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The Sun Will Rise Again
Alex sprints across the pavement, sliding beneath the tail of the helicopter on one knee, her outstretched leg colliding with the ankle of the pilot, sweeping his feet out from under him. She springs up and finishes him off with a knee to the face. Yanking open the door, she peers into the helicopter.
"Ok Winn, I'm looking at the device."
The whole middle of the chopper is a mess of wires and dozens of clears canisters filled with red liquid- Medusa 2.0. Deadly to all aliens.
"Show me what you're looking at."
Alex pulls out her phone, snapping a shot and sending it to him.
He mumbles a curse.
"What is it?"
"Alex, you're not going to be able to disable it. Gotta go with Plan B.”
Alex hears the distant thuds and explosions of the fight- sees Lillian lumbering her way across the dockyard toward Kara, J'onn and Henshaw a blur of red and green and the blast of blue lasers in the distance. Cadmus and DEO agents engaged in firefights all across the yard.
She looks back at the deadly canisters and spots a timer tucked in amidst the wires. Shit.
Alex does the math - the timer counting down, the virus set to disperse, the distance needed to make sure nothing comes drifting back down to the docks, to J’onn and Kara. SHIT.
There's an explosion and Alex looks up to see Kara go flying, colliding with the ground not far from her.
She runs toward her sister, something settling deep inside as she realizes what she has to do.
---
Kara hits the pavement, skidding, the cement cracking and giving way beneath her. She finally rolls to a stop several hundred yards from where Lillian stands encased in one of Lex's massive battle suits.
"Kara!" The familiar voice sounds muddled, like she's underwater. Alex?
Kara winces as she drags herself to her hands and knees, head and ribs throbbing. She hangs her head for a moment, hair spilling around her shoulders, waiting for the world to stop spinning.
"Kara!" Definitely Alex. She sounds closer now, but still distant, muffled. A hand on her back announces Alex's presence at her side.
"Are you okay?" Alex's hands are under her elbows, helping her up. Kara's swaying on her feet, hands braced on Alex's biceps. Sound is fading in and out, her ears ringing.
Kara's frowns, puts a hand to her ear and it comes away red. Geez.
Alex is saying something.
Kara shakes her head, forehead creased deeply. She can see Alex's lips moving but all she can hear is a low murmur. She searches Alex's face. There's steely determination there, the strength that Kara has always leaned on, has taken on as her own. Alex glances away, a hand to her ear.
Alex's expression shifts- no less determined, but layered with something soft, apologetic. Kara has often marveled at that- that Alex, who has had to become so tough, so strong, so brave, so hard and sharp- that she can still be kind and gentle, can still smile in the way that creases the edges of her eyes, makes Kara feel like she's home.
Alex squeezes her hands and when she smiles at Kara it's like before- before Cadmus, before Jeremiah's betrayal, before all this distance between them that seems to have just...snuck in.
Alex nods at Kara, saying something as she lays her palm atop the symbol on Kara's chest.
Kara shakes her head, confused, ears still ringing. She can hear the familiar timbre of Alex's voice, rising and falling, but can't make out the words.
Alex clasps Kara's forearms, earnest and insistent, love and sorrow and pride in her eyes.
She smiles, eyes starting to glisten.
The smoke billows around them, embers floating by, Alex's curls teased by the drafts.
She pulls Kara in for a hug, whispering something in her ear.
Kara can’t make it out. Alex takes a step away, hands sliding down to grasp Kara’s.
Kara watches Alex walk backwards several steps, then turn and run toward the helicopter perched not far away, its blades beginning to rotate, poised to take off. Kara looks down at her hand, opening it to reveal Alex's watch- the one that used to belong to Jeremiah, the one she's worn since the day they were told he died. Alex had slipped it into her hand.
Kara's head snaps back up, hair whipped about by the wind, heart pounding, dread building in her chest. The watch- the watch feels too much like the necklace, the one she'd given to Alex before Fort Roz… But Alex couldn’t be… Winn is going to disable the virus-
She's about to follow her sister, has already taken several steps forward when a blow from behind causes her to stagger. Lillian.
With one last glance at Alex's retreating form, Kara turns to face her foe.
Lillian emerges from the fire like a steel demon, flames wrapping and writhing around the edges of the huge war suit. Kara's ears start to clear and she can hear the clank of each heavy step, the whirring of gears and click of metal plates sliding against one another.
Kara slides the watch into her boot for safekeeping.
Fists clenched, head high, she straightens into a fighting stance. Lillian's amplified voice rings out across the space between them. "Had enough, Kryptonian?"
Kara rushes her.
——
Alex reaches the helicopter and promptly dispatches the Cadmus agent who had been trying to get it up in the air, depositing him on the ground next to the first guy. She climbs into pilot’s seat, checking the timer on her way.
3:15.
“C’mon, c’mon, c'mon.” She’s flipping switches, rushing the takeoff as much as she can, willing the rotors to go faster, to get her up in the air.
There’s a slight jolt as the helicopter lifts off the ground, and Alex gets one last look at the battle raging on the docks, before she angles toward the water and pushes the chopper as fast as it’ll go.
——
Kara can feel her strength fading.
Aided by the advanced mechanics and alien metal alloy of the suit, each of Lillian’s blows nearly match her own for power. Kara runs forward, ducking under her swing and sliding between the metal legs, coming up behind it. She clasps her hands together, bringing them down onto the back of the suit, knocking it to the ground.
There’s got to be some weakness, some seam or wiring or-
Her search for a break in the suit’s defenses is cut short by an electrical blast that knocks her onto her back.
Lillian is laughing as she rights the suit. “Did you really think it would be that easy?”
Kara pulls herself up off the ground once more. She’s just got to keep Lillian distracted long enough for Alex to get the virus out over the water. That’s the plan. Whatever happens after that, well-
Lillian raises an arm and the suit shifts, metal hand receding, plates sliding and rotating until there’s a circular opening where the hand used to be. An opening that starts to glow green.
Crap.
Kara tries to move, she does, but the blast still catches her, blowing her completely through one of the massive metal shipping containers. She rolls to a stop on the other side, surrounded by shards of metal debris.
She’s on her hands and knees, muscles shaking, when the ground rumbles and the remnants of the container are torn in two, Lillian stepping through the wreckage with huge metal shards in either robotic hand.
——
Alex has the chopper maxed out. She checks the controls, the timer… not enough. Not far enough from the city, from the docks, from her family.
Alex breathes deeply. She knew- she knew when she first saw the countdown that there wasn’t enough time, but she’d hoped…
Alex shakes her head, blinking clear the tears that had started to gather in her eyes. Her expression settles in to one of determination, of strength- laced with sorrow, but resolute.
She taps her comms. “Winn.”
“Alex! I’m tracking you in the helicopter- that’s you right?”
“Yeah, Winn, it’s me I-“
“I knew it!” He sounds so proud of her, like she’s about to save the day. Alex bites her lip. “Just a little further and you-“
She cuts him off. “Winn, it’s on a timer and I-“ She checks. 0:58. “There’s not enough time. I’m going to Plan C.”
He lets out a startled sound, protesting. “Plan C, what-“ But she keeps going, talking over him. “Winn- tell Kara I’m sorry. And tell Maggie-“ Alex smiles through the tears that have started to fall despite her best efforts. “Tell Maggie I love her.”
“Alex, no, listen we can figure something out-“
“Take care of yourself, Winn.”
“ALE-“
She clicks the line off, reaching into her vest. The timer blinks at her, the bright red 0:09 garish and mocking. She pulls out a grenade.
——
The metal foot of the war suit catches Kara in her side, sending her careening into another stack of shipping containers, a vaguely Kara-shaped dent left in her wake. The top few containers topple backwards with metallic screeches and deep, rumbling booms.
Kara rolls onto her back just in time for that same robotic foot to crunch into her chest, pressing her down, the pavement cracking and giving way beneath her shoulders. She struggles, scrambling for something to grasp, some leverage to throw Lillian off, but she’s well and truly pinned.
Lillian’s voice rings out, made deep and metallic through the suit’s amplification. “Today I will rid this planet of false gods and the plague of alien life. Today I save the world.”
She leans down and Kara can just make out her form behind the thick opaque glass around the head of the suit. “Today I am the god killer.” She presses Kara further into the ground and Kara can feel her ribs straining at the weight, her breath short, lungs unable to expand.
Kra-KOOM
The sound of the explosion takes them both by surprise and Kara’s eyes lock onto the fireball that used to be the Cadmus chopper as it falls, burning from the sky and into the sea. Her heart stops.
“ALEX!! NO!!!!!”
Her sister’s name tears from her throat, a scream of raw agony.
There’s a second explosion as the gas lines ignite, flaming pieces of metal shooting across the sky like meteors.
Another scream rips from Kara, her world imploding. The sound is guttural and without words, her face twisted in pain and anger and disbelief, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Nonononononono
It’s Krypton exploding all over. Her very home, torn away in fire and ash.
Lillian laughs. She stomps down onto Kara once more, grinding her into the pavement. “I’ll just make more.” She spreads her arms in the air. “You can’t stop me!”
Kara’s heart is in agony, the new ache in her chest so much worse than anything inflicted by Lillian. She feels heat rising behind her eyes, a fire burning in her gut as she looks at the woman who is responsible. Something opens up within Kara, a reserve she didn’t know she had, a pool of molten energy within her depths, hot and fiery like the sun. It burns through her limbs as something within her snaps.
She explodes from under Lillian, throwing her clear across the yard. She is rage and grief and vengeance-
And no one on the dock stands a chance.
A blur of fists and sparks of heat vision, she wreaks havoc across the battlefield. Cadmus agents are stuck down, thrown to the side, weapons melting in their hands. Vasquez had just turned to find a Cadmus agent aiming at her from atop one of the shipping containers, but by the time she raises her weapon, there’s a blur and he’s just gone. She distantly hears a high-pitched scream followed by a splash. One moment Henshaw is facing off with J’onn and the next he is pinned to the ground, a piece of metal thrust through his cybernetic shoulder and deep into the cement, his laser eye melted and useless.
It happens within the space of a few breaths: every Cadmus agent on the ground, weapons disabled. They lay strewn about, groaning, as the DEO troops recover from the whirlwind and close in.
Kara pauses amidst the chaos, searching for the war suit, and those from the DEO who witness her in that moment will recount it later with awe and terror: the Girl of Steel, eyes ablaze, fists red with the blood of those who had taken from her the most precious thing in her life. A warrior without mercy.
She finds Lillian extracting herself from what looks to be the remnants of a large fishing vessel in the dry docks. Kara hauls her out of the wreckage with one hand, slamming her against the ground. Whatever defenses the suit had offered before no longer seem to matter- Kara’s fingers dig great gouges into the metal as she pulls the suit apart, piece by piece.
She's vaguely aware of Lillian’s attempts to escape, to fend her off, but all she can hear is the helicopter exploding, over and over, and all she sees is red. She simply absorbs the blows, screaming, not from the pain but in rage. With a great metallic screech, Kara rips open the suit, exposing Lillian Luthor, eyes wide, mouth agape. She lifts her out of the mangled battle machine, tossing her to the ground.
Lillian lands with a grunt, and rolls onto her back to see Kara lift one of the shipping containers over her head as if it weighs nothing. The hero advances on Lillian, eyes alight, face twisted. Lillian’s eyes are locked on Kara even as she scrambles back a few feet on her elbows. She stops when Kara stands over her, container aloft, her intent terrifyingly clear.
And then Lillian’s expression morphs from panic into one of sick satisfaction. Kara pauses when Lillian huffs a shaky laugh, sneering.
“If I had known it would be this easy to turn you into the monster I always knew you were, I would’ve gone after your sister ages ago.” The metal under Kara’s fingers crumples and she growls, taking another menacing step forward. Lillian doesn’t stop.
“Don’t you see, Supergirl?” She spits the name. “All you do is bring destruction. Everything you touch, BURNS. Krypton, this city-” She gestures to the lights of National City in the distance. “You can't save even the people you love! You bring them only pain and misery and death. Your parents. Your aunt. Jeremiah. Your sister. You're no hero." She shakes her head. "So go ahead- DO IT. Show them who you really are. Strike me down like a vengeful god! DO IT!!!” She's screaming, composure gone at long last, her hatred and rage laid bare.
Kara’s muscles shake, her face twisting further in grief and fury. She lifts the container higher, about to bring it down, when-
“Kara!”
Alex’s voice sounds in her head.
"Are you okay?" Alex's hands are under her elbows, helping her up. Kara's swaying on her feet, hands braced on Alex's biceps. Sound is fading in and out, her ears ringing.
Alex is saying something.
"I have to go."
Kara shakes her head, forehead creased deeply. She searches Alex's face. There's steely determination there, the strength that Kara has always leaned on, has taken on as her own. Alex glances away, a hand to her ear. “Okay Winn.”
"Alex, whatever it is, I can do it."
Alex's expression shifts- no less determined, but layered with something soft, apologetic.
She holds Kara's hands in her own, squeezing as tight as she can, trying to convey what she needs in her expressions and touch, not certain Kara can hear her.
She smiles at Kara and it's like before- before Cadmus, before Jeremiah's betrayal, before all this distance between them that seems to have just...snuck in.
"It has to be me." She swallows hard, nodding mostly to herself. "It has to be me. I can save the day. But you-" She lays her palm atop the symbol on Kara's chest- the symbol that has come to stand for hope and help and compassion. The symbol her sister has made to represent those things. The symbol that inspires the best in all of them. "You can save the world. They need you Kara- they need your light."
Kara is shaking her head, looking confused, ears still ringing.
"What are you saying?"
Alex clasps Kara's forearms. She's earnest and insistent, love and sorrow and pride in her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what I said. You have always been and always will be my family, my home." She smiles again, eyes starting to glisten.
The smoke billows around them, embers floating by, Alex's curls teased by the drafts.
She pulls Kara in for a hug, whispering in her ear, "This is my choice. It's my turn to be the hero."
She takes a step away, hands sliding down to grasp Kara's one last time. "I love you."
Kara chokes on a sob as she remembers.
“DO IT!” Lillian screams again.
But she won’t- not with Alex’s voice reminding her that her greatest strength is not power, but light, and love.
The container drops to the side with a resounding boom.
“No.”
Lillian snarls but her heartbeat betrays her terror and relief.
Kara walks away- she can hear Vasquez and her unit approaching quickly- they’ll take care of Lillian. She drops to her knees at the edge of the dock, the salty breeze cool against her face.
“It’s my turn to be the hero.
I love you.”
Tears run down her cheeks as she tilts her head back, eyes closed, listening. Listening one last time for the heartbeat she knows better than her own, the one that has grounded her, comforted her, reassured her in the darkest hours.
Thump-thump.
Kara’s brow furrows. Was that-? She listens harder, focusing in, blocking everything else out.
Thump-thump.
Her eyes snap open.
She shoots off the dock and out over the water, a trail of white foam and froth marking her path through the darkness.
She spots a dark form against the ebony waves just as it slips beneath the surface.
Kara dives, following the slowly fading heartbeat into the depths.
She surfaces, moments later, Alex clasped against her chest.
“Alex!” No response.
Kara takes just a second to tread water, regaining her bearings and gathering her quickly fading strength. The lights on the shore beckon. Kara holds Alex tight and launches from the water.
They land roughly, Kara stumbling to her knees but keeping Alex safely tucked against her.
She lays her sister down gently. Alex is pale, unmoving.
Kara’s heart pounds as she tilts Alex’s head back, breathing oxygen into her lungs. She starts compressions, not needing to check her strength as the last of it fades and she’s left with just that of a human.
Salt water and tears mix on her face as she breathes for her sister again.
“C’mon Alex, c’mon.”
Her hands pound Alex’s chest, each compression accompanied by a desperate prayer.
Please, Rao, please.
“Stay with me Alex. Stay with me.”
J’onn morphs from his martian self and drops to his knees on Alex’s other side. Kara is about to instruct him to take over the compressions when Alex coughs, chest heaving as she expels the water she’d swallowed.
“Alex!” both J’onn and Kara reach forward, helping tilt her to the side as she coughs up sea water.
Kara pulls Alex’s head and shoulders onto her lap, one hand gripping Alex’s, the other smoothing wet strands of hair away from her sister’s face. “You’re okay, you’re okay. I’ve got you.”
J’onn takes Alex’s other hand, his hands folding around hers, encompassing it completely. He squeezes, tight and reassuring. He and Kara lock eyes for a moment, and she sees in his glossy eyes the intense relief that she’s sure is in her own.
She drops her gaze back down to Alex. “Are you okay?”
Alex’s eyes are closed, but she nods, leaning her head against Kara’s arm.
Her breathing returns to normal within a couple of minutes, the three not saying anything other than Kara’s soft, soothing reassurances each time Alex coughs a bit more.
Alex leans her head back and looks up at Kara. “Thanks for coming to get me.”
Kara nods, eyes somber as she remember the explosion. “What happened?”
“I couldn’t get far enough from the city before the virus went off. I knew I could destroy it but there was a chance some of the particles would drift back if I wasn’t far enough out.” Here she looks between Kara and J’onn and it’s clear who she was worried about the virus reaching. “I set the autopilot and bailed out before the grenade went off, but, well,” she winces and grins a bit sheepishly, “apparently I mis-timed it a little. Got knocked about by some of the debris from the explosion.”
“You- That was the dumbest- bravest-“ Kara sputters, her anger paling in comparison to the love and relief and admiration on her face. She opens and closes her mouth a few times, unable to find the words. Finally she shakes her head. “You just had to be the hero, didn’t you?”
Alex just smiles up at Kara. “I learned it from you.”
Kara huffs a laugh, shaking her head again as she smiles through new tears. She rests her forehead against Alex’s. “Dummy.”
Alex laughs and Kara leans back. “I love you, you know that?”
Alex looks into Kara’s eyes and knows that Kara heard her, earlier. She smiles and presses as tightly into Kara’s hand as she can. “Yeah, sis. I know.”
J’onn clears his throat and when Alex looks at him she can see he is in full space-dad mode. Alex is certain she’s about to be lectured but then Kara gasps a little and looks up and past him. J’onn tilts his head, listening to something Alex can’t hear, and then his eyebrows shoot up and he smirks.
“Guys, what? What is it?”
She looks at Kara who stutters, eyes wide, “uh…”
“ALEX DANVERS!”
Oh.
Not bothering to hide his smile, J’onn squeezes her shoulder and moves to the side, revealing a very, very angry Maggie Sawyer stalking towards them. Her small frame is coiled with worry and, now that she can see Alex, fury.
Alex sits up a bit, Kara’s arm wrapping around her shoulders to keep her upright. She looks at Maggie a bit sheepishly. “Hey.”
“Hey? HEY?”
“Maggie-“
“Winn calls me to say that you love me and you’ve gone off on some suicide mission and all you can say is ‘hey’?”
Alex winces. She did do that, didn’t she? J’onn excuses himself, muttering something about overseeing the prisoner transport, not bothering to hide his affectionate smile. Alex looks at Kara, who’s eyebrows are still up in her hairline. She’s got the same look she used to have when they were kids and Alex was about to get a talking-to from Eliza. It’s the “oh boy you’re in for it” look. Kara manages to add a barely-concealed grin to that expression as she mouths “love?” at Alex.
Alex isn’t sure where to start, but it doesn’t matter because Maggie’s not finished.
“I was on my way over here when I saw your helicopter” she gestures angrily at the sky. “fucking- EXPLODE!”
She visibly deflates after she says the last word, anger giving way to a bone-deep weariness, exhaustion borne from fearing that she’d lost Alex forever. Her eyes become glassy and she sinks to her knees next to Alex, looking her over for injuries, visually confirming that she is really here, alive.
“Are- are you okay?” Maggie’s voice breaks on the question.
Alex squeezes Kara’s knee. Kara lets go as Alex leans forward, hovering close, ready to steady her again if she needs.
Alex gently takes one of Maggie’s hands from where they are clenched in her lap, her other coming up to brush back one of those unruly curls she loves so much. She looks in Maggie’s eyes and sees worry and love and deep relief. “I love you, Maggie Sawyer. I’m okay, and I love you and,” she grins, “I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”
Maggie barks a laugh, and a few tears finally escape, running down her cheeks. She swipes at them with her free hand. “God, Danvers, you are so dramatic.”
Alex and Kara laugh as well, and Alex leans forward to pull Maggie into a kiss, and then a hug. Maggie’s arms are tight, so tight around her, the desperation in her grip betraying just how scared she was.
Alex reaches a hand out to the side which Kara takes immediately. Alex turns her head on Maggie’s shoulder and directs a watery smile at her sister. Kara’s returning grin is so full of joy and Alex thinks, We’re okay. We’re all gonna be okay.
And then Maggie reaches out too and Kara makes a delighted sound before wrapping them both in her arms. And Alex thinks her heart might explode for all the joy within it.
——
Kara and Maggie help Alex to her feet and they make their way over to Maggie’s cruiser with Alex sandwiched between them, arms slung across their shoulders.
Maggie drives, despite Kara’s offer to do so.
“Civillians are not allowed to drive police vehicles. Besides, can you imagine if someone saw Supergirl driving around in an NCPD cruiser?”
So they make their way home. Alex leaning against Kara in the backseat, head on Kara’s shoulder, Kara’s arm around her, Maggie glancing in the rearview every few seconds to check that Alex is there and safe. Alex catches Maggie doing it and smiles at her, love clear in her gaze. She gets the full dimple treatment in return.
Light paints the horizon, the city sparkling with the sunrise.
Kara soaks in the warmth, reveling in Alex’s presence next to her. She thought she’d lost everything tonight- her sister, her own light.
Kara pulls the watch from her boot and gives it back to Alex, her eyes a little haunted. Alex takes it back, not putting it on but just holding it reverently, her own gaze troubled as she thinks of Jeremiah, still missing, and so much more complicated than she’d thought.
They still have things to talk through- Jeremiah’s betrayal, Alex’s words, Kara losing control, the way things are changing now that Alex has Maggie- but they will.
Alex settles back against Kara, closing her eyes. They’ll talk and figure it out, she’s certain of it. The bruises- inside and out- will heal. And for now, this- the sun rising on another day and her sister by her side- this is enough.