It had to have been an eternity. Alex was cold, sore all over, and most of all terrified out of her mind.
Ever since she'd called Lillian out on her tricks, the room had been dead silent. And while she knew she had to cling onto hope to get out of whatever place she was trapped in, a voice in her head knew that she'd just abandoned all options to save Maggie.
By now, she was convinced that she'd made a mistake. It had been Maggie. She didn't know what they did to her, they could have done anything to break her. Beat her, poison her, torture her… It had been Maggie screaming for help, and instead of helping her… She'd made it worse.
The feeling pulled at her heart, like it had been ripped out of her chest. She was shaking, and tears were slipping down her face. But she couldn't give up Kara. Not like this. She had to be strong.
With the sound of Maggie's laugh and the sight of Maggie's dimples burned in the back of her mind, trying to keep out the haunting screams and bruises she'd witnessed earlier, she lost consciousness.
The pain was unbearable.
She'd never felt pain like this., and she'd had her fair share of broken bones and cuts and bruises. She'd been shot and stabbed, and kidnapped before. But nothing came close to this.
A pitch black room. A chain around her hands. She couldn't move, and breathing was hard enough after the beating she'd received.
Her thoughts drifted off to Alex. The last time she saw her, that moronic asshole jumped on top of her and held her down.
She'd been moved around, that much she knew. She couldn't hear Alex anywhere, even though she knew that she hadn't moved to another room.
"Are you ready to talk?"
Maggie laughed weakly, though she stopped quickly after she noticed how much it hurt. "What do you want? Supergirl's identity? I don't know it."
"What is the location of the DEO?"
"You already… Know that." Maggie gasped painfully.
"You're so observant. No wonder they made you detective. So, can you use your skills to figure out what we would possibly want from you?" Lillian asked.
Maggie leaned her head back in exasperation. "I would, but your goons breaking my bones makes it kind of hard to think. But please, by all means, enlighten me."
Lillian laughed. "CADMUS fixes things that are broken. And you, detective Sawyer, are infected with love for those that do not belong on our sacred planet."
"Right…" Maggie tried her hardest not to show how much pain she was in. "… So you're going to pray the alien gay away."
"I had such high hopes for you. Better not run that mouth of yours too much, or your girlfriend will pay the price."
Shit. Maggie willed herself to shut her mouth. Her getting a few more hits because of her defiance was fine, but she didn't know how much Alex could take.
And the fucking darkness was starting to wear her out. She'd felt blood trickle down her face before, but she couldn't see how much it was.
She tried to take comfort in the fact that Alex couldn't be far away, and that everything would turn out alright if she played it safe.
"I'll do it." She sighed. "Whatever you want."
"See? That wasn't so hard."
Maggie grunted, and tried to pull at her chains again. A few seconds later, a door opened behind her, bathing the room in light. She turned away from it, before she felt herself being grabbed once again. Resisting was pointless, she realized, and it would only make things worse for Alex.
Another prick in her neck. She grunted, but within seconds she felt herself dropping to the floor once again.
Kara was a mess. Ever since she'd witnessed the scene between Maggie and Alex in the dark room, she couldn't think or breathe.
She and Winn were watching the stream at the command center. J'onn had taken over her shift of flying around town looking for suspicious activity.
"What are they doing to her?" She whispered to the screen. Winn cleared his throat.
"It's the darkness, they're doing it to drive her crazy. And they're rotating the walls so-…" Winn trailed off when he saw Kara's glare, and realized that the question had been rhetorical. "Never mind, not relevant."
"We need to figure this out, Winn. She's losing it."
Her hands trembled as she willed herself to stay calm.
"T-the stream is encrypted so I can't track it… But maybe I can go around it." Winn cleared his throat nervously. "I-… You're right. We need to act fast. Do you think Lena knows something?"
"I doubt it…" Kara shook her head. "But it's worth a shot. I'll go talk to her."
Winn nodded, and watched her go, before turning back to the stream, and his computer screens.
"Don't worry, guys. We're looking for you."
"Wakey wakey."
Alex carefully opened her eyes, woken up by the grating sound of Lillian's voice over the speaker. It took her a second to get used to the darkness again.
"Well, I think you'll be glad to hear that we finally managed to find a good cause for detective Sawyer. I hope you'll still be able to recognize her when the make-over is done, because she's going to be absolutely fabulous."
A thought struck Alex's mind. I'd rather have her dead than in the hands of CADMUS.
"Of course… My offer still stands. Tell me what I need to know, and I give you my word as a scientist that we'll let her go."
Alex chuckled weakly. "Luthor, I'm going to kill you and everyone you love when I get my hands on you."
"I can't wait." Lillian's sarcastic answer came instantly. "But until then, allow me to give you front row tickets to the show."
The lights flashed on again, and it hurt as much as the last time. But this time Alex knew she had to bite through the pain to open her eyes. Because Maggie was in the room again, strapped down to a chair, and two CADMUS scientists were standing over her.
"Let go of her!" Alex shouted, though she knew she couldn't move without risking them killing her.
"Alex… I'm okay." Maggie nodded quickly, looking her in the eyes. She looked tired, like she'd just woken up. "Don't worry. Please, don't do anything stupid, I can take it."
So it had been a trick earlier. Of course.
Maggie kept her eyes trained on her girlfriend. "Don't tell her anything. Let me do this, Al."
As one of the scientists neared Maggie with a scalpel, the detective involuntarily flinched away from it. He moved the object to her stomach, and pulled up her shirt.
Alex's heart stopped as a thin line of blood appeared, and Maggie grunted from the pain the incision was causing. It was the trigger for Alex to jump up. "Okay, okay! Enough!"
"Yes?" Lillian asked.
"Fine. If you let her go, I'll tell you. No more games, no more hurting her."
"If you give me Supergirl, I'll let her walk."
"Alex, no." Maggie shook her head. "Don't!"
Alex looked at the camera, and moved her hand around frantically, in one last attempt to get a head start on her.
Then, she looked at her girlfriend once again. "I love you."
Maggie was yelling at her now, but she ignored it. Instead, she turned back to the ceiling. "Her name is Kara. Kara Danvers."