"Alex?" Kara croaked as she opened her eyes and saw her sister looking down at her.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Alex asked gently as she brushed a stray hair off Kara's head.
"Better. Weak. What happened?"
"You collapsed and James and Winn brought you here. They said you were complaining about noise."
"It was so loud. I couldn't stop it." Kara said.
"Stop what?" Alex asked confused.
"The sounds." Kara said.
"Can you go back to the start?" J'onn asked from a few feet away.
"I started feeling odd. My head started hurting. I just thought I was tired. Then at work I started hearing conversations I hadn't wanted to. Then I heard more and more. It just wouldn't stop. It hurt so much. My head, the voices. I couldn't filter them out. So much noise."
"This ever happen before?" J'onn asked.
"Not like this. Just after I arrived on Earth I had problems adjusting and I couldn't filter things out. But Kal-El taught me how to do it. Since then it has been second nature."
"But that didn't work today?" J'onn guessed.
"No."
"Any other powers working strangely?" Alex asked.
"I don't know. I don't think so." Kara answered as Alex squeezed her hand. "But they are working now. I can only hear you."
"They may not be." Alex warned. "You are in the Kryptonite room. When you are feeling up to it we can block the Kryptonite and see if you really are better."
"Is that why I feel sick?"
"Probably." Alex said.
"Turn it off. Please. No more Kryptonite." Kara pleaded, suddenly remembering her captivity and torture a few weeks previously.
"You sure?" Alex asked.
"Please." Kara pressed causing J'onn to walk to the emitters.
The second J'onn deactivated the Kryptonite Kara was overwhelmed with sounds. Gripping her head again she whimpered in pain as J'onn quickly increased the Kryptonite levels until Kara was no longer in distress.
With her powers removed her senses dulled and the noises stopped causing Kara to relax.
"Better?" Alex asked.
"Yeah." Kara said her voice trembling. "What's happening to me?"
"I don't know." Alex said gripping Kara's hand. "But we'll figure it out."
"What if we can't?"
"We will." Alex assured her as she watched her sister fall to sleep before she left Kara's side.
-00-
"How is she?" James asked when Alex entered the room he, Lucy and Winn were waiting in.
"Her super hearing is out of control. We have to keep her near Kryptonite in order to stop her being overwhelmed."
"Any idea what is causing this?" Lucy asked.
"We have three theories." J'onn said. "One, she has been exposed to something, like Red Kryptonite. Two, it is an unforeseen consequence of what happened to her here." As he spoke guilt flashed over Lucy's face. "Or three, and this is the worse case, the radiation from the sun that gives her her powers has caused some sort of mutation to her cells that is making her powers unstable."
"But her cousin has never had this problem and he has been here far longer." James pointed out.
"He came as a baby. Kara had already lived for many years without our sun. In the same way her cousin was effected by Myriad and Kara wasn't we can't expect them to always react in the same way." Alex said.
"Is there anything we can do?" Winn asked.
"We need to figure out if she was exposed to something that may have caused this." J'onn said. "We need to rule out environmental factors."
"I'll check out her apartment, see if there is anything she could have been exposed to." Lucy offered.
"I'll check the office." Winn said.
"I'm going to find Clark and go with him to his Fortress, maybe there is something in there that will help us." James said. "Can I see her before I go?"
"Of course, but she is sleeping." Alex warned. "I'm going to talk to her mother's hologram and see if she will be any help."
-00-
"How are you feeling?" Alex asked as she returned to Kara's side an hour later.
"The same."
"It's going to be okay." Alex said stroking Kara's forehead with one hand and holding one of Kara's hands with the other.
"I'm scared." Kara confessed before she winced.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked.
"It's starting again."
"What is?"
"The noises. I can't stop them. And my vision." Kara said suddenly seeing through everything and squeezing her eyes shut to stop it. As the noise level picked up again and pain washed through her she squeezed Alex's hand breaking it in the process.
"Make it stop." Kara whimpered as Alex tried to bite back the scream of pain.
Left with no choice J'onn increased the Kryptonite levels in the room again and nodded for the doctor to sedate Kara. As Kara drifted off to sleep she released her hold on Alex's hand. Biting back the pain Alex withdrew her swollen appendage and looked down at the bruising.
"Go get your hand treated." J'onn ordered.
"I don't want to leave her." Alex said.
"I'll watch Kara. She'll be asleep for a few hours." J'onn said before gently adding. "Kara needs you functioning properly. Go get your hand treated."
-00-
"How is she?" Alex asked when she finally returned to Kara's side.
"Still asleep, but heart rate and blood pressure are back to normal." J'onn said. "How's the hand?"
"Broken." Alex said as she took a seat.
"So it is not just her hearing that is out of control then." J'onn commented.
"It looks that way." Alex agreed.
"If it spreads to her other powers she will be a danger to everyone in this base." J'onn warned.
"How much further can we push the Kryptonite?" Alex questioned.
"The room is already at higher than safe levels." J'onn said.
"So our current solution will end up killing her?" Alex said despondently.
"There may be another option, but I doubt Kara will want it." J'onn said cryptically. "But before we cross that bridge I am going to see Major Lane."
"Has she found something?" Alex asked hopefully.
"If she had I think we would know already." J'onn said sadly. "But she has just returned, so I will go and debrief her. Let me know if she wakes up." He said standing. "And Alex, remember that if Kara loses further control you could get hurt again. I know it's hard, but it will be safer if you keep some distance when she wakes."
-00-
"Director." Lucy greeted as J'onn entered the control room.
"Anything?" J'onn asked.
"No. We found nothing unusual at her apartment. Winn has not found anything at CatCo. We are currently going through all imagery we have for her missions from the last few days in the hope it shows something. But so far nothing unusual is showing up. We are also trying to track her movements for the last few days to see if this was deliberate."
"Sounds like you have the bases covered." J'onn said, grateful Lucy had taken charge of the investigation. "Any news from Olsen?"
"He and Superman are at the Fortress going through the archive there. He said he would contact us if they found anything. He also said Superman had never suffered anything similar."
"I take it there have been no confessions from Maxwell Lord? No admission of Purple Kryptonite?"
"No, wait, is that a thing?" Lucy asked.
"Not that I know of, but I wouldn't put it past Lord." J'onn said.
"If he is involved he has not confessed. I did, however, contact my father." Lucy admitted.
"Why?" J'onn asked curious.
"To find out if it was just Kryptonite he injected her with or whether it was some strange compound that could have caused what is happening now."
"And?"
"He said it was just Kryptonite." Lucy said.
"You believe him?"
"I don't know. I want to, but..." Lucy started not sure how to finish.
"As I said to Alex, have a little faith."
"Even if it is the truth, it still doesn't mean it isn't the cause, but I guess pure Kryptonite is easier to deal with than an unknown compound." She said hopefully.
"There is one person you have left off your list." J'onn said sighing.
"Jeremiah?" Lucy guessed.
"Jeremiah." J'onn agreed.
"Has he seen Kara recently?"
"Not to my knowledge, but I should check." He said sounding defeated. "The Jeremiah Danvers I knew was good and loyal, I hate that we are starting to doubt him."
"Perhaps we should focus on what we do know, not what we fear may be." Lucy said. "I'll keep retracing Kara's steps. I'm sure Alex and Dr Hamilton would appreciate your input with the lab results."
-00-
"Alex?" Kara asked as she started to wake up.
"Hey." Alex smiled. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired, sick."
"That's probably the Kryptonite." Alex said stroking a stray hair away from Kara's eyes. As she did so Kara caught sight of her other hand.
"Your hand? Did I do that?"
"It was an accident." Alex said. "Right now you need to focus on getting better."
"Do you know what's wrong with me?"
"Not yet, but we will." Alex promised.
"I'm scared." Kara confessed.
"I know. But I promise you we will figure this out." Alex said. "Just try to rest."
"Will you hold me?" Kara asked, her eyes swimming with fear and loneliness.
"Of course." Alex said climbing onto the bed and hugging her little sister, ignoring J'onn's earlier warning.
-TBC
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing.