On Mars, a new base was quickly constructed twenty kilometers from the barrier. The barrier had grown to mountain size and was glowing an angry red. "Lucky, she pumped the brakes," Kara said dryly.

"Yeah, very lucky," Mon said annoyed. "What's going on with the broadcast?"

"Nothing, dead air," Kara replied.

"So, she's finally learning that advertising her every move like a television program was a tactical disadvantage," Mon said unimpressed.

"The Vindicator S-Class and A-Class are here now," Kara told him.

"Good, we launch today," Mon said pleased. He then turned to a troubled and anxious Kara. "We will defeat her, and we will take her in, alive," he promised her.

Earth-Metropolis

Brainiac 5 hauled Nura into his lab to chew her out again. "Saturn Girl said they called themselves Terror Firma, the vanguard force of the coming invasion. Six super-powered beings who, between them, have the power to terraform entire planets," he detailed.

"Is this why you brought me in here? I'm bored. You're boring me," Nura said disinterestedly.

"And yet...Dream Girl never saw them coming, once more proving how unreliable her precognitive visions can be," Brainiac 5 scolded.

"I'm right here, asshole. I don't get to choose the visions. If I did, I'd only come around when I foresaw you not being an ass," Nura replied.

"We have a development on Mars of a most sensitive matter to the Supreme Leader. I need you to stay here and dream of our course of action," Brainiac 5 ordered.

"Too bad I only had my cup of coffee," Nura smirked.

Brainiac 5 took out his pistol and stunned her to the floor.

Mars

Inside the barrier, Alex was at home watching TV with Kelex while eating Coca-Puffs. "Where's my other mom?" Kelex asked.

"If she doesn't want to be here, there's nothing I can do about it," Alex said dismissively.

"Is Uncle Ryan coming back?" Kelex asked hopefully.

"He's not your uncle. He's dead," Alex said scornfully.

"Who is he?" Kelex asked confused.

"Here's the thing. I'm your mom, and, as such, you expect me to have all the answers, right? Well, I don't. I have no...answers. I'm starting to believe that everything is meaningless. You're welcome to draw your own conclusions but that's just where I'm at," Alex said to her.

Kelex gave her an odd fearful look. There was then a knock at the door. "Hi, Mom, come on in," Alex said as Eliza entered the house. "I'd get up but I just don't want to."

"Good thing I got here in the nick of time. You look like you're one split end from cutting your own bangs," Eliza remarked. "Hey, Kelex, why don't you give your mom some 'me' time," Eliza suggested to her.

"Are you sure?" Alex asked.

"Absolutely," Eliza confirmed.

"Fine, go with your grandmother," Alex shooed Kelex away.

"I promise I won't bite," Eliza joked.

"You're a lifesaver, mother. Is there anything I can do for you?" Alex asked appreciatively.

"Well, there is this suspicious mole on my ass that I can't see. Can you take a look?" Eliza requested.

"Holy shit, boundaries," Alex scolded as Kelex was right there.

"Oh, gotcha. Alright, Kelex, let's go out to get some ice cream," Eliza said as she took Kelex away. Alex then returned to her TV but as she did random plants, furniture, and electronics fizzled in and out. Alex refocused herself and brought everything back to normal only for things to get weird again.

"I don't understand what's going on or how to fix this," Alex said to herself.

"Don't you think it's what you deserve?" a random voice told her.

"What? Who said that? Who the fuck said that?" Alex raged, looking around for the source of the voice.

Outside the barrier, Brainiac 5 took Kelly toward the barrier away from the base. "Here we are," Brainiac 5 said as they parked. The two met up with Martians in uniforms.

"Your loyalty in this matter is appreciated," Brainiac 5 said politely.

"We're not just loyal to the Supreme Leader but to our own people," Major A'ggan clarified.

"What do you got?" Brainiac 5 asked.

A large all-drive vehicle exited a trailer with sensory equipment all over the outside. "Did we get your specs right?" Major A'ggan asked.

"More or less," Brainiac 5 replied as he looked over it.

"She's perfect," Kelly said hopefully.

Soon thereafter, Kelly was placed in a protective spacesuit. "We're all set, doctor," Major "A'ggan informed her.

"Thank you," Kelly said appreciatively.

"Kara's not here to give you her stamp of approval," Brainiac 5 warned.

"I'm way past giving a shit about that," Kelly assured him. "Alex is in there, and I'm going to get her out. It's our last shot, Barney."

"Godspeed, Kelly," Brainiac 5 said to her and then went to the Martians. "How difficult will it be for the rover to pass through the barrier?"

"It's our most heavily armored rover. It will be super-easy, barely an inconvenience," Major A'ggan said confidently.

"I'll remind you that the driver is a human female," Brainiac 5 noted.

Kelly eventually figured out the controls and then sped toward the barrier. Upon hitting the barrier, she met some resistance. The vehicle refused to go in and nearly flipped over. The barrier then began to slowly rewrite the structure of the rover. "Kelly, get out of there," Brainiac 5 radioed.

Kelly struggled to get out of the vehicle using the roof hatch as the floor began to disintegrate. She eventually got out of the vehicle as it was absorbed by the barrier and then kicked out. Half the vehicle now looked like an old pickup truck. "She turned our most expensive technically advanced rover...into a Ford?" Major A'ggan asked dismayed.

Kelly eyed the rover's failure and then back to the barrier. "She's going to try to cross through," Major A'ggan sensed.

"Kelly, I would advise against your current course of action," Brainiac 5 warned but was secretly intrigued.

"I can get through. I believe in myself," Kelly said and then entered the barrier. Inside the barrier, Kelly recalled some of her most emotional memories. She saw images of her father right before he deployed, his funeral, her mother's death after a long illness, her first kiss with Alex, the wedding, and saying goodbye to James for the last time. Kelly kept pushing through and finally made her way to the other side. This time, she was able to keep her mind. Taking off her spacesuit, Kelly ran towards her home with Alex.

An hour later, an exhausted Kelly barged into the house. "Alex!"

"What are you doing here?" Alex glared. "How did you get in here?"

"Alex, listen to me, you don't have to do this," Kelly said to her.

"Get out of my house," Alex ordered.

"Kara and the others want to help you," Kelly told her.

"Don't talk to me about them," Alex said angrily and then telekinetically forced Kelly out of the house. "The missiles, the drones, the fake Ryan, all you do is lie!" Alex shouted as she slammed Kelly to the ground.

"The only lies I've told are the ones you put in my mouth," Kelly beseeched her.

"Careful what you say to me," Alex warned as her hands glowed red.

"Do it, then. Take me out," Kelly bluffed. "See? See? That's where you and Mon are different. He wants to burn Midvale down. Don't make him make you the villain."

"Maybe I already am," Alex said reflectively.

"I'm not afraid of you, Alex. I lost close people to me, too. The worst thing that could happen to me already has. I've lost my parents, my brother, my friends, and my colleagues. And I can't change it. I can't undo it. I can't control this pain anymore. And I don't even want to because my pain is my truth," Kelly said passionately.

"I think you've put Alex through enough," Eliza intervened.

"Alex, she isn't real. She's not your mother," Kelly said alarmed.

"Run along," Eliza told her off.

"Alex, you have to take it down," Kelly told her.

"No, don't make me hurt you," Alex rejected and walked away with Eliza down the street.

Eliza took Alex over to her house, the old Danvers' residence as she remembered it. "Where is Kelex?" Alex asked, realizing she had forgotten something important.

"Probably playing in the barn," Eliza figured.

Alex got up and went outside towards the barn. Upon entering, she looked around for Kelex. "Kelex?" she called out several times. Eliza then joined her in the barn and then changed her appearance to Imra. Alex stared at her, vaguely recognizing her from before.

"Alex, Alex, you didn't think you were the only telepath in town, did you?" Imra mocked. "Remember me? Imra Ardeen, Saturn Girl, and number one Vindicator. Lovely to finally get some face-time with you."

Alex's eyes glowed red upon being confronted with the galaxy's most powerful telepath. "That's adorable," Imra mocked. "My thoughts are not available to you, bitch. They never were so don't be given yourself a migraine. We've got work to do."

"Where is Kelex?" Alex demanded.

Imra telekinetically placed Alex's hands behind her back and suspended her in the air. "You may have power, but you lack the fundamentals. Do you even know who you are? Crippled with self-doubt. When I first came to this place, I could sense the afterglow of so many telepathic lines at once. I couldn't understand it at first. Mind-control of thousands of telepathic Martians, all interacting with each other in complex storylines. You're really special. It took me years to even create the most simplistic illusion in someone's mind. But Midvale, through your lens, Alex. Every little detail, even illusions kilometers away from town, telepathy on autopilot."

"What's your secret, Alex?" Imra wondered. "I need you to tell me how you did this."

"I didn't do shit," Alex refused.

Imra slammed Alex around the barn against wooden pillars holding up the barn and then back to where she was before. "You feel emptiness. Let's start there." Imra then released Alex from her hold. "Let's look at some real reruns. Let's go."

"No," Alex refused.

"If you don't, I'll mentally torture your daughter," Imra threatened, screams from Kelex could be heard in the background.

Alex then complied as she entered a mental image of her family home. There, she saw her younger self embracing her father, Jeremiah. "Alex, pick a movie," he said to her.

"Season 2, episode 21," Alex requested.

"You willfully watched reruns of Dick Van Dyke as a child? What the fuck?" Imra shook her head dismayed.

"The Walnut episode," Jeremiah recalled.

"These shows were filled with shenanigans, the mischief that always turns right in the end," older Alex said to Imra.

"Like forcing Martians into serving your sitcom illusion of your old town? Yeah, bullshit," Imra rolled her eyes.

Younger Alex smiled and chuckled as she watched the show. Jeremiah and Eliza cuddled on the couch amused as well. The house suddenly exploded with Jeremiah and Eliza instantly perishing. Supergirl then landed in the house and looked around. Alex hid fearfully behind the couch. "Did you ever stop her?" Imra chided.

"No, I just...she was defective, but we didn't know that. We were trapped with her," Alex said, deep in psychosis.

"For how long?" Imra asked sympathetically.

"Almost twenty years," Alex replied.

"So much trauma," Imra shook her head. "And yet, Kara kept you safe the whole time. So, what I see here is a paradoxical mind. You love the old 1950s family values, tradition, and conformity but you're also a liberal gay woman. Doesn't really explain your recent hijinks. Where did you get this power, Alex?"

"I don't want to go back there," Alex said as the door had DEO written on it.

"I know but it's good medicine for you," Imra told her.

Alex walked inside the DEO and saw J'onn acting as Hank. "Ah, the DEO years. Your reaction to having an alien in your house for several years was to join a secretive government agency that imprisons and persecutes aliens?"

"I wanted to change the world," Alex said flatly.

Imra shifted the scene to Alex in bed in 2016. Suddenly, she awoke as her mind snapped. A mental barrier that had overlapped her sexuality had been broken. She saw a glowing light all around her as if she were as bright as a star. Alex squinted at the bright light and eventually saw the light's true shape, the shape of a phoenix on fire. Alex then passed out in her bed; the memory of the phoenix forgotten.

"So, that mental block Kara put you under not only made you unaware you were homosexual, but it also blocked the Phoenix Force that was within you the entire time. The broken pieces of you are starting to add up," Imra summarized. "I need more."

Imra and Alex then entered Alex's apartment in Metropolis in 2022. Alex stared at the TV watching old sitcoms as the door opened. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to intrude," Kelly said gently.

"You don't?" Alex questioned.

"Well, yes, I did intend to come in here," Kelly admitted. "Would you prefer I leave?"

Alex gestured to the bed. Kelly sat down next to her as Alex turned off the TV. "Alex, I don't presume to know what you're feeling, but I would like to know. Should you wish to tell me. Should it give you some comfort," Kelly said going into shrink mode.

"What makes you think talking about it would bring me comfort?" Alex asked mournfully.

"Well, I've read that...," Kelly began.

"The only thing that would bring me comfort is seeing them again," Alex said referring to her parents. "I feel this sorrow inside me, drowning me."

"It can't all be sorrow, is it?" What is grief if not love persevering?" Kelly asked rhetorically.

Alex then embraced Kelly as she cried. "So, to recap, parents dead, brother dead, Kelly exiled. What's going to happen without Kelly pulling you back from the darkness?" Imra said coldly.

"I can't do this anymore," Alex refused, wiping away tears.

"Come on, Alex. You're right on the precipice. You're right there," Imra encouraged. "Your parents were gone, Midvale was gone, and you wanted your old life back."

"I wanted it all back," Alex confirmed.

Imra then saw an explosion of red light as Alex created the barrier that recreated Midvale and trapped thousands of Martians inside. Imra clapped her hands upon seeing Alex create her new house from the street. "Bravo. You have no idea how dangerous you really are. A being capable of spontaneous creation and here you are making breakfast for dinner."

"Let go of my daughter," Alex demanded.

"I don't think so, Scarlett Bitch," Imra smirked, ready to fight.

Alex blasted Imra to the pavement with a red energy orb. Alex then moved towards Imra with her hands out as if she were holding a rifle. Imra got back up annoyed. Alex fired on Imra again only for the blast to hover in Imra's hand telekinetically. Imra then fired Alex's blast back at her. Alex hit the pavement hard from the force of it.

"I'm number one, you're number zero. We'll see if that holds up," Imra said confidently. "You're over your head, human. Just surrender."

Alex telekinetically grabbed a hold of a car and slammed Imra with it. The car and Imra impacted a house destroying it. Mon suddenly teleported to Alex's position and grabbed her by the throat. He lifted her off the ground and squeezed to get her to pass out. "And I thought you were powerful," Mon mocked.

Alex blasted Mon off her with enough force that he tore through the pavement and impacted an RV causing an explosion. Mon emerged from the flames and went Super Insane. Alex glowed red and then two clashed in the air. Mon and Alex punched at each other with equal strength in the air. Mon grabbed the back of Alex's hair to keep her still. Alex phased through his body. Mon went for a punch only for Alex to slice through his arm with her left hand and puncture his chest with her right hand. The two slammed into the street pavement creating a crater.

Alex then tried to flee the scene. Although injured and bloody, Mon took hold of her legs as they flew up into the air. Alex and Mon fired energy beams at each other in the air. All the while, the barrier started to come down as Alex lost concentration. Alex eventually overpowered Mon and blasted him to the city square below. Alex was on him immediately and punched him into a library. The two tussled inside the library destroying all the bookcases. Alex fired recklessly into the library with energy beams. Mon finally put Alex into a headlock.

Alex phased out of Mon's hold "You're the ship of Theseus," Mon accused.

"The fuck you on about, Mon?" Alex glared.

"Your body has rotted away and been replaced by the Phoenix. When the Phoenix has replaced all of your cells, all of your memories, will Alex Danvers still remain?" Mon asked.

"The Phoenix has merely restored me and freed me of rot," Alex countered.

"You will lose your memories and then what are you?" Mon asked her. "Do you make yourself a slave?"

"Is it slavery when I get what I want?" Alex asked angrily.

Imra then arrived and took hold of Alex's mind showing her all the memories of her past within a few seconds. As Alex was preoccupied, Mon teleported away to deal with his injuries. Imra took hold of the distracted Alex and threw her down the street. "You've never been up against another telepath, have you?" Imra mocked. The Martians acting as townspeople were suddenly freed of Alex's mind control. They went back to their Martian forms and began to gather around Alex pleading with her to stop.

"I have a daughter. She's eight. Maybe she could be friends with your daughter...if you like that storyline," she begged. "Anything? Just let her out of her room. If I could just hold her."

"This is bullshit. You're making her say this," Alex accused Imra.

"She's your meat puppet. I'm just cutting strings," Imra corrected.

"I don't recognize my face in the mirror, my voice when I speak," one Martian said. "I used to try to resist you, but now I don't remember why." "My husband is on a business trip. Tell him not to come back here," another said.

"I'm exhausted," another one said.

"You're all just fine. You're going to be fine," Alex assured them.

"When we sleep, we have your nightmares," another Martain said horrified.

"It's not true. I've brought peace and security to this town," Alex argued.

"We feel your pain, your grief is poisoning us. Please, let us go. We want to go home. We'll sign a petition for gay rights," the Martians all pleaded with her.

"STOP!" Alex screamed and then created red rings around their throats to silence them.

"If you won't let us go, just let us die," one Martian said boldly.

"I will," Alex said coldly.

"Heroes don't hurt people," Imra reminded her.

"Then that counts all of us out," Alex replied.

Suddenly, Imra found herself tied to a stake at night in the middle of the woods. "What the fuck?" Imra wondered.

"The difference between you and me is imagination," Alex said as she held a torch.

"No, I beg you. No, no, no!" Imra screamed as Alex was about to light her on fire. Alex hesitated for a brief second and then found herself tied to the stake with Imra free. "It's not power you lack. It's knowledge," Imra smirked.

Alex blasted off her restraints and flew at Imra. The two ended their mind-control dance and ended up back in Midvale City Square. The five Vindicator Rangers suddenly appeared: Dirk, Thom, Gim, Lournu, and Ayala. "Watch out for her mind control," Dirk warned the others. Alex was too quick for them and immediately took control of four of them.

"This is some bullshit," Ayala said as the other four cornered her.

"Dragonshit!" Jo teleported onto the scene and then blasted Alex back distracting her. The mind control on the four faded away. "We must combine our powers," Thom said.

"Right," the five said, and then fused into one body with the power of all five of them. That fused Vindicator became giant in size, the gravity around its feet crushed nearby structures, and it glowed super-hot. Alex immediately created a tall red rectangle of energy around the fused Vindicator to keep it in place and then materialized a missile launcher on her arm. She fired the missile through the forcefield so the fused Vindicator would feel the total force of the blast. The fused Vindicator then fell to the ground as the red rectangle of energy disappeared.

Jo confronted Alex one-on-one. He punched her twice to the head with solid shots and blocked Alex's own strike. Jo then punched Alex to the pavement. With Alex down for the moment, Jo healed his rangers instantly. Dirk, Thom, and Ayala lined up and fired on Alex all at once in a powerful explosion. Alex was on her knees from being hit with Thom's gravity beam and burnt by Dirk's flames and Ayla's electricity. Alex's injuries quickly regenerated and then she blasted the six rangers into various buildings in the square.

Dozens of blades exited portals and were fired. Alex was hit with a rain of blades that would have shredded a normal opponent. Alex held out her hand and kept any further blades from reaching her. Tinya continued to summon more blades from portals, but they all stopped just short of Alex. "I'm out," she reported to the others. Alex fired on her, but the red blast went straight through her and destroyed the store behind her.

A black tent appeared around Alex blinding her senses. In the darkness, Alex was also being slowly poisoned with sleeping gas inside the tent with Jan inside. "Go to sleep, just go to sleep," Jan said as he changed the normal air into more sleeping gas. Alex struggled against the gas while firing red beams into the walls of the tent, aimlessly. With holes appearing and disappearing in the tent, Tasmia decided to end the battle quickly. She sent a shadow hand along the ground and up Alex's body to her neck. Tasmia then slowly strangled Alex to get her to pass out. Alex grabbed a hold of the shadow arm, forced Tasmia to come to her, and then blasted her to the chest. The tent quickly evaporated as Tasmia fell to the ground wounded. Alex then blasted Jan into a bus.

"She'll fight at the same level as her opponent," Val figured and engaged Alex with some sick moves. Alex fought him with her own martial arts but then summoned the dirt to take hold of Val's foot. She cupped Val's fist and quickly dislocated his arm. She then kicked his leg breaking it. With Val disabled, Alex cast him away from her.

Alex suddenly got the shock of her life as Garth advanced on her. Alex's muscles tensed up and could no longer move as she was continuously shocked. Rokk summoned all the metal constructs in Midvale ripping apart buildings and infrastructure as he did. He then flung those metal pieces right at Alex. An energy shield expanded around Alex protecting her from the metal debris and electrical shocks. Jo fired heat vision at Alex from another angle putting more stress on Alex's shied. Imra then went inside Alex's mind to separate her from the Phoenix.

"It's over, Alex Danvers, you're finished. You're mine now," Imra said as took hold of Alex's mind.

"You will never win," Alex told her off.

"And why is that?" Imra asked condescendingly.

"Because, in here, you are alone, and I am not," Alex replied.

The Phoenix suddenly appeared as a fiery bird of pure energy in Alex's mind. Imra backed away, not sure what to make of it. The Phoenix merged with Alex becoming one glowing figure. Imra summoned chains around Alex's wrists, ankles, and around her entire body to restrain her. The Phoenix became too much for Imra requiring that she withdraw.

Alex powered up with her eyes turning black as the Phoenix took complete hold of her. The town of Midvale became ripped apart and disintegrated around her. Vehicles were thrown aside, and Vindicators were torn apart into dust. Imra, Rokk, Garth, and Jo attempted to defend themselves but were blasted apart to dust on the spot. Waves of energy pulsed through the town turning all the retreating Martians to dust. Finally, the wave hit Kelly destroying her completely.

Supergirl then landed in front of Alex. Upon looking around and all the destruction, Kara focused back on Alex. "Prime," Kara said as her body glowed.