"Ready for this?" Kara asked her daughter as they stood in one of the DEO desert training areas.
"Yes."
"Okay, well take it slowly and remember Alex's toys will hurt. J'onn will watch on and give feedback."
"Okay."
"But if I say stop, you stop immediately."
"Okay." The teen agreed.
"I mean it Alex."
"I said okay." The teen said.
"In which case we will start. I will go in front. You look for anything I may miss."
"Okay." The teenager said wanting to start.
"You ready?" Kara called to J'onn who gave a thumbs up. She then looked at her daughter and said. "Let's go."
-00-
As they started the exercise for the fifth time Alex grew in both boredom and confidence and started to take more risks which before long ended up being zapped by one of the weapons. Although it wasn't powerful enough to hurt her it knocked her from the platform she was on and she landed hard on the ground, saved from damage by her powers.
"Alex." Kara said flying over to her.
"I'm fine." She said getting up.
"You were hit."
"I'm fine."
"Clearly not." Kara said before demanding. "What were you thinking? I told you to take it slow and make sure you stuck to me. But you didn't. That's why you were hit."
"I'm fine." Alex said.
"Because of luck not skill. For someone so intelligent you can be really stupid sometimes."
"I'm sorry." The teen said looking upset as J'onn landed next to them.
"Kar-" J'onn started.
"No, this is meant to be to keep her safe. Instead she cocky and made stupid mistakes. If this hadn't been practice anything could have happened."
"That's why we train." J'onn reminded her."
"I knew this was a mistake. I should never have agreed to this." Kara said. "You aren't ready for any of this. It's over. From now on no more training and no powers."
"Alex is okay and it is not like you ever follow a plan." J'onn reminded Kara trying to calmly diffuse the situation.
"And that has got me into a lot of trouble and why I thought you'd take this more seriously."
"I am taking it seriously. Yes Alex made a mistake, but the important thing is she learns from it."
"Seeing you two have it all figured out, do what you want." With that Kara flew off leaving J'onn and Alex standing confused.
"You okay?" J'onn asked the teenager.
"I guess."
"Your mother just wants to keep you safe."
"I know."
"Let's go get some food, we'll give your mother a chance to calm down."
-00-
"Good news is your blood-work is back to normal." Alex said entering the infirmary.
"So I can go?" Diz asked.
"You can go. But you need to come back in a couple of days for a follow up. In the mean time if anything feels off come back in."
"Okay." Diz said.
"I mean it Diz. Anything odd, no matter how small, tell me." Alex said as her daughter's phone buzzed.
"Okay." He repeated as the teenage Kara read the message.
"Good." Alex said before asking. "Assuming you want to come back to the house, give me five minutes then I'll give you ride over."
"Actually, I think you need to find Aunt Kara." The teenage Kara said.
"Why?" Alex asked.
"She just lost it with Alex and J'onn." The teenager said showing her mother her phone.
"Ruby will give you a ride home. I'll see you later." Alex said passing her daughter her phone back.
-00-
"Want to talk?" The older Alex said as she joined her sister on the CatCo balcony.
"Alex? What are you doing here?"
"I heard you had a meltdown. And I know you like this balcony."
"How did you know-"
"Alex told Kara, Kara told me. So what's going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"You rarely get angry at Alex and when you do it is more of a ticking off than a melt down."
"Perhaps that is how we got here."
"Here?" Alex asked confused.
"Here. In a world where Alex doesn't care about danger and takes needless risks."
"What exactly happened?" Alex asked.
"Alex got hit."
"Is she hurt?"
"No. But she still got hit."
"It was training. People take hits in training, you know that. So what's the real problem"
"When she went down it reminded me of the memory Duggin put in me and my fears of what Tycho would do and I got so scared and angry and then … lost it."
"Alex is okay." Her sister said hugging her. "Why don't we get something to eat?"
"I should apologise to Alex."
"You also need to eat. J'onn has taken Alex to get some food, so why don't we get some dinner then you can go talk to Alex."
"Okay." Kara agreed.
-00-
When Kara entered the apartment she was greeted by darkness, despite it only being a little after eight. Hitting the lights she walked over to her daughter's bedroom and took a deep breath before gently knocking on the door. Not getting a response she opened the door and walked in. Her daughter remained motionless on the bed, her back facing the door. But from her breathing Kara knew she was awake.
"I'm sorry I yelled so much. I just can't stand the thought of you getting hurt." Kara said walking over to the bed. Bending down she kissed her daughter's head and said. "I love you."
As she started to back away the teenager said. "I'm sorry I upset you. I didn't want to make you angry."
"I wasn't angry at you." Kara said causing the teenager to snort.
"Fine I was a little angry with you. But I was mainly angry at myself. I just want you to be safe."
"You said the danger was over." The teenager reminded her.
"I know and it is. But there will always be new threats."
"Which is why I should train."
"You're right." Kara said.
"I am?" The teenager asked.
"Yes. And so do I. Right now I clearly have some anger issues to deal with. So why don't we both work on that. Why don't we go and obliterate some rocks?"
"Now?"
"Unless you have something better to do?"
"No."
-00-
"Okay." Kara said as they landed in a desert. "Why don't you show me how you obliterated the rock?"
"Umm okay." The teenager said before frowning in concentration but achieving nothing. Shaking her head she shut her eyes and tried again. Once again not getting anywhere she felt her frustration build, but she tried once more. This time a random rock far away from where she had been looking blew up.
"That wasn't what I was aiming for."
"I think you let your frustration take over." Kara said.
"Well it wasn't working." The teenager pointed out.
"Cat once told me you have to find the anger behind the anger." Kara said. "And like I said, I wasn't really angry with you, I was angry with myself. But once you figure out what the real cause of the anger is, you can channel it, control it, use it."
"How did you figure out what the real anger was?"
"I let go." Kara said. "I let everything out and in that process I figured out what I was angry about."
"What was it?"
"Unresolved abandonment issues and anger at my parents for putting me in that pod." Kara said. "No matter what yours is, it doesn't matter. You don't have to justify it, you don't have to share it, but you need to understand it." She said.
"Okay."
"But using your powers makes you tired, so you may not get to the answer tonight or this week or this month. But no matter how long it takes I'll be right here." Kara said. "So I want to to think of everything that makes you angry and with each of those thoughts blow up a rock."
-00-
After an hour of watching rocks blow up Kara realised Alex was barely keeping upright.
"Come on. Let's get home." Kara said. "We'll practice again soon."
"Really?"
"I promise." Kara said taking hold of her daughter and flying them home.
As Kara landed in the apartment she realised Alex had already fallen to sleep. Carefully she moved to her daughter's room and put her in bed next to Chewie.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you." Kara said kissing her daughter's head before leaving.