AN
RS806 - Thanks, I'm glad you are still enjoying it, I always worry with longer stories whether or not they get repetitive. There will be more Lena it.
"Why are you following me?" MJ asked turning to face his cousin when he realised she had followed him out of the school grounds.
"Because you are being an idiot."
"At least you lost your escort." MJ said looking round.
"Well not deliberately. Why are you doing this?"
"My life, my choice. Leave me alone."
"They could be anyone."
"Well you had your chance to help. Just leave me alone."
"No." Alex said. "If they are who you think they are, I can be there. The only reason they wouldn't want me there is because they aren't who you think."
"I don't want your help, and I don't want you. Just stay out of my life."
"Fine." Alex said backing off. She then retreated round the corner before she pulled out her phone and dialled a number. When the call was answered she said.
"I need your help."
00
"Hi Alex." Diz greeted as he walked up to the teen only to be pulled to one side by the superpowered teenager. "Wh-"
"Not so loud." Alex said.
"What's going on?" Diz whispered.
"I think MJ may in trouble."
"Where is he?"
"Over there." Alex said pointing down an alley way to an adjacent street where MJ was waiting.
"He looks okay." Diz said.
"For now. Will you just wait with me? I have a bad feeling."
"Um, sure." He agreed, not entirely sure what was happening. "Does your mom know you are here?"
"No. I don't want to get MJ in trouble." She answered as she stood to one side watching as MJ stood in an alleyway waiting. As time ticked by part of her was relieved when no one else turned up, but part of her felt sorry for her cousin who looked more and more upset with every passing second.
"Want to tell me what's happening?" Diz asked.
"Not yet." The teenage Alex.
"Alex, if you don't tell me I'm going to get your mom down here." Diz warned.
"Fine, MJ has secretly been looking for his biological father, he is here to meet him, but I don't think who he is going to meet is who he thinks."
"Damn it Alex, you should have called your mom." Diz said taking out his phone just as three men approached MJ as one more walked down the alleyway towards him.
"Let's get closer." Alex said to Diz crossing the street. As she saw one of the men try to grab MJ she put a forcefield up round MJ and moved down the alleyway.
Seeing the danger Diz ran past Alex towards MJ and tried to fight off their attempts to get to MJ. All the while Alex got closer to MJ to allow her to maintain the forcefield.
Knowing their chance had gone the men jumped in a waiting van and started to speed off. Seeing Alex was about to get hit Diz launched himself at her and pushed Alex out of the way only to get clipped by the van as it sped off.
-00-
"What the hell happened?" Alex said limping into Lena's lab.
"I don't know for sure. Kara found Alex unconscious, Diz in pain and MJ looking upset." Lena summarised. "According to Diz someone tried to take MJ and Alex tried to stop it happening, but pushed herself too much."
"Diz?" Alex asked lost. "Never mind that. Where's MJ?"
"Through there with Diz." Lena said. "He's okay, but upset."
"And Alex?"
"She's okay, but she still hasn't woken up. Kara is in with her."
"Diz?"
"Clipped by a moving van, he is going to be sore for a few days, but no major damage."
"You sure MJ is okay?"
"Yes."
"Thanks." Alex said before entering the smaller room where her son and Diz were waiting.
"MJ." Alex said entering the room. "Are you okay?" She asked hugging him.
"I'm fine." He said pulling away as Diz limped from the room.
"What happened? Lena said someone tried to kidnap you."
"You mean Alex didn't tell you?" He asked sounding bitter.
"She hasn't woken up yet. It sounds like she exhausted herself trying to protect you. What happened?"
"Some guys in a van tried to take me."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"What was Diz doing there?"
"I don't know." MJ said. "No one was meant to be there."
"It's a good thing they were. Or you could have been taken or worse." Alex said before asking. "What do you mean not meant to be there? Do you know who tried to take you?"
"You're the DEO not me." He pointed out, his attitude wrong footing his mother.
"Where was your escort?" She asked after a moment.
"Don't know. Ask them."
-00-
"Mom?" The teenage Alex said opening her eyes.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Kara asked.
"Tired." Alex said sitting up. "MJ and Diz?"
"They are okay." Kara said.
"Let me guess MJ is mad at me."
"Should he be?" Kara asked confused.
"He's always mad at me." The teen said.
"From what Diz said you saved MJ so I'm sure he isn't mad with you." Kara said. "What happened?"
"Some guys tried to take MJ." She said as the door flew open.
"That's it. What the hell is going on?" The older Alex asked limping into the room.
"Alex?" Kara asked her sister, wondering what was causing the outburst.
"What happened? All I am getting from MJ is attitude." The older Alex said, her frustration obvious. Turning Kara looked back at her daughter was avoiding eye contact.
"Alex, what aren't you telling us?" Kara asked the teen.
"I can't. It's up to MJ."
"Seeing MJ is already angry at you do you have anything to lose?" Kara asked seeing her daughter's hesitation. "I get that you want to be loyal to MJ, but whatever is going on put you both in danger, so you need to tell us." Kara said.
For a long minute the teenage Alex said nothing, while the older Alex grew more impatient. But finally, without looking either adult in the eye the teenager started.
"A few months ago MJ started looking for his biological father. He didn't want to ask Alex so was doing things in the background. But he couldn't get very far and he asked for my help. He wanted me to hack into some database. I said no, not until he'd talked to Alex and that's when we had the fight." The teenager said. "After Alex was kidnapped he said he was dropping it. But the last few weeks he has been acting strange, talking to people at school he doesn't normally talk to. And then last night when I went to get him for dinner I saw he was looking again. I couldn't be sure, but it looked like he was messaging someone. So today when he didn't go home I followed him. MJ knows a route out of the back of school the DEO guys don't know about. He went that way, I followed."
"You should have come to me." Kara said before her sister could say anything.
"I didn't want to betray him. And when he realised I was following him and told me to get lost, I asked Diz to come and keep an eye on him." Alex said.
"I know, but that wasn't enough was it?" Kara pressed.
"No." Alex conceded looking at her feet.
"You could have all been taken or worse." Kara went on, trying to hammer the message home.
"I'm sorry."
"As it is Diz got hurt." Kara went on.
"I know. I'm sorry."
"Alex, not telling us was really, really stupid." The older Alex jumped in. "But thank you for saving MJ." She said hugging her, trying not to hurt her ribs as her mind replayed everything Alex had told her. "I'm going to talk to MJ."
"Okay, I'm going to take Alex home." Kara said.
00
"Why didn't you tell me?" Alex asked returning to her son's room.
"She told you?"
"Yes." Alex confirmed. "So why didn't you tell me? I have always said I would help."
"I know. But I didn't want to hurt you."
"Wanting to know more about you wouldn't hurt me. You getting kidnapped or killed would." Alex said. When MJ didn't say anything she asked. "Why now?"
"Because I'm not good enough."
"What are you talking about?"
"Nothing I do is good enough. You said so yourself. I can't compete with Kara or Alex."
"I have never said you aren't good enough and I am sorry if you thought that. But I know where you are coming from. I mean my sister is Supergirl. I spent most of my teenage life, living in her shadow. Watching her achieve everything she wanted to, getting away with everything, while everything I did felt like a struggle. It always felt like my achievements were never enough, that I could never compete. But Kara wasn't the enemy and Alex isn't the enemy now. You aren't competing with your sister or your cousin. You are competing with yourself. And the thing I learned was while I couldn't go head to head with Kara and win, in order to achieve what I really wanted Kara could help."
"I asked Alex to help me and she wouldn't."
"Only she did, just not in the way you wanted." Alex said. "Come on let's go home."
-00-
"Hi Diz." Kara said opening the door. "How's the leg?"
"It's fine. I thought you probably wouldn't have food, so brought you some." He said passing her a bag.
"Thanks." Kara smiled. "Come in."
"How's Alex and MJ?"
"Physically, MJ's fine. But no one can figure out what is happening inside his head." Kara said. "And Alex is okay. She's in the shower, but should be out in a few minutes if you want to see her."
"Actually I wanted to see you. I wanted you to know that if I knew what they were up to I would have told you. When Alex asked for help I assumed it was something minor."
"But you still helped. Thank you for what you did for them."
"So you aren't mad at me?"
"Of course not, you protected them." Kara said.
"Think you can tell Kar's mom that?"
"Sure." Kara smiled as her phone rang.
"Hi Vasquez, um sure, give me a minute." She then hung up and looked at Diz. "I have to go, can you stay and keep an eye on Alex?"
"Sure."
00
"Diz?" Alex asked confused as she came out of the bathroom, her hair still damp.
"Hey. I brought food round, then your mom had to go and she asked me to stay." He explained.
"Thanks for helping before. Sorry if you got into trouble." Alex said.
"Being in trouble is kinda my thing." He shrugged. "But why didn't you tell your mom?"
"MJ already hates me. I didn't want him to get into more trouble and blame me."
"What's going on with you two?" Diz asked.
"Don't know. He's changed and his friends don't like me."
"I thought they did. I mean you were always hanging round with them."
"Different friends." Alex said. "It doesn't matter. After today he will probably not come anywhere near me."
"But you saved him."
"Not the way he'll see it." She said before looking at Diz and asking. "Did you get hurt?"
"Nothing major." He shrugged. "How about you?"
"I can't really get hurt." She reminded him. "So you didn't actually need to push me out of the way."
"I didn't want to risk that." Diz shrugged.
"Thanks." Alex said as her mother flew through the window.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Kara asked her daughter.
"Okay."
"I'll leave you guys to it." Diz said standing.
"You don't want to stay for dinner?" Kara asked.
"No, I'm good. I'll catch you later."
"Diz, thanks." The teenage Alex said.
"Sure." He said leaving.
The teenager then turned to her mother and said. "I'm sorry."
"I know." Kara said hugging her. "But you have to stop hiding things. And you have to stop dealing with things by yourself."