Maggie paced back and forth in Alex's apartment, wracking her brain for any ideas as to where Alex could be. She had been sort of unofficially staying here in hopes that Alex might return.

After yesterday, she didn't expect that was going to happen.

Alex had done it – she had hit a Cadmus facility.

It was located in Keystone City and they were still trying to track down how she had gotten there and gotten out or where she had gone. The other mystery was how she knew about that facility as it was not one that the DEO had on its list.

It had been some sort of facility where they had been doing experiments on aliens. According to the witnesses, Alex had gone in and released all the prisoners. They had described her which is how they knew it was her, but some of the details bothered Maggie as she was still limping badly. That wasn't the only thing though – several had said she was very pale and looked ill.

She had released the prisoners telling them to get out because the place was going to blow.

Maggie, who was still on medical leave from her job, and Lucy had flown to the scene to investigate not that there was much there to see but she had managed to track down some of the prisoners who had told her about this human woman they considered to be their hero.

Lucy meanwhile had taken custody of the Cadmus workers, which had only included a handful of guards and lab workers. The guards were useless as far as information. The lab workers said Alex had only one question for them which made no sense to anyone – where was Xerxes? The workers all said they didn't know what it meant and Alex had accessed their computer system and did a download to a portable drive and then ordered them all out – after setting a timer on a bomb.

The only thankful part in all of it was that Alex hadn't harmed anyone – well at least not majorly. She could have blown the place with all of them in it, but she had given them all the chance to get out. To Maggie that meant she wasn't too far gone.

Now they had yet another mysterious clue – Xerxes.

They had no idea if it was a person or a place or anything. The name appeared in none of the intel they had on Cadmus. The name meant nothing to Kara either. The only reference anyone knew about the name was the historical one as it was Xerxes who led the second Persian invasion of Greece.

Kara had wanted to go with them to Keystone, but Eliza had told her that she needed her to stay behind for another mission. Maggie had asked Lucy on the flight if she knew what that was all about, but she didn't know. Eliza had practically been locked away in the lab since the incident with Alex's blood. So much had happened that Maggie had barely been able to give any thought to that.

But once she and Lucy returned it was suddenly at the forefront of her mind.

Once they had returned and debriefed J'onn, Supergirl, and Eliza who had sat there silent throughout but J'onn looked over at her now. "Tell them what you discovered."

"There was a substance in Alex's blood sample," Eliza said. "As soon as we were able to break it down to see what it looked like from a molecular standpoint, I recognized it, or at least I thought I had. I had Kara fly to our home in Midvale to get some of Jeremiah's notes. He was supposed to have turned them over to the DEO when he joined, but he didn't want anyone getting their hands on them so he hid them away. The reason Superman left Kara in our care was because of the research we had done, specifically with what Jeremiah had done in studying Kryptonian biology. For instance, when Kara came to live with us we didn't even know if she would be affected by kryptonite. Yes, we knew the odds were that she would, but we needed to consider the possibility that due to Superman being here on Earth longer than her that she might not feel the effects or feel them differently than he did. Not only that, but he was also looking into what if any effect it would have on humans or other animals. He had obtained samples and broken them down so when I saw the result of Alex's bloodwork, I knew it looked familiar."

"Are you saying Alex has kryptonite in her blood?" Maggie asked.

"Yes, but it's not the green kryptonite that weakens Kara. It's the red."

Maggie looked over at Kara. "Red made you get mean?"

"Sort of," Kara said. "But that kryptonite was synthetic. It was made in a lab. What Eliza is talking about is the real thing. I haven't ever been exposed to that."

"It's not technically the real thing," Eliza interrupted. "If it were then it wouldn't affect Alex at all. This has been modified slightly on the molecular level so that it would affect humans and only one person could have done that."

She didn't need to say it for them all to know that it must have been Jeremiah. Maggie sat back in her seat to consider this. Had he known this was going to be used on his daughter, she wondered.

"Why did the sample explode?" Lucy asked.

"The kryptonite is essentially causing the molecules in her blood to for lack of a better word – vibrate, which in turn is going to start increasing her temperature. I don't know what it is doing to her as far affecting her personality or mentality," Eliza said. "But we need to get her back here and flush her system of it because if we don't it's going to literally boil her blood inside of her."

"How much time do we have?" Maggie asked.

"I don't know," Eliza said. "It could be that the sample exploded because it was condensed. It could be any number of things. But based on what I can tell, the kryptonite will continue to raise her core temperature until …"

Until death, Maggie thought, not even listening to see if Eliza had finished the sentence. It was what Maggie had feared all along – that Cadmus would be the death of Alex one way or another.

There hadn't been much discussion after that except for more brainstorming on where she might be or what target she may hit next. Maggie left the DEO and had come here to Alex's place feeling worse than ever. The idea that Alex could die hadn't really crossed her mind until Eliza had told them about the Kryptonite. Lucy had brought up the point that if this was in Alex then surely Alex being a scientist had noticed something was off about her own body. Eliza reminded her that they didn't know what Alex's mental state was and the kryptonite could be affecting it just as much if not more than any physical issues she may be having.

Maggie had pulled Kara aside before leaving and asked her what it was like being on the red kryptonite. Even if it wasn't the same thing, she needed to have some idea of how it might affect Alex. It was yet another tough conversation with the Girl of Steel who seemed less like the confident, optimistic superhero with each passing day. She knew there was nothing she could say to Kara that would make her feel any better about this as the young woman still felt guilt over what had happened with Alex when Cadmus had them.

"I need to find her," Kara said. "All these powers and I can't find her."

Maggie hugged her, "We'll find her." Even as she said it Maggie knew there was a possibility that they wouldn't find her – at least not in time.

Her conversation with Kara was lingering in her mind as she paced the floor. Kara knew Alex better than anyone. She knew not just about her as a person, but with her powers, she knew how to home in on things like Alex's voice so why couldn't she find Alex. The obvious answer was that Alex was out of range of even Kara's powers.

Maybe the obvious answer wasn't the right one.

As much as Kara knew Alex, Alex knew Kara and would know Kara's tendencies and more importantly her limitations, which could if used correctly give Alex an advantage in avoiding her sister.

There was something there needling at Maggie's mind, but she couldn't seem to grasp it.