Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Reborn

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 19: Fortress of Solitude

Leslie took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and stepped through the Rann transporter entering the last remnant of Krypton. She felt refreshed after sleeping several hours and taking a nice long shower. Her recovery time from her heart attack was still lengthy but the Danvers were keeping a close watch on her even while worrying over Kara and Alex. She was fairly certain the robot was monitoring her as well on the down low.

She walked by the designated sleeping chambers, glancing in, seeing Jeremiah and Eliza curled up together, fast asleep. The time Kara and Alex had spent merged was approaching thirty hours and the toll on the parents from their daughters’ current situation was wearing them down rapidly. It was getting harder and harder for them to project any confidence that the girls would wake up and be themselves. But Leslie knew better. Those two had proven her wrong before and she would give them the benefit of any doubt at this point.

She rounded the corner, stepping into the area that was designated as Alex’s lab, noting the low hum of the Fortress, the structure seeming alive and responsive, another sentient member of the Danvers family. Kelex turned from where he stood, noting her presence with a slight nod, before turning back to continue his vigil, but her gaze was drawn to the young man standing at the foot of the bench where his sisters were laying.

Clark looked up as Leslie came to stand quietly beside him. His expression was sad, his eyes wet, but he was smiling. “You know, Alex is going to have all kinds of trouble walking off the pain her body will be in from lying on that bench for so long. I can hear her complaining already.”

Leslie chuckled softly, “Me too, kid, me too. At least she hasn’t had a heart attack, so she has me beat.”

Clark looked back at his siblings, reaching out to lightly touch Alex’s foot, as if trying to reassure himself she was really there. “You know, when Alex came home from the Block, she threw herself into her rehab with the ninja lady and the blonde woman. She and I talked a lot then, about how Kara was still alive, that I had to have hope that we could figure out a way to help her escape the sun… and then it all changed.”

His face became somber, his voice cracking slightly. “Mom and Dad told her to stop leading me on, that I needed to accept it and deal with my grief, and she was making it worse. I hardly saw her after that, and when I did, she wouldn’t talk to me about Kara. She wouldn’t talk to Mom or Dad about Kara either. You would think she had never existed. She never told me about her life either, only asked about mine or what I was doing.”

Leslie couldn’t speak to what Clark was referring, but she knew. Alex had told her immediately about the ultimatum her parents had given her, and Leslie had agreed with them. It was one of the last nails in the coffin of their patient/doctor relationship before Alex unceremoniously told her she never wanted to see her again or she would kill her. She remained silent as Clark continued to speak.

“She would come to my games, spend time with me on the weekend… but Alex… it was like she was just gone.” Clark continued to focus on his oldest sister, a tear falling that he quickly wiped away.

“My parents were always worried about her, what she was doing, her health, constantly nagging her, especially mom. Alex just ignored them. She didn’t care. She was either at work, in the Fortress or off on one of her trips… where she apparently killed a lot of people. Did you know Kara killed over ten thousand White Martians in one night? Of course, you did. The two of them… they have killed a lot of people.” He shook slightly, as if he were finally saying out loud what he’d been thinking since he’d learned what Alex had been doing with only Kelex watching out for her while the rest of their family was grieving together.

Sighing, he pulled back, wrapping his arms around himself as if to hold all his feelings in. The tears had stopped, but his eyes were slightly red as he faced her. “I’m having a hard time believing that Alex could do that, but I know she did… to protect me. How do I deal with that? Knowing what she did? They were bad people, sure, but couldn’t she have taken Bruce, J’onn, the guys, maybe even the DEO and arrested them or something? And what did killing all those people do to her? Every time she returned from one of her trips she looked so tired and unhappy. She was like a different person. I was losing her too and I never knew it.”

Leslie cleared her throat before carefully answering, slowly weighing out what she was saying as she said it. “I don’t think it’s a secret any longer that Alex has as many demons and as much anger in her as Kara does. Concentrating on Kara, helping her, was the only thing keeping Alex in check. With Kara gone, all of Alex’s rage was unleashed. It’s why I was against Alex going into Kara’s mind. They are too close, and they have lived through the same traumas, experienced a lot of the same pain. That said, I’ve never seen a relationship like theirs. I am confident they are going to come through this, and you will have your sisters back. Regardless, I promise you this… I will do everything I can to help them and your family heal.”

She saw she had his attention, his eyes still full of guilt and confusion. She carefully proceeded to try to ease his hurt without betraying any confidence Alex had given her. “Clark, when Alex killed all those people, she didn’t do it just to protect you. She needed a way to vent her rage. It’s why she wanted no help, no backup. That is not your fault and you need to come to terms with this. I’m beginning to think taking blame for things you aren’t responsible for is a Kryptonian trait. But this isn’t your fault. Do you understand?”

Clark’s eyes seemed to lose focus for several moments before his entire posture relaxed. “I think so. You’re saying she would’ve done what she did regardless, that I was just an excuse?”

“More or less… yes, I think so. I know your sisters have always destroyed any threat to you. When it comes to protecting you, they are of one mind in a way. You have always come first to those two but whatever they did to protect you is not on you.” She reached out to cup his chin to fully gain his attention. “Your sisters love you more than anything. You will always be their priority.”

Clark stood silently for a moment before he nodded, a small grin on his face. “They are my heroes. I love them so much and have never really told them. I lost Kara, then Alex became distant, but now they’re here… and I need to tell them how much they mean to me. They just need to quit being lazy and wake-up.” He laughed a little, his throat catching as if he was trying to convince himself.

Leslie squeezed his shoulder and grinned. “Yeah, I need to get my game face on. They were a pain in my ass most days, and I don’t see that changing… but I’ve been wrong before. They may come out of this stronger. If nothing else it will be good to face things head on, things they have gone through together and things that they have kept from each other. Of course, they may come out crazier than before so be ready to hold them down, alright Superman?”

Clark cocked his head slightly, his smile growing wider. “You don’t seem as cranky as I remember from that time you yelled at my family about going to the Metropolis memorial.”

“I’m not always cranky. You Danvers and men who dress like bats usually are enough to do it. Just wait, you’ll see the real me. There is only one way I can try and fix this family and that is my way. It won’t be pleasant.” Leslie smirked, her eyes lighting up almost evilly.

Clark stared, wide-eyed, his smile fading versus the wide smile of the smirking doctor. For the first time ever, he started to sweat in the perfectly temperature-controlled Fortress as he and the doctor settled in with Kelex to continue their wait.

While their brother and therapist bonded, Kara and Alex only felt pain, weaving in and out of each other’s memories to where the torrent being unleashed left them flailing as they fought desperately to hold on to each other.

They were broken inside, flashes of the battle coming at them rapidly, the pain seeming to last forever, the gritty determination to destroy this monster, the panic of seeing Lobo having his heart punched out of his back, J’onn pushing Kara out of the way of a heat vision blast, only to succumb to a fiery hole in his chest.

The nausea of flying in Alex’s jet around the skyscrapers of Metropolis, trying to get a better angle, catching Doomsday by surprise, barely dodging massive heat vision blasts. The frustration when none of her weapons did anything but barely catch the monster’s attention.

The sisters saw Kara on the ground and Alex screamed, watching her little sister being kicked around like a plaything, something she had never seen in her life. For every blow Kara threw, Alex felt the pain that shot through her arm and back from the force of striking what seemed like an immovable object. The two girls felt the extreme agony Kara felt every time she was struck, breaking something inside her with every blow.

They felt a loss of hope when the Red Lanterns were dispatched so easily by the creature. They just weren’t powerful enough to make a difference.

Alex gasped when Kara’s leg was snapped, then shook as the solar burst from the House of El symbol shone brightly, filling her with sun light, repairing her broken bones, renewing her hope.

A hope that was shattered moments later when Doomsday knocked her down and landed on her, cracking the formerly invincible symbol on her chest. Kara rolled painfully, unable to breath and moved quickly to gain some space.

It didn’t matter. Nothing she did had any real effect. She distracted it, baited it, taunted it, but it was all bravado. Kara knew this was the end and Alex felt something she had never thought her sister would feel in a fight… Resignation.

Kara glanced toward her sister, who had been standing by her side, watching the battle play out but could no longer see her. Her perception changed as her vision seemed to meld into two blended memories. She and Alex had merged, images from different points of view, air and land striking the two rapidly, making them wonder if they were losing their mind, with only a single thought rising to the surface of their joined consciousness.

“ You finally got what you wanted Zor El. You wanted me dead since I was born and now you have finally done it. This is your legacy. A monster who created monsters.” Kara and Alex whispered. “You are not even worthy of hell.”

Then a momentary flash, a feeling of utter panic, Alex in the sky seeing Kara barely standing, face nearly unrecognizable, standing and urging the creature on.

Alex screamed in anger when her final missile had no effect other than once again catching the beast’s attention. She had expected it to use heat vision on her jet as it had every time. Every attempt had been for naught, the creature too uncontrolled to be precise enough to catch her.

But this time, she felt the blast, the cockpit dropping, fear, anger, defeat. Alex did everything she could to control the pod because if she was dead, Kara was dead. The ground came too quickly, throwing Alex into the cockpit window, causing her to black out.

The two girls were on the ground, having just seen the ship crash.

Resignation was gone. The feeling of death, the surrender to the inevitable. Clinging to her sister, Kara had no idea what was coming next, she could not remember.

But Alex did.

The world around them became silent. Doomsday was not roaring, buildings were not crumbling or burning.

Both girls looked up hesitantly noting the sky was dark. A storm was rolling in, a large red cloud, bright red lightning striking the ground around them.

“What is that, Alex?” Kara asked, feeling fear in her racing heart. Trying to pull her sister away, she was distraught when she couldn’t. “Alex, we need to go, we need to get away!”

We can’t.” Alex told her, eyes glazed over now, focusing on the storm as blood began to rain down on them.

“Alex! I want to go! I don’t want this! I’m scared!” Kara was screaming into the wind, but Alex wouldn’t be moved.

Instead of listening, Alex stared up into the cloud, drops of blood drenching her face, entranced by what she saw. While Kara felt fear, Alex was radiating anger.

“Alex!” Kara tried, pulling her sister’s arm, desperate to save them both from the horror show playing out around them.

“We can’t leave! You will die without it!” Alex finally answered her, eyes blazing in fury.

“No! I don’t want to remember!” Kara was panicked now, fear radiating through her entire being.

Alex shook her head, Kara barely making out her sister’s face through the blood that covered it. “You have to remember. We do. We need to see this. We need to understand. We need to make them all suffer!”

“Those aren’t my memories!” Kara shouted, beyond frustrated and very scared now.

Kara tried to grab Alex once again, only to feel Alex pushing her away, anger still radiating from her. It was a feeling Kara knew well. An all-consuming rage… a world where nothing else mattered except the enemy in front of her.

But this was different. For the first time, Kara was scared of this anger. She had never experienced this sense of foreboding. Even she had never felt as much anger as what was radiating from Alex.

Leslie’s words came back to her suddenly. “Do you realize, if Alex had seen you die, that Red Ring had every chance of coming to her?”

Looking at her sister now, she stared in horror realizing Leslie’s supposition was true.

“Alex is dead.” the older sister mumbled. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Zor El still has one more monster to create.”

“You aren’t dead, Alex.” Kara told her, trying to fight off the fear overwhelming her, to remain calm, snap Alex out of whatever trance she was in, calm her down.

“You aren’t here, Kara. You are dead.” Alex mumbled; her eyes unfocused.

“Alex! I’m not dead! You aren’t dead! We have to leave. I don’t want these memories! They aren’t ours! They can’t be!” Kara begged.

A flash of lighting hit the ground in front of the two, shaking the ground.

“It’s the only way.” Alex hollered over the howling wind, the blood rain continuing to fall around them. “I won’t lose you! There isn’t a choice! We never had a damn choice!”

A ring. A red ring that sent shivers through Kara’s body.

And Alex was reaching for it.

“Don’t touch it, Alex!” Kara pleaded with her sister.

Alex was beyond listening to her sister. She knew what she had to do. Kara would die without it. Alex wouldn’t let that happen. If Kara wouldn’t take it, then she would. She always did what was necessary to protect Kara, to protect her family.

“With blood and rage of crimson red…” Kara’s blood-soaked sister proclaimed loudly.

“Don’t! Don’t ever say that! Please!” Kara screamed, trying to get Alex’s attention.

“Ripped from a corpse so freshly dead…” the rivulets of blood were streaming from Alex down Kara’s arms as she wrapped them around her sister, trying to pull her away. For the first time in her life, Kara could not budge her. Her sister’s anger was as intense as Kara’s fear. Alex raised her arms, throwing Kara back.

“Together with our hellish hate, we will burn you all, that is your fate!” Alex declared.

“Stop!” Kara screamed, sheer panic driving her now.

“No!” Alex shouted. “Zor El can’t win! He took you from me! His monster killed you and I will kill that thing. It doesn’t matter what I am anymore! Don’t you see? This is the answer to everything! This is the power we need! No one can challenge us! Everyone who has ever hurt us will be destroyed!”

Alex’s eyes blazed in excitement as she looked at her sister in triumph. “Don’t you get it Kara? You’re dead! Alex is dead! What does it matter? We can set the Universe on fire, kill every Zor El we find on any planet! I can protect you… protect us! Why didn’t I see that? I never saw that.”

Her eyes were intensely focused, as she sighed heavily, shaking her head, once again resigned. “We never had a choice.” She finished her last statement so quietly Kara could barely hear her.

Alex reached for the ring and it flew onto her finger.

The world exploded around the two.

They were struck by red lighting, but instead of feeling pain, Kara stood still, taking in Alex. Her older sister had changed, a black bodysuit with red shoulders and boots, accompanied by a very black cape. A strange symbol was on her chest, one that caused Kara to scream. Alex’s eyes were red orbs of flame, fire rolling behind her smile, trying to leak out.

“This is what we are meant to do! Have you ever felt better in your life?! We are going to burn all our enemies!” Alex screamed, lost as the anger of both sisters rose to the surface.

Then the pain began, both girls dropping to the ground holding their heads as memories rushed them, memories that were not theirs. Their heads began to spin, lost in a world of images, scenes they were lost in. The two knew they had merged, they could not see each other but still felt the warring emotions, fear, love, so much hate, so much rage.

Voices bombarded the girls as they trembled under the onslaught of memories that were not theirs.

“ They killed my family!”

“ They killed my wife and daughters!”

“ The Guardians did this!”

“ I will not stop until the Guardians are slaughtered and Oa is burned from the Universe!”

“That’s not our memory. I don’t want it!” Alex heard Kara beg, but it came none the less.

“ Atrocitus. Look, they slaughtered his family, his people. The Manhunters, the Guardians, they did this! Do you see Kara?! Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Kara’s voice said, no longer sounding scared. “They have to all die. Bleez. She is so beautiful. What did they do? Why?”

They saw a beautiful winged woman, on her stomach, face down as her wings were ripped off as man after man, Sinestro’s Corps, attacked her. The girl had done nothing wrong. She was a princess out of their reach and that was all it took to encourage the yellow clad men to attack her.

Until the ring came to her.

Another ring, one of millions Alex had let loose in the Universe. She needed more followers, more power. The ones that answered the call meant another dead Green Lantern. Oa would be hers.

“They deserve to die.” Kara whispered, understanding, feeling the rage coursing through her as she watched the memories of every Red Lantern rushing her, every hurt, every anger they had ever felt was her anger now.

It was too much.

No human mind, no Kryptonian mind… no one could handle this madness.

Locked up. By the same bastards who destroyed his world. Him and four others. Atrocitus’s rage so great the power alone formed a battery, remembering rituals of blood magic he had been told of as a child. All he needed was blood to create the rings. The other four Inversions lives would be worth it. Their blood would give him the means of revenge.

Visions of planets being set ablaze. People bleeding, burning, as he chased Sinestro and his followers through the Universe. The two sisters felt themselves unleashing the ring, killing Abin Sur.

War, death, blood, never enough. The Guardians still live. It would never stop until they were gone.

Alex and Kara screamed when the blood entered their mouths, their body fully immersed under the lake of blood. It was dark, so dark and cold but soon it was gone. They were on Krypton, in Midvale, in National City, reliving the events of their lives, changing them, murdering, giving into the power.

Until they calmed. The blood soothed them; feeling returned to their body.

The two sisters were now separated, standing up in the lake of blood, taking in their surroundings. They looked at each other, blood slicking their hair, their faces resembling survivors of a horror movie.

“It hurts.” Alex admitted. “We are in hell.”

Kara took in the scene around her, feeling the power of the Red Lanterns who stared at her in awe. She looked over the landscape, understanding why Alex believed they were in hell. Because they were.

“What did we do?” Alex mumbled. “I want the Guardians, the Green Lanterns, I want to kill them.”

“I do too, but this isn’t us. It isn’t who we are.” Kara told her, moving closer and wrapping her arm around her sister.

“How did you resist? All I want is to go to Oa, I want to destroy them! I need to kill something! It hurts! How did you stop?” Alex asked, leaning into her sister, trying to draw on her strength.

Kara pointed towards the shore to a girl in a white pressure suit.

“Because you were waiting on the shore for me.” Kara told her. “I wouldn’t leave you, not again.”

“But you did.” Alex told her sadly, her voice breaking, her heart clenching in despair.

Suddenly, the two were on Mars, high above a pyramid, looking down on a massive gathering of White Martians.

The ring was on fire, their bodies on fire. With a yell, Alex let loose, releasing her ring onto the top of the pyramid, burning the priest and expanding her energy until the structure shown red and exploded.

On the ground, so much anger, so much power. It was intoxicating. It felt better than any alcohol, any drug she had ever taken. They killed everything, once more lost in a rage, she and Kara losing themselves and becoming something more powerful, unrecognizable.

Tall short, male, female, it didn’t matter, wave after wave of fire, energy surges, heat vision, they all burned. This was what Red Lanterns did.

A voice floated towards them, breaking through their single-minded compulsion to destroy. “Kara! Just wanted to let you know Alex will be waking up soon.” Gardner told them. “You don’t want to worry her, do you? Shouldn’t you be there when she wakes?”

“You.” Kara said, her awareness separating slightly from her sister’s. “Alex, you were always the key, the reason I didn’t burn the world, the reason I didn’t lose myself.”

“You wanted to help people. That was always in you.” Alex told her. “You wanted to save children, be the savior your father never was for you. You weren’t all anger, Kara. You were love too. But the love came with a high price, just like everything in our lives.”

Kara saw through Alex’s eyes, sitting in her lab in the Fortress, a large scan on the monitor of the Red Ring.

“Damn it!” she yelled, standing up and throwing her chair at the monitor. “I don’t understand this thing! It shouldn’t be possible! How the hell do I get it off of her, Kelex? Give me some damn answers because I don’t have any!”

“It will take time…” the AI tried.

“I don’t have time! She is going to lose herself. Every time she uses that damn thing, it’s like she is drinking again. She can’t hold it off forever!” Alex shouted, so frustrated and angry, Kelex literally ducked in an attempt at self-preservation behind the only standing monitor as she ranted. “The damn thing talks to her in her sleep! It’s alive but it isn’t! These damn Red Lanterns are watching her. They want to take her away, want her to be a God, lead them to some glorious revenge! All it would take is for one little thing to make her snap and she is gone! I feel like I am losing her! I don’t want Gardner anywhere around her, but Mom and Dad think letting her go to the damn moon to blow off steam with him is a good idea. They won’t listen to me! Why am I always doing this on my own?! Always!”

A man in an overcoat. A dead finger spinning.

The Inversions inside the ring, the source of the voices, the first source of rage, victims of Atrocitus and the Guardians. They fought, fought so hard and they won. They were on a level playing field, no powers but it didn’t matter.

“We always won.” Kara whispered. “Didn’t we?”

Alex shook her head. “Every time we won, we lost something. Then, we lost everything, because of Zor El. His monsters would never stop coming. They were our curse.”

Kara shook her head. “My curse.”

“Our curse.” Alex shook her head sadly. “He finally succeeded in splitting us apart. He finally won.”

Kara felt herself in a freefall. She had spent her whole life on Earth flying but this was different, this was out of control.

The wings on the gliding suit did their job but not well enough. Kara couldn’t slow down.

She had a black crystal in one hand. All she had to do was hold on and press the crystal to the glowing creature floating in the sky below her.

Somehow, despite the pain of the collision, despite feeling her upper body was crushed, she held on. One arm wrapped around the Worldkiller’s neck and the other pressing a crystal she had clung to with a death grip to the monster’s forehead. She felt the glowing creature die, as it dropped towards the ground and let go. The pain overtook her, and her only escape was darkness.

A hospital bed, Lobo was over her. “Promise… promise to help Kara.” she whispered.

“Go to sleep, Alex.” her large friend told her.

“Why did I need help? Kara asked.

Alex was suddenly beside her.

“Because of this.” the older sister told her, tears in her eyes.

Alex felt the fire pouring out of her mouth, the incredible feeling of letting go of the rage inside her as it manifested in an all-consuming blaze.

“You should have knelt when I gave you the chance.” she told the collection of ash where Reign had once stood.

Her eyes turned towards the sky, even in the daylight she could see the battle being waged in space above the planet.

A feeling of exhilaration, losing herself to her new addiction, glutting on the power inside her. The rush of flying through the ships, seeing the panicked faces of the Diasporans who knew they were dead.

Unleashing her rage on her enemy, incinerating everything. First the invaders, then the Green Lanterns, and then to Oa. It was perfect. She had never felt so certain in her life.

Then darkness covered her. She felt the slimy goo, covering her body, invading her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her ring had abandoned her. She was being killed in the worst manner imaginable.

Kara and Alex were alone and knew they were slipping into oblivion, not allowed to die physically but knowing they were disappearing into nothingness.

Alex was afraid, knowing what was coming. She understood what had happened but being here, being inside Kara’s mind, feeling her emotions, her hopelessness. Her despair.

The sadness Kara felt when she realized what she had to do. The agony.

“Don’t do this, please. Find another way.” Alex begged her, tears streaming now, her expression drawn in agony.

Kara’s face was once more one of resignation, tears pooling in her eyes. “There is no other way. I wish there was.”

A determination filled her; she saw Alura beckoning her home; Bruce, looking at her with despair behind his black cowl. She gave him a message for her sister. She asked him to tell Alex she was sorry, that she had no choice.

Both girls screamed when their world lit up in fire, their body burning to nothing, the ring destroyed, the pain of the Worldkiller dying inside of them as their body burned.

Yet Kara held on. “I’m not going to die, Alex. I won’t leave you.”

Kara focused on her brain, her eyes nearly burned to nothing and she did it. Somehow she opened herself up to the sun, absorbing the radiation, her brain and spine still in one piece while the rest of her was gone. The feeling was one of extreme pain and extreme ecstasy. She would live, somehow she would escape. She would get back to Alex.

Alex was sitting in the Fortress, a gun in her hand, firing at the wall, bullet after bullet, having no effect on the crystal walls. It didn’t matter. The girl just needed a release. She was frustrated, her anger building. Anger at Kara, anger at the so-called Justice League, anger at her parents because they should have been here helping her!

“Kelex.” she looked at her friend, setting down her gun, sweat glistening on her forehead. “How can we get a Rann Transporter into the sun, strong enough to survive the heat and pull her out? We need to think of a metal! A combination of metals, something! Maybe a crystal, what about a Phantom Zone projector? I can go into the Phantom Zone and get her. We just have to make sure the damn thing can bring us back to the time we leave.”

Despite Alex’s agitation, Kelex calmly replied. “The search could take years. I have Justin going over every possibility. Until I can figure this out, you need to rest. You had surgery a week ago. You should not be firing a weapon.”

Alex didn’t want to rest nor did she want his advice on her health. “Shut the hell up and tell me how we can get her out. The longer she is in there…”

“Quiet, Alex!” Kelex snapped, surprising the woman and stopping her rant. He continued in a softer tone. “I apologize but that seemed like the best way to get your attention. It is likely Kara sustained massive damage to her body when she entered the sun. The Red ring is gone according to Gardner, so she must have had complete blood loss. What is left of her will need time to regenerate. Even if we had a way to pull her out, doing so too soon may be fatal. Unless her body is whole we cannot retrieve her. We have to know her state before anything else. That means we have to deduce a way to place a drone or find something that can see into the core of the sun. Something like this has never existed to my knowledge. This means we have to make it ourselves. It could take years and we have to accept that.”

Alex shook her head. “We don’t have years. I want her back now! I need her! Think Kelex! Quantum physics, drones, solar power, Phantom Zone projectors, Rann transporters, that was always Kara’s thing. I followed her lead and she relied on me for more biological issues. There has to be another way! We are missing something. What are we missing?”

Kelex hesitated then answered. “Barry Allen.”

“What about him?” Alex asked perplexed.

“I suggest we examine Kara’s time in the Block, beginning after withdrawals, perhaps when she began making progress in therapy. We formulate a plan, cover every possible change to the timeline that could occur and determine an appropriate time to have Barry Allen travel back in time and warn you of what is coming. Knowing the information of the past year beforehand would allow us to change the course of events and alter reality. We could save Kara before she ever comes into danger.”

Alex sat speechless for a moment. “You’re a damn genius.”

“Of course I am.” Kelex agreed. “We would have to convince him to do it. He has disappeared since Kara went into the sun.”

Alex nodded. “Because he thinks she is dead. He is like Dick Grayson. Obsessed with her. The man told me he has every magazine Kara has ever been on the cover of in the six years they were apart.”

She began pacing as a plan formulated in her mind. “He was wrecked when she dumped him. It would be easy to talk him into it. He would do anything to have her. I can tell him I will help him, get her to take him back, tell him how happy they could be if she had never taken the ring. She would never have broken up with him.”

She stopped and turned abruptly. “Find him and have Justin start going over scenarios.”

“What if we do this and she does not take him back or separates from him regardless?” Kelex asked.

“Who gives a damn!” Alex shouted. “I just have to convince him she will, that’s all it will take. He would do anything for her. She could lead him around by a collar if she wanted. Barry won’t turn down that chance. Find him now, I don’t care what resources we have to use but do not let Bruce find out! Block Brother Eye from our scans.”

Kara placed her hand on Alex’s shoulder. “I get it. You were desperate. Changing the timeline though…”

Alex turned towards her sister. “He saw you. For all the talk about time travel being dangerous, Barry risked traveling back in time and saw you and still refused to change a damn thing. He said goodbye. So, just… don’t Kara. I remote destroyed his suit when I returned. I thought of killing him but had better targets in mind.”

Kara found herself in their house, Alex on the floor, doing sit ups. Kara could feel the pain, the stinging sensations from the recently removes stiches, the ache in her abdomen, her still bruised chest.

The doorbell rang.

Alex got up slowly, her muscles sore. She knew her parents were at work and Clark was at school. Taking a gun from the desk, she hid it behind her back and opened the door.

Nyssa al Ghul and Sara Lance were in the doorway.

“I have been where you are.” Nyssa told her without preamble.

“I doubt it.” Alex replied.

Nyssa nodded, not disagreeing, knowing their two situations may have been similar but still very different. “You want to destroy the world, don’t you?”

Alex said nothing.

“Cadmus, correct?” Nyssa pressed her.

Alex gave a slight nod. “For starters…”

“How long until the doctors believe you can fully recover from your injuries?” the former assassin asked.

“Ten weeks before I can start exercising again.” Alex said, wondering why Nyssa wanted to know.

Nyssa looked at Sara then back to Alex. “You told me once that Kara needed a hospital not some herbal cure and meditation. You were right. Now however, the doctors have had their chance with you. If you do what I tell you too, eat what I feed you, sleep when I tell you, do no more or less than I instruct, I can have you battle ready in four weeks. The choice is yours.”

“Why do you care?” Alex asked suspiciously.

Nyssa was silent for a moment, the sorrow in her eyes evident, but her sincerity was as well. “Kara helped me get through my grief, helped me get my revenge. I owe her for that. I know you will never know peace until you release what is inside you. Yes or no, do you accept my offer?”

Alex looked over Nyssa’s shoulder. “You two together now?”

Both women looked at each other and nodded towards Alex.

She relaxed slightly, a slight twinge of hope peeking through the devastation. “You can sleep together in the guest room. I don’t want Kara’s room touched until she gets back.”