608. Chapter 608

She’s so immersed in trying to save her sister that she doesn’t stop to remember that she doesn’t have her own protection from Psi’s particular brand of torture.

She’s so immersed in trying to save her sister that she doesn’t realize that it’s all Psi’s doing when suddenly Jeremiah is in front of her again.

In front of her, and terribly out of reach.

In front of her, but never so far away, because his body is mechanical where it’s not splayed open. His eyes are distant, cold. Gone.

As he does the same thing to J’onn, no anesthetic, no compassion, that’s been done to him.

“Everything I’ve done, it’s been for you, Alex,” he tells her, looking her straight in the eyes as he searches for the neurological mechanism behind J’onn’s telepathy.

She screams, and it will never be loud enough.

She fights, but it will never be hard enough.

Because Kara is protecting Jeremiah, protecting his torture. Her eyes are dark and her suit is darker, entirely black.

Red K floods through her eyes, except somehow, Alex knows it’s not really Red K.

It’s just Kara.

Just Kara and her resentments toward Alex.

They’ve never been sisters.

They never will be sisters.

Kara fights her, and she doesn’t fight back.

She feels her body splitting open, and she doesn’t fight back.

Until Kara’s deadened gaze turns to Maggie.

And then Alex’s soul is being torn apart, and her mother’s voice isn’t just in her ears, it’s in her head.

What a disappointment she is, that she couldn’t save her father. J’onn. That Kara is suffering so much. That she’s fighting with Maggie, that Maggie will leave, that she’ll sabotage it, unless… unless Kara…

Alex screams again, because screaming is the only way she can breathe, because tearing her throat open is the only way she can fill up her lungs.

Her lungs, her lungs, burning, burning, because she’s never going to see Kara again; Maggie will never know she loves her; Eliza will never be proud of her; J’onn will lose yet another daughter.

And it will all be her fault. All of it.

“Hold on,” a voice reaches her, and it reminds her of being in the tank, but it also reminds her of being home.

“We’ve got you, babe,” the voice repeats, and another, even more familiar, follows it immediately.

“I love you, Alex. You’re safe. You’re gonna be okay. I got you.”

“Kara,” she chokes, and the hands on her aren’t something to fight anymore.

She has no one to protect anymore.

Only herself.

Only her own heart, which feels like it might explode at any moment.

Only her own throat, which is so tight it feels like she’ll never be able to speak again.

“I got you,” Kara says again, and she feels familiar lips kiss her forehead.

“Maggie,” she chokes this time.

“I love you,” Maggie whispers, rocking her slightly, and Alex melts into her body, into Kara’s.

“She’s gone,” Kara tells her. “You’re safe. You’re safe, I promise.”

“J’onn’s okay?” Alex needs to know, and if Maggie and Kara exchange a concerned glance, they don’t let Alex see.

“Of course he is, he’s back at the DEO. We can patch him into the comms if you want,” Maggie tells her, and Kara nods affirmatively.

“Don’t let me go,” she asks them both.

And the way they hold her, she knows they never will.