Once Upon National City

A/N: The idea for this drabble dates back to the days of Season One. I just never got around to writing it up until now. A few adjustments were made to incorporate some details from Season Two. Because, you know, I can. XD

Enjoy!

POST DRABBLE REVIEWS

Guest – Thanks for the comment! I'm glad you liked it. :)

Anna – Thanks for the comment! It's always nice to hear people like reading it. :)

Guest – Thanks for the review. :) I agree with you. It's unfortunate the show doesn't have time to explore all of that other stuff. I suppose that's why we fanfiction writers are around, to fill in the blanks. XD I do have a fluff piece of which will follow up on this drabble. That won't be out for a while, however, but it will for sure be in the works. Thanks for reading! :)

Guest – Thanks for the comment! :)

Venz07 – Thanks for the review. :) I too am a fan of the awesome bond between Kara and Alex, so it's always a pleasure to write drabbles with them in it. I agree with you, I wish the show could fill in all those precious little moments in between, but alas, it can only do so much. Which is why I'm here. XD To help fill in the blanks. Thanks for reading! :)

Badassfox – Thanks for the review. :) I've only ever sprained my ankle, so I really don't know how much that hurts. That said, I can imagine it being quite painful. Lol. Naming Alex's gun Gertrude was hilarious in my opinion. And with you bringing up the whole grandma thing, maybe I should rename the gun Grandma Gertrude instead. XD Thanks for reading! :)

Disclaimer: The characters and the worlds I write in do not belong to me. The stories that I write are intended for entertainment purposes. I do not make any money from them.


Summary: If Kara's super powers are super speed, super strength and flight, among other things, then Alex's super power is knowing the exact moment her sister solar flares. Alex & Kara. Family/Hurt/Comfort.


*** ~ Her Supergirl ~ ***

They're at National City's Port when it happens.

Alex doesn't know what type of alien they're currently fighting, just that it's practically the Hulk, except gray, twice the size, and ten times more ugly. While this thing shares certain similarities to Parasite, luckily for them, this alien doesn't have any soul sucking abilities. That doesn't make its punches any less hurtful though.

Alex flinches as Supergirl careens into the water after a particularly nasty punch across the face, her sister skipping across the surface like a hurled rock. After four skips, Kara disappears into the murky depths of National City's waters, leaving Alex to panic when ten seconds go by without any sign of the Kryptonian. Before she could truly freak out however, the water explodes upwards, a blur of red, blue and blonde rocketing past her, soaking them all with fat droplets of moisture. A boom of thunder quickly follows after that impromptu shower, Kara retaliating against their opponent with a steel bending punch.

But it's not enough.

Nothing seems to be enough right now.

Not Kara's super strength. Not the supporting fire Alex and multiple other DEO agents provide, bullets bouncing off of the rampaging alien's hide like rubber balls. Not even the change of location, from National City's down town core to National City's Port seems to make that much of a difference. Except for maybe less civilian casualties. That just means there's more casualties on their end, only a handful of DEO agents remaining in this fight, down from four squads, Alex included.

The NCPD had it worse though, they being the first responders when tall, pissed off and ugly suddenly materialized in the middle of National City's park, the unknown alien uprooting trees and tossing cars the first moment it got. Their only saving grace, Alex's at least, is that Maggie is on the other side of town when this happens, her girlfriend being out of harm's way allowing for Alex to truly focus on the matter at hand. Things quickly spiral out of control though, forcing J'onn to authorize deadly force when subduing this alien threat. Alex hopes it doesn't come to that, Maggie having shown her that not aliens are hostiles to be caged, or worse yet, killed, but from experience Alex knows this is probably what's going to happen anyway.

Kara slams into the ground with a sickening crunch, Alex gritting her teeth at the sound of pavement and asphalt cracking underneath her sister's body. Taking a quick second to steady her aim, thirty feet back and behind the cover of some half crushed shipping containers, a breath catches in her throat when Kara just barely rolls across the ground, dodging the massive foot which would have otherwise squashed Supergirl's head like a melon. As the angry alien turns to locate its prey, Alex watches as Kara unsteadily rises to her feet, the Kryptonian staggering backwards a few steps almost drunkenly. Eventually finding her footing, the youngest Danvers plants her feet, Kara unleashing her signature Heat Vision attack just at the alien rounds on her.

But just like before, it's not enough.

The alien's fist connects with Supergirl's stomach in spite of searing twin lasers of blue burning trails of black across its chest. Alex screams her sister's name as Kara goes flying backwards into a massive tanker docked at the port, cratering and capsizing it. As the destroyed tanker sinks into National City's dark waters, the Kryptonian's boneless form falls to the ground, Kara's body just barely flopping onto the edge of the port's concrete walkway. Her emotions a jumbled mess, Alex barely remembers to shoot the alien now that her sister is out of the way (so to speak), but even as she fires round after armor piercing round at it, her eyes never leaves the crumpled heap of red, blue and blonde.

Supergirl does not move.

If Kara's super powers are super speed, super strength and flight, among other things, then Alex's super power is knowing the exact moment her sister solar flares. She may not have been right next to Kara the first time her sister loses her powers, but even then, Alex could tell something was off. Call it a feeling, a sixth sense, or whatever else, Alex just knew something wasn't right back then, just like she knows something isn't right, right now. So when, after she gets over her initial shock and realizes the crazy alien has ignored them all in favor of sneering down at Kara, the moment it takes one step towards her still immobile sister, Alex absolutely losses it.

"KARA!"

Alex doesn't hear J'onn on the comm as she flings her standard issue DEO glock away, a full clip of armor piercing rounds still loaded in its base. She doesn't hear her adopted father telling her to stay put, that he was coming to help. She doesn't hear the cries of her fellow DEO agents as they duck for cover, the monster of an alien throwing chunks of concrete at them when some of them got too close trying to distract it from going after Supergirl. All she hears is her own pounding heart beat in her ears as a shaking, gloved hand pulls her favorite space gun from its holster. Gertrude, as dubbed by Alex since Maggie refused to name their dog that, lights up under deft fingers, Alex immediately ramping up the weapon's voltage to its highest setting.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

Alex fires, and fires, and fires, bolts of blue energy whizzing through the air, most missing their target completely. Just enough hit however, the rampaging alien looming over her sister's body turning towards her after the last shot walloped it in the back of the head. Alex should have used her favorite weapon from the start of this fight, but after running multiple tests and discovering its shots could actually hurt Kara on its higher settings, Alex opted for her DEO standard issue sidearm this time, to avoid accidentally shooting her sister if shots went awry.

"I WILL END YOU!"

Oh what a fool she was.

Kara.

Alex races towards the abomination continuing to fire Gertrude, the warning shouts of fellow agents falling upon deaf ears. The alien roars in defiance, a shout which quickly turns into a squeak as a bolt of blue catches it in the chin. While not enough to actually kill the alien (though it certain left a visible mark), the message is clear. It doesn't matter if her opponent is three times her size. She is Alexandra "Badass" Danvers. Mess with her loved ones and she is the one to answer to.

Kara!

Glaring at her opponent, Gertrude practically chain fires in her hands, Alex forcing the alien to raise its own massive hand up in front of its face to protect its eyes. That is her main target all this time, a structural weak point all races had, humans and aliens alike. Or so Alex hopes. Yet even if an eye shot doesn't kill it, blinding it would certainly be of help. This has been a losing fight from the start, so any advantage would be welcome.

Unfortunately, luck is not on her side, all of the blood quickly rushing from Alex's face when one of her shots connects with the alien's throat, sending the creature staggering backwards straight towards her sister. With Kara just seconds away from being trampled to death, Alex pours every ounce of adrenaline fueled might into her legs and closes the remaining distance in two seconds flat. Taking another second to line up her shoulder with the alien's chest, Alex tackles the already off balance, choking alien into water, and away from her prone sister.

KARA!

The water is cold and harsh, Alex barely remembering to gulp down a quick breath before her head is sucked underwater. Instincts taking over, Alex kicks for the surface, the blue glow from Gertrude the only guiding light in this murky darkness. Breaching the surface with a stuttering gasp, she has only a split second to catch her breath before something snares her ankle and drags her back down again.

"Alex!"

Desperately trying to free herself from whatever is pulling her down, Alex flails, the terror currently gripping her familiar in its entirety. It's like she's trapped in that tank again, except the water here is dark and vast, yet even more suffocating then before. And this time, this time she's not sure there will be anyone around to save her, Kara still down for the count and Maggie on the other side of town. But Alex fights nevertheless. With everything she has. Because that is who she is.

She is a fighter to the bitter end.

Unable to tell up from down, with her lungs desperately burning for oxygen all the while, she fights. Punches. Kicks. Even pistol whips with her favorite space gun which she's somehow been able to keep a hold of all this time. But the water is slowing her movements down greatly, her heavy combat gear making it feel like she's stuck in a vat of molasses instead of actual water. Her foe, the massive alien that started all this mess, doesn't seem to have the same issue as she does however, the monster yanking Alex around in the water like a ragdoll, enough for her to be dizzy and nauseous all at once. Couple that with the increasing pain in her ankle as the alien slowly crushes it in its meaty grasp, Alex nearly blacks out right then and there.

"ALEX!"

But if there's one thing that could be said about her, about all Danvers women, Alex never gives up, even when the odds are stacked against her.

After a particularly jarring yank from her captor, Alex finds herself staring up at the beast, its sickly complexion reflecting what little light there is between them, mostly from her gun. Raising her shaking arms, a blackness creeping around the edges of her vision, she fires once, a look of shock immediately stretching across the alien's face. The alien floats away from her within seconds, its expression frozen in surprise, her mangled ankle finally free from its grasp. Yet as the alien fades out of her line of sight, Alex's body reaches its limit and she coughs up the last breath of air she has left. Her body shuddering as ice cold water fills her lungs, the last thing Alex remembers before the darkness takes hold is her trigger finger pulling down, and a bolt of blue following the line of her bubbles up to the surface.


"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

Kara comes to with a splitting headache and in complete disorientation.

For a time, sounds assault her in a muffled cacophony of… well, Kara doesn't know how to describe what she's currently hearing, her vision a mess of mixing colours making her stomach flip sickeningly. Vaguely, she thinks, she can hear her sister's voice. And knowing that her sister is still there, fighting, brings great comfort to her. That means there's still hope yet.

"I WILL END YOU!"

Inhaling deeply in an attempt to quell her volatile stomach, Kara vaguely registers a shadow lingering over her form, the flash of weapons fire overhead causing her to shut her eyes for a moment. The ground trembling underneath her, she doesn't realize how close she is to the edge of the water, nor does she realize how close the other alien is, how close her panicked sister is, Alex racing towards her like a woman possessed. With all of her senses coming back to her slower than usual, it isn't until she hears the smack of something colliding nearby that she realizes what's happening. Almost in slow motion, Kara looks up wide-eyed as her sister and the angry, gray alien from before flies over her head and tumbles into the cold waters just feet away from her.

"Alex!"

Her voice is hoarse as she yells, weak, pathetic, her arms trembling under her own weight as she barely pushes herself up into sitting position. Surviving DEO agents shout, call out, and yell for their commanding officer, their comrade, their friend, those that aren't attending to the injured standing along the edge of the water, guns pointed downwards as they all wait for Alex to resurface. And she does, to everyone's relief, Kara's more so than anyone's. But that relief is short lived, for Alex's head barely has a second above water before she suddenly disappears again.

This time Alex does not come back up.

"Alex?!"

Kara can't breathe. She can't think. She can barely believe what's going on.

Oblivious to the DEO agents stripping off their gear and jumping in after their fellow agent, all Kara thinks about is Alex. Alexandra Danvers. Her sister. Her best friend in the entire world- no, universe. Her Supergirl. Alex who is currently drowning because of her.

Again.

"ALEX!"

Without thinking, Kara lurches forward into the frigid water. Ungracefully gulping down a breath, she dives under against the protests of the DEO agents on the shore, her eyes burning as she searches the shadowed depths for any sign of her sister. After a moment of fruitless swimming, Kara races upward for the surface when the need for oxygen becomes too great. She nearly screams in frustration when she gasps.

Kara knows this feeling, this deep exhaustion unlike anything she felt before. It was the same feeling she had after defeating Red Tornado, which likely means she's blown her powers again. Having to deal six consecutive alien attacks (this one being the seventh) for the past week does that to person. Or, in this case, a Kryptonian. But as much as she wants to scream, and shout, and possible throw a tantrum like a petulant child, Kara does not. Instead she focuses on trying to find her sister, nearly two minutes having gone by at this point since she last saw her older sibling.

Someone from the shore shouts for her to get out of the water and to let the others look for Alex. Kara ignores them in favor of going back under again, even when everything hurts, her heart the most. Again she finds nothing, just the silent blackness and the cold, Kara cursing in Kryptonian when she has to abandon her search once more for some much needed air.

Prior to this, swimming had always been a joy for Kara, ever since she landed on Earth at the young age of thirteen. It was like flying, but less noisy, the water muffling sounds easier than air. Whenever Kara got overwhelmed by her Super Hearing, she would swim, usually dragging a reluctant Alex along with her to the beach. That's where Alex's love of surfing came from, or so was their joke, the two of them often just listening to the waves beat against the shore, watching the sun set.

Kara hates the water now. She hates that it was this very thing which nearly killed her sister a month ago. She hates that it's once again rearing its ugly head and might very well succeed in murdering her sister this time. Clenching her jaw after a drawing in another hasty breath, she dives for a third time, Kara desperate now, both she and the other DEO agents in the water still having found no sign of Alex.

Hopelessness starting to sink in after finding all of nothing for the umpteenth time, just as she's about to surface again, she sees it. A blue streak from deep below shoots past her, just missing her on the left. Recognizing that bolt of blue as a shot from her sister's favorite space gun, Kara foregoes air and instead propels herself deeper into the water, Kara knowing that this was her last chance to save her sister. If she were to surface now, Alex would be as good as dead.

Alex!

Kara swims, and swims, and swims some more towards the spot the shot came from, until she can barely just make out the faint outline of something ahead. Taking one more powerful stroke, her hand brushes against Kevlar, Kara immediately clutching at the shoulder strap of her sister's combat gear. Ignoring Alex's lack of response to her tug, she pulls her sister flush against her, Alex's back to her front, one arm securing the DEO agent around the waist, the other reaching upwards, Kara swimming upwards with all of her might. They breach the surface in five seconds. If Kara had been her regular Kryptonian self, they would have breached it in one.

"Alex!?" Kara gasps once she stops sputtering for air. Kryptonians always did have a naturally higher lung capacity than humans, something Kara greatly relishes right now. But when Alex doesn't respond after a few seconds, Kara quickly loses her Supergirl composure, nearly falling into hysterics.

"Alex!" she tries again, this time giving her sister a weak shake.

Again Alex does not reply, instead her head lolling limply to the side.

"No, no, no!" Kara repeats, her eyes wide in terror. "Don't do this to me Alex! You're stronger than this! Alex!"

The sound of her cries draw the DEO agents already in the water towards them. Supporting her from both sides, they help keep the two of them afloat, all of them making it back to the shore in record time.

"Alex, please say something!"

Hands grab at them once within reach. Tugging on her cape. Pulling at Alex's combat gear. Soon the two of them are being hauled out of the water and onto solid ground. But unlike Kara, who's wiggling and squirming to get herself and Alex up onto concrete, Alex is dead weight, completely and absolutely limp.

"Alex!" Kara shouts as she hunches over next to her sister. Alex lies deathly still on her back next to her, lips blue, her complexion stark white.

"Alex- No! What are you doing!?" Kara shrieks, thrashing against the agent pulling her away. "Let me go! That's my sister! That's my sister!"

DEO agents both wet and dry swarm around Alex, two of them cutting her gear away with their combat knives, a third and fourth beginning CPR. The whole time this happens, Kara is screaming for Alex, scrapes and scratches she does not feel bleeding red and marking her palms and knees as she weakly and unsuccessfully tries to escape from the agent keeping her just out of reach. Chest compressions go on forever in Kara's wet eyes, the entire time Alex as still as death.

Reaching out weakly, Kara pleads with whoever would listen, gods or otherwise, to let her sister live. To bring Alex back. She needs her. Kara needs her sister. More than the yellow sun. More than her powers. More than anything. If that means she has to give up being Supergirl, Kara would do it. Without question, without hesitation. Because that's how much Alex means to her. Because truly, how could she even think about saving the world if her sister wasn't in it? Just the thought of that, of Alex dying, of never opening her eyes again, of Kara never hearing her sister's voice again, has her screaming.

"ALEX!"

Alex sputters. Alex gasps. Alex coughs. As if hearing Kara's cry, the eldest Danvers convulses and shakes, Alex soon rolling onto her side, expelling the water from her lungs. Ripping herself free from the arms constraining her, Kara scrabbles over to her sister in less than a second, the DEO agents standing in the way parting wordlessly.

"Alex!"

Kara weeps, immediately wrapping her arms around her wet and shivering sister, hugging Alex to her chest tightly. Whimpers escape her mouth as the tears fall, Kara hiccupping as she mumbles her sister's name over and over again, sometimes slurring syllables. Rocking the two of them, more out of comfort for herself than her sister, Kara buries her face in Alex's wet hair, her grip tightening that much more.

"K-Kara…" Alex murmurs softly, trembling. A hand reaches upward, pale fingers soon intertwining with Kara's own.

Kara nods, unable to form words right now. Their joint hands ground her, the feeling of Alex's pulse through skin acting as the balm to her fractured soul. Wrapping her cape around the two of them both protectively (and possessively as some would later comment), Kara's gaze raises only for a moment when J'onn arrives, along with a medical team. Watching as the Martian quickly takes control of the situation, directing the DEO agents around, Kara's eyes soon return to the human in her arms, her sister, everything else fading out into white noise.

They would stay like that for the rest of the night, holding each other, nothing and no one able to separate them.


A/N: Tried something different here. Usually I write in the past tense but decided to switch things up at the last minute. Hopefully it didn't come out too badly. XD

The alien that Kara and the gang were fighting is Appex. You can find more info here (replace commas with periods): dc,wikia,com/wiki/Appex_(Prime_Earth)

Made up some stuff about Alex's favorite space gun. We really don't know much about it aside from it shooting lasers, so I took some artistic liberties with it. Like the fact it can shoot under water or hurt Supergirl or that you can change its settings. :P