"Lena wasn't at her office and I can't reach her cell." Kara sighed, walking back into the command center.
Winn turned around to face her, pale and trembling, and Kara immediately sensed that something had gone wrong. "What? What is it?!"
Winn opened his mouth a few times, and closed it when no sound came out. Instead, he rewound the feed on the monitor in front of them.
Alex, staring at the ceiling, her hand cramping. Before turning to Maggie, and finally spilling the truth to CADMUS.
"Kara Danvers."
"No…" Kara shook her head slowly, refusing to believe what she'd just witnessed. "It has to be a trick. CADMUS would… They would fake it… To get…"
"I don't think so, Kara…" Winn looked at her, his eyebrows furrowed. "I'm so sorry…"
"What…" Kara took a shaky breath. "What would they do to her for her to say that?! She doesn't look hurt!"
"I haven't seen Maggie anywhere… Maybe… Maybe they did something to her."
"Oh no…" Kara turned away from the monitors, feeling sick to her stomach. "No, no…"
Winn rewound the footage again. "Her hand… Right before she… Wait a minute…"
Kara turned back around at the sound of that. "What?"
"It's not a cramp… It's… It's sign language." Winn zoomed in on Alex's features as she moved her hand desperately at the camera.
Kara inched closer to the screen and nodded slowly. "What is she saying?"
"I don't… It's sloppy…" Winn narrowed his eyes in focus. "Maggie… Something about Maggie. I can't see this word… and then something… Footprint."
"Footprint…" Kara frowned, before realizing what it meant. "Winn! They want me, so they have to have kryptonite stored somewhere! We need to check the kryptonite footprint!"
Winn hurried to open the software on his tablet, swiping it up so that the window was next to the live feed of Alex, sitting upright in the room by herself.
"Come on, come on…" Kara prayed to Rao that they'd find something, anything.
"Okay… I have… 5 hotspots of kryptonite residue. Two downtown, one near the harbor, one in the desert… and one moving around."
"The one in the desert is a secure DEO storage unit." Winn and Kara spun around to see J'onn, in his Hank Henshaw form, walking up to them. "Winn, keep tracking the one moving around. I'll take the harbor, and get strike teams to search the other locations."
"J'onn, what about-…" Kara started, but J'onn interrupted her quickly. "You're not joining in on this, Kara. If they have kryptonite you can't help."
"But-… No!" She shook her head. "My sister is in danger! And so is Maggie, I need to help them!"
"You're not coming." J'onn said, sternly. "That's an order."
"I don't work for you!" Kara shot back, now getting angry. "If you don't 'want me to come', I'll find them myself!"
With one last look over her shoulder to the map, she took off, leaving Winn and J'onn by themselves. They shared a look, as J'onn left to prepare the strike teams.
Winn turned back to the monitor with the live feed, and watched the shape of the agent he'd always secretly admired, crumpled to the floor. He hoped it would be over soon.
They'd taken Maggie away again, but Alex could still hear the screams coming from the room next to hers. Now that she knew about the rotating walls, she was aware of the fact that Maggie was less than 20 feet away from her, so close but so far away.
At this point she didn't even know whether it was a CADMUS trick or not, as she just accepted that it was Maggie anyway.
"My dear, why do you look so down?"
Sickly sweet. Trying to sound innocent. And Alex had never felt this much hatred in her life.
"We had a deal, Luthor." She snapped. "How moronic of me to think that you'd be true to your word for even one second."
"Well, agent Danvers, we are going to let her go once we have Supergirl."
Alex chuckled humorlessly. "Somehow, I doubt it."
"If you want a sign of trust, agent Danvers, I'd be happy to provide it. You name it, and I'll arrange it. I'm not heartless, dear."
"I want to talk to Maggie." Alex said immediately. "Right now."
"Hmm. I figured you'd say something among those lines. Too bad that's the only thing I can't do right now, as detective Sawyer is currently busy."
Alex froze. She willed herself again to stay calm. "I did what you asked, Luthor. I gave you Supergirl."
"You gave us your sister. That doesn't prove anything except for a very weird sense of betraying people. Until we bring your sister in and confirm that it's actually her, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do. Unlike your girlfriend… My lips are sealed."
"You son of a bitch, I swear to God…" Alex bit her lip to forcibly restrain herself from spouting the other curses at the tip of her tongue. "Turn the lights on, Luthor. At least let me see her."
A chuckle. "Granted."
The lights flashed back on, and Alex took a second to open her eyes. The wall in front of her had turned transparent… And there was Maggie.
A body on top of her.
For a second, it looked like they were fighting, until Alex saw the fingers tangled Maggie's black hair.
They were kissing.
As the lights in Alex's room came on, the pair looked up in surprise, and the next second, Maggie's eyes met Alex. The look of surprise, pain, and most of all guilt on Maggie's face made her stomach drop.
Alex clenched her eyes shut and turned away, hoping now more than ever that it was all one sick nightmare. That CADMUS was trying to break her. But the moans that had come from the other side of the wall seconds ago were echoing inside her head.
"Still want the lights on, agent Danvers?"
Maggie tried desperately to stop the bleeding from the cut in her stomach. She'd taken off her leather jacket, pressing it up against her abdomen, but in the darkness, she couldn't tell if it was working.
The door to the room opened, and a figure walked inside. In a few seconds, the room lit up. Maggie narrowed her eyes, but before she could recognize them, the figure spoke.
"Hey, Maggie."
A shaky, unstable yet familiar voice. As Maggie's eyes focused in on her, she chuckled weakly. "Ah, well, didn't see that one coming."
Ciara looked around nervously, before kneeling next to her. "Let me see."
Maggie turned away from the blonde, but frowned when she felt her arms being pulled away. She then saw that Ciara was holding a first aid kit.
"Here to gloat about your brilliant plan to kidnap me?"
"I didn't kidnap you, Maggie." Ciara shook her head, and hesitated. "… Taylor did."
"Lewis?!" Maggie winced at the confession. "No… God, no, she's like one of my best friends…"
"It wasn't… They…" Ciara clenched her jaw. "They threatened us, Maggie. They knew about… Me and Taylor being together. If I didn't distract you while you were getting coffee on Thursday, they'd hurt her. A-and they had her switch your equipment."
"Of course…" Maggie grunted as Ciara started to put gauze on the cut on her stomach. "Figures Lewis was behind it."
"She wasn't behind it!" Ciara shot back immediately, a defensive look on her face. "She wouldn't do that to you."
"But she would have killed me." Maggie shook her head. "Fuck this." She looked up at Ciara, watching her bandaging the wound. "So why are you here? Where is here, anyway?"
"They sent me a message with GPS coordinates. I had to show up and bring a first aid kit, or else they'd hurt Taylor. I don't know where she is, but they drugged me, and I blacked out. I woke up in the room outside of here, and a voice told me to walk in… Maggie, why are they doing this? What do you know?!"
Maggie opened her mouth to reply, but figured the walls had ears everywhere, so she sighed. "I don't know what they want."
A beep. "Oh, detective Sawyer, you know what we want."
Maggie rolled her eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about, Luthor."
"Well, now that your girlfriend seems eager to talk, I'd suggest you do the same, or she gets it."
"I can't tell you, Lillian." She shook her head. "I don't remember."
"Lies. Hmm. Well, I can keep this up all day, we have plenty of tricks up our sleeve. Ciara, dear?"
Ciara stepped forward. "They said that… We needed to make out, or they'd kill me."
"What?!" Maggie asked, hoping that she'd heard her wrong. Ciara swallowed thickly. "They said I needed to go into the room, and kiss you. I don't know what they want, and I would never cheat on Taylor, but they… I think they're going to kill her if I don't do as they say."
Maggie's heart jumped. "Jesus Christ… That's so fucked up…"
"I'm sorry, Maggie…"
"Just… Just do it." Maggie winced, getting up slowly from her position on the ground. Ciara stepped forward, and pulled them together in a careful kiss. Maggie felt that Ciara was uncomfortable – they both were – and she was ready to pull away, when she felt something else.
Something that felt like a punch to her midsection, and she doubled over in pain. Before she knew it, Ciara had shoved her onto the ground, jumping on top of her. Maggie could barely catch her breath before her lips were attacked, feeling the cut in her stomach start to bleed once again.
As she was trying to shove Ciara away, she saw the lights in the room next to hers jump on, as her eyes met her girlfriend.
Ciara froze above her, and it gave Maggie enough time to punch her in the face to get her away, but she already saw that Alex had turned her head.
"No… Alex! I didn't… Alex!"
Before she could continue, the door to her room opened, and two CADMUS henchmen came out, grabbing her by the arms and dragging her out of the room. She felt another prick in her neck, and then she was out.
"I'm sorry about your girlfriend, Alex. I thought you two were perfect for each other."
"Don't call me Alex. And don't talk about her." Alex was tired. She was fucking tired, and all she wanted to do was cry. She couldn't take any of this anymore, the darkness, the constant fear. She just wanted Maggie to be safe, to not be hurt.
She'd been left to rot. It had been at least fifteen minutes since she'd witnessed the make-out. The rational side of her knew that Maggie wouldn't do it. And certainly not there. There had to be more to the story. Though the part of Alex that had given up clouded her judgment greatly. In all honesty, she didn't care anymore. She just wanted to get away from this hell.
She hadn't realized she'd fallen asleep until she was jolted awake by a huge crashing sound, followed by gunfire. Alex shot up, but it sounded like it was coming from all around her, so she had no idea where to go.
Before she could do anything else, the ceiling above her collapsed, and she barely jumped out of the way of a figure crashing down into the room.
Alex raised her hands above her head to shield herself from incoming damage, but then saw who it was through the light overhead. She sighed, the relief making her light-headed.
"Supergirl…"
Kara turned to her, and raced to be at her side, tears in her eyes. "Alex, did they hurt you? What-…"
Alex shook her head. "I'm fine… I… I'm just… God, Kara I'm so sorry… I didn't…"
"Hey, it's okay." Kara shushed her. "We're going to get you and Maggie out of here."
"Supergirl. Or should I say Kara?" Lillian's voice. Kara looked up and growled. "I'm going to find you, Lillian. And I'm going to kill you."
A breathy laugh above them. "Well, not if my… new associate finds you first."
Alex and Kara shared an uncertain look, before another figure jumped down the hole that Kara had made during her entrance.
Alex's heart stopped.
Kara looked as shocked as Alex, but felt herself weaken at the all-too familiar feeling of the presence of kryptonite too. She looked up to face the figure.
Veins glowing green, a determined yet distant look of hatred. And an all too familiar smirk, reaching the dimples in her cheeks.
Maggie.