When Alex returned to her lab having being cleared by Hamilton she found her parents and J'onn sat round a computer screen.
"Anything?" She asked.
"Have you been cleared?" J'onn immediately countered.
"Yes." Alex said avoiding eye contact with all three occupants. When a silence hung in the air she finally looked at J'onn and added. "Seriously, I have been cleared for lab duty."
"I have been showing your parents your data, but perhaps you should summarise what we know." J'onn finally said, accepting Alex could be in the lab.
"It looks like her cells are being supercharged." Alex started to explain. "To start with we could control the effects by exposing her to Kryptonite, but eventually even that didn't stop it."
"So Kryptonite had no effect on her at that point?" Jeremiah asked.
"Not exactly, it made her really weak and ill, but didn't stop her powers." Alex explained. "At the moment I have no idea what would cause that on top of the other effects."
"You said she had been tortured by injecting her with Kryptonite?" Jeremiah asked.
"Yes." J'onn said.
"Could that have built up some sort of immunity to Kryptonite?" He asked.
"She was so weak in the room I don't think so." Alex said. "But I guess it is possible her cell's reaction to Kryptonite was altered by that exposure. I never even thought about testing it." She added dejectedly, feeling like she had kept failing Kara.
"But it was only her hearing that was uncontrollable?" Eliza asked looking up from the notes she was reading.
"No." Alex said glancing at her hand. "Hearing was the first one and the most obvious but vision and strength were also effected."
"But not freeze breath, flying or heat vision?" Eliza asked.
"Not when we put her in the pod." Alex said still feeling guilty over their actions. "It is possible they would also have been affected with time."
"Hearing and vision were always the two she struggled most to control. The glasses hid any effects on her vision, but there was no way for her to block her hearing." Eliza commented. "If you divide her powers into two, passive and active, her vision and hearing being passive, the flying, freeze breath and heat vision being active."
"And strength?" Jeremiah asked.
"I'm not sure how to classify that one. She always needs to concentrate on controlling it so maybe passive?"
"Maybe you are onto something. We've been looking at this thinking it is a cellular issue, like her cells have become supercharged for some reason. But what if it is at the brain level?" Alex asked. "Red Kryptonite effected her brain chemistry enough to get rid of her inhibitions and change her personality, so maybe she has been exposed to something that stops her signalling her cells."
"Red Kryptonite?" Jeremiah asked.
"A synthetic form of Kryptonite that turned Kara to the dark side." Alex said.
"But you reversed that?" Eliza asked.
"We did, once we knew what she had been exposed to."
"So it is possible she was exposed to something that caused her to lose control? And if we figure out what we should be able to reverse it." Eliza said hopefully.
"That's a big if." Alex said. "There is no evidence that she was exposed to something."
"What's wrong?" J'onn asked noticing Jeremiah's frown.
"They wanted me to work on Kryptonite at Cadmus. Not just to create more, but variations of it, and now Kara's powers have become unstable." Jeremiah said.
"You think this is a result of Cadmus research?" J'onn guessed.
"Big coincidence if it isn't." Jeremiah said, arms folded across his chest.
"What can you tell us about the research?" J'onn asked.
"Not much, I refused to get involved. But I do know they tried one type that would change humans, give them powers."
"We have already come across something similar, although not using Kryptonite. A project dubbed Bizarro. The subject was injected with Kara's DNA and she developed Kara's powers, well reverse of them. She was like a mirror image. Albeit in an unstable way. Kryptonite actually gave her strength."
"How did you capture her?"
"We developed a synthetic mirror like Kryptonite by reversing the ionic charge. That allowed us to take her down."
"Did you try using that Kryptonite on Kara after she lost control?" Eliza asked.
"No. I never even considered it." Alex said, mentally ticking off another failure.
"Randomly exposing your sister to Kryptonite is not the best approach." J'onn said trying to alleviate some of Alex's guilt. "But first things first, we need to figure out if this is at the brain level or the cellular level. Alex, I'll leave you in charge of that. Jeremiah, it would be useful to learn everything you know about that Cadmus research."
-00-
"Mom?" Alex asked when Eliza entered her lab a few hours later. "Where's dad?"
"He's with J'onn looking through the Cadmus archives, seeing if they can figure out what is causing this."
"Have you come for an update?"
"Actually I was wondering how you are doing." Eliza said.
"I'm not the one trapped in a pod." Alex pointed out.
"What happened isn't your fault."
"Isn't it? I am meant to protect her."
"You can't control everything." Eliza warned.
"She looked so scared, so hurt when we told her about putting her in the pod. I have never seen her so frightened, she believed she would never see any of us again."
"She will see us again and I know you will find a cure."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because you are Alex Danvers and I know you would do anything for Kara." Eliza smiled. "Plus I have been learning that you and Kara regularly go through things like this, yet you always come out on top." She added drawing Alex in for a hug. When Alex finally pulled away Eliza said. "But it is important you get enough rest. You won't do Kara any good if you collapse. So how about we go get some food."
"I'm not very hungry." Alex said.
"You need to eat." Eliza said gently.
"I have been. Plates of food keep magically appearing and I eat some of it." Alex said pointing at a table in the corner that had a plate with a half eaten sandwich.
"You have a good team here." Eliza smiled.
"Yeah, I do." Alex replied.
"If you don't want to eat. How about a cup of coffee?"
"Okay, as long as it is not decaff." Alex agreed knowing her mother wouldn't stop until Alex had agreed to a break.
"I wouldn't dream of it." Eliza smiled handing Alex a bag of freshly ground beans. Taking the bag Alex walked over to her coffee maker and commented.
"I feel like I am missing something."
"Which is why you need a break. Fifteen minutes thinking about something else might set you on the right track."
"Maybe. So what do you want to talk about?" Alex asked.
"Your choice." Eliza smiled.
"Okay. How are things going with dad?"
"How do you mean?"
"Well you thought he was dead for years. You've been living by yourself for the last few years and now he is back and you are living together. I kind of assumed there would be an adjustment period."
"This is what you want to talk about during your rest period?" Eliza asked both surprised and uncomfortable at the direction the conversation had taken.
"You don't have to if you don't want to." Alex said turning her attention back on the coffee that was dripping into the pot.
"It's not that." Eliza said, not really wanting to discuss it, but not wanting to shut Alex out either. "It's just that I want you to focus on you. You have enough to worry about right now without anything else."
"I'm not Kara." Alex pointed out. "I didn't expect it to just go back to how it was."
"Your father and I will be fine. It is just going to take some time to get there. As you said he's been gone a long time."
"But you are okay?" Alex checked as she handed her mother a mug of coffee.
"I'm fine. A little confused to how me coming in to make sure you were okay has resulted in you checking up on me." Eliza smiled.
"Sorry to interrupt ma'ams." Vasquez said knocking on the door. "But you have a visitor."
"Who?" Alex asked looking up.
"Maxwell Lord. He said he has information that may be useful."
"Of course he does." Alex said standing. "Where is he?"
"Lab five."
-00-
"What do you want Max?" Alex asked marching into the lab.
"To help."
"You didn't this morning."
"I never said that." Max protested. "But I admit that my focus this morning was more on you not hurting me rather than me helping your sister."
"Seeing I am not restrained and now I have a side arm, I'm not sure I see why your focus has changed." Alex said.
"Alex, I know we have had issues, but I would have hoped by now that you have accepted that I can be useful."
"It is your motives I am questioning."
"I admit that with our past I may have deserved that." Max smiled.
"How magnanimous." Alex commented dryly.
"I am trying to help." Max said holding his hands up defensively. "From what you said this morning your sister is either suffering some sort of cell mutation or some sort of brain malfunction. Both of which I have experience with. I am offering you my help."
"I didn't say brain malfunction this morning." Alex pointed out.
"True, but it is logical to assume it is a possible cause. And you did bring up Red Kryptonite." Max pointed out. "I can help, use me."
-00-
"You okay?" Eliza questioned as she stepped up to Jeremiah who was watching Alex and Max through a window.
"Yeah, I was just getting a feeling of deja vu."
"From your time at Cadmus?" Eliza asked.
"No, from when Alex was in 6th Grade and Tommy Robinson made the mistake of asking her out on a date. I almost felt sorry for him as Alex ripped him to shreds."
"I wouldn't waste sympathy on Maxwell Lord." Eliza commented.
"Why? Has he hurt Alex?"
"Not that I know of, but Kara doesn't like him."
"But Kara likes everyone." Jeremiah pointed out.
"Precisely."
-TBC
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing.