Maggie followed along with the gurney that held Alex's still unconscious body as it was wheeled into the medbay. Eliza was giving some instructions on what to do but Maggie wasn't paying attention to what was being said.

She just hoped they hadn't been too late.

It already looked like the red was spreading as there were now tendrils of the glowing Kryptonite creeping up Alex's neck.

They got Alex transferred to a bed and Maggie stayed back near the door where she was joined by Kara.

"The train yard," Kara said. "I should have thought of that. I should have gotten to her sooner."

"This isn't your fault," Maggie said. "None of it is, so stop beating yourself up over it. This is all on Lillian Luther and she's going to pay for it."

Maggie looked over at Alex again and the back to Kara. "I need to get some air, come get me if there is any change."

Whether she was consciously aware of it or not Maggie ended up going to the spot where Alex had proposed to her. She leaned up against the balcony, recalling that night and how she found Alex there and wrapped her arms around her.

She had been up there a long time when J'onn came and stood beside her.

"I sent a team to the railyards," he said. "Hopefully we can find a clue there as to what this Xerxes is all about."

Maggie didn't say anything.

"I didn't know what I was getting into that day when I approached Alex in that jail cell. I didn't know if she was strong enough to change her life. It didn't take long though for Alex to prove she had what it took to do this job," he said. "I've never had to question her strength until now."

Maggie glanced at him. "This isn't going to be as easy for her to come back from as getting arrested for going on a bender. She killed her father. Out there she would have shot me if it weren't for Lucy. I know she is strong but there is only so much that a person can take."

"Which is why we don't let her shoulder it alone."

"Yeah well, I gave up that right when I walked out on her," she said. It wasn't as if she really believed that but from what Alex said, she at least believed it.

"She's going to need you," J'onn said.

"Why didn't you tell us that she took the gun she killed her father with from the evidence room?" Maggie said.

J'onn moved away from the balcony and Maggie followed him. "I suspected that she took it the moment I knew she had been in there, but that wasn't the only thing she took. We had all of Jeremiah's personal effects in there – just the clothes he was wearing, except for we found a photo in his pants pocket. It was pretty worn. I figured Jeremiah always kept it on him. It was a photo of him and Alex. Despite what Jeremiah has done, I believe Alex was always number one in his life – from the moment she came into it."

"Well, he has a funny way of showing it. Whatever it is that he has done to her could kill her."

"I know and to me, it makes no sense. When Jeremiah saved my life the only thing he wanted in exchange was for me to watch over his family – to make sure Alex was ok. I don't know why he did what he did to her," J'onn said. "I don't know why Alex is behaving like she is. I don't think we can assume anything until we know exactly what happened when she was at that Cadmus facility."

"You still haven't answered the question – why didn't you tell us that she took the gun?"

"Because I was afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"That she was going to use it to kill herself."

"Alex would never …" Maggie couldn't finish the sentence because she didn't know if it was true. Alex had lost her dad for the good this time – after all the time and energy she had spent trying to find him. And she was the one to pull the trigger.

"Alex has been lost for a while now and we've all been at a loss as to how to help her," J'onn said. "Honestly, I think you might be the only one that can. She's never stopped loving you."

"But she made something else more important than our love," Maggie said. "And I don't know how to get around that."

…

Eliza sat at Alex's bedside, watching her sleep. They had her under sedation – not willing to let her wake until they found a way to remove the Kryptonite from her. She could still see the deep red outlining her veins, but according to Maggie, it had dulled down from what it looked like when she was battling her.

Also odd – the broken leg was nearly completely healed. It made no sense. There didn't seem to be a reason why the Kryptonite would heal her. But the preliminary blood test on Alex showed the Kryptonite was not the same as it was in the sample that exploded. It made Eliza fear that it was mutating and therefore they had no real idea of what it was doing to her.

Eliza was tired, but she didn't want to sleep. Even this break she was taking from working on the problem was forced upon her. She hadn't wanted to rest until her daughter was ok once more.

But she had to wonder if Alex ever would be ok ever again.

It was J'onn who had called her when Alex had gone in search of Kara. She had wanted to come sooner, but J'onn assured her that they were doing everything they could. She had decided to stay home and the next call was even more difficult. She had spent years from Jeremiah and after learning he was with Cadmus willingly she had begun to move on – in her mind if not entirely her heart. When Jeremiah first returned, she remembered how happy Alex had been. With Maggie at her side and her father back, Alex may have been happier than Eliza had ever seen her.

Then it all came crashing down.

J'onn had helped her with the arrangements of having Jeremiah's body returned to Midvale. He had been buried in the plots they had purchased years ago, but she hadn't bothered with a service.

In the weeks that followed, she tried to reach out to Alex – had called her many times, but it was always the same. Alex would tell her she was fine and she was healing. She could hear the pain in her daughter's voice and knew she was not fine. She didn't know how to help her though. She felt useless.

Each time she spoke to Alex, she would also speak with Kara, who was nearly as despondent as Alex.

Then Alex had gone missing once more – this time on her own.

When they first discovered the blood sample explosion and Eliza had seen the tests, she had recognized immediately what it was. She knew that this was Jeremiah's work.

But what was the purpose?

Why put a synthetic red Kryptonite into a human? Why put it into your daughter?

Eliza felt like she was missing something that would make it make sense. She had asked Maggie to tell her what Alex was like when she encountered her in the trainyard – not just the physical symptoms but how she was acting. It would appear that it was affecting her emotions at the very least.

She remembered how Alex was when she was a small child – always curious, always asking questions and so fascinated by the world. Alex loved it when Eliza or Jeremiah would talk about things in scientific terms even when she was young. She didn't care for books on fairy tales or fantasy. She lived her life in the real world. Eliza always knew Alex would grow up following her parents' love of science.

It wasn't like she hadn't noticed the changes in Alex – first when Kara came into their lives and secondly when Jeremiah "died."

But Alex didn't express hurt – at least not to her mother.

She also noticed the changes in Alex when she came out. It was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders because things made sense to her – and one thing about Alex, she wanted things to make sense.

Alex's head moved slightly, and she made a small noise. Eliza leaned forward. Alex shouldn't be waking up with the amount of sedation they had in her. Yet a moment later Alex's eyes opened.

"Alex, honey," Eliza said.

"Mom," Alex said, clearly still tired. She tried to move her arm but found she was strapped to the bed – another precaution they felt they had to take. "What?" She tugged on both restraints now – the veins in her arm lighting up with red.

"Alex, stop," Eliza said, placing a hand on Alex's arm. "Calm down."

"Don't touch me," Alex said, her eyes going red this time.

Eliza removed her hand carefully. She needed to get Alex under sedation again.

"Let me go," Alex said.

"I can't," Eliza said. "You know this. You have to know this. Alex, we have to get that Kryptonite out of your system."

"No," Alex said. "You can't."

"It's going to be ok," Eliza said, as she started to stand. She just needed to reach the dispenser to hit the button to give her another dose of sedation.

She almost reached it when Alex suddenly broke free on one side. Eliza was stunned as it shouldn't be possible for her to have done that. Alex reached over and pulled herself free of the other restraint, just as Eliza hit the button. Still, Alex reached for her IV and pulled it out a moment later so Eliza wasn't sure if she had gotten it in time. Alex got free from the bed and grabbed a hold of her mother, pushing her against the wall. But she stumbled as she did it – the sedation beginning to hit her.

At this point, Eliza was practically holding Alex up.

"Mom," she said, her eyes going back to normal. "I'm trying to do what dad wanted me to do. This was the last thing he asked of me. Help me."

Eliza didn't know what that was supposed to mean. Alex hadn't told her anything about what her father had done while she was held by Cadmus. The only thing she had told Eliza was that she had shot and killed her father.

"Come on, let's get you back into bed," Eliza said, helping Alex toward the bed.

As they got up to the bed, Alex grabbed her mom again, this time moving behind her and putting her in a sleeper hold. A few moments later Eliza was unconscious on the floor. A part of Alex thought she should lift her up, put her in the bed so that people would think that Alex was still there asleep. It wouldn't fool anyone who got close but it also didn't matter as Alex didn't think she could. She felt like she wanted to lay down and sleep, but also knew she couldn't if she wanted to get out of there.

Getting out. That was going to pose a problem. It wasn't like before where she had planned it out.

But she couldn't stay and let them take the Kryptonite out of her.

She needed to think. She was in the medbay and most likely J'onn would have guards in place after what she had done so going out the front wasn't an option. She would have no choice – she would have to use the ventilation system.

She moved to the nearest panel – it was still too high up for her to reach without standing on something. She looked around for something to stand on, but then the door opened. There was Maggie.

She paused inside the doorway and then came in quickly, closing the door behind her.

"Eliza," Maggie said, coming forward when she saw her on the ground.

"She's fine, just unconscious," Alex said.

"You attacked your mom," Maggie said, still kneeling to check on Eliza. She seemed ok, just unconscious.

"Well, I killed my dad, so …" Alex shrugged, the red in her veins again glowing dark.

"Don't do that," Maggie said, standing up. "Don't act like it wasn't a big deal. Don't act like this doesn't affect you. If it didn't, I'm guessing your new arm tattoos there wouldn't be so red."

Alex looked down at her arms a moment and then at Maggie again – her eyes red once more.

"What do you plan on doing? Turn me in?" Alex said. "Or maybe you should just walk out. You are good at that."

"Is that what you want me to do?" Maggie said, stepping closer. "Do you want me to walk out of here? Walk out of your life?"

"You already did."

The red in Alex's eyes and arm began to dull and then they were back to normal. "You left me."

"I know," Maggie said, coming closer. "But I didn't want to. I never wanted to. I just needed you to stop. I needed you to see that what you were doing was keeping you from living your life, from being happy. Please Alex, just stop this."

"I can't," Alex said. "I can't stop. It's gone too far. You wouldn't understand."

"Then help me understand," Maggie responded and she again got closer. She could have reached out and touched Alex, but she didn't. "What is Xerxes?"

"Xerxes is the beginning of the end," Alex said.

"Yeah, that doesn't clear anything up. I'm going to need more information than that."

"That's all you are getting."

"No. Kara is going to be getting off work any minute now and she's going to come straight here to be with you, so you don't have much time. Now, I don't believe that you have done all of this without a purpose. I want to know what it is," Maggie said, getting right up in her face. "I'm all in. Ride or die."

Alex seemed to consider this and then she smiled.

"Ride or die? Ok, then. As crazy as this sounds, I'm going to need a boost," Alex said pointing at the vent.