A/N: Thanks for the comments.
Guest- Thanks. There isn't a huge amount of the story left now (although there may be a follow up later).
When the teenage Alex returned to the apartment with Chewie that evening she saw her grandmother sitting alone in the lounge.
"How is she?" Alex asked.
"She's sleeping."Alura said before nodding to the space next to her and waiting for her grand daughter to sit. Once she had she asked. "Do you want to talk about about the nightmare you had last night?"
"How did you know?"
"I still haven't got very good at controlling my enhanced hearing on Earth." Alura confessed. "Especially at night."
"It was nothing." Alex said as Chewie jumped up on her lap.
"It can't have been easy growing up with no one to depend on apart from your mother." Alura said. "But remember that on Earth there are many who want to help."
"I know."
"But to help you, you need to tell them, to tell me, what is bothering you."
"It's nothing." Alex said as Alura stared at her. "Well not nothing obviously. But it doesn't matter. It was just a dream."
"Dreams are your brain's way of processing what is happening." Alura said. "So they are important." For a while Alex didn't speak and Alura was beginning to think she wouldn't when all of a sudden she said.
"A few years ago mom was trying to help someone and she got hurt. Our neighbour took me somewhere safe so I didn't see the attack. But I saw mom afterwards and how much pain she was in, despite pretending not to be. I guess seeing her like that last night reminded me of that night."
"Your mother recovered from that experience."
"I know. And I know she will this time. But it is still hard to see her get hurt, even if it is to help people."
"Your mother has always wanted to help people." Alura said.
"I know. That doesn't make it any easier seeing her get hurt. I thought with her powers she wouldn't get hurt like this. I thought on Earth she would be safe."
"Powers won't make her invincible and the really important think is your powers don't make you invincible either."
"Mom and Alex have given me the same lecture." The teenager pointed out.
"And I am sure your aunt has given the same lecture to your mother, yet she doesn't seem to heed the warning. I am hoping you will."
-00-
"Sit-rep." Alex said walking into the DEO command room.
"We have had no attacks in the US in last six hours. However, sporadic attacks are sill going on in Africa and Europe. The President offered assistance but it was turned down." Harris reported. "However, the biggest problem we have right now is we are missing a lot of aliens."
"From the invasion forces?" Alex asked.
"Yes. It is hard to know for sure as not every county is sharing information, but in the US at least, we think there are nine Lieutenants unaccounted for as well as over one hundred of the standard troops."
"Has anything come out of the interrogations yet?" Alex asked.
"No Ma'am. Trombley is trying to do his weird psychic thing and get in their heads, but apparently they have trained hard in blocking methods."
"I'll ask J'onn to consult." Alex said before looking at another agent and asking. "What about the fleet?"
"All ships have left orbit. Long range scanners show that the fleet is splitting up. So far it has broken into twelve different groups. But there is one ship that has broken away by itself and come closer to Earth. They sent a transmission. They want to do an exchange."
"Of what?" Alex asked.
"They have seventy three humans on board who were taken during the attack. They are willing to return them but they want something in exchange."
"What?"
"Kelith. He was one of Mongul's Lieutenants and Captain of that ship. They were happy for us to just hand over the head."
"Do we even have this Kelith?" Alex asked.
"No idea. They did send a picture and I know this will sound racist or speciesiest, but a lot of them look the same."
"You work at the DEO, your job is to identify aliens. So that doesn't sound racist or speciesiest, it sounds incompetent." Alex said. "Figure out if we have this Kelith and get back to me."
"Yes Ma'am." He said leaving.
"Are we making the exchange?" Rose asked.
"That's up to the President." Alex said. "But contact that ship and get the names of the people they say they have. Let's verify the information before we consider doing anything."
"Yes Ma'am." Rose said as Alex turned to Sharpe and asked.
"Where are our Kryptonian friends?"
"They are helping with some of the rebuilding work in the city."
"On that note, we need you to sign off on this." Vasquez said handing Alex a tablet.
"What's this for?" Alex asked looking at the large number on the screen.
"Extra budget for the food bill for our Kryptonian friends." Vasquez said as Alex signed the tablet.
"That easy?" Vasquez asked.
"Compared to the rest of the expenditure this will probably be cheap. Maybe. Besides the worst that the President can do is fire me."
"Or employ oversight." Vasquez reminded her walking off.
-00-
As Alex pulled onto her drive way and shut off the engine she checked her phone and saw several text messages from her sister. Frowning she scrolled through the fifteen messages that Kara had sent in the last hour.
Deciding looking after Kara was a higher requirement than sleep Alex got out of the car and walked across the street to Kara's apartment before jogging up the stairs, surprised with how much relief her muscles felt from being able to do exercise, albeit briefly.
"Why aren't you in bed?" Alex asked quietly as she let herself into Kara's apartment and saw her sister on the couch.
"I had to go to the bathroom and decided to stop by the TV on the way back."
"You have an ensuite." Alex pointed out.
"I took the long way round." Kara shrugged
"Where's your mom?"
"Asleep. I told her I was fine and I just wanted to watch TV." Kara explained before asking. "What are you doing here?"
"You sent me fifteen messages. I was worried."
"The last one specifically said don't worry." Kara reminded her.
"That just made me worry more. So what's up?" She asked as she sat next to Kara.
"It's nothing."
"Try again."
"I kept having nightmares." Kara confessed.
"About Mongul?"
"More like what he made me see." Kara said. "But I can cope with the nightmares, but I wake up feeling so scared and angry and then I see myself fighting Mongul and I remember how I lost it and I don't like that version of me. What if that version of me becomes me?"
"It won't."
"How do you know?"
"Because I know you." Alex said. "Besides you didn't actually kill Mongul."
"Because you stopped me."
"If you had really wanted to kill him, you would have done. You stopped because you wanted to, because you are a good person. The reason you keep seeing that fight is because the drugs are messing with your mind."
"That's why I stopped taking them."
"That is a really bad idea." Alex said sternly.
"I know. I figured that out in hour four when I hurt too much to breathe. That's why I restarted."
"It should only be for a couple of days." Alex said. "But it is important that you sleep."
"I am."
"No, you are sitting on the couch forcing yourself to stay awake. That's not going to help. You need to sleep."
"What if I have another nightmare?"
"I'll be right here." Alex assured her.
"You need to be with your kids."
"Kara and MJ are asleep." Alex said. "And mom is there to look after them. Right now you need me and I'm not going anywhere."