Hello! Thank you all for the lovely reviews, follows, favorites, & reads! I so appreciate all of you and am glad that there are people out there enjoying this story - it's a big part of why I do this! So THANK YOU!

Alexfan had a great question about what age Kara and Alex are. I've done a poor job of establishing this in the story, but they are supposed to be the same ages as they are at the beginning of the show, perhaps a bit younger. So Kara would be early twenties, maybe 20 or 21 - technically an adult but also young. Alex is older, as is canon. Hope that helps!

Alright, now for the moment we all have been waiting for - the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Supergirl.

"Clean yourself up."

A small plastic box landed on the blood-spattered cement a couple feet from Alex's head, black combat boots stepping out of her range of vision from her position on the floor. There was the sound of the cell door swinging closed, footsteps fading in the distance and then everything was silent again.

For a moment Alex just wanted to lie there and let the cool floor minister to her aching body.

"A…Alex… Alex… are you…" Kara's shuddering sob reminded her that she had bigger things to worry about than a few bruises. "… are you okay? Please be okay…."

"I'm okay, Kara." Taking a deep breath in preparation for the wave of pain she knew would hit as soon as she moved, Alex forced herself upward.

It wasn't as bad as she had expected. As soon as she had hit the ground, she had curled into a defensive position and taken the hits, knowing that resisting would only lead to more serious injuries.

And seriously, getting to see two guards have to drag out the barely-conscious form of the first guard? It made everything worth it.

"Hey," Alex blinked, finding Kara sitting as close as possible to the bars separating them, her face a mess of blood and tears.

"Oh Rao, I'm so sorry." The younger woman's expression was one of pure distress. "This is my fault…"

Alex stared at her. "This is in no way your fault. I made the decision to throw my boot at that guard. And I would totally do it again." She smiled slightly. "Besides, it really isn't that bad, just a couple bruised ribs or so."

Okay, that was possibly an understatement, but Alex was telling the truth when she said it wasn't that bad. The guards must have had orders not to kill her, because they had clearly held back rather than beaten her within an inch of her life as she would have expected. Shaking her head to clear it, Alex turned her focus instead to Kara. "It's you I'm worried about," she frowned. "What did they do?" She grabbed the box the guard had thrown down for her and opened it, finding a very basic first aid kit.

Well that only solidified her theory that they wanted her alive and in fairly decent physical condition.

"I'm… I'm fine," Kara shook her head, still sniffing lightly.

"Kara…" Alex spoke as gently as possible, reaching across the bars to take the girl's bruised hand. "You're… you're basically covered in blood."

Kara glanced down at herself, as if noticing for the first time the dark patches that stained her clothes.

"It will heal," the Kryptonian said finally.

"Kara, please. Let me help you," Alex squeezed her hand, unsure why the younger woman was so resistant. "Please. Let's clean up those cuts a bit."

"No, I…" Kara took a deep breath and looked directly at her, blue eyes brilliant in contrast to the mottle skin surrounding them. "I really mean I'll heal. They… they do this, um, a lot. Before they uh do it again, they'll give me sun exposure and I'll heal really fast and then…" Kara bit her lip. "Well. They'll do the next thing, or sometimes that's just the part they want to see or…" Kara stopped abruptly. "It doesn't matter. The point is that I'll be fine. I heal fast. So please, use it on yourself."

Alex stared at her speechlessly.

That was probably one of the most horrible things she had ever heard. Never before had she considered that quick healing could be such a terrifying curse.

"I'm not going to use it if you aren't," Alex said finally, putting the first aid kit down.

"What?" Kara stared at her. "Why…"

Alex shrugged. "I don't want to."

Kara's gaze darted to the kit then back to Alex.

"I mean, maybe we could both use it…" Alex suggested, pretending to be hesitant.

Sure enough, Kara took the bait. "You'll use it on yourself if I let you use it on me?" the Kryptonian clarified.

"I suppose that's fair," Alex tried not to sound too eager.

"You promise you'll use half of it on yourself?" Kara looked suspicious and Alex had to admire her sheer stubbornness.

"I promise we shall split the supplies," Alex raised her hand as though taking an oath. She hoped that Kara wouldn't notice that she hadn't agreed to an equal split.

"Okay," Kara finally agreed, not catching Alex's loophole.

"Great." Alex grabbed the kit and found an alcohol swab, "Can I?" she motioned to Kara.

"Okay."

Carefully Alex smoothed back Kara's hair, trying to find the source of the blood covering the left side of her face. Quickly she found it, right below Kara's forehead hairline, a clearly intentional cut, probably done with a surgical tool and around 3 solid inches long. They hadn't even bothered to close the wound properly and it was still oozing blood.

"Hold on one sec," Alex grabbed a couple butterfly stitches and cleaned and dressed the wound as well as possible before grabbing and antiseptic wipe and working on cleaning the dried blood off the Kryptonian's face. When she was satisfied with her work, she moved to the next pressing concern. "Kara, can I see your back?"

The blond hesitated before slowly turning around. She tried to lift up the back of her shirt but the drying blood had glued the fabric to her skin.

"I've got it." Alex worked on slowly pulling away the cloth from the deep wound. She didn't miss the way Kara's form flinched periodically at the pain, nor how she could almost see every bone in the Kryptonian's back, her form was so emaciated.

"Do you remember what happened back there?" Alex had to ask as she began the slow process of cleaning away the dried blood.

"I… I don't really remember much. Just them bringing me back and then my back hurting and then… I don't know. It's kinda blank."

Perhaps that was for the best.

"Okay, don't worry about it. It's best not to spend too much time thinking about it, you're out now," Alex assured her even as she mulled over the extremely precise locations of the inflicted surgical cuts. What were they planning to do with Kara?

"Why…"

Alex almost missed Kara's soft voice as she finally spoke.

"Why did you do that? With the guard? Why are you helping me?"

Alex focused on keeping her movements as gently as possible, hating that she was causing Kara pain, no matter how inevitable it was. "He was hurting you and it's my job to protect people and help them."

It was silent for a moment as Kara processed that.

"People though," she said finally. "Not aliens."

It was a good point; while Alex had meant sentient beings, she had indeed been using a word that could apply solely to the human species.

"Actually, both. My job is to protect both humans and aliens," Alex explained, wondering how much of the anti-alien rhetoric Kara had internalized from her time in captivity. "I took my job because I wanted to help beings in need. Sometimes it's humans. Sometimes it's aliens."

Alex had finally finished working the fabric away from the wound and she paused to examine it. The cut was deep, precise, and surgical, just as she had suspected. She could see a sloppy attempt to keep the wound closed in the form of some surgical staples, however the effort had clearly been made in order to prevent Kara from bleeding out rather than stemming from any actual care. It was obvious that Kara was seen as nothing more than a specimen to these people. Many other faint scars, all surgical looking, wove a web across the Kryptonian's back.

The whole situation was just sickening.

"You don't think we're a plague? That we're… I don't know, going to ruin humanity?" Kara's voice was small.

It was an incredibly ironic question, seeing as it was coming from an alien who had just been heartlessly cut open by a human scientist.

"Humanity is doing just fine at ruining itself," Alex told Kara firmly. "Hatred and the lack of care for the lives of those who are different – that's our plague. Not aliens."

Kara was quiet for a moment.

"Thank you," she said finally.

Although she could feel her exhaustion building, Alex couldn't sleep.

A guard had brought them some food and a little later the lights had dimmed, so Alex supposed it was night. However she could barely close her eyes, let alone drift off to sleep. How was she supposed to relax when someone could walk into the cell next to her at any moment and take Kara away to do god knew what?

Sighing softly, Alex climbed off the cot and sat instead on the floor, facing Kara's cell so she could keep an eye on the Kryptonian.

Currently Kara seemed to be asleep, laying on her stomach on the metal cot. The only sign of movement from the girl was her slightly labored breathing; other than that she was still.

By the time Alex had finished cleaning the alien's back, Kara had been shaking uncontrollably. Her body had obviously been through far more trauma than it could handle, and with a bit of convincing, Alex had gotten Kara to lay down. The Kryptonian had been out in a matter of minutes.

So that left Alex alone with her thoughts.

"J'onn. Where are you?" She pushed the thought as far as she could out into space, hoping somehow he would hear.

If he was even alive.

Alex had no idea what had happened between the raid and her waking up in a cell; as far as she knew, J'onn could be dead, her team could be dead, and the aliens they freed might have all been recaptured.

Being that she was completely cut off from the rest of the world, she might never even know. And quite frankly, there wasn't much point in spending a lot of energy thinking about it. All she could do now was focus on the situation at hand.

Although there wasn't much she could do about that either.

On the bed, Kara stirred slightly, her breathing suddenly picking up. She began murmuring things in a language that Alex didn't understand, although her eyes remained closed.

Dream? Alex couldn't tell.

Then, as if a switch flipped, Kara's body began to spasm, limbs thrashing as her voice rose in an eerie wail.

Nightmare.

"Kara!" Alex jumped up, moving to the other side of the cell, worried the Kryptonian was going to reopen her wounds. "Kara, wake up. Kara!"

The last yell seemed to do the trick, Kara jolting upward, chest heaving and eyes darting around frantically.

"Kara, it was just a dream. It's okay." Alex wrapped her hands around the bars separating them, wishing she could actually comfort Kara rather than yell at her from the neighboring cell.

The Kryptonian's piercing eyes found her in the dim light, blue orbs clouded with confusion. When she began to speak, Alex couldn't understand a word, the noises that came from the girl's mouth a lilting and smooth foreign language.

"Kara, I… I can't understand you. Can you speak in English to me?" Alex kept her voice low.

Kara paused, brow furrowing. "S… sorry," she stuttered. "I didn't even realize I was speaking Kryptonese…" Her breathing slowed slightly as she visibly calmed. Stiffly she moved into a sitting position on the bed, a shaking hand running through tangled blond locks.

"That's okay. It's a beautiful language, I wish I could understand it," Alex smiled.

Kara glanced at her with a small smile and Alex suddenly caught sight of the slight sheen of sweat that speckled her brow. Hopefully she wasn't running a fever.

They lapsed into an uneasy silence.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Alex asked carefully.

Kara shook her head, looking away.

It was silent again.

Alex was about to ask Kara how she was feeling when Kara spoke instead.

"I'm… I'm scared, Alex." Kara's voice was so small and fragile and lost, like a baby bird that had fallen from its nest. "I'm really scared."

Alex shifted so she was sitting right up against the bars and on the other side, Kara did the same.

"I'm sorry Kara." Alex said, reaching through the bars and taking Kara's hand. The younger woman clung to it like a lifeline. "It's okay to be scared. What are you thinking about?" She knew there were probably about a million reasons Kara had to be frightened.

"They're getting ready for something," Kara shook her head, golden hair falling in front of her face and hiding it from Alex. "All the operations… they're doing something, trying to get something to work. But I don't know what it is," she sniffed.

Alex wished more than anything that she could tell Kara it was going to be okay, that she was going to get her out of there, but how could she make promises when she had no idea if she could keep them?

"Hey." Alex squeezed Kara's hand. "I'm going to do everything I can to get you out of here, okay?"

Kara wiped her eyes roughly with the back of her free hand. "I don't want you to get hurt. I wish I could help you get away," she said quietly. "If I had my powers…"

"I bet you would help every living creature on this earth if you could," Alex smiled. "But what I really want to know is who is helping you, Kara Zor-El?"

Kara sniffled softly. "It doesn't matter."

"You deserve to have someone fighting for you, Kara. And I'm more than happy to be that person. You're not alone. This maybe be a horrible, terrible, situation and I so wish I could take you out of it, but you're not alone." Alex held Kara's hand tightly as the girl cried quietly.

"They will take you away too. They gave Astra the Argo Fever, they wanted to weaken her mind so they could control it and then… and then she was gone," Kara was suddenly sobbing. "They took the only family I had left."

"I'm so so sorry," Alex could barely hold back her own tears. "I'm so sorry Kara."

"Why did they have to take her from me?" Kara's cry bordered on a wail as her grief overcame her. "Oh Rao, why?" The girl slipped back into Kryptonian, the lilting language bouncing off the walls around them, haunted with sorrow

Alex did the only thing she could, which was hold Kara's hand and murmur comforting words until the younger girl's sobs slowed.

"I promise, I'm going to do everything I can to get you out of here," Alex rubbed the top of Kara's hand with her thumb.

Kara's hand grasped hers, the young woman mumbling something Alex couldn't quite catch.

"What's that?" Alex leaned closer.

"There's nothing for me out there," Kara stared at her feet and Alex could feel the emptiness radiating from her. "I have nowhere to go."

"You can come stay with me," Alex told her without even thinking. "I have an extra room."

Kara looked up, a crinkle forming between her eyebrows as something like hope crept into her expression. "You'd… you'd do that for me?"

"We all need someplace to go," Alex gave her a small smile. "The room is yours."

Kara's eye brightened, the hint of a smile curving her lips. "Really?"

"Sure," Alex shrugged. "I've always wanted a little sister."

Kara looked suddenly shy. "I've always wanted a big sister."

"Well, there we go." Alex squeezed Kara's hand. "It's settled then." She leaned forward, brushing away a strand of hair that had stuck to Kara's clammy skin. "Now that we have that figured out, you should get some rest."

To her surprise, Kara didn't protest. Instead the Kryptonian just leaned against the bars and closed her eyes.

Alex positioned herself similarly, keeping Kara's hand in hers.

"Goodnight," Alex smiled at the sleepy alien. "Tomorrow we'll plan all our adventures for when we get out of here."

Kara's eye blinked open for a moment, drowsy smile playing on her lips. "I can't wait, Alex."

Quick question: Do you want a chapter from Kara's perspective? I hadn't planned to put one in but if you all want it then I'm happy to do that! Just let me know

Until the next chapter!

~silverliningineachcloud