Ky startled awake so hard Alex had to muffle a grunt.
Her needless breath was coming too fast – too sharp, too hard – heart pounding. It took whole seconds to realizing that Alex was wrapped around her, holding her against her chest with enough force that she felt tethered to the room. Tethered to her- to Alex.
Ky breathed into the open space, trying desperately to let the tension bleed out of her body. Trying to convince her scattered scared thoughts that she was in the Exodus, she was safe, she wasn't screaming into a gag while rough violent hands grabbed at her.
"You're okay," Alex murmured, chin on her shoulder, elbow at her hip, hand pressed against her against her chest , keeping her anchored. "Just breathe, I got you."
Ky listened, focusing on the feel of Alex's heartbeat against her back, the sound of her breathing against her ear. Focusing on how safe she felt, even with the edges of the dream lingering on her skin.
Eventually, she relaxed, melting a little under her mother's care. Heart slowing, breathing evening, fingers unclenching. Safe safe safe.
"Cadmus again?" Alex asked softly, not releasing her hold. Keeping her hand firmly pressed against the almost twelve-year-old's heart.
Ky just nodded, pressing the side of her face into the pillow and squeezing her eyes shut.
"They can't hurt you anymore, Ky."
"You don't know that," her voice was gravel – she might have been screaming again. Hard to be sure.
"I do," Alex assured, pressing the sides of their heads together. "I won't let anything happen to you."
"Even if we get back," Ky whispered, scared to speak her fears too loudly. "Cadmus will always come after us."
A long pause, Alex's arm tightening. "I guess I'm going to have to stop Cadmus then, huh?"
Ky half laughed, pressing her shoulders back against the warmth behind her. "You're pretty badass Alex, but I don't think you can take down Cadmus all on your own."
Another long pause. Ky could feel the tension changing in the room, but she fought to stay where she way. Fought the urge to turn around and look her mom in the eye. "I don't need to take down all of Cadmus, just the brains behind the operation."
"And you know who they are, do you?"
Silence. This time loaded. Ky couldn't resist anymore, pulling herself out of the other woman's arms and turning, raising herself up on an elbow to look down at Alex. There wasn't a lot of light in the room, but Ky could still see the pinched expression on her face. "What?"
Alex reached up, tucking some hair behind the girl's ear and letting her hand linger, resting her palm against her cheek. "I know who the leaders of Cadmus are because my father is one of them."
She spoke steadily, calmly. But Ky had known Alex almost two years – she knew that this was the calm mask she wore when telling patients they wouldn't make it – the mask that always slipped away the moment she entered training rooms and beat her knuckles bloody.
"What?"
"My father, Jeremiah, was the one who stole the registry," Alex explained, watching the girl's expression for the betrayal. The disgust. "He's the reason they were able to send us so far away. That's why I was there, that day," she let her hand drop. "I was trying to stop him."
"Your dad is a bad guy?"
A pause. A sigh. "Yes."
Silence, Ky's expression wrinkling as she thought through the implications of that. "And you'd stop him? For… for us?"
Another silence, where Alex finally smiled. A soft, hurting smile, but a smile, nonetheless. "You're the ones that deserve protecting."
Stories seem to always start with it was a routine mission. But this one – this disastrous ending – was not routine at all.
In fact, it was a historically fucking weird.
"You cannot be serious," Lucy protested, eyes skeptically taking in her relaxed girlfriend.
Alex, for her part, didn't even straighten up. She was leaning back in the rolling desk chair, hands clasped in front of her, eyes locked on the screen. "What? It'll work."
"You're serious," Lucy muttered, rubbing at her eyes. The headache was already forming.
"I mean," Vas muttered, examining the schematic. "She's not wrong. This would be impossible without their help."
"Oh my god."
Alex chuckled, tilting her head to eye her girlfriend. "I know its unorthodox-"
"Unorthodox!" Lucy threw her hands up. "You're talking about an entirely alien DEO team being sent into a known Cadmus site."
"And?" She arched an eyebrow, smirking just around the edges.
"They're aliens!"
"And DEO Agents," Alex countered, still not riling herself up to meet Lucy's energy. She shrugged, tilting her head back to the screens. "They're trained for this, just like the rest of us."
"But this is a Cadmus site!" Lucy protested, thrusting a hand at the screen. "They've all been sent to the other side of the universe by Lillian Luthor and you're suggesting they be the exclusive team to breach a potential headquarters?"
"We can totally do it!" A new voice interjected, strolling into command. "You can't send humans in there; they'll destroy anything useful before they got to the front door." Lucy rolled her eyes as El hopped up onto the central console, ignoring the many warnings she'd received about treating their equipment with a modicum of respect (even if it was archaic human technology). She swung her legs and smiled Vas, who smirked back.
Lucy sighed, sensing that this battle was slipping through her fingers. "What would you suggest then?"
Alex tilted her head, narrowing her eyes at the intel – but it was Drew that answered, approaching in full DEO tac gear with a smirk.
"Scho'ty could get us above without anyone noticing," they halted just behind Alex shoulder, crossing their arms. "If we could get someone in the front door to place a beacon, Ve could one-way portal in before they knew what hit 'em."
"Who would go in the front?" Vas asked, pulling up the images they had of buildings exterior. It was a fortress, only one entrance in and a loading dock. While nether were guarded, there were security camera's everywhere – they would be on alert the moment someone was on the grounds. El was right, Lucy was at loathe to admit, no ordinary team could get close.
Alex spun a little in her chair to look at El properly. "Thinking Lyra or Leeroy?"
El tilted her head, squinting a little. "Lyra would attract more attention once inside, but Leeroy is waymore of a wild card on a stealth entry."
"Lyra?" Lucy asked, looking between the two.
"She's Valarian," El explained while Alex spun back to looking at the screens. "They can't be detected by human cameras."
"Of course, she can't," Lucy muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. Sometimes, she truly regretted agreeing to hire Exodus crew. They were one big weird catastrophe waiting to happen – the captain included.
"So, Lyra just walks up to the front door, lets herself in and creates an inside entry to the building?" Vas recaps. "Then what? This complex is massive, you need at least two teams to infiltrate effectively without mass destruction of evidence."
Drew hit the side of Alex's shoulder with the back of their hand. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Mar 8?"
"Yep," Drew's smile got this side of manic.
Lucy felt her sanity slip away. "Do I dare ask?"
"Mar 8 was a mission from a few years back," El explains, legs swinging. "Big complex, lots of guards – but we split into three teams of three and swept the entire thing without alerting the rest of the complex."
Vas spun in her chair, giving El her full attention. "How did you manage that? If any of them get a report off, then the whole operation is blown."
"Darla."
"Your ship?"
"Our ships consciousness," El corrected, leaning forward until Vas bit her lip. "If someone gets to their central comm's system, she can shut the entire thing down. Bam! No communication."
"And then nine agents sweep the entire building?"
"And then you can bring in your human reinforcements while we start clearing the entire building," El grinned at Lucy. "We aren't magic."
Lucy glared for a moment, before relenting. Looking up at the schematic, she acknowledged that this was the best plan they had. It was too complicated an entry, too much room for error – the more alien help they had the better chance they had at success. And this was an important op – they knew something hinky was going down there. Winn's scans picked up radioactivity, and there had been shipments of medical supplies. But no one had come or gone for over a week. Combined with Maggie's intel about missing aliens around the same time this place's power came back on – they had to breach.
"Who would you take?" She finally asked, directing this at Alex. They only had five Exodus field agents cleared for missions, excluding Lyra who was apparently being drafted.
Alex titled her head, thinking for a moment. "I'd suggest three teams, one senior human DEO agent to each. So, Exodus crew would be pairs; Lyra and Drew; Ve and Dax; Lincoln and… I don't know. Yonder?"
Drew scratched at their eyebrow already nodding. "Can't believe I'm stuck with Miss Anger Management but sounds solid."
Lucy frowned, looking down at her girlfriend. Still leaning back in her chair, relaxed and focused on the screens. "You're not volunteering Danvers?" And yes, Alex had been less gung-ho since she got back. Less reckless – less ready to jump into the line of fire. But this seemed like exactly the kind of mission that she needed. Alex had mentioned feeling out of sync with pre-existing DEO teams – but only in the safety of their apartment, when she was Lucy, not Director Lane (not that it helped her keep calm when Alex was on assignment).
"I'm not really necessary," Alex shrugged.
"I mean," El jumped from the console, dancing around to lean by Vas. "You're technically the inside-man."
"Seriously?" Humor lined the agent's tone.
"Yeah Cap," Drew laughed. "You're a local!"
"What are you nut jobs talking about?" Lucy finally cut in.
"An inside-man," El explained, grinning at the director. "Is whoever on the ship had the best chance of understand the language and culture of the planet we were on."
"And for the first time, that happens to be our fearless leader!"
"You guys can't be serious," Alex spun around, finally sitting properly in her chair to fix Drew with a skeptical look. "You're entirely capable of running this op from the ground, and most of you have been on earth for years."
"Actually," Lucy interrupted, noting that Drew's grin spoke of a joke rather than an argument. "I'd prefer to have you on the ground if this is going to be an Exodus dominant operation."
Alex narrowed her eyes at Drew before finally nodding with a sigh. "Fine, okay. Sounds like a plan. El," she spun back around, looking back at her friend. "You okay to run this side of the operation? I need someone familiar with Darla to interface with DEO command."
"Only if you're okay sharing Vasquez?" El asked, smirking at the other techy.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world," and Lucy would swear her tone with borderline flirty.
Alex nodded, already standing to drive out to the Exodus. She had a team to prepare. "Tomorrow then."
Tonight, found Maggie arriving home late, catching a case right at the end of her shift. She yawned as she shouldered into the apartment, slowly placing her keys in the bowl rather than dropping them. It was well into the night; everyone should be asleep.
And yet, the moment she kicked off her boots, Gertrude trotted out of the hallway, likely from Ky's room. She was in an entirely normal form this evening, looking every bit the golden retriever that she was not as she sat before her companion's partner. Maggie crouched, scratching behind both ears with both hands.
"What you are doing up girl?" She muttered, patting her side as she stood. The house was quiet, all the blinds drawn. The only light was by the couch – the side lamp they left on when one of them was out late. Normally Gertrude slept mostly on top of Ky, this side of crushing her, to take the edges off any of the teenager's anxiety. It was rare the alien would greet any of them after lights out.
It was the dog-shaped-creatures whine that gave it away.
Shrugging off her jacket and the lingering exhaustion, Maggie made her way to the master bedroom, Gertrude a half step behind. Opening the door carefully, silently, she dipped her head in and felt her heart stutter.
The strangest thing about Alex's nightmares since she got back was how quiet they were. Before the Exodus, the agent had been… not loud per say. But vocal enough that she woke at least one of her partners long before the thrashing or sweating started. Nowadays? The only sign she was in the grips of a night terror was the way her body tensed. Often arching under the panic that caged her body.
Maggie could see that Alex was as stiff as a board, neck straining as it bowed. The sheets had been dragged away, tangled around her waist, giving Maggie a view of her arms pressing down into the mattress. The way her left arm, sans the bionic, was shuddering made it clear the nerves were firing, sending bolts of agony up to her shoulder.
Lucy was already awake, still half under the covers, one hand pressed against Alex's chest while she whispered into her ear. They knew better then to shake her awake by now – she needed to be drawn out, quietly, carefully. Any attempt to jar her from a nightmare resulted in panic attacks that could last hours. The shock of being yanked from a cage millions of light years away into her bedroom too great for her system to comprehend.
Maggie stripped out of her jeans as quickly as she could, tugging her shirt over her head as she carefully edged onto the bed next to Alex. Lucy glanced up at her with tense lips, eyes wet and worried. Gently, the detective pulled her bad arm away from her body, knowing that the longer it stayed tense the more pain it would cause – the worse the nightmare would feel. Practiced, she pressed her thumb along the tender part of the stump, easing the muscles with as little pressure as she could. Meanwhile, Lucy moved her hand from Alex's chest into her hair, pressing her forehead against her temple as she continued to murmur into her ear. Nonsense really – just the sound of her voice as comforting as she could manage when pain burned through both her partners.
The combined attention of the two, and Gertrude at the foot of the bed, head resting on Alex's legs, eventually had the captain sinking into the bed. Her neck, gradually, slowly, achingly, relaxed. Her spine straightened. Her arm continued to tremble (as it would for at least another hour), but it stopped pressing against Maggie's hold. Inch by inch, Alex calmed, until she slowly shuddered a breath, blinking open her eyes.
"Sorry," her voice was gravel, focus locked on the ceiling.
Lucy pressed a kiss to the short hair over her ear while Maggie responded softly. "Don't apologize Danvers."
She exhaled again, flexing her available hand as she forced her heart to slow.
"Wanna talk about it?" Lucy asked.
"Gruuliv," she forced out, jaw clenching hard against the burning in her eyes.
"Haven't seen that one before." Alex shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. Maggie caught the single tear that escaped from her good eye. "We don't have to talk about it, Danvers."
"No, it's-" she shook her head again, forcing herself to look over at Maggie, feeling Lucy tuck her chin onto her shoulder. "It's okay. I'm sorry – your right. It's, just, ah, been a while since I thought about it."
Maggie smiled down at her, not releasing her bad arm but running her finger up is to wrap around the base of the joint. She squeezed, once, just to let her know she was listening. That she was here.
"I… I don't know what brought it on."
"You're going into Cadmus tomorrow," Lucy offered, dipping forward to kiss exposed skin at shoulder, right over the raised skin of her brand. "That's bound to trudge up some trauma."
"And Gruuliv was one of the first incidents, right?"
Alex nodded, looking back at the ceiling. "The first, yeah," she exhaled shakingly. "Eighteen people died." A pause where she clenched her jaw. Hard. "Two kids."
Neither of her partners winced – they'd long since stopped outwardly reacting to the horrors of Alex's time in space. But Maggie's stomach turned, and Lucy's throat constricted.
"I know I asked you to run the op," her voice was low, a little guilty if Maggie had to venture a guess. "But if you don't think-"
"No," Alex interrupted turning and sitting up a little, forcing Lucy to lift her chin and lean back. Maggie released her arm, letting her rest it on Lucy's hip. "No, it's okay. I'm good for tomorrow."
"Alex…"
"Hey," she pressed their foreheads together, and the detective could see that she was offering the smallest of smiles. "I'm a badass remember? I got it – don't worry about me."
"I will always worry about you," Lucy protested, but closed her eyes. Accepting the soft contact – leaning into her partner. Who was alive and breathing and right here.
"I know," she pressed a soft kiss to her lips before pulling back, waiting for Lucy to look at her. "But I'm okay – tomorrow will be fine."
Which, Maggie should have known. Right then, as she pressed a kiss to Alex's back, right over the Earth tattoo, she should have known. The moment a Danvers sister said that everything would be fine, everything will inevitably go to hell.
But instead, they let the silence take them. Let the fear and anxiety dissipate as Alex settled back down, Maggie automatically curling against her back. Lucy inched away, giving Alex room to breathe, but took her hand, smiling softly as the longer strands of her hair fell forward into her face. Gertrude laying guard at the end of the bed.
And they slept - Alex pressed between them in case the lurking shadows of her dreams reached back for her. Both her partners should have known. Known not to trust. Not to relax. To read this nightmare like the omen it was.
Because tomorrow – tomorrow was going to be one of the worst days of Alex's life.
Alex stood in the locker room and fought the vague sense of wrongness. There was something deeply unfamiliar about tightening the bindings of her Exodus armor in the DEO – the sounds of other agents showering and chatting rather than the hum of an engine and the clang of military boots on metal floors.
Scho'ty flown the Exodus to the dessert bases' loading bay that afternoon and Dryl had all but shoved her old armor into her arms. His expression hadn't changed, but she knew him well enough to see concern around his eyes. Yet, he spoke about how an Exodus mission called for Exodus uniforms – so she tugged on her stiff, alien suit and tried not to feel out of place.
"Hey, you," Alex turned, fingers still ticked into the diagonal hem, to see Lucy leaning against the doorway. She'd dressed in DEO blacks that morning –a pleasant sight. "Need a hand?"
She removed her fingers, smiling gently. "Sure."
Lucy pushed over the frame and into Alex's space. Nimble fingers started to tug at the edges of the thick cord that held the entire outfit together. The Agent tilted her head up, giving her space to work, but that didn't stop her from inhaling Lucy's subtle perfume. Feeling it curl in her lungs and settle her heart.
"How are you feeling about today?" Her tone was deliberately neutral – it was only the context of last night that made Alex aware of her anxiety.
"Fine," she shrugged as best she could in the dense material.
"Everyone else prepped?" She yanked at the base of the binding, pulling the cord as taught as it would go before tying quick efficient knots.
"Yeah, my crew are suiting up now. Your guys ready?"
Consciously choosing not to comment on the possessives used, Lucy nodded. Taking half a step back she placed her hands over Alex's chest, just below her shoulders. "They're gathered at central command waiting for your final run-through."
Nodding, Alex reached down for her exterior belt, settling one side over a hip and the other through a loop in the side of her pants, making sure weapon holder was at the right angle. "Anything I need to know?"
Lucy's eyes tracked the unfamiliar outfit as she shook her head – mind spinning back to that first day. When Alex arrived. Landed. Got home. How she'd been in these same clothes, too thick and unfamiliar to be Earth based, but strong enough to protect her against being catapulted through a brick wall. She internally considered that they should be investigating this material for the DEO. Meanwhile, her body buzzed with the memories of seeing Alex for the first time in a year.
And now she was headed back to Cadmus.
"You okay Luce?" Her voice was soft – the soft reserved for outside the office. The soft of her girlfriend, not her Supervisory Agent.
She straightened her shoulders and took a half step back. "Fine," her jerked her head towards the exit. "We should get going."
Alex nodded, straightening the sleeves of her shirt as they walked – it had been almost a year since she'd worn it.
While they walked around the couple of winding corridors before central, the Agent shook off her discomfort. Shook off Alex Danvers and became Agent Danvers – shed her exterior for something more lethal. Something less human.
Kara in bright red, blue and yellow rocking on her heels by central command and waving did not help the process.
"Alright," Lucy actually raised an eyebrow at her changed tone – strong, convincing, calm. More Captain Danvers than Agent, if she were honest. "We all clear on the entry details?"
The near dozen Agents and Lyra nodded. Alex noted that the Exodus guys could not look less professional – all leaning against consoles (or on top of them in El's case) or setting strangely in chairs. It appears the three months of intensive DEO training had yet to beat the cockiness out of them. But, she supposed, they had all mostly earned it. "Lyra is going to head in first, with us waiting in the sidelines. Anything goes south, we breach. Anything seems off, we breach. Any hint that she's in danger, we breach."
"You almost sound like you care, Cap," Lyra purred from her place on a rolling chair, legs spread face giddy.
Alex glared back. "You are responsible for getting in undetected, finding a loading point for Darla andplacing a beacon for Ve," she narrowed her eyes a little further. "You think you can handle that?"
Lyra shrugged in her typical unaffected manner and the only thing that kept annoyance flaring is four years' experience and knowing that, if anything, Lyra was a survivor.
"We are portal jumping in, then separating into three teams. You've all been assigned?" The nods, a little stiff from the more senior (human) DEO guys. Alex looked between them – she knew them all. Good people – people she'd trusted with her life five years ago. She could trust them with her new crew as well.
"Spread out, clear rooms carefully," she fixed Drew then Dax with looks. "Don't be idiots, and we'll be fine."
Lucy stepped up beside her, eyes serious, arms cross. Alex relaxed hers to hook behind her back, deferring to the Directors authority with a step back. "You have clearance to use lethal force, though restrain yourself wherever possible. Dryl has provided us with several non-lethal knock-out chemicals, which you have all been inoculated against this morning. Supergirl is on standby, but I'd prefer not to call in the big, destructive guns. Please try to leave at least some evidence for us to investigate?"
Everyone nodded, and her guys lifted off their resting positions. "Cap," Alex fought an eye roll at Drew – she'd been bugging everyone to stop calling her that, especially at the DEO. She'd have better luck getting Kara to eat Kale. "Catch," they tossed her axe – she'd asked them to sharpen it while she dressed. Alex gave it an experimental twist, settling more then she had in any other DEO mission, even though she had her M4 waiting on the Exodus.
She slipped it into her belt ring, letting the blade catch against the metal circle and the hilt rest against her thigh. She exhaled slowly.
"An axe?" Agent Reed asked, raising an eyebrow at his old Supervisory Agents choice. He'd noticed that the other Exodus dudes carried more melee then was standard, but Alex-hand-me-the-rocket-launcher-Danvers, carrying such a basic weapon? "Really Danvers?"
Alex smirked, just a little, and answered before she remembered who was present. That her sister and girlfriend were inches away – and how they would share a slightly surprised, very pained look at what was about to follow. Turning on her heel to march towards the Exodus, Alex spoke loud enough for her voice to carry; "Gun's run outta bullets…"
Every Exodus crew chimed in – completing Lyron's most famous and irritating slogan as one; "But I can swing an axe 'till I'm dead!"
Lucy worked very hard not to let Kara's nervous energy infect her. But having a giant puppy with superpowers and in bright primary colors twitching and bouncing inches to your right was very hard to ignore.
"Would you just sit?" She finally snapped, fixing her with an exasperated look.
"I don't understand why I'm hanging back," Kara whined, for the fourth time.
"You could be there in less than forty seconds," Lucy looked back at the monitors, noting that El was still typing code and interfacing with Darla. "And this requires stealth."
"I can be stealthy!" Which, would have been more convincing if the superhero hadn't thrown up her hands in wild gesticulation and crashed into a rolling chair, sending her spinning towards Vas.
"You put your foot through my coffee table last week."
"That wasn't my fault!" Kara scooted in a very adult fashion back to her sister. "Ky just keeps walking through walls. I don't know how to get used to that!"
Lucy shrugged, noting that Vas had pulled up comms and vitals for the entire team. Alex's were steady. "Me and Maggie seem to be managing."
"I think she does it on purpose," Kara pouted – though it wasn't genuine. Kara loved that kid like her own. And, also, Lucy knew for a fact that Ky did it on purpose - She'd long since stopped phasing through walls unnecessarily when it was just the triad home. Ky just liked to startle her superpowered aunt. She found something amusing about unbalancing the most powerful woman in the world enough to put her foot through coffee tables.
Maggie and Lucy had a running bet about whether she'd eventually scare Kara enough to get her to swear properly.
"Lyra's on the ground," El informed, looking much too relaxed for the situation. Lucy found herself stepping closer, putting barely a meter between herself and the monitors, Vas and El right between them. She was keeping her Director mask on… but it was not natural.
Alex is going into Cadmus echoes in her head like taunt.
"I'm in," any other situation, Lucy would have laughed at the covert op's voice the alien was putting on for the benefit of the comms.
"Can you find some internal hardware to plug Darla into," Vasquez asked, fingers at the ready. "It's an internal circuit, but all we need is one access point."
"So, like another camera?"
"As long as it's not wireless, yep!" El replied, spinning in her chair.
Some rustling was heard over the line before a mutter curse and an aha! That had Lucy wincing. This was a covert, black ops, mission and the phrase aha should not be uttered. Dear lord, this was a travesty.
"We're in," El grinned, immediately dragging herself back to the computer. "Darla, you gettin' this?"
"Yes."
"Can you give us eyes inside?"
"Yes," a moment and the entire screen was filled with camera, only leaving the team's vitals on either side.
"Coolio!" El spun around to grin up at the stoic Lucy. "All yours Director!"
Lucy gave herself a moment to just breath. Inhale and exhale. Look at Alex's vitals. They were stable. "Vas, can you find a safe place for the team to enter?"
Her 2IC was already typing, eyes tracking the cameras and the very basic schematic they were able to find in city records. "Lyra, if you take the next right and duck into the room on your left and hold you should avoid the incoming guards – Then you should be clear to go to the end of the corridor and into a large storage room right ahead."
"I can place the cameras on a blank loop if it would be beneficial Agent Vasquez," Darla intoned.
"Ah," Vas glanced at her boss. "Sure? If you don't think they will notice."
"They will not."
"Okay… Lyra, continue forward." Lucy found it disconcerting that they couldn't see Winn's ex on the screen – they just had to trust that she was there.
Aliens, honestly.
"This room is disgusting," the Valarian complained, huffing loudly. Lucy pinched her nose and exhaled slowly.
"On my mark… move," Vas continued. Watching the heavily armed, very large, men march past. Lucy tilted her head, watching the way they moved. Lillian Luthor liked to hire ex-military, but those guys moved like Special Forces. They were too focused, too rigid for what was probably the most monotonous guard duty ever. Professionals. Well trained. Deadly.
Alex's vitals were steady.
"Alright Ve, your turn," Lyra announced.
"Moving in," Alex's voice, full Agent mode, confirmed moments later.
"Darla, can you run a loop while giving us visuals?"
"Yes," and then it was done. Vas lifted her fingers off the computer in surprise, blinking up at the screen.
One by one, Alex, four aliens and two DEO Agents stepped into the space. To Lucy's relief Alex had her M4 strapped around her chest, resting on her shoulder.
"El, give us the all-clear for the first team to move," Alex ordered, nodding to Drew, Lyra and Reed.
It was strange for Lucy. Alex ran this op with more natural command then she'd had in any op since she got back. She communicated with El efficiently, and the normally light-hearted Alien was more focused then she'd ever seen her. Meanwhile, on the screen, she watched the Exodus crew moved like a well-oiled machine, the DEO agent's technically supervising a half step behind.
The military part of Lucy's brain told her that the DEO should be taking better advantage of this squad of elite Aliens. A thought for later.
Alex's vitals were steady.
In fact, they remained steady even as they moved through the site. Some of the Agents, even some of the crew, spiked during brief (silent) confrontations, but not Alex. She put a bullet between a guard's eyes without flinching, moving past him as Lincoln grabbed him by the vest and dragged him into a nearby room.
Lucy watched with bated breath as the three teams moved carefully, slowly. Eventually Drew found the communications room and knocked out the external camera's, allowing Lucy to start moving in more DEO troops. But, at this rate? They wouldn't need them.
The biggest challenge of the op was the cavernous central room on the city plans. They'd presumed that whatever Big-Bad-Evil Luthor was concocting, it would be in there. But a silent assault was all but impossible in such a large space.
That was the least of their worries. Apparently, whatever cocktail Dryl and Leeroy created was effective. Drew and Alex's teams simultaneously placed their canisters at each end of the room, while Yonder literally scaled the walls to drop one from above.
There was a moment of shock, confusion, a single shout, and the gas released. The entire room was filled with the pungent pink smoke and before Lucy even had the chance to unclench, it dissipated, leaving a couple dozen Cadmus lackies and scientists unconscious.
"All clear," Alex's voice had Lucy exhaling sharply, allowing herself a moment to squeeze her eyes shut.
Kara released the now crumbled arm of the spiny chair.
Alex's vitals were steady.
"The Beta team is already moving in, they'll pick up any stragglers," Lucy spoke carefully, Director voice on. "Secure the room, make sure everyone is out."
"Ma'am," ah, Lucy was this close to relaxing. "There's something you should look at."
"Report."
"The camera's and the schematic don't match up," Vasquez answered, pulling up the floor plans and indicating to a highlighted area. "There is no coverage in this section."
"Me and Linc will check it out," and before Lucy could even clench her jaw, Alex was on the move. Gun resting on her shoulder, Lincoln a step behind. She did take a moment to fix Drew with a look, Lucy watching via the feed. "Don't touch anything. We'll be back. Vas, direct?"
"East doorway, to your right for about a hundred yards then a sharp left," the Agent reported, eyes tracking the camera's. The Beta team breached the external gates. "There is a set of metal doors at the end. No hostiles."
"Rodger," and she was on the move, crouching just a notch into a proper tactical walk, Lincoln mimicking her behind. Lucy was almost proud – Lincoln was the strangest of the aliens in her opinion. As human as he looked, he seemed as comfortable with Earth as Alex was in a strip club. But he'd taken to training well.
The pair approached carefully, pausing at the corner which gave them visuals on the door in question.
Alex's vitals were steady.
"Cap, can we have visual?" El asked, moving to sit so she had a leg tucked under her.
"Seriously?"
"Come on," the tech begged, smirking. "Haven't had a chance to play with my own tech in a year!"
A pause. Lucy watched Alex wrinkle her nose on camera before exhaling loud enough for the comms to pick up. "Fine. Access granted."
"Darla?"
No amount of court or military or dinners with her father prepared Lucy for what happened next. Kara stood up so hard that her chair crashed off the raised platform.
She stepped up next to Lucy directly in front of the screens. "Is that-"
"Alex's eye, yeah," El sang back, bouncing once in her chair as she started to type.
Overlaying the view of the second wave of DEO breaching the facility was new footage. It looked like someone was holding a not-so-steady camera. It bobbed with movement, as if someone was walking. Alex's bionic eyes.
"What the fuck?" Lucy muttered, eyes wide, arms slack at her side.
"Holy shit," Vas breathed, pushing back from the console.
A pause.
"Wait, you can hack my girlfriends' eye?" Lucy hissed, mind filling with images of things that only her, Alex and Maggie's eyes should see. As much she enjoyed the occasional exhibitionist streak this was not what she had in mind.
Ella, however, just laughed. "Nah, she needs to grant access," she rolled her eyes. "Because she's a prude."
"Shut it," Alex ordered into the comms. But Lucy could hear that she was suppressing a laugh.
They'd breached the main set of doors and were now walking down an eerily empty, very white corridor. They turned another corner. At the end was those strips of plastic instead of a door – the kind of thing you saw in cold rooms and horror movies.
Alex's vitals were steady.
"Do you smell that?" Alex's voice was low, speaking to Linc not central command.
"Chemicals," the alien responded, tightening the hold on his gun in Alex's eye's camera.
"What did Winn say they were exporting from here?" She inched forward, now slower.
"Medical waste mostly," Vas replied. Kara leaned forward another inch, hands pressing against the back of the tech commanders chair. A part of Lucy wanted to tug her hands away; partly to stop her destroying more government property and partly to hold her sister hands.
But Alex's vitals were steady.
Still moving forward, Alex muttered into the comms. "Something's not right here."
Lucy's stomach dropped out from under her.
Kara's fingers cracked the plastic.
Alex used the tip of her gun to move aside the plastic, stepping slowly, precisely, into the room.
It was a hospital.
Or, that was what is looked like. Except, hospitals don't usually make Lucy's stomach curdle.
Alex's vitals were not steady.
Alex's stomach rolled.
The moment she ascertained that there were no hostile personnel, she moved towards the first gurney, swinging her gun onto her back. She pressed her fingers, uselessly, hopelessly, to the neck of the first person. But the tilt of their body spoke of lifelessness – the empty eyes spoke of death.
She ripped her hand away and looked down the row. At least two dozen gurneys running along the side of the room. There was no space between the rows, pressed into each other – like they'd run out of space – like they were afterthoughts – each with its own dead alien.
And they were. Dead that is. There was no breathing, no movement. Just hands dangling off beds, gaping incisions. Vacant eyes.
"Revoke authorization," she hissed. She listened to the beep of her eye disengaging – ending the digital feed to the DEO. Stopping the footage of this massacre being shared with her family. "I need a DEO team sent in ASAP. Under no circumstances is an alien agent to enter this room," she ordered into the comms.
She reached for the medical chart at the end of the bed.
She blinked at the information.
Her mind emptied of everything except the writing on the bottom of the page.
A new kind of tension shot through her body.
She ripped the paper off the clip, turning to her friend. Compartmentalize – Complete one task at a time.
"Linc, secure the room. I'm going to carry on through," he was already nodding by the time she finished, turning to stand guard and wait for the reinforcements – watch her back.
Because there was another door at the end of this room. Another kind of horror waiting for her.
"Alex," Lucy. It was strange to hear the Director Voice say her first name. "Beta team is three minutes out, you should stand-down."
But she couldn't wait. Wouldn't wait. There could be others – could be survivors.
Greif and disgust drowned in acid – her veins filled with fire as she moved away from the obviously lost to the end of the room. The door was thick and steel and stamped with Authorized Personnel.
Swinging her gun back around, she pressed her shoulder into the metal, feeling a seal unstick.
It was colder in here.
"Hey! This is a sterile room!" A muffled voice shouted, just as she rotated her body around the barely open door. "You are not authorized to-"
The man standing over the operating table lost his voice when he saw the very scary woman with the very big gun looking at him with murder in her eyes.
"Step away from the table," she ordered. Channeling all the calm she did not possess.
The scalpel clattered to the ground as he stepped back, hands raised in the air. His scrubs were clean, but his gloves were dripping with blood, now running down his forearm.
It dripped from his elbow and onto the floor.
Alex spared a glance at the EKG.
"What do you think you are doing?" She hissed, inching forward leading with her weapon. She needed to get to the man open on the table.
"I-" the 'surgeon' was visibly shaking, eyes darting between the Agent and the alien. "J-j-just, what-"
Alex took another step forward, lip pulling away from her teeth, snarling out "what did you do to him?"
"It-"
"He."
The doctor's eyes widened again, and he nodded frantically. "Yes, yes, he. I- I removed his alfix gland."
Alex clenched her jaw so hard it hurt. The end of her axe pressing into her thigh flared in her mind. She took another step forward, lifting her muzzle just enough that it was aimed at his head, not his center mass. "Firuntes require that gland to breathe."
He floundered for a moment, eyes darting again.
"It- He… I- I'm just following orders," he finally managed, trembling increasing with every inch Alex stepped into the room.
Just following orders.
Nothing but evil came from such a phrase.
Her years in space had taught her that. Just as her time on Earth.
"Where's your mechanical ventilator?" She finally pressed around her rage, refusing to take her eyes off the evil incarnate before her.
His eyes got more panicked. She watched him glance around desperately. "We-we-we don't have one."
She jerked forward a final step, gun now a foot from his head. She could see the color of his eyes and smell the blood on his hands. Blood still dripping to the floor. "You have no intention of trying to keep these people alive."
"Aliens."
The correction was automatic.
Her finger itched on the trigger.
"Stand down, Agent Danvers," Lucy.
Lucy was on the comms.
Lucy was listening to this conversation.
Lucy would know if she put a bullet between this… this… this butcher's eyes.
Lucy would finally understand that part of her girlfriend died on March 18th when these very people put her on a ship with hundreds of other aliens. To die, alone, in space.
"Alex," softer this time, but still Director Lane speaking. "Stand down."
Alex took a shuddering breath and stepped back.
"Hands behind your back."
It took considerable effort to keep Kara off scene.
It took considerable effort and Lucy dragging her into a side room. She waited for the superhero to meet her eyes before stepping into her, pressing steady hands to either side of her face.
"Kara, listen, you need to stay calm. I'm going to look after Alex, and I need you to go pick Ky up from school."
"What? No! I have to-"
"Kara," she didn't raise her voice, but her tone cut through the protests. "It's almost half three, Ky will be heading home any minute and she needs to not see Alex in the aftermath of this."
A long pause, where the Kryptonian looked set to disagree.
Then the fire behind her eyes dimmed.
They knew Alex. Knew the moment she terminated the feed, that she did so to protect them. Protect Kara. From what she found in the room, and whatever it was that she saw afterwards.
And now it was their job to protect Alex. And Ky. As a team.
Wet eyes finally met the directors. "You'll look after her?"
She rubbed a thumb over her sister's cheek, offering a soft pull of her lips. "Always."
Kara, blinking hard before setting her jaw, giving a stiff nod. She dragged Lucy into a quick, very not professional hug, and marched out to look after their family.
Alone for the first and last time that day, Lucy allowed herself exactly sixty seconds before returning to command. Exactly sixty seconds to bury the fear clawing at her throat. Sixty seconds for moment of dead aliens she saw to burn behind her eyes. Sixty seconds to let Alex's lethal tone over the comms echo in her head.
Then she exhaled, straightened her shirt, and became Director Lane.
Vas immediately detailed her missing time. We created a portal into the ship so that the alie- the man Alex found could get immediate medical attention. Alex had not immediately followed, leading the (entirely human) team through the remainder of the compound that was under a surveillance black-out.
Six more aliens were found in that time.
Or, well, six more living aliens were found.
If they would ever have any kind of life again after what they'd survived.
Alex's vitals were still not steady.
But medical teams had been sent in, and the facility was swarmed, and their CSI was already under way. Lucy knew that before the next morning, the entire place would be stripped and detailed for her to read.
Lucy wouldn't see her girlfriend for another four hours. They both had jobs to do, Alex having re-boarded the Exodus to try save the first alien she'd discovered. Lucy had an entire operation to oversee and numerous reports to write up.
So, it was four hours later that Lucy found her girlfriend.
Ella is the one that told her Alex was done, uncharacteristically serious when she knocked on her doorframe.
"How can I help you Agent Rose?" She didn't even look up from her file. Did Agents encounter anything unusual during the breach? If so, explain what was unusual and how it was managed. How the fuckdoes she answer that?
"Ma'am," Lucy jerked her head up. Ella had never, once, used such a polite term. "Alex needs you."
Which is what found Lucy rounding the corner to Alex's old quarters on the Exodus. The door was ajar, a rarity on a ship with air locking technology.
Placing a hand on the cool metal, she eased it open and stepped over the lip. "Alex?"
The room was barely lit by the 'moon' lamp's soft light. Alex, sitting on the edge of the bed, was cast in shadows, only her back illuminated. Her hunched position obscured her face entirely, elbows on thighs, head down. The wax in her hair had finally lost its hold, and the loose strands were further masking her expression.
"Al?"
No response, but Lucy could hear the ragged breathing. Could see the way her shoulders were too stiff, the way she curled inwards, just a little, at the sound of her voice.
Closing the door firmly behind her, she stepped into the room. In this space, Alex's space, she found herself hesitating, eyes darting to the wall of constellations they'd spent a weekend replicating in Ky's bedroom. This wasn't a universe their relationship had ever existed and suddenly Lucy felt out of place.
Another shudder ran down Alex's back, hard enough that it was visible from across the room.
Lucy found her feet unsticking, found herself walking over to her girlfriend carefully. Noting how her posture was coiled, protective. How her shoulder bowed further as Lucy approached. She stopped moving, made her voice whisper soft. "Al, what happened?"
Alex just shook her head, dragging her good hand through her hair, fisting hard enough to hurt. The other, her bad hand, remained hanging off her knee, clenched just as hard. "Hey, whoa," compelled forward, Lucy ran fingers along her wrist, gently encouraging her to release the painful grip on the strands. She tangled their fingers together instead, sitting next to her on the bed sideways, placing one foot on the floor to balance herself.
"He died." The rasped voice was unrecognizable.
"You did everything you could," she murmured back, ducking her head to try catch the doctor's eyes – but Alex had yet to open them since she sat on the bed herself. Since she mindlessly walked the length of hallway between the OR and her rooms. Since she watched the anonymous alien flat line and Vik had tugged her hands out of his ribcage.
"And it wasn't enough."
"Alex," soft as possible, Lucy placed her free hand on the small of Alex's back.
The touch was a lightning strike.
Alex was up and pressed against the far wall in an instant, eyes still squeezed shut, bad hand still clenched, trembling. Her breath escaped in stuttering gasps. "He died."
Staying on the bed, keeping her hands visible, Lucy watched her girlfriend unfold in front of her. Come apart at the seams. Watched her fight a panic attack. Felt her own heart fracture with every wrestled breath – felt tears well in her throat and burn in her veins.
"Al-"
"No," she smacked her head against the metal of the wall – stars flaring behind her eyes to match the images painted behind her skull. "I couldn't save him. I-" she placed her free hand over her eyes, forehead pinching. Everything swirling in her chest finally coming to a head under Lucy's gentle eyes.
She didn't deserve gentle eyes.
"He was just a person and they cut him open and took what let him breath and I couldn't help him; I couldn't save him. That… that man took his breathing. They didn't even sedate him properly! He would have felt- felt that... that… that monster steal his life. For what!? Because he was an alien? Because his life was worth lessthan whatever they wanted? And I- I- couldn't-"
Her violent agony came to a stuttering stop, pressing the hand to her eyes harder as her legs finally gave in. She slid down the wall – the wall she painted with her daughter – her alien daughter – and felt tears finally spill from her good eye.
Lucy approached more cautiously this time but couldn't stay away. She lowered herself to her knees. Inched just between Alex's spread knees. Not touching, but close enough to catch her if she went off the edge.
"He died," she finally whimpered.
Wet, loving eyes watched every sign of pain paint itself across her partner. "I'm so sorry."
"It's my fault."
"Hey, no," Lucy protested, leaning forward, but still not touching. "You did everything you could Alex – you're only human."
A harsh, broken laugh, hand dropping away from her face. She opened her eyes but set them on the small space of floor between them.
"You can't save everyone," Lucy tried, desperate to touch. Scared to touch.
A long pause filled by Alex's labored breathing. Then she dragged her eyes up, meeting Lucy's with a kind of fever, a kind of hardness, that she hadn't seen in… years. Since before. Before this ship and those people. Before.
"I should have killed him." It was spoken with such resoluteness, Lucy had to call upon years of court to not react.
"I ordered you to stand-down Al-"
"No," her jaw set, the skin around her eyes tightening. Her good eye didn't lose its gloss though. "Not the doctor."
A longer pause where Lucy tried to read Alex's face. Find the answers in the pained, furious set of her face. "Who then?"
Alex's eye slid to the right, away from her partner while she curled her nose against tears. Against pain. Against fury and betrayal and hurt.
Slowly, she moved her clenched fist from her knee, holding it between. Lucy looked for Alex's eyes another moment, but she resolutely stared away. Eyes locked elsewhere, jaw ticking.
Sighing slowly, she looked at the offered hand. It was only then she realized that Alex was holding something. Paper balled so tightly the bionic was trembling.
Lucy reached up with both hands to touch the tips of her fingers against the fist – gently urging her to release, uncurling the fingers with soft strokes, eyes flicking back to on Alex's, even if she wouldn't look back.
Eventually, Lucy was able to extract the paper, un-balling it carefully. "What am I looking at?" Because, honestly, she was a lawyer. And this looked like medical jargon and chicken scratch.
"One of the dead alien's charts," her voice lost its previous fire. Lucy found she missed it. The monotone was considerably more unsettling.
"Okay?"
"Look at the signature."
Breath. Thought. Emotion. It all caught in Lucy's throat
J. Danvers.
When Maggie came home that night, it wasn't late, but the apartment was still dark. Curtains drawn, no sound of dinner or teenager or even her partners.
For a moment she though no one was home, even though the couch-side lamp was left on for her.
Pulling off her shoes, she padded deeper into the apartment in her socks. Sliding her bag onto the couch to deal with (and drive Lucy up a wall with) later. A sense of déjà vu washed over her, the previous evening still lingering under her skin. Shrugging off her jacket, she went directly to the bedroom, pressing open the slightly ajar door.
Lucy knew even the sound of the door handle turning might startle Alex.
Similar but oh so different.
They were both awake for one, though they were both in bed. Pajama's too, despite the hour. Alex was pressed to Lucy's font, something about her position made her look smaller than her girlfriend. More sunken into the bed maybe. Gertrude was taking almost all of Maggie side of the bed up, laying parallel with her companion. The not-dog was resting her face on a paw, nose inches from Alex's. But Alex paid her no mind, eyes vacant, staring blankly at the curtains.
Lucy's head was propped on her hand, leaning up on an elbow so she could overlook their girlfriend. Every once in a while, she pressed her lips to the top of Alex's head. Her free hand was curled around Alex's plaid clad hip, fingers alternating between pressing into the soft curve of her skin and up and long her bare arm. While Maggie watched, she traced the thick raised scar on her shoulder.
Neither looked up at Maggie's entrance, though Lucy gave the smallest of smile's when she edged into her eye-line. Taking her hand away from her head, she placed a finger to her lips for a moment. No sound.
Ah, one of those panic attacks then.
Maggie nodded, removing her clothes silently. As quietly as possible, she selected some sweats and a tank top, tiptoeing around the room to place a kiss to Lucy's temple, press a hand to Alex's forearm, before retreating.
It was barely nine, and there was no sign dinner had been made or consumed in any form. Ky wasn't here from the looks of things. Alex wouldn't eat anything tonight. But Lucy should. And if food was off the table, then hydration was the bare minimum.
So, grabbing water bottles and the quietest snacks she could think of, she returned to the bedroom. Gertrude had shifted, curling up on top of Alex's blanketed feet. Placing all but her bottle on Lucy's side table, Maggie rounded the bed.
She paused a moment. She took in Lucy's focused, soothing attention on their partner. Took in how Alex was here, but elsewhere. Took in how almost her entire world (sans two aliens – currently competing to see who could stuff more marshmallows into their mouths) could fit on a bed.
Placing her bottle to the side, Maggie pulled up the sheets. Sliding in, she settled right in front of her absent partner.
Alex's eyes were open but vacant. Her breathing too uniform.
And it would take more than a night of her partners surrounding her for that distant look to totally relinquish her eyes.
It would take a morning run with Gertrude; breakfast with Kara; sparing with her crew; picking Ky up from school; and, finally, a game night. It would take her seeing and touching her family. Together. Safe.
The ones that deserved her protection.