Kara, Just Kara

The Breaking of the Spell

Day 159.

This DEO assignment is going decidedly pear shaped. Alex is in an underground bunker, pinned down under heavy fire from some thorn shooting alien, the rest of her team blocked off by a collapsed tunnel. She's been hit twice, in the leg and shoulder, and she really hope those thorns aren't poisoned. She can't see any way she'll get out of this alive. She's sorry that she won't get more time with Maggie, but she's horrified what losing her will do to Kara. Kara has already lost three parents, now she's also lost her power and her memory of Krypton. She shouldn't have to lose more.

That's when Supergirl appears. She makes quick work of the alien. Heat vision cuts off the walkway he's standing on, and he's been wrapped in metal girders before he hits the floor, then he's thrown into a dumpster and the lid welded shut. The entire maneuver took no more than eight seconds. Alex staggers out from her cover, favoring her bleeding leg. "K-Kara?" Her voice is wavering, maybe moving wasn't such a good idea anyway. Supergirl looks at her. In all recent Supergirl sightings, she disappeared immediately when the job was done. This one stays and looks at Alex with a completely blank face. No recognition at all. But still here? Finally Alex realizes that maybe she's not out of danger yet. Then she blacks out.

When she comes to, her team mates tell her that Supergirl had flown right through the collapsed tunnel, burning a way through with her heat vision while carrying Alex. When she reached the team on the other side, she didn't say anything, but seemed reluctant to let Alex go until agent Vasquez had grabbed Supergirl by the shoulders and shouted to let her help Alex. Supergirl had put Alex down very gently, and just stood there looking while Vasquez administered first aid. Only when Alex started to stir and Vasquez said "She's OK", they heard Supergirl breathe for the first time. Then she disappeared. Seconds later Alex's phone rings in the pocket of her jacket back in the DEO locker room.

That causes a pop-up on Winn's screen. He is sitting in mission control, and everyone there is following the feed from the away team. "Director Henshaw! Kara is calling Alex." It was Alex who had insisted that they should still check when Kara called her, because that's what she would do if she was ever in trouble.

"Any idea why?" J'onn moves over to look at the screen. Winn types a quick key sequence and shows a fast-forward movie of the last fifteen minutes of Kara sitting at her CatCo desk, just working. Then she startles and grabs her phone to call Alex.

"Reroute the call to me, and then sync up the video with the away team feed. I want to know exactly when she reacts."

J'onn answers the phone the moment it rings, and doesn't even get it to his ear before Kara speaks. "... OK, Alex? I know you say I shouldn't call you at work, but I just had the most awful feeling that something's wrong! Alex?"

"I'm sorry miss Danvers, but Agent Danvers is currently on assignment and cannot come to the phone. Can I help you?" J'onn keeps his voice as neutral as possible.

"I just want to know if Alex is safe! She's not, is she? I knew it! What happened? Where is she?"

"Easy now, miss Danvers. Why do you think anything happened to your sister?"

"I just know it. I can feel it, like a gnawing hole in my chest. I know it's Alex. Where is she?"

Jonn looks to the monitor where Alex is sitting up, and Agent Vasquez is giving her something to drink. "Just a moment miss Danvers, let me check." He puts the phone on mute and turns back to Winn, who has videos of Supergirl and Kara running side by side. "Do you have a match?"

"It's when she breathes." Winn points to the screen. "If you look closely, you can see Supergirl and Kara both take a deep breath at exactly the same time. Then Supergirl disappears and Kara starts panicking. Some coincidence, eh?"