"Hi." Kara said entering her sister's kitchen the following Saturday. "Alex is with Frax so I need entertaining."
"So do I." Alex said. "MJ is out with Diz."
"Again?" Kara asked.
"Sounds like it is every weekend." Alex said.
"Think it will help?" Kara asked.
"I don't know. MJ is still really quiet and I have never seen his room so tidy. He doesn't game anymore, he just studies and does chores."
"Want me to talk to him again?"
"Yes, no, maybe." Alex said as her phone rang. Seeing the caller ID she frowned.
"What's wrong?" Kara asked.
"It's Pete." Alex said.
"Pete? As in language Pete?" Kara asked.
"Yes." Alex said before answering.
"Hi Pete … what … um, okay … where? … yes I know it … see you in an hour."
Hanging up she looked at her sister and said.
"Pete found something. But then again you probably already know as you probably listened."
"I can't help having sensitive ears." Kara pointed out.
"Hmmmm. Want to come and find out what he found?"
"Yes."
"Is that because you want to know or you heard we are meeting in a coffee shop?"
"Wow, you have a low opinion of me." Kara said.
"Come on, let's go." Alex said.
00
"Hi Alex." Pete smiled. "Kara, it's been a while. How are you?"
"I'm good thanks. You?"
"Pretty good thanks." He replied before asking. "Can I get you guys a coffee?"
"No, we're fine thanks." Alex said.
"Then I'll get straight to it." He said. "While we were going through the notebooks some of the characters didn't feel like they belonged. But despite that we managed to translate the journals. But it has been bugging me, so I had another look. And I am pretty sure that there was another language in there."
"There was? Shouldn't that have been spotted?" Alex asked.
"Your team were focused on the pages that contained the compound, but I have had time to look at everything. Plus it was on different pages from the formulae so I assume when the translate algorithm threw up garbage no one really cared. But I did. And I am sure it is a different language. I can't translate it yet and there isn't much of it to go on, but I was wondering if you had other examples?"
"Let me see it." Alex said looking at the scribbles.
"Oh my god." She said after a moment.
"You recognise it?" Pete asked.
"Yes. I have to go." Alex said standing without showing her sister the paper. "Thank you for this." She added before looking at Kara and saying. "Let's go."
"Okay." Kara said confused before following her sister out of the cafe.
"What's going on?" Kara asked as she caught up with her sister. "What is on that paper?"
"Something you aren't going to like." Alex said limping to the car.
"You going to tell me what that is?" Kara asked getting in the passenger side.
"See for yourself." Alex said passing her sister the paper.
"This is Kryptonian." Kara said.
"I know."
"Why is there Kryptonian in here?"
"I don't know."
"Why didn't your team see it?"
"They were focused on the chemical compound." Alex reminded her. "But still this was a rookie mistake."
"Maybe not." Kara said flicking through some of the other examples. "This isn't normal Kryptonian." She said looking it over.
"As in the characters?"
"And the grammar structure." Kara said flicking through more of the pages. "This is bad." Kara said.
"What is?"
"Some of this is what was used by the children of Juru."
"You think the Worldkillers contributed to it?" Alex asked.
"No. Not if these dates are accurate. I mean it is after we stopped them."
"The dates may not be right." Alex pointed out. "But I will get it analysed see if the ink can give us a date."
00
The teenage Alex woke in the middle the night hearing her mother call for her. Jumping out of bed she ran to her mother's room where she saw her mother thrashing on the bed.
"Mom!" The teen called.
"Alex?" Kara asked sitting up in bed. On seeing her daughter she pulled her in for a hug, squeezing so tightly that it was only Alex's powers that saved her from cracked ribs.
"Mom?" She called into the hug.
"Are you okay?" Kara asked tears rolling down her face.
"Need to breathe." The teen said causing Kara to release her.
"Sorry, are you okay?" Kara asked releasing her daughter and pulling back.
"I'm fine. What about you? You're crying." The teen said.
"I'm okay." Kara said grabbing hold of her daughter again.
00
As the older Alex made coffee the next morning she heard the front door open and close before her niece and Chewie walked into the kitchen.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked her niece when she saw the frown etched on her forehead.
"I'm worried about mom."
"What's happened?"
"She's having really bad nightmares."
"She's been though a lot. It'll take time."
"They're getting worse."
"How much worse?"
"Way worse. She woke up crying."
"I'll talk to her." The older Alex said before asking. "How are things with you and MJ?"
"Okay." The teen said, confused by the apparent change in direction.
"Would you mind staying over? You can say no."
"It's fine."
"What if your mom and I weren't here?" The older Alex asked.
"You taking her away somewhere?"
"I'm thinking of it. But there is no way she'll do it unless you are okay with it."
"Okay."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Okay, but I still need to find someone your mom trusts to stay here with you guys." The older Alex said.
"I have an idea." Her teenage namesake said.
00
"Hi Diz." Alex greeted when the teenager opened the front door.
"Is Kar okay?" Diz immediately asked, assuming that was why Alex was there.
"She's fine." Alex said. "I'm here because I need a favour."
"Um, okay."
"You've not heard what I'm asking yet." Alex pointed out. "And you can say no."
"What is it?"
"Kara, older one, needs a break. So I am going to take her away for the weekend. But I don't want to leave MJ alone. And I know Kara will feel the same about Alex, so I was hoping you could stay over and keep an eye on things."
"Me?" Diz asked confused.
"Yes. But if you are busy or just don't want to it's fine I-"
"I'll do it." Diz shrugged.
"Thank you."
00-
"Everything okay?" Kara asked when Alex sat down in the spare chair by her desk at CatCo.
"No. Alex told me about the nightmares." Alex said.
"I'm fine."
"No you're not. And I have sat back not doing anything, because you said you were okay. But we both know you're not, so no more sitting back. This weekend we are going away."
"We?" Kara asked.
"You, me, Lena and Sam." Alex said.
"I can't leave Alex."
"Alex has already told me she is fine with it. And they will have adult supervision."
"They will? Who?"
"Diz."
"As in Kara's Diz?" Her sister asked confused.
"Yes." Alex said before adding. "Admittedly he wasn't my first choice. But mom already had plans. It is Ruby's wedding anniversary and I am pretty sure babysitting is not what they had planned. J'onn is working and well that kinda left Diz. Who was suggested by Alex."
"Shouldn't you have discussed this with me before Alex?" Kara asked.
"Yes. But I knew you wouldn't go if Alex wasn't happy." Her sister said. "Kara I know you are going to come up with hundreds of reasons not to go, but you need a break. If you don't have one you will break and that is the last thing Alex needs."
"Fine." Kara agreed.
"And also if you- wait did you just agree?"
"Yes."
"I'll save my guilt inducing arguments for another time then." Alex said.
00
"Good you are here." Vasquez said.
"Sounds ominous." Alex said.
"Well it's not good news."
"What is it?"
"The team have finished going over those notebooks. They looked for invisible ink, indentations, everything and there were only two languages. Grattlock and Kryptonian. Which means two languages weren't used to add confusion, our guess is two authors. One of whom was a Kryptonian or fluent in Kryptonese." Vasquez started to explain.
"At least we can translate the Kryptonese. Well most of it. As Kara said the grammar structure is different to what we are used to. We are pretty sure that there was one writer of the Grattlock and one for the Kryptonese." Vasquez said. "But the worse part I haven't got to."
"What is it?" Alex asked.
"The, for lack of better description, prose we are still struggling with because of the odd grammar. But as the expression goes maths is universal."
"Maths?" Alex asked.
"Well formulae."
"To do with the chemical?"
"No. But we do recognise it. It's part of the Medusa virus."
"You sure?"
"Yes. Which isn't to say that the parts we saw couldn't be used for other things. But we definitely saw them in Medusa."
"Selina stayed hidden on Argo, she or one of the others could have had access to Kara's father's lab." Alex mused.
"That isn't what worries me." Vasquez said. "If whoever wrote this understood Medusa and used it to help modify the chemical to work on aliens what is stopping them using Medusa for what it was designed for."
"You mean use the chemical to kill Kryptonians who are here and then come in and kill humans?" Alex asked.
"It's no more crazy than the Wordkiller plans." Vasquez said.
"I know. That's what worries me." Alex said. "But maybe there is a silver lining."
"What?"
"If the chemical is based on Medusa, well we have a kinda antidote for that." Alex said. "Maybe we can use that to get us a really antidote for the chemical."
"I'll get the team on it."
"And while they're on it, make sure we are fully stocked on the Medusa vaccine."
"Will do. You going to tell Kara?"
"Yes, but not until after the weekend."