of her bed Kara was swinging her legs over the side of her own bed stretching her arms over her head. "More Cadmus surveillance?" she wonders aloud sharing a pained look with her mother.
Linda recoils leaning more into Lena's side. Eliza had reluctantly allowed them to see the first batch of security footage of what those Cadmus monsters were doing to her friend. The next two hours finding the 'Krypton twins' tearing up the different sizes of solid stones that were soon reduced to pebbles or sand under their hands.
Brainy shakes his head his eyes going to the floor as he seems to pull himself together keeping a tight hold on the device in his trembling hand. Again, the little boxes exercise was falling him. "The results on the traces we ran on the signal of the computer that tipped Cadmus that we were onto them."
"Yeah." Kara yawns rubbing the sleep from her eyes with the heel of her hand while Linda rolls her healing shoulder to work out the stiffness and assessing the left-over pain level from their earlier 'therapy session'.
"This has to be some kind of mistake." Winn scoffs as soon as his eyes land on the security photo Brainy had pulled up of their betrayer.
Brainy shakes his head as Kara peeks over Winn's shoulder. "I ran the test several times. It was the same result every time. It is not a mistake."
"Well, I have news for you. As infallible as you think it is Mr. 12th intellect technology can be manipulated."
Brainy nodes his head pressing his hands together in front of him as he allows Winn's anger to wash over him. "I have taken that theory into account but as I've said I have run the calculations several times all of them with the same outcome."
It's only Kara's hand against his shoulder that keeps him from outright attacking Brainy for bringing them the information. "So, you're just expecting us to believe that all this time she has been running herself ragged just like the rest of us trying to bring Maggie back that all this time she has been working with Cadmus?" Winn questions his anger rising the longer his eyes hold Brainy's.
"Yes" The 12th level intellect answers.
"Snowy wait!."
"Linda….Daughter."
Red Daughter didn't stop or slow down as she fled the room. Pain and rage fulling her steps as she flies more than runs down the hall seeking her target.
A pain stronger than the one she'd felt for when little Mikhail was taken from her worse still than when Lex betrayed her and a wave of anger hotter than the one she'd once held for the woman she now saw as her sister her family coursing in her system pushing her to go faster.
She knows from her sister that if she allows this for too long, she will lose the use of her powers for a short time but not even that slows her down. Not now. Not before she punches all the answers, she can get out of the traitor to her Dude Maggie. To her sister.
Author Notes:
Any ideas on who is the unlucky target of Red Daughter's rage?
Is this still alright? Still, fun to read?
All feedback welcome.