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?"
"Right. OK, let's bring her in." He toggles the phone back on and speaks gently to Kara. "Miss Danvers, sorry to keep you waiting. Your sister has indeed been hurt, but not badly. I'm sure she'll be happy to have you there when the doctor is done seeing to her. If you tell me where you are, I'll get someone to pick you up... CatCo towers, OK, in ten minutes ... yes, the parking garage is fine. ... Thank you for calling."
J'onn turns to Winn again. "Agent Schott, take a civilian car, pick up miss Danvers, you'll get directions en route. Agent Vasquez, prepare to evac agent Danvers, I want her in medical in 10 minutes. Agent Donovan, get a med-evac running for agent Danvers ASAP." Winn was waving his hand to get attention, not very successfully. "Yes, agent Schott?"
"Why me? I'm not even a good driver."
"No, but you know Kara Danvers better than anyone else here, and she knows and trusts you. So you pick her up, act friendly, and notice everything out of the ordinary. I want a full report when you're back. Now GO!"
Winn doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary for a completely flustered and scared Kara. She doesn't stop talking for one moment, and all he can do is to concentrate on driving and repeating that Alex will be fine.
Kara paces while waiting for the doctor to let her in. When Dr. Hamilton opens the door and starts speaking, she's past her by "You can ...", running into the room where Alex is lying, and she throws herself at the bed. "Whoa, easy sis. I'll be fine!"
"What happened? Oh, Alex, I just felt like I was about to lose you!"
"It was just somebody resisting arrest. I got cut and lost some blood, and I will need stitches when they remove the bandage, but it's not that bad."
"Well, it felt bad to me!" It does calm down Kara to see Alex being so clear and calm. She'd feared that Alex would be unconscious, broken and bleeding, and she didn't know how she would have reacted to that.
Alex spots Winn through the door. "I'll be fine. Go keep Winn company while I get stitched up, for some reason they won't let me do it myself, even though I'm better at it than everybody else here."
"Sure you are." Dr. Hamilton is back. "But she's right, I won't let her do it herself, so I'll be taking over again."
Kara starts to move away, slowly, keeping Alex's hand in hers until their arms become too short. "Be safe, Alex!"
In the waiting room, Kara finally feels the last of the panic leave her, and she promptly breaks down crying. "I really ... felt like ... I lost her!"
Winn tries his best to console her.
A magical spell is a complex entity. In some ways, it is as if it is alive and aware. It has one job, to make the world the way its creator wanted it. To enforce the will of the sorceress onto the world.
It made Kara be a physically normal, average human and not Supergirl, which wasn't easy at all. And it requires something to keep that up.
If Circe had still been around, the power of her will would be enough to sustain the spell as long as she wanted. But she's long gone to search other worlds for her enemy.
If everybody believed the spell to be the truth, it would eventually become the truth, empowered by those beliefs. But Kara is always surrounded by people who disbelieves the spell and wants it to fail.
It's only anchor, it's only source of power, is really Kara's own wish to be normal. And Circe is very good at weaving spells, so that could have been enough, if only Kara would have accepted a world without Supergirl. But she couldn't, it just felt too wrong, and wrong is exactly the opposite of what the spell needs.
So it had to compromise, something had to give. Now Kara is still normal and not Supergirl, but to avoid Kara fighting against the spell, it had to make Supergirl exist anyway. One could argue that it's not technically against its core purpose, but "technically" doesn't matter. It did compromise on the one thing it exists to do, and it is fraying at the edges because of that.
To the spell, the real Kara-and-Supergirl still exists. That is what it draws on to create the Kara and the Supergirl. If it had been really successful, the Kara would have taken over and the Kara-and-Supergirl would be forgotten. So today, it drew on Kara-and-Supergirl to create and guide the Supergirl. Only, at the end, something failed – it couldn't keep the Kara and the Supergirl separate. When it comes to worrying about Alex Danvers, there is no difference between Kara and Supergirl. The spell failed, again. It is no longer just fraying, it's unraveling. Still, it soldiers on, it has no other reason to exist than to ensure that Kara Danvers is human and not Supergirl.
That evening, Alex is released under the condition that someone keeps her under constant observation. Alex had made sure Maggie was there to volunteer, and to drive them all home to Alex's apartment. J'onn had been by earlier to show the videos to Alex, and they decided to take a chance, crossing their fingers that this development was a good sign. Maggie puts down the folder they had prepared.
"Thanks for the ride, Maggie. I'll leave you two to be alone." Kara begins to leave again, but Alex stops her.
"Please stay, Kara, there's something I'd like to show you."
"Oh, what?"
"Come sit here, I'll tell you something about Supergirl."
"Oooh, cool!"
And Alex shows pictures of Supergirl in action, of Supergirl's pod, of herself and Supergirl – from DEO security cameras – and tells Kara about Supergirl's origin.
"I know she's from Krypton, just like Superman." Kara objects.
"Sure, but do you know her parent's names?"
"No."
"They were Zor-El and Alura, of the house of El. Zor-El was the brother of Jor-El, father of Kal-El, who is Superman."
"You're messing with me." Kara looks cross. "Alura is my mother's name! That's not funny!"
"I'm not trying to be funny, here, I have a recording of Supergirl saying these things."
Alex pulls up a laptop and starts a video. It was from when Supergirl was officially accepted as part of the DEO, a standard security clearance interview. Supergirl is looking into the camera while speaking. "I am Kara Zor-El, daughter of Zor-El and Alura In-Ze. I was born in the city of Argo on Krypton. I am 24 earth years old and of sound mind." Alex stops the video.
"That's ... not funny! Why are you doing this? Why is Supergirl mocking me too? I am Kara Sorell from Argo, not her!"
Alex puts a hand on Kara's shoulder and looks at her. "I'm not mocking you, Kara, neither is Supergirl. This recording is more than a year old. I'm showing you this because you are Supergirl, Kara, you have just forgotten it. Look at her, how she looks. She looks exactly like you. Same face, same earrings, even the same voice."
"THAT'S NOT TRUE! I don't look anything like her." Kara could see similarities, like being blonde, but that's not how she sees herself at all. OK, the earrings maybe. And the eyebrows, but still.
Alex keeps speaking in a gentle, loving voice. "Please remember, Kara. We all love you, and we want you to remember who you really are."
"But I am Kara, not Supergirl. I like being Kara! I don't want to be super like you. Stop being so mean!" She is standing up now, and she pushes Alex away and runs, throwing open the door on the way.
"You let her go?" Alex looks at Maggie.
Maggie nods. "I don't think pushing her more would do any good right now, she has to process it herself, and that either works or it doesn't. Or maybe Lena can get through to her."
"Lena?"
"Be a detective, Danvers. Her sister and best friend has just been mean to her for no apparent reason, where will she go?"
"... to her next-best friend, Lena Luthor?"
"Right in one." Maggie smiles. "Or maybe to her mother, but Lena is closer."
"But, she'll tell Lena Luthor that I think she's Supergirl. Did you know this would happen?"
"It was on a short list of possible outcomes."
"Aren't you worried? She's Lena Luthor!"
Maggie puts her arms around Alex. "I guess we'll just have to trust Kara's judgment. And it was inevitable, anyway."
"What was?"
"Lena finding out. She's been hanging out with Kara for months. She's a certified genius. Either Kara never gets her powers back, and then it doesn't matter, or she does, and then there is absolutely no chance Lena won't find out, most likely because Kara will tell her. And that's if she doesn't know already."
"Are you always this smart, Sawyer?"
"Yep, that's why you love me."