"Have they said anything?" Supergirl asked as she joined Vasquez in the observation room the next day.
"No." Vasquez sighed looking at the monitors that showed the fake Alex being interrogated. "And I don't think they will. So we are trying to figure out a way to see if it has happened to anyone else."
"Chewie knew."
"Sorry what?"
"Alex, my one, said Chewie knew. Apparently he growled every time he saw the fake Alex."
"Does he want a job?" Vasquez asked.
"Not sure he has much of a work ethic." Kara smiled.
"Still, if Chewie reacted that might give us a steer." Vasquez said before looking at Kara and asking. "How's Alex?"
"Angry."
"Any chance she'll break the barricade and come down here?"
"No, she hasn't managed to make it down stairs yet. You'll be good for a few weeks. That said if you want to visit I'm, sure she appreciate it."
"Will do." Vasquez said. "While you are here, I have a favour to ask."
"Sure."
"The funeral for Tim is coming up. Seeing Alex can't make it we were wondering if you, as in Supergirl you, could say some words. He really looked up to you."
"Of course." Kara smiled sadly.
-00-
"You sure you are going to be okay?" The teenage Kara asked her mother.
"I'm fine." Alex said. "Go back to college."
"But-"
"Kara, go. I won't be leaving the house for weeks, I'll be fine."
"You sure."
"Yes, especially as I have you aunt and your grandmother watching over me. But I need you to be careful."
"I will." The teen said.
"Only we have had this conversation before and despite your assurances you have-" Alex started only for her daughter to cut in.
"Screwed up."
"I wasn't going to phrase it exactly like that, but yes." Alex agreed.
"I will try my best not to screw up." The teen said.
"Promise me you'll call me or your aunt if you need anything."
"I will." The teen said. "Do you want me to come back next weekend?"
"No. Well yes obviously because I miss you. But no, because you need to live your own life." Alex said.
"Okay." The teen said carefully hugging her. "I love you."
"Love you too." Alex said into the hug before watching her daughter leave the room.
"Ready?" The older Kara asked when the teen came down stairs.
"I guess."
"I'll look after your mom." The older Kara said.
"I know. I just hate seeing her like that."
"We all do." Her grandmother said stepping into the hallway and hugging her. "But she'll be okay. Focus on yourself."
"Okay." The teen said before pulling away. "I'll see you at Christmas."
"I can't wait." Eliza smiled before the older Kara grabbed hold of her niece and flew her back to college.
-00-
"What's wrong with you?" The older Kara Kara asked sitting on the bed next to her sister after she got back. "Missing Kara?"
"Yes. But it's not that. I'm worried about MJ."
"What's happened now?"
"He's doing homework."
"And that's bad?"
"He did it without asking."
"Well that is a little strange." Kara said. "But there are worse ways to self punish. Want me to talk to him? Or I can just bring him up here?"
"I don't think he'll listen to me. He hasn't so far." Alex said. "Maybe Alex can pry him away from his books."
"Alex who does more studying than anyone?" Kara asked.
"So they could both use the break?"
"I'll ask, but something tells me Alex won't have any luck. There is still a lot of tension between them."
00
As Kara walked through the DEO the next day she saw Vasquez looking more upbeat than she had recently causing Kara to ask.
"What's gone right?"
"While you were away on Argo we discovered the drugs giving aliens powers had nanotech in." Vasquez said.
"I remember you saying, but I thought that was a deadend."
"Well, that's what Alex, as in fake Alex told us. And then I remembered when I first brought it up Harris offered to run the investigation. Only we now think that that wasn't the real Harris."
"So you think there is something in the nanotech the fakes were trying to hide?"
"Right now it is my best assumption. Alex, the real one, took a sample to Lena, but it might be worth Lena passing on her findings again. It may be nothing, but it is a glimmer of something which is more than we've had for weeks."
"I'll talk to her." Kara said before asking. "I assume fake Alex hasn't talked yet?"
"No. Well not exactly." Vasquez said. "Look at this." She said pulling up a video of the fake Alex's interrogation. As she started playing it Kara commented.
"It still freaks me out seeing a body double."
"You and me both, but they refuse to change into their original form. They are still claiming to be the real Alex." Vasquez said as she skipped the video on before saying. "Watch this."
Obediently Kara watched the screen where she saw fake Alex momentarily look worried.
"What happened?" Kara asked.
"I mentioned nanotech. Of course there is a chance they are playing us and are using the nanotech as a distraction. But either way I liked seeing her squirm."
00
"How are you feeling?" Kara asked as she entered her sister's bedroom that night.
"Bored and angry."
"Where are the kids?"
"Alex is still at chess club and then is seeing Frax and MJ is out with Jess."
"You managed to get him to go out?"
"No, he ignored me. Apparently Jess is more persuasive." Alex said.
"So what have you been up to?"
"I was going through my phone." Alex said. "To see what the other me was up to."
"I thought Rose had already done that."
"They did. But they may have missed something."
"Did they?" Kara asked.
"To do with me? No. But I did find something."
"What?"
"These are all the messages I received." She said passing her phone to her sister.
"Wow, your social life is worse than mine. The messages are only from Eliza, Lena and the kids."
"I wasn't after a commentary on my social life." Alex said dryly.
"Okay, so what am I looking at?" Kara asked confused.
"Alex sent me, or who she thought was me, over fifty messages, telling me where she was going to be, if she was going to be back late." Alex explained. "MJ under ten."
"Maybe he didn't go out?" Kara suggested.
"We both know that is unlikely." Alex said. "So what was he up to?"
"Have you asked him?"
"No. And it isn't like I can be angry. After all, where ever he was he would have been safer without me, other me, there."
"If his behaviour is worrying you, you have to talk to him." Kara pointed out.
00
"Hi." Kara said when her daughter got back.
"Hi."
"What's wrong?" Kara asked sensing her daughter wasn't happy.
"Frax is leaving."
"What? When?"
"Soon, he's being sent to do some trade deal."
"But he'll be back?" Kara guessed.
"Yes, but not for a while."
"Well the important thing is he'll be back." Kara said. "And in the mean time we can increase our training with each other."
"It's fine, I know you are busy." The teen replied.
"According to your aunt I am never too busy to train." Kara reminded her. "But more importantly it'll give us more time to hang out. Unless you don't want to hang out with me." Kara said pouting.
"Of course I want to hang out with you."
"Then what's the problem?"
"You are busy being Supergirl and looking after Alex and working at CatCo."
"That doesn't mean I am too busy for you." Kara said hugging her.
00
"How is the nanotech lead going?" Vasquez asked when she saw Kara the next day.
"Well I saw Lena who said she told the real, we think, Alex, that it wasn't a dead end. After that she didn't see Alex or report anything to the DEO."
"Yet the fake Alex said she had." Vasquez said.
"Which is consistent with your theory." Kara said.
"But has Lena actually found something?" Vasquez asked.
"No, I got a 'it takes time' and 'she'll call when she is ready' from her." Kara said before asking. "So what's happening with fake Alex?"
"Won't say anything and no more squirming."
"What about her DNA, anything we can do to track down more intel about them?"
"No. Their DNA is super weird, and we have never seen anything like it before. Which means they aren't in our database." Vasquez said before asking. "Are the questions because you have an idea or you have been sent by Alex?"
"You guys are all really paranoid." Kara said. "But if you want Alex's questions I have emailed them to you."
"I wish I hadn't asked." Vasquez said before asking. "How is she getting on?"
"Um, well she is getting restless. We need to have a breakthrough soon or she'll break the barricade."
00
"Hi." Kara said entering the apartment after work and seeing Martin.
"Hi." He said.
"Where's Alex?"
"Her room, getting something." He said just as Alex reemerged.
"Hi mom." Alex greeted before hugging her mother.
"Hi, everything okay?" Kara asked.
"It's fine. We are just doing a project. Can Martin stay for dinner?"
"Of course." Kara said. "You want to eat here or go over to your cousin's?"
"Here." Alex immediately said.
"Okay, well I'm going to check on your aunt, then I'll pick up some food."
00
"Alex and Martin are working on an assignment. I don't want to disturb them so I was going to hang out with you." Kara said entering her sister's room.
"By which you mean you want to make sure I don't push myself."
"No. Unless you are saying I need to check that."
"I haven't made it downstairs yet." Alex reminded her.
"Are you feeling any better?" Kara asked.
"I guess. But to be honest, my anger is outweighing any pain."
"That's probably not healthy." Kara pointed out.
"Probably."
"How's MJ doing?"
"Well he has stopped doing school work, so I guess he is back to normal." Alex sighed.
"Where is he now?"
"Out with Jess."
"At least he has got over his guilt." Kara said.
"True, but if Alex and Martin are doing an assignment, that implies MJ should be doing the same." Alex pointed out.
"Maybe you need to spend more time with him."
"Well seeing I can't leave this room there is not much I can do." Alex pointed out.
"DnD." Kara said.
"What?"
"We could do Dungeons and Dragons."
"You have met MJ right? Plus I can't see him trading his girlfriend for DnD."
"She could join in."
"I think you're reaching." Alex said.
"I'm thinking outside the box." Kara said "But if you are rejecting that, how about a sisters' night?"
"That I can do." Alex agreed. "But what about Alex and Martin."
"They will be nose down in books all evening." Kara pointed out. "I'll go get them some food, then I'll be right back. You pick the movies."
00
"We have something." One of the metas said walking into Vasquez's office the next day.
"What?" Vasquez asked.
"We went through all the CCTV footage near the warehouse where the Director was being kept."
"I thought that didn't yield any leads?"
"It didn't but when we were watching we realised we had missed something obvious."
"What?" Vasquez asked.
"Cell towers. There was one in the corner of the frame. So then we looked at cell towers and what numbers were nearby. And then we started to correlate those with other weird things happening round the city as well as where the Director hangs out. And we found two numbers that spent a lot of time near the cell tower closest where the Director was being held, and were also near the Director a lot in the month leading up to her disappearance. And was also in the spot she was kidnapped from. One of them was also near that weird alien on drugs in the park."
"Where is the phone now?"
"Right here." He said pointing to a map on the screen that had a red flashing dot.
"I want to know everything about that phone's owner. Track their every movement and do not lose them."
"Yes ma'am."
"Do you have a lead?" Supergirl asked walking into the office.
"Maybe, but don't get too excited yet. What we still don't have is a motive."
"Still haven't found anything at Warehouse 13?" Kara asked as Vasquez's phone buzzed.
"Nothing that is standing out. But it'll take time."
"Speaking of time, was the timing just opportunistic or does the timing matter?"
"Right now there are too many unknowns." Vasquez said as her phone buzzed again. Taking it from her pocket she read the messages and sighed.
"Problem?" Kara asked.
"Yeah, can you do me a favour?"
"Of course."
"Can you take Alex's phone and computer off her?" Vasquez pleaded as her phone buzzed again.
"Was that her?" Kara asked.
"You need to ask?" Vasquez replied.
00
"I'm home." Kara called as she entered her apartment.
"Hi mom." Alex said looking up from her books, that were scattered on the kitchen table, Martin sat at her side. "Steve is not around, can Martin stay over?"
"Um sure." Kara said, surprised her daughter felt in control of her powers enough to want anyone in the apartment over night. "You two want to do something?"
"We have assignments to finish."
"You two really need to get out more." Kara said.
"You want us to go out to parties, get drunk, do drugs?"
"Well I was thinking more middle ground, like bowling." Kara said. "But if that is what you are jumping to, then study away." She added as she went to the fridge to confirm it was empty. She then turned to the teens and asked. "What do you guys want to eat?" Seeing the look of confusion on Martin's face she gave him an easier choice.
"Pizza or burgers?"
00
"Martin is at my place." Kara said as she sat on the bed next to her sister.
"Again?"
"Sounds like Steve is working." Kara replied. "So another sisters' night?"
"Not like I'm going anywhere." Alex said sounding frustrated.
"On that note, I come bearing gifts." Kara said. "I will give you this on condition you stop harassing your team." She added before passing her a tablet.
"What's this?"
"There has been some progress on the investigation. That includes all the findings."
"You are my favourite sister." Alex said taking the tablet.
"If I find you sneaking out of bed I am taking it straight back." She warned. "And I'll tell Eliza. Speaking of which where is she?"
"Over at Lena's lab." Alex explained.
"Why?"
"She had some ideas about the chemical."
"Like what?"
"Like she wouldn't tell me because she didn't think I would be mature enough to stay in bed." Alex said, her voice showing how annoyed she was.
"Well, I'm with Eliza on that one." Kara said, not helping Alex's mood.