…
Maggie tried not to be nervous but that was impossible as she lay there getting ready to go through the MRI machine. She knew Alex was in the next room with Lena to observe. Lena had made all the arrangements needed for her to get these tests done to see if they could discover what was going on in her head.
Alex had been nothing but supportive with her, which only served to make Maggie feel more guilty for shooting her.
Both of them were eager for the MRI results to see what was wrong with her. Maggie trusted that if there was anything to find, Lena would find it. She had told them both about what she had experienced in the parking garage where she had seen – or thought she saw and heard Alex. Lena was concerned about it because if she was hallucinating then it went beyond simple memory loss.
Alex was also concerned about it too Maggie could tell, but she stayed silent about it.
The MRI would take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes and Maggie hoped it would lend itself to some answers.
"Are you ready?" Lena asked.
"Yes."
"Ok, remember just try and stay relaxed," she instructed.
"And I'm right here," Alex added. "Don't worry, we'll get this figured out."
"Yeah, if nothing else so I don't shoot you again," Maggie joked.
"Or I will just start wearing bulletproof clothing," Alex said. "You aren't getting away from me that easy."
"Alright, Maggie, we're going to get started," Lena said.
Maggie was loaded into the MRI and she tried to take calming breaths even if she didn't feel calm. The machine began to run and Maggie closed her eyes. Even with the earplugs in she could hear the machine and hear Alex and Lena if needed.
She wasn't sure how long she had been there when she heard it. She wasn't even sure she heard it at first until it repeated, but the second time she heard it more clearly, "Maggie."
"Alex?"
"I'm still here," Alex replied. "Are you ok?"
But immediately, Maggie realized there was a difference in what she just heard. That last one was Alex speaking to her from the other room. The Alex she heard say her name was fainter, less defined.
"Yes, I'm ok," Maggie said. "Guess just wanted reassurance you were still there."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Maggie," came the faint voice again. "It's Alex, Maggie. I need you to listen to me. Evo, he's …"
Maggie strained to listen for more, but it was like it suddenly cut off.
"Um guys, it happened again," Maggie called out.
"What?" Lena asked.
"I heard something like someone was talking to me," Maggie said. "Like before in my car."
"What was it?"
"It sounded like Alex again."
"Ok, just stay calm, the MRI isn't complete yet," Lena said.
Stay calm, easier said than done, Maggie thought, Lena wasn't the one hallucinating. She was beginning to worry more and more – what if this was a brain tumor or something fatal. She hadn't had enough time to do all the things she wanted – all the firsts she wanted to experience with Alex.
Stop it, she told herself. Stop jumping to conclusions. She had the two smartest people she knew in her corner – Lena and Alex – and they would do anything in their power to make sure she was ok.
She just needed to have faith.
….
"Put me back under," Alex demanded. She had been forced out of Maggie's mind once again, and she needed to get in there to free her from Evo's grip.
She had woken the first time to find Maggie asleep on a bed near hers and Lena and Kara there. While Lena worked, Kara explained how she had been sedated and how Lena had devised a way for Maggie to possibly help her free herself from Evo's grip and in turn trap Evo in this artificial brain.
But almost from the beginning, something went wrong. Once Maggie was in, Evo immediately detached from Alex's brain waves and bonded with Maggie before Lena could do anything. Once he was bonded with Maggie, Alex had woken up.
Immediately though, she had Lena put her back under so she could try and do for Maggie what Maggie had attempted to do to help her. She had thought she was getting through to Maggie once and then suddenly she was awake once more. Then she had Lena sedate her again so she could try, but again she failed.
"No," Lena said. "Not until I recalibrate. You haven't gotten through yet and you keep getting kicked right back out. I know you want to do everything you can to save Maggie, but this isn't it. Besides, I can't keep sedating you over and over again. Your body needs a chance to recover."
"She's right," Kara said. "Let her work."
Alex looked at her sister a moment and then left the room entirely, but Kara followed her.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to see him."
Kara grabbed her to force her to stop. "I don't think you should. It's not going to accomplish anything," Kara said. "He's playing games with you and with Maggie. Don't you see, he wants you to come to him, just like he wanted Maggie to. You're playing into his hands."
"I don't care," Alex said shrugging her off. "I told her. I told her she had to stay away. He wanted her just like he wanted me. I won't let him do to her what he did to me."
"What did he do to you?" Kara said. "You haven't exactly said."
Alex looked away from her. "I don't want to talk about it."
"You can't keep holding it inside you forever," Kara said. "Evo said he chose you because you were vulnerable. You said it yourself, your feelings for Maggie make you vulnerable and he is playing on that now. From the looks of it, you also make Maggie vulnerable."
Alex made eye contact with her sister. "I still love her," she said. "Every day, I wake up and I think maybe this will be the day that the feelings just disappear, but they don't. And every day, I wake up and I think I made a mistake."
"You wanted to have a child, Maggie didn't," Kara said.
"I know, I know, but I don't want a family if it doesn't include Maggie," Alex said. "I want to be with her."
"But what about children?" Kara asked.
"I don't know," Alex said, shaking her head. "I just don't know. I don't have an answer to that. And I don't know that it matters because I don't know that Maggie would even be willing to consider getting back in a relationship with me. And right now, all the matters right now is freeing her from him, so you can get in my way, you can try to stop me, but I'm going to talk to him."
Alex waited to see what her sister was going to do and for a moment there she thought Kara was going to physically stop her.
"You need to rest," Kara said. "You need to recover, but I also know you won't, so if you are going to speak with him, I'm at least going with you."
"I need to speak to him alone."
"No. I'm not going to let that happen. J'onn won't let that happen."
"Kara, I can't have an audience for this," Alex said. "I can't … He's been in my mind. No matter what I tried I couldn't keep him out of the parts of me that … there are things that I don't want others knowing and he knows them, so please just let me handle this."
"Ok," Kara relented. "But under one condition. After you speak with him you rest."
Alex did feel exhausted, mostly mentally, but she didn't want to delay trying to reach Maggie.
"I will rest when this is over," Alex said, before walking away.
She went down to where Evo was being held, confident that Kara would go straight to J'onn to tell him what she was doing. She didn't expect J'onn to stop her, but she did expect he would have words for her afterward.
When she had woken only to find Evo gone from her mind, she felt a sense of relief like she had never felt before, but that was shattered when she learned that Evo was now in Maggie's mind. From the start of this, Evo had been fascinated by Maggie and Alex had tried to keep her out of this, but it hadn't worked. Each time Maggie interacted with Evo, it was like Evo was getting a shot of euphoria. At first, Alex had thought it was merely a reflection of her feelings for Maggie. Evo knew Alex was still in love with her and he used that against her while he was in her mind. It wasn't until he again asked Maggie to come to see him so that she could rest that Alex realized that Evo had become obsessed with Maggie.
And it was all her fault.
He wouldn't even know about Maggie if it weren't for the fact that Alex was nowhere near getting over her.
Ever since the day she had broken things off with Maggie she had felt regret over the decision and it only seemed to get worse with time. When she had woken after her "death" and gone after Evo, the moment he said detective and Alex had looked to see her there, she had felt the violation of her mind even more.
Now she was worried that Maggie was going through something similar to what she had. She wasn't arrogant enough to think that it had much to do with her. Despite Maggie appearing at the DEO to say goodbye to her when she was dying and even her continued contact with Evo wasn't enough for Alex to believe that Maggie was being mindfucked by images of her. No, Evo had let her know that it wasn't her breakup with Alex that hurt the most it was her what her parents had done to her and Alex would do everything in her power to keep Maggie from reliving that hurt.
Alex made one stop before making her way down to the cells and didn't even pause as she entered the room where Evo was being held.
"Miss me already?" Evo said to her. But he no longer had her form. No, he now looked like Maggie.
She raised the gun she had picked up from where she kept her spare in her office.
Evo smiled – but Alex knew him well enough now that she wasn't distracted by seeing him in Maggie's form.
"We're going to end this," she said.
"You could have ended it long before this," Evo said. "We didn't have to get this far Alexandra. Not that I'm complaining mind you. This has been more fun than I have had in a long time. And Maggie, well, she is everything I hoped for."
Alex moved toward the cell and to the right. She inputted her code into the lock and the cell opened.
"Come on," Alex said, stepping back.
"Are you going to take me out somewhere to shoot me?" Evo asked. "Could you even bring yourself to do that while I am in this form? Besides, I already explained to you that if you kill me while I'm in someone's mind – just as it was for you – then you won't be killing me. I will continue to exist within Maggie if you do this."
"Step out of the cell," she ordered.
With a smile on his face, he took a couple of steps out while she backed up.
"Now what Alexandra?"
"You're going to touch me," she said. "You are going to do whatever you did before. You are going to touch me and go back into my mind and leave hers."
"But Maggie and I are having so much fun."
"You are going to do this," she said. "I don't have to kill you to make it hurt. You are going to go back into my mind. Take my form. And you are going to walk out of here. You know enough from me to know how to get down to the garage and how to get a vehicle to leave here."
"You're releasing me?"
"Yes, but not until you get out of Maggie's mind."
"You know what I will do out there in the world," he said. "You know there will be other victims."
"I don't care," she said. "If I have to die, I will, but you aren't going anywhere until you free Maggie's mind."
"And what is to prevent me from going after her once you are dead. Or her coming after me once you are dead," he said. "Do you think she would allow me to walk free after I'm responsible for your death? Do you not understand that the feelings are still there on her part? She still loves you, Alexandra. Do you know what I'm making her see inside her mind? She thinks you two are married. She thinks you two got past the whole baby thing and that you are happily married. You two even have a dog named Gertrude. You of all people know how real I can make things in there. Surely, you haven't forgotten the world I created for you in there."
Alex took a step back and the gun wavered a moment in her hand before she tightened her grip.
"That is why you are going to make it stop for her," Alex said.
"You are thinking about this all wrong," Evo said. "Don't you see, all you have to do is let me go. I leave and I find another victim and leave Maggie's mind. You didn't die for me to get Maggie, so there is a way that doesn't require death. All you have to do is show me how it is done and I can stop the killing altogether. She will be fine, you will be fine. And the two of you can be together. The seed is already planted in Maggie's mind. I told you before I could help you get her back."
"I don't want her back, not like that," Alex said.
"You don't get her back without me," Evo said.
"Then I don't want her back," Alex said. "Now let's do this. You come over here and you touch me and get back in my mind."
"No," Evo said and he backed up into the cell once more – it closed automatically. He smiled at her. "I'm not done having my fun. And it's fun in here. Don't worry, you're still my favorite Alexandra. Maybe I will take you up on your offer after I've had some fun with Maggie. Right now, she needs her wife to be there for her."
Alex glared at him as she approached the cell. "If you don't stop this, I will destroy you. I will find a way," she said.
"Good luck," he smiled.
Alex turned and left the room – as soon as she did she found herself face to face with J'onn.
"We can't let him go," J'onn said.
"You read my mind," she said. "Thanks for that. It's not like I haven't been violated already."
"Alex," J'onn said. "You aren't thinking straight. He is a murderer and we can't let him loose."
"But Maggie …"
"I know," he stopped her. "I know you want to do everything you can to help her, but this isn't the answer. You know it's not. We will find a way to help Maggie."
She smirked and shook her head. "You couldn't help me, so what makes you think we will find some magical answer to this now. You have no idea what he is capable of," she said.
"No, we don't because you haven't been forthcoming this entire time," J'onn said. "Now I'm not going to pretend that any of this has been easy for you. I'm not even saying you need to tell us what you experienced, but there must be something that you can tell us that will help us."
"I don't though," she said. "I have no idea how to defeat him."
"There must be a way though. He was brought into custody and given over to the Kryptonians, so there must be a way."
"I do not know," Alex insisted. "If I did, I would have done it by now. The problem is that once he is in a person's mind, he is there until the person dies, or in my rare case, he was able to leave my mind because he attached to Maggie."
"What does he want though?"
"He wants you to feel," Alex shrugged. "He will push every button he can to make you feel something – anything and that is how he gets his energy. But it's not just feeling, it's like he wants to experience it with you as well."
"Maggie said something similar after speaking with him," J'onn said.
"You should never have let her do that," Alex said. "You should have listened to me when I warned you."
"Maybe I should have," J'onn said. "But Maggie wanted to help, she wanted to help you. You weren't with her when you died, I was. I felt her anguish. It was as if a part of her died with you. What she did, going under sedation to try and rescue you, she did because she had to – she couldn't have lived with herself if she didn't try to do everything she could to save you."
"Then don't ask me to do less," Alex said.
"I wouldn't expect you to do less, but I do expect you to be smart about it," he replied. "And that in there was not smart. You say he needs emotions, well then find a way to deny him of those. Starve him."
Alex looked from the door to J'onn. "Maybe the answer isn't starving him," she said suddenly. "I need to speak to Lena."
…
Alex was trying to wait patiently as Lena paced back and forth to consider the plan that Alex had just pitched to her. The pacing had been going on for several minutes and with each minute that passed, Alex was becoming increasingly agitated. She thought she had made it clear to Lena that they were pressed for time – that they needed to save Maggie.
Lena paused for a moment and Alex was hopeful, but then she began pacing once more.
"Lena …"
Lena put her hand up to indicate she wasn't ready for Alex to speak yet.
The pacing continued.
Finally, Lena stopped. "While I can appreciate the logic of what you are proposing, I'm not sure it is entirely feasible," she said. "Not without possible harm to you or Maggie."
"Maggie is already being harmed by whatever Evo is doing to her inside there," Alex said. "As for me, I don't care what the risk is. You said it yourself, what I propose is logical."
"You want me to put you back in sedation and boost your brain waves so that you can use that to force Evo out, but you don't know what that could result in," Lena said. "Yes, you explained that Evo had issues in the past with his powers and it being too much for him to handle, but he has found a way around that."
"Yes, but his way around it is being a psychic vampire," Alex said. "He needs to feel what his victims are feeling. He needs it to keep the pain at bay that he would feel otherwise. But if we made him feel too much then we might have a chance of getting him to let go of Maggie's mind. I think this is our best shot."
"We have no idea what that might do to Maggie," Lena said.
"It's better than whatever she is experiencing in there," Alex said.