417. Chapter 417

His voice, his face, when he asks if Maggie’s safe.

She loves him.

God, she loves her little brother.

But his voice, his face – his concern for the woman he’s only just getting to know, but the woman she loves, god, she loves her so much – can only comfort her so much.

And only for so long.

Because the Daxamites are suddenly shooting through her safe place.

Her home when she didn’t know she could have one of her own.

And even as she shoots, even as she talks to Kara, even as her body moves, even as her brain plans, Maggie’s voice is ringing in her ears.

The lilt of panic in the sound of her last name, her first name.

The hint of my god weren’t we just here a week ago, can’t we have a break, can’t we have our life, can’t we have each other and our firsts please be safe god please, please be safe in the sound of her telling her that the Daxamite ships are everywhere.

That nowhere is safe.

That nowhere may be safe ever again.

She sees red and she only gets relief from the free fall, from the trust in her sister, and the free fall feels good, feels like a balm, because god, god, god, Maggie probably isn’t even wearing kevlar, and god, god, god, she will make every last one of them suffer an eternity of pain if a desperate “Danvers, I – “ are the last words Alex will ever hear from the woman she loves.

And Maggie?

Maggie can’t do this. Not again, not again.

Can’t keep the panic out of her voice, because this is apocalypse and this is maliciously engineered hell.

Laptop signals going static and shorting out on Alex’s promise, on Alex’s I love you.

Phone signals going static and shorting out on Maggie’s shouting of Alex’s last name, Maggie’s trying to tell her, trying to make sure she knows, that she’s going to fight to get to her, but god, if she can’t, Alex was the best thing that ever happened to her.

Her phone goes dead when he shoots it out of her hands, and she’s out of ammo, so she uses the gun like a sword, uses it like she’s seen Alex use a pool stick, and she sees nothing but red because the goddamn world just made her do this.

Just made her nearly lose Alex.

And she won’t lose her again.

She fights to get to her, and she wins, because god, for Alex Danvers?

She’ll win every time.