Chapter 4: Surrender

Krypton – 50 Years Ago

A four-year-old Sydney sat on her mother's lap in an Argo City infirmary. She was mere inches across from where her aunt lay. Alura was propped up against pillows in the room's only bed with a crying baby cradled in her arms.

Sydney covered her ears tightly to drown out the harsh sound.

She watched as her aunt moved the screaming bundle towards her with a tender smile. She felt her mother's arms squeeze her gently in reassurance, and she reluctantly lowered her own arms to rest on her legs. Her hands were on her knees, palms facing upward as she unenthusiastically accepted her fate.

The wailing baby girl was placed in her hold, and her mother's arms wrapped loosely around them both – just in case.

Sydney froze at the new, up close view of her cousin. Suddenly, despite the red-faced infant's tears, she felt a flood of unpreceded affection for the newest family member in her hold.

"Hi Kara, I'm Sy-dee," she whispered softly. Astra beamed at her daughter's mispronunciation of her own name.

At the sound of her voice, Kara's cries immediately halted, and she stared up at Sydney equal parts confused and awe-struck. When the baby started gurgling happily and grabbed a piece of her cousin's long, dark brown hair to hold, Sydney's eyes shot up to her aunt's, a radiant grin overtaking her features...

Earth - Present Day

Sydney Is-Ac woke up to a throbbing headache.

Her vision was hazy, the world around her persistently swapping in and out of focus. She barely maintained her position perched on a high branch in one of National City Park's tallest trees. She'd chosen this section of the large park as a hideout simply because it was the quietest.

Since awakening at Lord Technologies months ago, she had this innate control over her powers, but now… they were spiraling out of her control. Even from this relatively empty and heavily forested section of the park, she could still hear the voices of humans hiking miles away.

It was overwhelming.

Three days had passed since she'd last seen Maxwell Lord for her… 'daily serum infusion,' as he called it. With each serum-less hour she became more aware of this… of something acting as a buffer between her and reality.

It felt like a thick… film was suppressing her senses and thoughts. She knew what her purpose was – to find and kill Supergirl – but without the serum, the film was being poked and prodded at, causing other things to slip through. She felt a hint of another person lingering underneath it all … fighting to what avail, she did not know.

The costume she donned had begun to itch, even though she'd been wearing iterations of it for weeks. It was essentially identical to the one Supergirl wore – the cape, skirt, tights, and emblem were all the same. The only exemption was the fact that it was a deep purple in all the places where Supergirl's was red.

Her sleep was riddled with dreams of foreign people and places.

Whenever she was idle, she saw Supergirl's face. The jubilant expression on it when they'd first made eye-contact. The way it had pleaded with her when she'd indicated her motive to kill Supergirl. How it had shifted to a look of pure determination when Supergirl had dived after that gondola and those screaming citizens…

Sydney slid her knees up, into her chest. She wrapped her arms around them tightly and rested her cheek on top of her kneecaps. She willed the lingering feelings of discomfort to vanish, but now that she was aware of the emptiness, it was impossible to ignore.

Regardless, none of this mattered, anyway.

If her plan went accordingly, Supergirl would be dead before nightfall.

Project Cadmus.

For days now, the name had been reverberating throughout Astra's head, clouding every thought it could meet.

In her several years on Earth, she'd only heard the two words in the haunted whispers triggered by missing alien prisoners. Astra had assumed the disappearances were the result of deserters – Fort Rozz escapees looking to blend into Earth's societies, rather than join her efforts to save it…

But, the rumors were true. The nefarious organization existed, and their sole goal was the capture, study, and eventual exploitation of aliens.

Project Cadmus.

These twisted humans had held Sydney prisoner for an unknown length of time. They likely conducted all sorts of perverse experiments on her, had driven the girl past her physical limits…

Project Cadmus.

Rao, if she had believed the reports of her subordinates, if she had investigated the corporation further, could she have prevented this… prevented her daughter from…

Brain dead.

She felt sick to her stomach, but the sounds of steadily raising voices drew her back to the present. She was seated, her right leg crossed over her left, in one the D.E.O.'s several meeting rooms. Herself, Director Henshaw, Kara, and Kara's sister Alex were meeting, yet again, after yet another failed attempt to locate Sydney.

Tensions were high.

And, of course Astra was frustrated… with the situation. As a former Kryptonian Army general, she knew that arguments within a unit were a purposeless waste of energy, especially after a defeat. Quarrels between her subordinates were unacceptable under her command.

Naturally, the escalating argument she was currently witnessing was vastly different than what she was accustomed to seeing while at war. Firstly, the alien and humans surrounding her were her equals.

(After only one day of working with the D.E.O. agents, Astra quickly deduced that Hank's director title surprisingly had little pull when it came to Supergirl and Agent Alex getting their way.)

Secondly, the two teammates currently in conflict were Kara and Alex. And, well… Astra was a lot of things, but she was not a hypocrite, and she certainly was no stranger to the intense arguments sisters often found themselves ensnared in.

"…Alex, we've been at this for days. Clearly, your plan to catch Sydney mid-destruction of some area of National City isn't working." Kara was pacing at the front the room. She took long strides back and forth as she spoke, making random, emphatic sweeping gestures with her arms. "We need to be out there, looking for her!"

Alex was also seated at the room's long meeting table, her swivel chair turned in the direction of Kara. Frankly, from Astra's perspective, the woman looked tired.

From her own experiences with her sister Alura, Astra expected Alex to snap at Kara. To her great surprise, the only sign of adverse emotion the agent in question exhibited was a weary sigh.

Alex cleared her throat, carefully selecting her words before replying, "I completely understand where you are coming from, Kara, but… Sydney could be anywhere in National City or beyond since she can fly."

"Astra and I can fly too." Kara mumbled.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "I know you can, but I really think that we should continue to wait it out. After talking with Lord, we know that her powers should be growing more out of control. She's bound to slip up eventually, wherever she is."

"So… we're supposed to just continue to sit around and wait for her to accidentally injure Rao knows how many citizens of the city..."

"No," Alex interjected. "You and Astra will stop her before anyone can be injur…"

Kara crossed her arms over her chest, her pacing halted as she stared Alex down. "You cannot be sure of that."

"Well, we are pretty certain that it was Bizarro behind that earthquake at the National City Airport last night, and the incident at the zoo the night before… both times Supergirl was able to intervene before anyone got hurt."

Alex's words were unheard by Kara, who had zoned out of the conversation – flashes of Sydney injuring and killing innocents, of Sydney having to live with the guilt of such an act afterwards began flittering on a reel inside of her head.

"…we need as much time as possible to perfect the anti-serum we're developing to restore Sydney's memories… the formula is still unstable at this point…" Bits and pieces of her sister's justification for her plan had begun to reach Kara's ears over the horrifying mental imagery she was witnessing on a loop. "I'm really doing the best I can here, Kara."

The last phrase Alex stressed rang in Kara's ears for a moment; the reel of images sped up to such a fast pace that they all began to blur together.

"Well, it isn't good enough!"

Kara froze as soon as the words left her mouth. At Alex's subsequent flinch, she felt her own body recoil, as if it too had been hurt by them. She watched Alex's expression crumble for a moment, before quickly righting itself. She opened her mouth to apologize, to undo the damage…

"Alex," she pleaded.

Her sister responded with a small shake of her head. Without a word, Alex slid her chair out from underneath the table, stood up on shaky legs, and left the room.

Kara stared after her for a moment, locked in an internal battle with herself. Eventually, she too headed towards the room's exit. "I… I'm going to go look for Sydney," she said.

"Okay," the Martian, who had been otherwise silent during the exchange between the sisters, nodded from his seated position across from Astra at the table. At J'onn's ascent, Kara turned towards Astra. Her lips moved in the beginning stages of speech, but before she could utter the words, Astra was up and out of her chair, with a hand resting on her niece's shoulder in a gesture of both comfort and understanding.

"Come, Niece. I will go with you."

"Alex."

Following Kara and Astra's departure, J'onn managed to squelch his urge to check on Alex's wellbeing for exactly one hour. He knew that if the circumstances were reversed, he would desire solitude to sort out his own feelings. (Not that Alexandra would grant him any.)

After giving in and walking through the familiar halls of the D.E.O., he now stood in the open doorway of the agent's office, watching Alex stare intently at the screen of her laptop. She was no doubt reviewing the several folders containing all the information they had managed to gather on Sydney in the past few days.

At the sound of the J'onn's voice, Alex jumped. The hand that had been rubbing at her temples, likely soothing a headache, slapped down onto the table with a thud.

"I have never known you to be the jumpy sort, Agent Danvers," J'onn smirked uncharacteristically, trying to ease the tautness of the room. When Alex's troubled expression did not ease, he shifted uncomfortably on his feet. "Alex, perhaps you should take a break."

"I can't," she replied rigidly, resuming her parsing of the evidence files.

J'onn stepped further into the room. Over the years, J'onn noticed that Alex's office was often a reflection of her emotional state. When she had first arrived at the D.E.O. months after her father had passed away, it was often messy and disorganized with files and clothes strewn all over. Eventually, as time passed, it became more tidy. Alex added decorations and it became a second home of sorts for the woman.

Looking around, J'onn deduced that the room was showing some signs of distress. An errant stack of empty, disposable coffee cups and the pile of clothes in the corner told J'onn that Alex had been living out of her office for a least 48 hours.

"You have been at this nonstop, ever since we found out about Bizarro."

"Yes well, tell that to Kara," Alex muttered underneath her breath.

"I'm sure Kara did not mean…"

"I know," Alex insisted, rubbing at her temples with both hands now. "I know she didn't mean what she said. She's just worried for her cousin. I can't blame her for that."

"Then why are you in here working, when you are clearly exhausted."

"I'm not exhau…" Alex trailed off when J'onn shot her a knowing look. "I'm worried,
she amended. "What if I'm missing something? Or, Bizarro wasn't really the one behind that earthquake and animal breakout at the zoo? The news never actually recorded footage of her at either scene."

J'onn frowned, tilting his head slightly at the agent before him. He had rarely seen her so full of self-doubt. "This is true, but we agreed that the left-behind evidence points towards the presence of a Kryptonian."

"You're right," Alex sighed. "But it could have been one of the several Fort Rozz aliens we do not know of."

"General Astra assured us that all the Fort Rozz aliens under her command have been accounted for. Plus, after analyzing the destruction at each of the sites, we concluded that ice vision and fire breath were used. Those reverse-Kryptonian powers certainly point directly at Sydney... You know all of this, Alex." J'onn emphasized.

"Something still doesn't add up." At J'onn's inquiring look, she continued. "We know that Bizarro's primary goal is to kill Supergirl."

"Yes."

"So why hasn't Sydney waited around? She had to know that Supergirl would arrive in minutes. The gondola accident was staged by her and Lord to draw in Kara. Why is she playing the waiting game now?"

Before J'onn could speculate on an answer, the sound of a loud explosion seized both agents' attention. Every unsecured item in Alex's office shook from the vibrations; tiny pressure cracks begin to line the walls and ceiling. After the initial boom, the clamor caused by falling plaster and brick echoed throughout the room.

"That was close," Alex noted, springing up from her chair.

"It sounded like the roof." J'onn removed his pistol from its holster around his waist. His eyes turned a radiant red color. "I will check it out. Stay here," he ordered, sprinting from the room.

Instinctually, Alex strapped the Kryptonite machete she kept underneath her desk to her back. She grabbed her service sidearm and double-checked that it was loaded. "Yeah right," she declared to her now empty office, marching determinedly after the Martian.

Venturing closer to the site of the crash, Alex slipped into the familiar role of a soldier.

Thankfully, due to its proximity to the main generator, this region of the D.E.O. was not heavily staffed. So far, she had only run into two other agents of the organization. She instructed Vasquez to work on contacting Supergirl. Whatever or whoever had launched into the D.E.O. via the roof had to be very strong, and while she would never underestimate J'onn, she hoped he would not have to reveal himself to the world as a Martian, just yet.

Noticing the dim hallway's flickering lights, she ordered the second agent to head to the control room located on the other side of the building, and ensure the backup generator was working to capacity.

Alex braced herself before rounding the next corner. She could sense movement yards away, just out of her line of sight. She heard two voices, and she immediately recognized one of them as J'onn's. He sounded… like he was struggling. The sobering thought sent chills racing down her spine.

As soon as she turned right, Alex realized that she knew exactly where she was. This wing of the D.E.O. had temporarily been shut down for construction. Specifically, this hallway – which led to one of the biggest training rooms in the building. It was being upgraded to accommodate various alien weaponry and Kryptonite emitters.

Before she could take two steps into the hallway, Alex suddenly caught sight of J'onn approximately twenty feet away from her. He had just been thrown from the training room. Alex watched him crash into the wall directly behind him anxiously. The room's steel door was crumpled against his back.

J'onn quickly shook off the impact, and he was up, on his feet again seconds later.

They made eye contact for moment, then J'onn shifted into his full Martian form. He charged back into the room. Alex recognized the determined glint in his eye.

Alex did not remember making the conscious decision to run after him, but abruptly, she found herself at the entrance of the room, mere feet away from a raging Kryptonian.

Sydney.

The Martian Manhunter and Bizarro were hovering in the air, halfway to what remained of the ceiling, in the middle of the training room. Alex could see the blue sky and streaks of sunlight through the Sydney-sized hole there.

J'onn had Sydney in his grasp, one of his arms wrapped firmly underneath her neck and the other gripping her soldier. Despite the blank expression on Sydney's face, the erratic jerks of her hanging legs indicated a desperateness to escape. Her hands clawed at J'onn's forearms.

When Sydney took note of Alex's presence in the doorway, she swiveled herself, and J'onn as a result, in an arc until they were both facing the woman.

"Don't want fight. Need Supergirl," Sydney shouted.

"Okay," Alex said, slowly. "Surrender. We do not want to hurt you, Sydney."

Alex regretted her word choice immediately, as they seemed to trigger something within the girl. A deep frown contorted her features and she blew a stream of fire down at herself, where J'onn's arm was pinning her to his body. "I don't surrender. You surrender!" she bellowed.

As soon as the fire left Sydney's mouth, J'onn's entire body shuddered. Sydney slipped from his hold and they both tumbled towards the floor. Sydney caught herself before she hit the ground, but J'onn landed in a heap. Alex rushed over to his side, meanwhile Sydney floated above them both, satisfied.

"J'onn, it's the fire isn't it?" Alex whispered, keenly recalling from a previous conversation between them that fire was the only weakness the Martian possessed. J'onn nodded feebly in response, and Alex helped him up into a seated position.

Sydney quickly used her fire breath once more, and the two agents barely rolled into time to dodge the blast. The fire hit the back wall of the training room and roared further to life, promptly spreading, and setting it ablaze. His proximity to this renewed fire caused J'onn to break out in a sweat. He began to wheeze heavily and struggled to catch his breath.

Sensing weakness, Sydney dived, plowing towards the D.E.O. agents. One shove sent Alex skidding across the floor until her back hit the padded walls opposite those now bathed in fire.

Sydney grabbed J'onn by the front of his costume and dragged him even closer to the flames. "Where is Supergirl?" she demanded, gripping his shoulders, and trapping his body between her and the ground.

"Don't. Know," J'onn stuttered unevenly.

Sydney's back was facing Alex, and Alex used this fact to her advantage. She quickly righted herself and started sneaking up behind the Kryptonian. She was astounded that Sydney hadn't heard her advance; Lord's prediction of her powers starting to malfunction must have been true.

Alex did not realize that her Kryptonite machete was in her hand until she was only a foot away from Bizarro.

The sight of the glowing green blade and the realization of what she could do with it, caused Alex to hesitate. The weapon began shaking in her trembling hold as she struggled to think of scenarios that did not involve stabbing Kara's cousin.

But, there was no time.

Sydney had just questioned J'onn a second time about Kara's whereabouts. The Martian was too gassed to even reply; a weak noise was all that left his lips.

The sound made Alex's eyes water.

Now, Sydney was opening her mouth, and… she was taking aim directly at J'onn.

Everything slowed, and Alex could see the licks of fire slowly forming, starting to leave Sydney's lips…

She had to make a split-second decision…

For a split-second all she could see was her sister's face when she learned her cousin was dead for the second time.

Thus, she did the only thing that she could, as someone who loves Kara… and someone who loves J'onn.

Her hand closed tightly around the hilt of the deadly weapon for a moment before, she sheathed it back into its scabbard tied to her back. Then, she reared forward, hurling herself at Sydney. Her arms locked around the girl's middle, and she tackled her to the ground.

The flames died before they could reach J'onn.

Physically superior in every way, Sydney swiftly gained the upper hand in their tussle. Her face twisted into a snarl, and she seized Alex by the collar of her shirt. She flew upwards, clutching a gasping Alex with one hand. Alex held onto Sydney's wrist desperately, as she tried to reason with the Kryptonian.

"Sydney, Supergirl will be here soon!"

"Then, no purpose for you," Sydney decided. Even from her position dangling in the air, yards away from J'onn, Alex could still see his face. His eyes were darting between her and Sydney, and he was trying to crawl over to them, slowly sliding his body across the ground. He willed his body to soar into the air, but…

Nothing happened.

J'onn looked terrified for her, and Alex had never seen a scarier sight.

Abruptly, Sydney tossed her to the ground. Alex groaned aloud, the impact resounding throughout her entire body, as she struggled to sit up on the floor. Still floating above her, Sydney's eyes began to turn a bright white color. Alex shut her own tightly, accepting her fate.

She waited for the coldness to reach her, but instead she felt a strong gust of wind and a dark shadow enveloping her body.

"Alex?!"

Alex opened her eyes and saw Astra. The Kryptonian General was standing directly in front her, shielding Alex from the brunt of Sydney's ice blast. She shivered slightly at the frigidness of the few bits and pieces of ice that landed near her.

Alex felt a hand grip her wrist almost too tightly and turned to see Kara crouched down beside her.

"J'onn…" Alex began frantically. She looked over at the Martian and quickly saw that the whirlwind of air she'd felt had extinguished the flames threatening his alien physique. Without the threat of fire, J'onn seemed to be on the mend. He was already up on wobbly feet, unsteadily making his way over to them both.

Out of the corner of her eye, Alex saw Astra launch herself into the air. Kara stared at Alex for a moment, worry clear on her face, and Alex nodded firmly in response. Now certain that her sister was all right, Kara stood up as well, and joined Astra in the air.

Once J'onn reached Alex, he quickly pulled her up, off the ground and into a standing position. Alex darted from the room as fast as her feet could carry her, heading towards the sickbay to prepare Sydney's anti-serum for injection.

J'onn followed.

Sydney's headache was back with a vigor. Her movements were sluggish and her surroundings were growing blurrier with each passing minute.

Her plan had worked. She'd created a diversion in National City. When Supergirl had arrived to save the day, she hid a decent distance away – close enough so that when Supergirl left, she could follow her back to her base of operations.

After the earthquake at the airport, Sydney had slipped up. She'd gotten her first headache and had lost track of Supergirl before she reached her hideout. The second time though, following the zoo incident, she managed to follow her within a quarter-mile of the military base… the one Sydney was at now.

Sydney wasn't quite sure why she had chosen this course of action – to bait and wait – and had not attacked Supergirl as soon as she saw her. It was a direct breech of her orders from Maxwell Lord.

In retrospect, she suspected that there were other unseen forces at play. Particularly, one behind the scenes of her own actions, covertly pulling her strings.

Sydney knew failure was unacceptable, but her powers were already failing her. She should have been able to obliterate the human and alien she'd just been fighting, but her powers were malfunctioning. They did not galvanize exactly when she summoned them and often aimed at places beyond her intended target.

At least Supergirl had arrived, finally. That was all she wanted.

Of course, she could not manage to arrive alone.

There was another woman wearing an all-black costume. She had protected the agent from Sydney's ice vision, and seemed to be impervious to it. Now, she was hovering in the air only a few yards away from Sydney. She did not make any sudden movements towards Sydney and seemed content to only watch her.

The woman appeared… thunderstruck. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, but no sound was released. Sydney fidgeted while underneath her heavy gaze. She needed to do something, but she too was unable to move. Something about the woman was causing the throbbing in her head to reach new, painful heights. She clenched both of her hands into fists to conceal the fact that they had begun to shake.

The expression on the woman's face… Sydney struggled to recognize it. Concern? Before Sydney could react to this development, Supergirl had joined the woman in the air, holding her hands up, beseechingly.

"Sydney, I will not fight you," Supergirl asserted. "A lot has happened, but I know that a part of you must recognize us. We are your family!" she cried.

Sydney frowned at the blatant lie. What sort of tactic was this? She willed her mind to piece the words of her response together. Speech was always difficult.

"You… lie," she ground out.

"Sydney, please listen to us." The woman in black was talking now. "I am Astra, your mother and this is Kara, your cousin!"

Mother.

Cousin.

Kara.

Astr-

The next instant, Sydney's body stiffened as if struck, and she gasped aloud.

She had dreamed of herself holding a baby… those eyes. They were identical to the ones Supergirl stared at her with now. Sydney gazed at the stark, white streak in the woman's hair. The sight caused something deep within her chest to break free.

"Mo…" Her lips mouthed the word, but her voice wavered, tampering off before the entirety of the syllable was uttered. The throbbing in her head was agonizing now, her vision blurred to point where she could no longer distinguish the features of Kara and Astra's faces.

She saw their bodies simultaneously rush towards her in a haze of swift motion. She felt an arm wrap around her, hands were gripping her arm and shoulders…

Then, the world went black.