Alex crawled out of the ventilation shaft and waited for Maggie to join her. She wasn't sure why she had agreed to this, but she also knew if she hadn't, that Maggie would have turned her in. A moment later Maggie dropped down from the vent.
"My car is this way," Maggie said.
"What time is it?" Alex asked. "Because it seems a little late in the evening."
"It's like almost 2 in the morning so yeah I lied about Kara," Maggie said. "Just consider it something else you can hold against me."
"Let's get out of here," Alex said, walking in her bare feet to where the car was.
Once they got in the car and Maggie started to drive, she asked where she should be heading to. "I don't suppose you have a plan B for avoiding Kara?"
"No, I don't," Alex said as she stared out the window. "But soon it won't matter."
Maggie pulled the car over. "What does that mean?"
"Keep driving."
"No, not until you explain that comment."
"Drive and I will," Alex said.
Maggie put the car in gear and waited for Alex to speak. She noticed the thoughtful look on Alex's face, and she wondered what was truly going through her mind.
"My father was working on a project at Cadmus codenamed Xerxes," Alex said. "It's sort of a weapon. It is designed to essentially poison the Earth to anyone who is not human, thus forcing all the aliens off-world. It will allow humanity to reclaim the Earth."
"Wait, when you say it won't soon matter does that mean this weapon is about to be used?"
"Yes."
"Then we need to get back to the DEO and figure out a way to stop this," Maggie said.
"No, we don't," Alex said. "It's going to happen."
"And you are just ok with this?" Maggie asked. "You are ok with your sister and others like her being forced off this planet. What did they do to you at Cadmus that you would even consider going along with this?"
Alex looked over at Maggie. "Cadmus didn't do anything to me," she said. "All Lillian Luther asked of me was that I listen. So that is exactly what I did."
Once she got to see Kara – albeit, on a screen, her father led her into another room where Lillian Luther was sitting behind a desk. "I'll leave you two to speak," he said to her. "We'll have dinner together once you are done."
Alex nodded and she took an offered seat from Lillian.
"I hope your reunion with your father is going well," Lillian smiled.
"It would be better if your guard dogs weren't following in our shadows," Alex responded.
"It's a precaution I'm sure you understand. I seriously doubt you would let me roam around the DEO unattended."
"I would not."
"See, we both understand the need to protect our business matters," Lillian said. "Now let's continue our conversation from the car shall we. Before you fell asleep, I was asking you what you think your life would be like if Kara hadn't come into it."
"What do you want me to say?"
"I want you to tell me the truth. Surely you must have thought about it," Lillian said. "I refuse to believe that you haven't."
"Yes, I have thought about it, but I don't see where it matters. Kara is in my life."
"Humor me then. Tell me what you think your life would be."
Alex knew Lillian was playing some sort of game with her, but she didn't see any choice but to play along.
"I don't know, I guess I would have become a doctor," Alex said. "Worked in some hospital as an ER doctor or maybe a surgeon."
"Do you think you would be married by now?" Lillian asked. "Had kids?"
"I doubt it."
"Why do you doubt it?"
"I don't think Kara being in my life would have had any effect on me figuring out I was gay," Alex said. "I don't see any connection between the two things."
"You don't do you?" Lillian smiled. "Because you can't fathom what your life would be like without her. You are a smart, determined woman. But you are also practical and know how to look at facts, so tell me, Alex, if Kara had never come into your life would you have lost your father like you did?"
Alex knew the answer to that, but she was loathed to admit it.
"Of course, it would be different," she said. "He left with the DEO because of their threat to Kara. But unless you have figured out a way to change time itself the fact is Kara did come into our lives and I did lose my dad so all of this conjecture speak isn't worth anything."
Lilian smiled wide, making Alex think she had made some sort of mistake.
"I haven't figured out how to change the timeline and forgive me for saying this, my concern isn't your life and how it turned out," Lillian said. "My concern is the next Alex, the next little girl whose life is changed because of the actions of an alien. That is who I'm looking to save."
Alex leaned forward in the chair. "Surely you realize that not all aliens are bad."
"Agreed," Lillian said. "You perceive Kara as being a good alien, yet you concede she has impacted how your life has turned out. My point is that none of them should be here. This is our planet with its limited resources and its problems. There are solvable problems I believe but we can't put our full efforts to that if we are dealing with issues resulting from these aliens."
"Forgive me for being cynical but we went years without knowing aliens were among us and it didn't help humanity solve its problems. Besides, if we as a world decided we didn't want the aliens here think of the limited resources we would have to waste to try and remove them," Alex said.
"And what if I told you there was a way for us to be rid of them without any strain on our resources?"
"Then I would be highly skeptical."
"Something tells me you are already but at least you are humoring me," Lillian said. "I know you are probably sitting there thinking just play along with her and sooner or later you will work out how to rescue your father and Kara."
"Pretty much," Alex said, seeing no reason at this point to deny it.
"What would it take for you to see that the harm aliens cause us outweighs any of your arguments for why they should stay?"
"I don't know that there is anything you could say or do," Alex said. "Because I assume whatever this plan of yours is involves a lot of killing and I don't want any part of that so if this is your big recruitment pitch then I think our conversation is at an end."
"There will be no killing. As long as the aliens leave Earth – there will be no killing."
Alex considered this and was curious as to where this was headed.
"How do you plan on doing this?"
"Xerxes," Lillian said. "It's your father's best work. Wait until you see it. It's beautiful."
"What is it?"
Lillian stood up, "Come on, let's go see it," she said.
Alex walked side by side with Lillian as they made their way back to her father's lab. Jeremiah was in there as if he was waiting for them to get there and maybe he had been.
"Show her," Lillian said.
Jeremiah hit a few buttons on the computer he was sitting in front of and brought up a file. Alex moved to stand beside him, and she watched as the screen changed. She bent down a little to get a closer look at it. It took her several moments to understand exactly what she was looking at and then she stood back up. "What bonding agent are you using?" she asked.
She didn't notice Lillian smile as Jeremiah turned toward her. "It's a synthetic version of kryptonite," he said. "It will ensure that no matter what the alien's DNA structure is, Xerxes will attach."
Alex continued to stand there, studying what she saw on the screen.
"You see Alex, we wouldn't have to kill anyone. We just have to make sure the Earth isn't hospitable for them anymore," Lillian said. "And that isn't all, we here at Cadmus even have developed ships which will take the aliens off this planet to wherever they wish as long as it isn't here. We aren't looking to eradicate them. This is a humanitarian mission."
"But this will kill them," Alex said.
"Only if they don't leave in time."
"How much time do they have once Xerxes is in them? And what is the delivery system?" Alex asked.
"No, you don't get that information yet," Lillian said. "You haven't earned it."
"And how do I earn it?"
"You need to cut ties with that alien you are so fond of," she said. "It's for the best, not just for you, but because Supergirl will be leaving with the others. She will be the first to be affected by Xerxes. She is the beginning of the end."
"Is Kara infected with this Xerxes?" Maggie asked.
"Yes," Alex answered. "It was implanted into her when Cadmus had her, but the incubation cycle is long. She was the perfect delivery system because with her Kryptonian DNA making her impervious, it's not like they could do a test on her even if they knew what to look for. By now though, the incubation cycle is over, and she will now infect any alien she comes in contact with – J'onn, the Fort Rozz prisoners, any aliens at the bar, Superman – it will spread and it will spread. But none of them know, not at first. No, Lillian Luther likes to be in control and ultimately she is the one who will activate Xerxes. I never found out exactly how she would do this when I was at Cadmus. That was the information I've been looking for."
"You found it?"
Alex nodded.
"What is it? How is she going to do this? What does this have to do with the Kryptonite in your system? Are you the delivery system?"
Alex shook her head no.
"The water supply. The controlling agent that will activate it was put into the National City water system two days ago. By this time tomorrow, Kara will begin to have symptoms. At first, it won't be anything more than a general malaise. Almost as if she had a cold or flu. But then it will progress and any food she eats, her body will reject. Her body won't be able to process the air she is breathing without difficulty. She will become weak and sick and so will all the others. Lillian will announce to the world that the only solution for them will be to leave Earth forever and offer them the ships to do it. Any who stay behind will die."
Maggie was stunned not only at what she was hearing but the flat voice in which Alex said it like she was reciting some facts instead of talking about her sister dying. She also noticed Alex looked tired, beaten down and she appeared to be sweating again. Maggie was beginning to regret letting her leave the DEO – but she hoped maybe by going with her, Maggie could make her see reason.
Now she was beginning to think Alex was beyond all reason.
"Why didn't you tell anyone about this, warn them, warn Kara?" Maggie asked.
"Because my father told me not to," Alex said turning to her. "Right before I shot him, he told me he loved me. He looked right at me, knowing I was going to do it, and he told me he loved me. How could I not do what it was that he asked of me?"
"Because he is asking you to let Kara die and a whole host of others die. Why? Why would you choose to kill him over Kara if you knew that it was all going to lead to her possible death anyway? Because you know Kara, she's not going to leave on some ship. She will stay and fight Cadmus until the very end. Tell me why."
Alex didn't say anything just continued to stare out her window. Maggie pulled the car over once more and put it in park. "Damn it, Danvers, talk to me," she said. "Tell me what is going on in that head of yours. Tell me why any of this. What did your father do to you?"
Alex turned to face her, her eyes were red again, as were her arms and neck.
"My father did what he had to do, which is what I am doing," Alex said. "I had to leave the DEO because they would have taken it out of me and I can't have that happen. I need it to be inside me. It needs me."
"I am two seconds away from calling Kara and hauling you back to the DEO if you don't start giving me some real answers," Maggie said.
"Take me home," Alex said, slumping down in her seat. "Just please do this one last thing for me. Take me home."
"I'm not taking you home," Maggie replied. "I'm taking you back to the DEO."
"No, you won't," Alex smiled. "You will take me home just like I asked. Ride or die, remember?"
"No, we're done with that," Maggie said, putting the car in gear, but Alex touched her arm to stop her.
"My father created Xerxes' bonding agent with synthetic Kryptonite. But to ensure it wouldn't harm humans he had to use human DNA in it," Alex said. "He used his own. When he realized what he created, he was horrified but it was too late because Lillian had seen it already. Dad decided to work on a counter agent, but he didn't have a lot of time. Like with Xerxes, the counter agent needed an incubation period. But he was in a hurry and he made mistakes and it started to kill the first human host it was placed in. There was no way to stop it from killing the host. Dad refused to give up though. He wasn't going to be the cause of some mass genocide, but he needed another host in order to try again, a specific one – one with a close DNA match to the original host.
"You," Maggie said.
Alex nodded.
"So the original host was … " Maggie asked.
"My dad."