Alex shuffled down the tunnel, her team following closely behind her, their weapons poised. They continue to remain alert until they reach the end of the path to where it breaks off into three different sections. Alex signals for them to split up and continue their search as Alex walks through the tunnel straight in front of her. She holds the scanner up once more and frowns at it, the screen glitching out and making the device extremely unuseful.
"Ma'am, there's something in section three." An agent says on the comms.
"We'll be right over, do not advance until we arrive," Alex responds as the team turns around and heads over to the third tunnel where three agents waited patiently for them.
"What did you find?" Alex asks, her eyes scanning the area for any abnormalities.
"Over here." The head of the team leads Alex around a bend in the tunnel and quietly shows her the glowing white door at a dead end. Alex's eyes widen slightly as she signals a few agents to follow her as she approaches the highly advanced technological door. She places her hand on the exterior cautiously and examines her hand going through some electrical field. She removes her hand and picks up a nearby rock, chucking it into the electrical field. The rock hits against the back rock wall, going straight through the door.
Alex picks up the rock and looks at the door, confused. She places her hand on her earpiece, calling Winn.
"Hey Winn, we have a door here that's clearly alien technology, but it acts like a hologram."
"Are you sure it isn't a hologram?"
"Why would someone put a fake door to an area that's already hard to find?" Alex growls back.
"Can you send me a picture? I may be able to connect it to some martian technology. Alex picks up her phone as she snaps a picture of the mystery door, sending it to Winn. The team waits a few seconds before an "ah-ha!" from Winn brings them back to action.
"This is actually really simple, it's basically a high tech door that just requires a voice password, well, and some blood."
"Blood?" Alex asks in alarm.
"Not a lot, like a prick on the finger. After you say the password it's the only way of physically opening the door without making things worse."
"So what's the password?"
"Not sure, but it is psychic based so the password can change depending on what the religious Martians are thinking about." Alex sighs as she thinks.
"Green martian!" She yells, nothing happening. "God?" Again, nothing. Alex pauses as she reluctantly guesses once more. "J'onn J'onzz?" The door suddenly turns solid and Alex instinctively tries to grab it, the handle shocking her.
"You need blood, Alex," Winn says through the headset as Alex growls. She takes out her knife from its holster and pricks her finger with the tip, blood beading through the broken skin. She reaches for the handle, grasping it without any complications this time, and opens the door.
She pulls out her gun and leads the team into a giant room filled with alien technology and an assortment of items that looked to be highly valuable. The room appeared to be empty, everything quiet except for their footsteps and the pulsing from the different pieces of technology. Alex leads her team through the vast hallways, stopping them as she notices a distant sound of chanting and praying.
She looks around the corner, and towards the end of a long hallway. Twelve small creatures with red skin and green robes circled around what looked like a sort of chair. The chair was decorated with glowing gems and a fabric that looked to be softer than velvet. The chair was raised high above the small creatures, several stairs built to access it and different large machines connected to it. Alex suddenly realised that the chair wasn't just any chair, it was a throne, and strapped into it was J'onn.
##############################
Maggie groaned loudly as she woke, her hand slapping at the man who was shaking her lightly. She turned over to her other side, pulling the blanket over her shoulders.
"Maggie, you know I have to do this. It's for your safety. Not to mention your girlfriend will kill me if I don't keep you safe." Maggie smiled as she heard the last muttered bit the man had said.
"Have you gotten any updates from her?" Maggie asked as she turns over to face Winn.
"Sort of. She needed my help on opening some alien door. I'm assuming she's nearly got J'onn now." Maggie nodded, hissing in pain as she feels a headache forming. "You okay?" Winn asked.
"I wouldn't be in pain if you would just let me sleep," Maggie grumbled.
"You seem to not understand how likely it is I will be dead tomorrow if I don't check on you as often as I am. Alex may not be evil, but she will not hesitate." Maggie chuckled. 'That's why I love her.' She thought to herself. She suddenly remembers the past few hours and feels panic and sadness wash over her.
"What about Kara? Any update on her?" Winn gasps quietly at the question.
"She's still in surgery, but soon they'll be done with her and put her on a sunbed. The kryptonite still seems to be affecting her though, so she might heal slowly." Maggie nods. She sighs, getting up with Winn cautiously following her until she stops him from entering the bathroom.
"I will be fine for a few minutes by myself, Winn. I won't even tell Alex. Promise." Winn smiles embarrassedly as Maggie closes the door, breathing deeply. She sits down, her deep breathes shuddering slightly as she brings her knees to her chest, hiding her face in her arms. The memories of the tunnel come back to her in shocking, graphic detail. Kara's dying, the sleep flying, the rocks showering on her. She cries silently as she thinks of Kara, thinks of how much pain she must be in and if whether or not she'll actually be okay like everyone says.
It's clear Alex hasn't fully processed what happened. All she saw was the aftermath of the torture and hurt. She never saw Kara struggling and giving up to save Maggie, didn't hear her struggle to breathe as she told her she loved her and then just not breathing at all. Maggie had never had siblings and never had she really had family who truly cared for her, no matter how she was. Kara was close to her, she wouldn't be afraid to also call the superhero her younger sister as her girlfriend did. Kara never judged Maggie, even in moments like these where she felt weak. Kara made her feel normal.
Winn knocks lightly on the door, causing Maggie to jump, a loud hiccup escaping her lips.
"Are you okay, Maggie?' Winn's voice was quiet and sympathetic, she knew he had heard her crying, there wasn't any way she could hide it.
"Yeah…" Maggie stood, washing her face of the tear stains before exiting the bathroom, her head down. Winn stood still in front of her before hugging her gently, avoiding the stitches and wounds.
"She's going to be okay. You're going to be okay." He whispers, causing Maggie's lips to quiver once again and tears to overflow, sliding down her cheeks. Maggie breaks the hug, quickly wiping at her eyes as she smiles. She walks past Winn and sits on the couch in the living room, pulling a throw blanket over her shoulders. Winn looks at her, slightly alarmed.
"You aren't going back to bed?" Maggie shakes her head.
"I've been sleeping for a while, I'm not tired anymore. Anyways, I feel bad that you have to sit out here all by yourself, I don't want you to be bored." Maggie pats the other side of the couch as Winn walks over and sits next to her. There's a long silence before Winn chuckles.
"So what, now we're gonna be bored together?" Maggie smiles.
"I can't really do much right now, but I don't feel like sleeping." Maggie shrugs along with her response, causing Winn to snort.
"We could talk? I see you every day, but I still don't know much about the great Maggie Sawyer." Maggie laughs lightly.
"Well, what do you want to know?" Winn pauses, thinking.
"What's your favourite colour?" Winn asks after a bit.
"Blue."
"Are you saying that just because you work for the police or because of Kara?" Maggie and Winn laugh, the laughter dying down as they think of Kara once again. "I keep mentioning her because I keep forgetting what's happening. It's always something so natural I do, where I joke about her, and right now thinking about her just makes me feel…" Winn drifts off as Maggie nods.
"I understand. It's hard to realise this only happened today." Winn nods. The silence keeps lingering until Winn notices Maggie asleep on his shoulder.
"Ha, knew it." He says to himself as he drifts off to sleep as well.
########################################################
Alex turns back to her team, her adrenaline spiking.
"J'onn is up there, but I counted twelve Martians surrounding him, they're small, but if they could take him down then I suggest we don't underestimate them." Everyone nods as Alex nods back in confirmation. She sends a few agents one direction, a few in the opposite, and two with her. Slowly she creeps up behind the chanting group, her gun poised towards them as are the other agents'. On Alex's signal, they pounce, grabbing and tackling them with surprising ease.
Alex stands, holding a few of the aliens, noticing how they barely struggle and how they keep on praying while staring at J'onn. She ignores it for now as she calls for a backup team in order to safely get the prisoners back to the DEO and to escort J'onn out.
Suddenly she notices some of the agents letting go of their prisoners, the aliens scattering as they stand their, unmoving.
"What the hell are you doing? Get them!" Alex cries as she notices another agent doing the same. All affected agents suddenly fall to their knees, their eyes locked on J'onn. It continues to happen until Alex is the only agent left standing, her prisoners crying out as the other aliens return, holding weapons to Alex. Alex growls as she holds her gun to them while maintaining a tight grasp on her prisoners.
She feels something off in her head, slowly worming in deeper to her brain. The aliens only stare at her, their weapons pointed threateningly at her while not causing any damage. Slowly, Alex feels her knees giving in, forcing themselves down.
She tries to resist, the aliens growing more agitated the longer she fights back, but eventually, she falls to it too, her knees on the ground and her eyes locked on J'onn, unable to move.
A/N: Just as I had promised, here is your chapter. I'll try to put up another as soon as possible. In the meantime, enjoy!