Chapter 15
When the Flash and Supergirl had dealt with the Joker just a few days earlier, they were understandably unsettled by this madman, and they were blessed with superpowers. Scully had none, and given the scenario she was in, she had every reason to be rendered senseless.
She was surprised to find out how calm she was. Given how many times she had been taken prisoner during her first decade at the Bureau, more often than not by creatures far more dangerous than this, this situation was almost old hat. Hell, when you got right down to it, the Joker was 'just' another psychopath, albeit one with more of a taste of the theatrical.
Granted that playing games with him was extremely dangerous – she knew very well that lesser men and women had been driven mad by their dealings with him. Then again, so many of the people who'd gone after him made the mistake of going on the attack. Scully thought she knew enough from her experiences that she might know the right things to say.
"Given everything they went through to get me here, I honestly thought the Syndicate would try a little harder," she said in as casual a tone as she could muster.
The Joker raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry to disappoint, "he said calmly. "Want to see a magic trick?"
"Not particularly," Scully told them. "Bear in mind, I've seen things that really show just how fake the best magicians were."
She expected him to get angry. Instead, he nodded. For the first time, Scully wondered if this was the right approach. The Joker had engaged in a lifelong struggle with the Batman primarily because he found him 'interesting'. Getting her to appear on his radar as more than a to-do list was a bad idea, considering his habit of going after those people's loved ones.
But what the hell; he'd probably been briefed by the Syndicate on who she and Mulder were and he had to have a good idea who William was to them. If you were going to poke the clown, you might as well do it when you have friends with superpowers.
"You know," the Joker said casually. "Over the years I've been profiled by the best, some of whom have not exactly enjoyed what they found out. I'm actually intrigued to know what the FBI thinks my motivation is."
"Don't you get it?" Scully told him. "You do the things you do because you're a homicidal maniac."
The Joker considered this. "I see. That does make a lot of sense. Everything's really coming together now. Would you mind just dropping a line to the Bat? Probably save him a lot of headaches if he just knew this."
"You really don't understand us," Scully told him. "Given what we know about him, he may very well be crazier than you are."
Again, the Joker just nodded. "That is quite possible. It was pretty clear right out he had well, quite a few bats in the belfry even before we started dancing together. Little surprised every time I do my little stints in Arkham he's never walked up in for a tune-up."
"I've seen how lousy security is there," Scully was kind of amazed how sane this conversation seemed to be. "Maybe he takes the mask off and goes in as an outpatient."
"Well, given the amount of injuries he goes through on a nightly basis, he probably has better health insurance then I do." The Joker said almost thoughtfully. "But then again, this is the Gotham justice system. You get what you pay for, and no one really has any interest in seeing me and my friends come out sane."
This had actually been a topic of discussion more than once between Mulder and Scully. Given that Gotham City's crime rate had gone up by the largest margin of any of the cities where vigilantes or superheroes had taken up residence, and given that of all of the heroes the Batman was still considered almost as psychotic as the criminals he locked up, both of them had agreed that there needed to be a major overhaul of the entire justice and healthcare system. Gotham might have been one of the most corrupt cities prior to Batman's arrival, but now it was filled with more psychotics than almost any city in the world, and that was after you learned that one of the men who'd once run Arkham was one of the most wanted criminals in it. Most of the corrupt cops and low-level criminals were gone; had it migrated into the justice system itself?
"But seriously," The Joker asked again. "You're in the Bureau. From what I understand, your job is to profile people who are like me. You're not the least bit curious to know who the man behind the makeup is?"
Scully almost forgot where she was at the moment. Was the Clown Prince honestly asking her opinion on what drove him? Had he been so involved the dance he did with Batman and the Gotham PD that he actually wanted an outside opinion? Was there some twisted part of him that wanted appreciation, however misplaced, for his work?
"If I told you the truth, would you be more inclined to just let me and the hostage go?" she asked.
The Joker considered this. "If I said I was, would you honestly think I was telling the truth?"
This time she didn't hesitate. "Not for a microsecond."
"Good girl," the Joker whispered in what seemed to be admiration. "You know I'd normally be aggravated that I might be losing my touch, but I guess when you deal with aliens, vampires, werewolves and witches, even a monster like me is kind of…pedestrian."
"I can assure you, no one in the FBI would dare consider you pedestrian," Scully told him.
It was really hard to tell under all that makeup, but the Joker seemed to be just the slightest bit…touched by this revelation. "You spent as much time where I do, among the company that I do, and you kind of lose track of what its all for," he said quietly. "I'll admit my relationship with him is sick, but I have a feeling neither one of us would be who we are without the other. I can't tell you how many chances he's had to kill me but hasn't."
"More chances then you've had to kill him?" Scully asked.
It was clear by now most of the armed men were growing uncomfortable with this discussion. They had expected terror, not a therapy session.
"It balances out," The Joker said matter-of-factly. "I'm a monster – even I'm not crazy enough to say I'm not - but in Gotham that comes with the territory. I just have a slightly higher body count. But I don't have to tell you that. "
There was little point arguing that. She'd seen the footage from Gotham. "Honestly, I might be a little more unnerved if the Penguin or Two-Face or that guy who thinks he's God had shown up."
"Maxie Zeus," The Joker said helpfully. "And he just thinks he's the king of the Greek gods. Now that guy's certifiable."
"Don't get me wrong, on the inside I'm peeing my pants and wonder if I'll get out of this alive. Your reputation, after all, does precede you." Scully told him. "But forgive me for saying this; once you've seen your partner transform into another man in front of your eyes and bash your head against a wall, it really takes a lot to shock you."
The Joker, strangely enough, didn't seem insulted. "I knew it was a mistake for me to come out here." He sounded strangely melancholy. "I told them; sometimes you have to send a metahuman to do a man's job, even if that man is yours truly. But that's really the problem with that woman. To her, one psychopath is just like the other."
Of all the possible scenarios that Scully could have imagined when this had started, this was not one that she had expected. She still wasn't ruling out that this was all some kind of reverse psychology – she knew very well what happened to one psychiatrist who had made this same mistake. But they'd been talking for nearly ten minutes, and the Joker hadn't even come close to drawing a weapon. Hell, he sounded more rational than most of the people she'd had to deal with at the Syndicate, which in itself was terrifying by the implications. "Why did she send you?" she asked. "Did they really intend to kill me?"
"If they'd wanted to do that, they could've done that when you walked in here," the Joker pointed out. "No, she said she wanted me to use do the head games on you I've been playing on the Bat all these years. 'Head games!' He actually sounded offended at this. "Honestly, she doesn't appreciate what I do anymore than he does. You know, I feel so…used."
"If you're looking for me to boy you up, I'm not going to," Scully reminded him.
The Joker waved his left hand dismissively. "I'm sorry. This isn't working. Would you mind coming outside?"
As weird as this conversation was, Scully really didn't want to go anywhere with this man, especially with her son. "And he can come too?" she asked casually.
"He's got to be more tired of being here than I am," The Joker looked at the soldiers. "Cut him loose."
If the mercenaries had been uncomfortable before, they were genuinely shocked now. "We do have orders."
The Joker shook his head. "That's the one thing I miss about Gotham. The help was better. When you gave an order they did it." He took out a knife. "I'm sure you've all been briefed about how handy I am with this when I'm annoyed. Well, right now I'm getting annoyed. Let him go."
This clearly terrified them and they all but ushered William and Scully to the entrance. As soon as they were out the door, the Joker removed a cell phone. "You mind staying there until I get an okay from the boss lady?"
None of them seemed particularly bothered by that. Scully was. She very carefully edged William nearly twenty feet away.
The moment after the Joker hit the last button, the hotel room exploded. About three seconds after that, Barry showed up.
The Joker didn't seem particularly disturbed by either of these events. Instead, he took out the knife he'd been playing with.
And tossed it to Scully.
She got the message and began to cut William loose.
Barry now seemed baffled.
"I realize you have a lot of questions. That's actually one of the reasons I like you more than the man in the mask." The Joker seemed remarkably calm. "But in about two minutes there are going to be a bunch of lunatics with guns around here, and they're going to cause no end of trouble for all of us. So I suggest you make like a tree and get out of here."
"You're just going to let us go?" Barry was a smart guy, but he was having trouble processing this.
"It has already been established that the most I could do to you is annoy you a little," The Joker was actually starting to sound irked. "The people who are on their way, they are more than prepared to handle people like you. Now I'm well aware I have a credibility gap the size of the Grand Canyon, but we all know this is the rare time you don't have to believe me to know I'm telling the truth. Now I'm getting angry and you wouldn't like me... no, that's not my line."
"Can we just get the hell out of here? Now?" Scully insisted.
Barry needed no second bidding and carried them to the state line.
Before he got them back to Central City, he couldn't help but stop. "What the hell did you say to him?"
"Mostly I listened."
Barry still couldn't process this. "And that was enough?" he said unbelievably.
"Honestly," Scully told him. "I think he was looking for something he never got in Gotham City."
"Which is?"
"An impartial opinion of his work."
1:16 AM
After about half an hour, they had reached their destination. And even though Mulder knew he'd never been here before, there was something vaguely familiar about it. It took him a moment to remember something from the youth of Lex Luthor to put it together.
"Am I going to meet the Great Bald Monster before you open up my skull?" he asked as they led him out of the car.
"His mother gave us the pass-codes," Fowley said. "Trust me, if he knew we were anywhere near this place, we'd be dead soon after you were."
"I guess parental issues are just how the Syndicate rolls, no matter who's in charge," Mulder said sadly.
"You of all people should appreciate that. It's why you're here after all." Fowley was back to sounding sympathetic again, but Mulder had no reason to trust a word coming out of her mouth.
"Besides, considering who's helping you, there was an added bonus to having this location available," Fowley said casually.
And then it hit Mulder. That was why they were here. Lex Luthor had spent a substantial amount his youth in Kansas. An area that had been ground zero for the harvesting of all forms of kryptonite.
"Just take me," Mulder said. "You don't need to hurt her."
"Always trying to play savior, right up the end," Fowley looked at him. "You're the one whose mantra was always 'trust no one'. If the Girl of Steel is foolhardy enough to try and rescue you, then the Project will get an added bonus. Who knows, it may advance the course of our research by long enough to actually save the world. Now there's an epitaph you should be proud to have on your tombstone, Fox."
"I've been part of your experiments," Mulder was starting to struggle now. "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Which at this point, you're coming close to taking the title."
"That's actually something he said once," Fowley remarked. "That we know the best measure of ourselves by the enemies we have. Who would've thought in your final moments you would be reduced to quoting Lex Luthor himself?" Her view of him was now dismissive. "I've already been through this before. I think I've earned the right not to go through your final minutes again." She turned to one of the mercenaries. "Notify me when it's done."
"Need a light?"
Diana Fowley didn't seem remotely surprised to see that Supergirl was waiting when she was standing in one of the fields with a cigarette in her hand.
"I guess you people do learn after awhile," Supergirl said quietly.
"It's the government," Diana said calmly. "And the easiest part of the bureaucracy is why bother creating new material when you can just harvest the old one. The Luthors have always known the value of kryptonite. So when you cut off our supply, Lillian remembered where her husband sent her son. She didn't even have to do any real digging, so to speak."
"How'd you know I'd come for Mulder and not the Flash?"
"We didn't. We drew up alternative strategies in case you switched on us," Diana said. "Well, since you're here, you've no doubt tried to X-ray the building for Mulder's location and found out that the entire building has been lined with lead. You also are no doubt aware of the security codes it takes to get the building open and that they can only be activated by a member of the Syndicate. Which has brought you here."
"Let me guess: Reloaded was your favorite of The Matrix movies," Supergirl said. "All exposition, no action."
"It was a disappointing trilogy with some action and no plot at all," Diana pointed out. "But nevertheless, I'm guessing you're going to try and make me explode if I don't go along with what you want."
"Normally, I have a very strict moral code," Supergirl told her. "Given everything that has happened since I've been introduced to you and your colleagues," and suddenly she was right next to her, "I'm seriously considering breaking it."
Even now, Fowley seemed utterly unperturbed. "I'm glad to see you're starting to learn how the game is played," she said calmly. "But you still apparently haven't been fully briefed on the players."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"For starters," Fowley said. "I don't smoke."
And with that, she smashed the cigarette in Supergirl's face. A cigarette, Kara realized too late, that had green flecks in it.
"This is an especially prepared brand," Fowley told her. "And as you can clearly see, it ain't menthol."
Kara tried to close her mouth, but even then she knew it might be too late already.
"All these years we've known of Kryptonite and its powers," Fowley said casually. "And not even the Luthors ever got close enough to see what happened if you or your cousin inhaled it."
Kara felt pain in a way she never had when she'd been exposed to kryptonite. She'd only felt it for a few moments but she was already started to feeling like she couldn't get enough air.
"You should be honored. You're finally going to answer a question that's never been answered. What happens when the Kryptonite gets into your bloodstream? How long will it take for the full effect? Days? Hours? Or will it have the same effect on you that exposure to radiation has on the rest of us mere mortals? Hell, at least we'll have figured out how to kill one rogue alien."
At that moment, Fowley's phone began to buzz. She looked at it, and for the first time since she'd grabbed Mulder that night, her composure faltered. Indeed, she paled a little. She got on her radio. "Get Mulder packed up."
"We've just got him on the table."
"The motel room we were holding William in just blew up, and neither he nor Scully was in it at the time. Which means that any second now…"
Almost as if on cue, The Flash appeared on scene.
"Give it up, Fowley. You've lost." Barry said.
"Not quite." Fowley was trying to maintain her façade. "You might want you look at your friend."
Barry turned and was shocked. Kara had fallen to the ground. Her veins were all exposed, and there were green pustules on her skin. Her eyes were orbs of red. And it looked like parts of her skin were starting to burn off. It looked like she'd been at ground zero of an atom bomb exploding.
He looked up, and Fowley had made it to her car. Even though it went against every nature in his soul, he ran over to her.
In the seconds it had taken, she looked like she had regained control. "My terms, Fastest Man Alive. You let me go; I let you rescue your friends."
"And what makes you think I won't just snap your neck?" Barry said in a tone he wasn't sure he'd ever used.
"My insurance policy." Fowley held up a timer. "In exactly one minute, the building we're keeping Mulder in will explode. The Luthors really didn't want to share. I know you're fast. You might save her. You might even be able to save him. What you can't do is do that and stop me all at the same time."
For an instant, Barry seriously considered just putting his hand through Fowley's chest, the same way Zoom had killed his father. What stopped him was not any desire for mercy, but because he genuinely didn't know how much his delay would cost Kara. Hell, it might already be too late.
"You will pay for this," he said, and dashed off.
Fowley got in her car, and hit the gas. "Sorry, boys," she said as she left.
Barry started to vibrate and made it through the wall. He found Mulder with less than ten seconds to spare. As he dashed out of the building, he grabbed Kara and started running even faster than he had with Scully. He could feel the heat of the explosion as he grabbed her.
He realized that for the first time he left people behind to die. And was a little horrified that for the first time, he couldn't bring himself to care.
DEO SCIENCE LAB
4:35 AM
Alex was using every bit of her power to keep her eyes fixed on life support. It hadn't changed since Barry had brought her sister her twenty-four hours earlier and there wasn't much hope that it would improve at all, but she knew that she had to keep looking. Because that was the only thing keeping her going.
Everyone had known that the only chance Kara had was using the technology that was at the DEO. They'd been studying the effects of kryptonite for the last five years and had some of the most advanced scientific discoveries in the history of civilization. If anything could save her, it was her.
Unfortunately, the prognosis was not good. Supergirl had ingested kryptonite. If it had been the size of one of the meteors, she would've been dead even before Barry could bring her back to STAR Labs. But the level of exposure was roughly the same of a similar human being exposed to polonium; unless an effective treatment could be found, Kara would be dead in a matter of days.
To try and slow the progression of the exposure, Kara had been put in a medically-induced coma an hour after she had arrived. In a horrible way, this was a blessing. The exposure had left her in a condition that Alex had never seen her sister in; excruciating pain. She'd done her best to hold it in when she'd been brought here, but she had still let loose a scream that had shattered every glass surface in the DEO.
Everyone agreed that the only way to save Kara was to get the kryptonite out of her blood. They'd since begun filtering it and it was having some effect. The problem was it was taking too long and it didn't solve the problem of how devastated her immune system would be once it was gone. Alex didn't care if Supergirl still existed after this. All she wanted for her sister to live.
"It never gets easier." Alex didn't move her eyes as Mulder sat down beside her. "I can't tell you how many times Scully and I spent at each others bedside."
"What did you do?" Alex asked.
"Which time?"
"When Scully showed up in Georgetown, left near death, how did you save her?"
Mulder hesitated. "I didn't."
Alex was surprised. There was no official listing as to how Scully had recovered, but she had assumed something like the implant that cured her cancer was involved.
Mulder was now looking into the distance. "I spent hours raging against what happened to her, trying to do anything to save her. I brought her blood work to the Lone Gunmen. I chased a man who took a vial of Scully's blood into the garage and put a gun to his head. I found out where that bastard lived and stuck a gun in his mouth. Hell, I was going to resign from the Bureau. All of this was to avoid what I knew was going to happen."
None of this was in the file. "What was going to happen?"
"Scully was in a vegetative state, and her own advanced directive stated no extraordinary measures. I'd signed it the first year we worked together. Scully was going to die, and all I could think of was making someone pay. Then I was given a choice."
Alex needed to hear this story. "What choice?"
"My informant – a man knew only as X – came to me and told me that he would 'give me the men who took her.' I was to be in my apartment in possession of evidence at 10:17 that night. 'They will be armed. You will be waiting. To defend yourself with terminal intensity."
For the first time in hours Alex turned her attention from the monitors. Mulder didn't seem like the bloodthirsty type. "Did you?"
"I was in my apartment that night. Someone knocked on the door. Someone I didn't want to hear from." He paused. "Melissa. All the time Scully was in that bed, Melissa was trying to find some warmth in all this. Dana tells me she was one those more spiritual, hippie types. And I just couldn't stomach it. She started in with it again, and I told her I didn't need her 'harmonic convergence crap.'
Mulder gave a small smile. "Then she got pissed for the first time. It was the first time I saw Dana in her. She knew I was in a very dark place, but that I had to stop thinking of myself and try to think of my partner who was going to die."
Even though she knew this wasn't how it ended, this wasn't quite the story she wanted to hear right now. "So you went to the hospital."
"I told her I didn't know if she was here, but that she didn't want to leave. And that she'd always had the strength of her beliefs. I stayed there all night." Mulder paused. "When I got back to my apartment, it had been wrecked. I just sat on my couch and wept. Maybe for the first time since Samantha had been declared missing."
"The next day, the phone rang. Scully was awake. She didn't remember a single thing from when she'd been taken. And for the first time since she came back, I just didn't care about what had happened to her. I was about to leave her to family when she said: 'Mulder. I had the strength of your beliefs.' Mulder looked quietly at her. "So even though it doesn't feel like you're doing anything to save your sister right now, you're doing exactly the right thing."
Alex looked a little befuddled. "I'm not used to just sitting around and doing nothing."
"It's the hardest thing I ever did." Mulder acknowledged. "I don't know what saved Scully that time. I didn't believe in a higher power back then, and I'm not sure I do even now. That said," he paused. "Scully said when she was in her coma, a woman named Nurse Owens came by her bedside to take care of her. To tell her that death was at arms reach, but it wasn't her time yet. She was very clear on that. When she regained consciousness, Scully asked if she could talk with Nurse Owens. Her attending told her that no one by that name had ever worked at that hospital."
Mulder got to his feet. "Your sister has spent the last year watching over the lives of the people of this planet and National City in particular. I don't think it's that outrageous to think that there might be something or someone out there who'll return the favor."
Mulder walked out of the room. And for the first time in hours, Alex Danvers looked away from the monitors and took her sister's hand.
"I'm not used to being in this position," Alex said softly. "Even before you became Supergirl, I was sure you'd outlive me. That's why I didn't you to be who you're supposed to be. It's always the older sister's job to protect the younger one. Even if the younger one is the Girl of Steel."
"You're going to fight this," she said with more strength than she'd had in more than a day. "And like every other fight you've been in, you're gonna kick its ass."
Mulder had been in this position more times than he could count. And he'd answered Alex's questions honestly. What he didn't want to tell her was that in all the years Scully and he had spent by the other's bedside that had been the only time he had let inaction be the wiser course. He'd always had to do something. And that had been Scully's attitude as well. When he'd been on life support with an alien virus in his veins and Skinner had taken him off it to protect Scully, she hadn't just waited around for him to recover. She'd pumped him full with anti-virals until the alien consciousness was dead. If she hadn't, there would've been an excellent chance that he'd be going around knocking the heads off innocent people. And he didn't think for a second that thoughts and prayers were going to stop the kryptonite flowing through her veins from eventually killing her.
Just as importantly, neither did his partner. Which is why she'd spent the last twenty-four hours – time, no doubt, she would have much rather spent with her son – working with the brightest minds they'd recruited to find a cure for Supergirl. And now, it looked as if they might finally have something. He just wasn't sure that he believed it would be as simple as what they were suggesting.
"You're saying we could save Kara's life with a blood transfusion?"
"We've been trying to filter the Kryptonite out of her blood, but we don't know how deeply her immune system has been compromised," Jonn told them. "The only thing that could reverse the effect would be to replenish it."
"And I assume you'd use Superman's to do so," Mulder said.
"We considered that when we heard about her exposure. But given how deeply it affected her, we don't know if it would work fast enough." Caitlin paused. "This is why we're considering an alternative."
Mulder may have been new to the world of metahumans, but he wasn't a fool. "You want to give her Barry's blood."
"Given his level of metabolism and how rapidly he recovers from injuries, it might very well have the kind of factors that would be able to restore Kara." Cisco told them. "We've been running some tests the last of couple of hours and it does seem like they're compatible."
"What's the downside?" Mulder asked. When no one answered immediately: "Considering the situation, if there were any harmful side effects you would've done it by now."
"There have been scenarios like this the past few years," Barry told them. "Exposure to my powers has been nearly fatal to people who've had a sample of it. And those were on ordinary humans. No one can even guess at what the long term side effects might be if Kara were to be exposed to anybody's blood that wasn't Kryptonian."
Mulder looked at Scully. "This isn't our decision to make. We have to ask Alex if she'll go along with it."
"Kara's her family, Mulder," Scully reminded him. "None of us can see particularly clearly when our family's near death."
"How long do you think Kara will last if we just keep doing what we're doing?" Mulder asked.
No one was really ready to answer this question. Finally Jonn did. "We've done everything medical science is capable of up to this point. But so far all it's done is buy us time. And even with our best efforts, Kara has maybe a few more hours."
"There are always consequences to these kinds of decisions," Scully reminded them. "I really hope we've considered the long-term effects."
Alex had listened to all this. "How big a transfusion would it take?" she asked.
"Hopefully, not more than a pint or two. But there is no science on this." Cisco paused. "And even if it works, there may be long term effects. Effects that we may never be able to reverse."
What everyone was saying without actually saying it was that the only reason they were going to be able to perform this transfusion now was because Kara's condition had made her skin able to be pierced by a hypodermic. If she got better and then worsened for any reason, the only thing that might make this possible to do it again was exposure to more kryptonite, which would in effect put them right back where they started.
Alex looked at Barry. "This is your life, too," she said simply.
"She's your sister," he countered. "Can you think of any other solution? Something we're not thinking of?"
Alex thought. "How long would it take you to get to the Arctic?"
FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE
It was only because of his speed that Barry hadn't frozen over a hundred times even in the five minutes it had taken to get here.
He'd seen some incredible things in the past two years, but seeing the sanctuary that Zor-El had been coming to for the last years was astonishing. He wished he had time to truly marvel in it than try and enter.
"Only those in the Line of El may pass through these doors."
The voice came from everywhere. Barry was reminded briefly of being in the Speed Force. "Your daughter is dying," he shouted.
There was a long pause. The enormous doors – doors that looked taller than Everest – opened. "Bring her here."
Barry didn't hesitate.
"Put her on the pedestal."
A blinding light filled the air. Suddenly the image of a woman who was clearly Kara's mother – Barry could see it in her features – appeared.
A pause that couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds but seemed like an eternity, passed. "Even if we were on our homeworld, there we could be nothing we could do. My daughter will pass soon."
The utter matter-of-factness of this statement cut even deeper than the Arctic winds. "There may be something I can do," Barry said in a much lower voice.
"No human, even one as gifted as you, has the capabilities to help her." Barry was beginning to get why Kara had such mixed feelings about her parentage. He also understood why Alex had been so loathe to consider this option until now.
"We believe there is a way that my blood can save her," Barry told her.
"Your impure blood will only hurt her in the long run," Again the cold, calculated voice.
"Isn't it worth trying?"
A much longer pause. "You have feelings for my daughter."
Denying it here and now seemed to be pointless. "Yes."
"They cloud your judgment. You can't see the consequences of your actions, however necessary that they may seem right now."
A logical argument was the furthest thing from Barry's mind. Nevertheless, he tried to make one. "An invading force is coming to this planet," he said slowly. "My friends and I are trying to stop it. It may already be too late, but without your daughter's help it will be impossible."
The longest pause yet. "This planet is incapable of withstanding invasion."
"It has before and it can again."
This time the pause was briefer. "If she recovers, she is to return alone."
Barry didn't think he could waste any more time, but he knew he might never get another chance. "Did you face this threat before?"
There was something different about the pause before her mother answered. "Sometimes you negotiate with a force of equal strength." Then the figure disappeared, as if it had already said too much.
Barry sped off, hoping that he wasn't about to make a serious mistake – or that he already had.
TWO DAYS LATER
Kara slowly opened her eyes to see her sister looking down on her.
"I must've come really close this time," she said. "Because you're squeezing my hand hard enough for it to hurt."
Alex smiled softly. "I think the Syndicate keeps getting smarter," she said carefully. "They keep having contingency plans for their contingency plans."
"She got away."
"I figured you'd ask about that first," Alex said. "She sacrificed four of her own men and God knows how much of the Luthor technology to make her escape. And it looks like she was more than willing to use her ex-lover to be one of the dead."
"Sadly that's nothing new." Mulder walked into the room. "I don't think Hallmark makes an appropriate card for 'I nearly left you die from kryptonite poisoning.' Though clearly at this point, they should."
"Maybe we can ask the DAO gift shop to make one," Alex said.
"You were trying to save your son," Kara reminded him. "Let me remind you we more or less insisted that we come along for the ride. If anything, this is my fault for not letting you be the sacrificial lamb."
"The world kind of needed Supergirl more than it needed me, all arguments to the contrary," Mulder said. "We can change your cape for a hairshirt later, if you insist. We've just got to me more careful going forward."
"What exactly did it take to fix me this time?" Kara asked.
"Barry, on two fronts." Mulder then explained what had happened both in Kansas and here.
"Well, at least it worked." Kara said slowly.
"Until the inevitable side effects." The Danvers sisters' looks of daggers didn't change Mulder's expression. "Hey I may be new to this whole superhero club, but eight years on the X-Files that whenever an ordinary human being gets exposed to supernatural powers, the effects are devastating, usually to the people involved, always to the people who get in their way. You may be an alien and you may have a good soul, but we've already seen what exposure to that kind of power does to you. Don't pretend that you're not worried about the long-term repercussions."
There was little point in arguing with Mulder on this, since he was fundamentally correct.
"But right now, that's actually a secondary concern to me."
Kara looked at him. "This isn't the time."
"You know how many times I've said that over the years," Mulder actually was sounding frustrated. "I assumed because you had super-hearing, you could hear subtext, but since you're clearly ignoring, I'm going to say it out loud. You and Barry have to deal with the shit that's going on between you. Don't tell me there is nothing. Everyone else may be willing to walk on eggshells around it, but Barry didn't just let the villain get away and put his own blood into you knowing there were dangers out of the goodness of his metahuman heart."
It seemed pointless to deny it. "He's been in love with someone else his whole life," Kara said finally. "Someone he's married to in the future."
"And maybe he still is," Mulder decided not to argue that Iris had not been the author of the article that was currently in STAR Labs as there were far too many unpleasant possibilities for that to be true. "Doesn't mean that there's a straight line between now and then. "
"The problems of two little people-"
"Casablanca was filmed in an era where a married woman couldn't run off with the love of her life," Mulder said dismissively. "Even if that were the case now, I'm telling you from personal experience that sometimes the problems of two little people do matter more than a hill of beans in this crazy world. And if they don't, well that world may not matter that much to begin with."
It was hard to tell which sister look more incredulous at this. "I never expected to hear that from you," Alex said.
Kara, however, remembered what Cat Grant had told her when she had first brought Mulder and Scully to her attention. "Honestly, I'm surprised it took him this long to say it."
"Once I was shown the life I could have lived if I'd taken a path without a truth," Mulder said. "It was a perfect world. I had everything I could've wanted. But Scully wasn't in it. Am I saying that you are Barry's'" he hesitated "touchstone? I don't know. But this won't go away if you don't try to find out."
"The world is ending, Mulder," Kara told him.
"The world is always ending, Supergirl," Mulder told her bluntly. "If you don't have someone to help you save it, then it's even more desolate than it was before. Try to learn from our mistakes. Someone should."
And then Mulder walked out. He was not entirely surprised to see that Barry was standing a few feet away.
"I'm not dumb enough to make the same argument twice within ten minutes," he said faster than Barry could open his mouth – which was impressive. "But you two owe each other a very long and painful conversation. Sooner rather than later."
Barry didn't put up nearly as much of an argument. But he did ask the right question. "When did you and Scully have that conversation?"
For the first time Mulder did look down. "When it was practically too late to do anything about it," he said honestly. "If we had, maybe we'd have been happier and had less pain than the alternate ones did."
Before Mulder had left the hallway, Barry walked into Kara's room. Walked.
The two of them looked at each other.
Alex really didn't want to see that look but knew what needed to be said. "I guess you two need to talk."
