Kara froze where she was, unable to tear her eyes away from the nightmare she was living. Her sister had been shot and was bleeding out on the floor, and her friend had a gun to her head.

Lillian laughed as she watched the sheer panic and fear overcome Kara's entire body. "You see, I knew you and this girl were close the second she shot that gun at me. She knew it would get her killed, but she shot me anyways, just to stop your suffering. She was willing to die for you, a pathetic excuse of alien scum. That's when I knew."

Kara shook her head, refusing to believe this was actually happening. Emma's warm brown eyes locked onto hers and she nodded in reassurance. Emma refused to show fear, just for the sake of Kara's sanity. Lillian continued speaking. "If you come with me, I'll let her go. No harm will come to her or any of your other DEO friends."

That's when Emma let the fear overtake her. Not for her own safety, but for Kara's. Because even though Kara had promised not to do anything stupid, Emma knew Kara was undoubtedly going to go with Lillian if it meant saving her. She turned her desperate eyes on Kara, and shook her head firmly, but Kara already made her decision.

"I'll come, Lillian. Just let her go."

Emma felt anguish wash over her, unwilling to think about was going to happen to Kara if Lillian stuck her on that ship. With all the prisoners who hated her, stuck in space with nowhere to go.

Kara was going to die.

And she couldn't let that happen. Emma decided that if Kara was going to do something stupid, then so would she. Resolve spread through her body, and just as Lillian lowered the gun, she whirled around and slammed her fist into Lillian's face. She took the gun out of Lillian's hands and aimed it at her.

As soon as Lillian shook off the daze that came over her, she found herself staring right into the barrel of her own gun. Emma was holding it, threatening to use it. "Surrender now, Lillian. Release the aliens from the exodus ship. Retract your forces. If you do that right now, I won't kill you."

She laughed and subtly began moving her hand towards her belt. "I would never. I didn't work this hard to get this far in my plan, just to give it up. Even if I die, the cause lives on. I will succeed, even if I'm cheering in my own grave."

Emma snorted. "Oh please, you value your own pathetic life too much to die now. Call off your forces, Luthor."

Lillian snuck her hand into her belt and found what she was looking for. She grasped it with one hand, and simultaneously locked eyes with the young agent. "Never."

She whipped out the grenade, and before Emma could shoot, she threw it in her direction.

Emma acted completely on reflex and dove out of the way, but everyone could see there's no way she'd be safe from the blast. Alex had just regained consciousness when she saw the glowing green grenade flying.

And she was forced to watch helplessly, as her sister took off immediately. Was forced to watch as she went against every rational principle of self-preservation ever and covered up Emma as best she could. From the kryptonite grenade.

Was forced to watch until the grenade blew.

Completely unable to help.

-00-

Winn and Eliza had been wondering what was going on outside of their little safe room. They heard so much commotion out there, and wanted to help, but knew they couldn't do anything.

But then they felt the explosion. It rocked the entire room, and one of the agents left on their protective detail even fell to the floor with the force of it.

Winn immediately logged onto his tablet to see what had just happened, and found nothing good.

Eliza looked on the tablet with him, and did not like what she was seeing. "Winn, the kryptonite signatures!"

Winn felt like throwing up when he saw just how high they were. "Well, that's not good."

-00-

Emma opened her eyes slowly, dizziness making the world spin. Her ears were ringing, and she couldn't seem to orient herself. She looked down to find a large gash on her thigh, but other than that, she was relatively unscathed. She wondered how that was possible until she remembered what happened a split second before the explosion.

She could remember the feeling of someone draping over her, covering her from the explosion.

Could remember that it was Kara.

Shit.

She immediately shook off the cobwebs and intensely looked for the hero. She found Kara bleeding out in multiple places, meters away from her. There was blood staining her clothes, and coming out of multiple gashes. Kara looked to be completely unconscious.

Emma immediately began crawling towards the fallen hero, desperate to make sure she was alive.

Alex watched as everything around descended into chaos. Jeremiah was stuck under debris, and she couldn't even stand up to walk. She could feel herself becoming lightheaded from the loss of blood, and pressed her own hand against her wound to staunch the bleeding. She couldn't see J'onn anywhere, and Kara looked about dead. Alex was living in a nightmare.

She watched intently as the new girl crawled towards her unconscious sister, hoping against hope that Kara was still alive.

Emma finally got close enough to Kara to see that her chest was rising, albeit concerningly uneven and labored. She was just about to reach Kara's side when a stream of Cadmus agents burst through the door. And Emma knew exactly who they were here for.

As they approached Kara, Emma did her best to fight back, but her injured leg prevented her from doing much damage. She was able to stop three agents before one kicked her in the ribs, sending her reeling back. They all swarmed Kara and as soon as they cuffed her, they took her and left. Lillian's voice could be heard on one of their walkie-talkies saying,"Bring her back to the warehouse. We need to regroup, and then we will finally commence the plan once and for all."

Emma watched in sorrow as they dragged Kara out of the DEO and into one of their transport vehicles. Upon hearing no noise outside; Winn, Eliza, and their protective detail all ran out of the safe room, only to find themselves in the aftermath of a war zone. Winn and Eliza immediately spotted Alex bleeding on the floor, and rushed over to her. The protective detail ran to Jeremiah to help him get free from the debris he was trapped under.

Eliza called for someone to get a gurney, and immediately Alex was placed on it and being transported to the med bay. She ran next to it, ready to perform surgery, until she remembered there was a more qualified doctor at the DEO. Agent Rose.

And that's when she remembered that Emma had been with Kara when this all happened. She immediately whirled around, eyes scanning the room for Emma, and spotted the young agent picking herself up from off the floor. Eliza quickly ran over to Emma, helping her stand, and her piercing eyes cut right into Emma's.

"Emma, where is Kara?"

Eliza felt her heart break as she watched the young girl disintegrate right in front of her. Tears immediately sprang to Emma's eyes, and it was all she could do to shake her head. "Eliza, I- I'm so sorry."

She collapsed into Eliza's arms, sobbing. Eliza wrapped her arms around the young girl and whispered,"Shh, it's not your fault. We'll find her, I know it."

They stood there until Emma finally calmed down. Eliza focused her eyes on the agent. "Alex has a bullet in her leg, and it nicked her femoral artery. She was bleeding out the last time I saw her. I'm sure someone is in there working on her, but I'd appreciate it if you were there for her surgery."

Emma looked into Eliza's eyes and firmly nodded her head. "I got it. Thank you, Eliza. Thank you."

Eliza watched as Emma ran into Alex's room, and couldn't stop the worry from rising in her stomach.