A/N: Thanks for the reviews.
Baratta jennifer - The cousins will keep growing closer.
"Welcome back. And for the record having more drama at home than at the DEO was not what was meant by rest." Vasquez said to Alex before asking. "How's Alex?"
"Better. But back to being scared of her powers." The older Alex said. "Wait, it was quiet?"
"Well no alien attacks. Obviously Indomitable was everywhere doing his thing." Vasquez said before noticing Alex was staring at her screen causing her to ask. "What are you looking at?"
"Every unknown or loose end we have." Alex said. "Speaking of, do we have any new leads on Diz's parents' murder?"
"No. The FBI are keeping us in the loop, but until we crack the whole thing I don't think we are going to get answers."
"Where are we with the kidnappings?"
"Stopped for now. It is like we notice, then they stop. But the last round the only three people who knew were you, Kara and me, so we can rule out a mole. Plus I have swept your house and car, no bugs." Vasquez said. "But the good news is we think we can guess who will be high up the list."
"How?"
"We have archives of suspected metas and powers going back to the start of Metas. We have augmented it with Barry's list. We then pulled out those with powers not associated with any of Indomitable's followers. Of those we found those who are dead, but survived by both parents. All of the kidnapping victims, except Diz's parents are on that list."
"Which raises the question, why take and then kill Diz's parents. In fact, how many of the other kidnapping victims were killed?" Alex asked.
"Just one other couple." Vasquez said. "And that couple looked more like an accidental kill."
"So what are we missing?"
"It is possible Diz's parents were taken by someone else, their murder may have nothing to do with this."
"Only there are so many similarities." Alex said. "But for now let's focus on who might get taken. But also, figure out if any of them have been contacted."
"You know, kidnapping may not be needed in all cases." Kara said from the doorway.
"What do you mean?" Alex asked.
"I mean if they are already on team Indomitable they wouldn't need to be taken. And if they just need DNA there may be better ways."
"I'll look into it." Vasquez said as Rose entered the office.
"Ma'ams. Agent Mahler is here."
"Who?" Alex asked.
"He is part of the President's security detail." Rose said.
"Were we expecting him?" Alex asked looking at Vasquez.
"No."
"And today was going so well." Alex said before looking at Rose. "Show him to the main meeting room."
"Yes Ma'am." Rose said. "He's asking to see Supergirl as well." She stated before adding. "He is unarmed."
00
"Agent Mahler." Alex greeted walking into the room.
"Director. Supergirl" He said standing.
"What brings you here?" Alex asked getting straight to business. The question causing Mahler to face Supergirl before saying.
"It was me who shot you and I would like to apologise. At the time we were under the belief you were trying to kill the President."
"What intelligence told you that?" Alex asked.
"That is why I am here. Here is everything we have about that day. The President ordered me to deliver it in person and to apologise to you." He said turning back to Supergirl.
"So you are only apologising because you were ordered to?" Alex asked.
"Yes Ma'am. At the time I was acting in what I believed was the best interests of the President. I won't apologise for that."
"What has your investigation uncovered?" Supergirl asked, knowing Mahler and Alex wouldn't see eye to eye.
"We believe the device you found was in the chair at the time of shipping. All chairs for the White House come from a preferred supplier. Although they have now been removed from that list."
"Surely everything gets scanned." Alex said.
"Yes ma'am, but whoever is behind this convinced us that we were going to get hit by missiles. There are clearly deficiencies in our systems."
"And how is the investigation into the fake missile strike going?"
"All information is on this disk as well." He said.
"Really?" Alex asked.
"Yes. The President has ordered everything is given to you."
"So I assume you have found nothing useful?" Alex guessed.
"We have found evidence that someone tried to frame Supergirl. But everything else has been a deadend."
"We'll see what we can uncover." Alex said sliding the disk to Vasquez.
-00-
"You okay?" Alex asked her sister that evening.
"Yes."
"Then what's with the frown?"
"I was just talking to Alex."
"And?"
"She said she was fine and she sounded okay."
"But?"
"It is nine pm in Boston right now and she was studying, by herself."
"Where's MJ?"
"At a Celtic's game."
"And Martin?"
"A date."
"And her room mate? Mel?" Alex asked.
"At the game with MJ. A large group went. But Alex didn't."
"To be fair, she doesn't really like basketball."
"I know. But I had hoped she'd stop shutting herself away."
"It is only one night." Alex said. "But I can get Kara to call her."
"No need. Alex ended the call with me to speak to her."
"She'll be okay." Alex said.
"I just feel so distant from her."
"I know it is hard, but you can't force Alex to have fun, she needs to figure things out for herself. Just like you did."
"I know. It's just that I had hoped that I could make things easier for her than they had been for me."
"I get that, but finding her place in the world, that's something she has to figure out for herself." Alex repeated.
"What if she can't?" Kara asked. "What if she always has this emptiness?"
"Are you talking about Alex or you?" Her sister asked.
"Alex." Kara said before pausing and adding. "Mainly."
"Anything I can do to help you?" Her sister asked.
"No. I'll be okay."
"Really?"
"I guess."
"That's it. Tomorrow night we are having a game's night." Alex declared. "No arguing and no moping."
00
"This is so simple it is clever." Vasquez said as Alex approached her the next day.
"What is?" Alex asked.
"How they faked the missile strike."
"You figured it out already?" Alex asked.
"Like it said it was obvious, so obvious it was overlooked."
"So what did they do?"
"They changed the training sets." Vasquez said pulling up something on the screen."The radars were convinced that the objects were RSM-56 R-30 "Bulavas""
"Weren't they decommissioned ten years ago?"
"Seven, but yes. That means the change was not likely to be picked up as no one cared. But used recently enough that we had to assume it was a real but rouge strike."
"But there was no strike."
"Because they weren't really Bulavas." Vasquez said. "They were just drones. But the systems were convinced that they were Bulavas as it had been trained to identify the drones as Bulavas. Where they went wrong is we know when the training sets were switched, so we can start to figure out who switched them." Vasquez said. "However, we will require access to the military systems."
"I'll talk to the Preside-" Alex started only to stop.
"What's wrong?"
"Does this seem too easy?"
"Ignoring you and the President nearly dying?"
"If that part of their plan had worked, we'd still be in this position."
"No we wouldn't. If the framing of Supergirl had occurred the DEO would have been shut down." Vasquez reminded her.
00
"Kara was right." Ruby said walking into the office that afternoon.
"About what?" Alex asked looking up.
"The others may not need to be kidnapped."
"What?" Alex asked lost.
"The Prices, the Wilmotts, the Kanes, the Sterlings and the Fosters were all blood and bone marrow donors." Ruby said.
"What?" Alex asked not sure what Ruby was talking about.
"The couples identified as potential kidnap victims who weren't kidnapped." Ruby explained. "And what's more is they were all registered at the same hospital. The hospital where that shady shapeshifter Lobo was looking for worked."
"Serfa?" Alex asked.
"That's the one. Or as County Hospital knew him as Niles Mills." Ruby said. "I have pulled the files of everyone who worked with him and am looking into their pasts. To be honest they are all as shady as hell."
"Well at least we have a manageable suspect list." Alex sighed. "Let me know the most shady and we will start there."
"Yes boss." Ruby said as Kara entered the office and announced.
"I can narrow our danger list even further."
"How?"
"Some of them are already Team Indomitable." Kara explained. "As financial backers."
"Should have thought of that." Alex said.
"Well there's lots going on and it is easy to over look things." Kara said as Vasquez approached.
"Well, I shouldn't. Maybe I am overlooking the obvious." Alex sighed. "Like how do you get rid of bodies?" Alex asked.
"Feed them to chickens." Kara said.
"What?" Vasquez asked.
"Feed them to chickens like Chaco Chicken." Kara explained.
"Is this a TV thing or has she finally lost it?" Vasquez asked Alex.
"It's a TV thing." Alex said before asking her sister. "Why were you watching the X-files last night?"
"It's a classic." Kara said.
"Any non-TV inspired thoughts?" Alex asked.
"Acid or incineration." Vasquez said.
"Wood chipper." Kara added. Seeing her sister's glare she said. "It was a movie first. Wait I have just had a really dark thought and I hope I am wrong."
"What?" Alex asked.
"If they are still making the drug they still need to power all the machinery right? And we have followed power draws before. So what if they got their power off grid, through solar panels, wind farms or burning their victims."
"That is dark." Alex said. "But you may be onto something. Not with the bodies, although who knows, I mean the green energy. If they are powering themselves we wouldn't see anything."
"Only we looked at the power requirements and their needs would need acres of panel or a large wind farm. We aren't seeing any traces."
"Maybe we need to be less conventional. Say we got Kara to run on a treadmill how much power could she generate?" Alex asked.
"Not enough to power a factory." Vasquez said.
"But what if there were ten of her, or fifty? What if her heat vision was used instead?"
"You think they are making super powered human batteries?" Vasquez asked, clearly not buying it.
"It's a possibility we have to consider." Alex said. "But first I need coffee."
-00-
As Alex walked back to her office a siren started to ring moments before she was thrown into the wall.
"What the-" Alex started as she shook off the effects as a DEO team swooped in and subdued the alien that had attacked her.
"Alex?" Kara asked rushing to her side.
"I'm okay." Alex said as she got to her feet. "What the hell happened?"
"Sorry Ma'am it got away as we were going to containment." Webber apologised as his team led the alien away.
"Be more careful." Alex ordered.
"Yes ma'am." Webber said rushing after his team.
"You okay?" Kara asked her sister again.
"I'm fine. My pride took more of a battering than me."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure." Alex repeated.
"Okay, well I'll take you home."
"What? Why?"
"You were just attacked." Kara said.
00
"What was the point of making me come home early if you were going out?" Alex asked when Kara returned to the house.
"I had to get food." Kara said putting the bag on the coffee table. "If you stocked your fridge I wouldn't have had to go out."
"And what would you have done with a stocked fridge?" Alex asked. "It's not like you can cook."
"Umm, I could have called Steve." Kara said.
"You are shameless." Alex pointed out.
"No, I am practical." Kara said as she sat down next to her sister. "You really okay?"
"I'm fine." Alex said taking one of the boxes of take out. "It was a light knock. I have had far worse. I appreciate the concern, but it is not needed. Besides, wouldn't you do better checking in on Alex?"
"I don't want to smother her." Kara said before pausing. "But I could send an email."
"That way if she wants to ignore you she can." Her sister said.
"Why would she want to ignore me?" Kara asked as she sent the message.
"She's a teenager." Alex reminded her. "And she could be out enjoying herself."
"You're right. So I should worry if she doesn't ignore me." Kara said as she started to eat.
"That's not what I said." Alex replied. "I am sure Alex would call if there were problems. But on the off chance she didn't, MJ would."
"So I should call MJ." Kara concluded.
"Not if you want to retain your favourite aunt title." Alex replied as Kara's phone buzzed.
"It's Alex." She said reading the message. "She says she is fine."
"Told you."
"But fine isn't great is it? I should call." Kara said.
"Finish your dinner first." Alex ordered.
"But-"
"If you don't I'll go back to work." Alex warned.
"That is playing dirty." Kara complained.
"Well, Alex will thank me." The older Alex said.