Work Text
Alex was drowning. Again.She opened her mouth and took a breath and droplets of water got lodged in her throat, inviting a stinging sensation Alex didn’t want to get used to. Her hand reached out and touched something cold even though the water was warm all around her.It licked at her skin, trailing down her arms and her legs and making her hair stick to her forehead. It was dark; she was afraid to open her eyes. She was afraid she’d see the black expanse of the lake, the clouds of dirt around her.She couldn’t move. Everything was still and all she could hear was the rush of water past her ears, sneaking into the crevices on her skin, in between her hair.She swore she could feel that rope rubbing against her wrists, her ankles. Keeping her still, keeping her down here at fifteen, maybe twenty, feet under.Breathe.She did, but not before her body reacted and her head tilted down so that the drips missed her mouth and air—pure air—filled her lungs. And at the same moment, like clockwork, she felt the ghost of a touch on her forearm, jolting her out of her headspace.Alex’s eyes snapped open, and she saw white.The white cement wall hidden behind a blur was rough beneath her fingers, which gained feeling again. Alex blinked and rubbed her other hand over her forehead and through her hair, almost hitting the showerhead above her.She took another breath and seemed to be in a trance as she reached for the shampoo and massaged it into her scalp.She didn’t know how long she’d been in here this time, but they’d probably be getting worried soon. If she didn’t hurry and get to the meeting, then they might think something was wrong. Or shut off the water, which would be embarrassing considering she’d have to come out with only half her hair washed.Alex kind of wished she was in the Capitol right now—as horrible as that sounded. Just because she remembered having the luxury of taking two showers there before the Games; she had turned on all the jets—of which there were four—and scrubbed every inch of her skin clean of all the dirt and grim she’d built up from living in District 12 for eighteen years.Before, she’d looked forward to a shower. When her mother could turn on their faucet and hot water came out about once a week, she’d rush through the kitchen and use as much of it as she’d wanted.Then, she turned eight or so and finally understood how much her parents sacrificed for her, so she’d use less to let them have more. And when Kara came into their lives four years later, suddenly nothing was as important as making sure that Kara had more than she did.They had rations here for everything in 13, which was understandable considering every trip to the outside for supplies was perilous.Especially now that everything was going to shit.The Capitol had taken control of Districts 1 and 2, to nobody’s surprise, but they were close to getting 3 now, too. Some DEO agents had been taken by the Capitol soldiers, and Alex shuddered to think what would become of them. An entire one of the DEO’s resistance groups had gotten caught the other day but, luckily, didn’t make it to the Capitol alive.And Alex wondered when being dead had become more desirable than its counterpart.Alex reminded herself that the people she cared about, the people she loved, were safe. (But for how long?) All she could do was protect them, no matter what, except that that wasn’t enough.She wanted to protect all the children that were caught up in this war, all the families that had barely made it out of their Districts alive. Sometimes she was convinced that they were making it worse.The image they projected of her on every last working screen in Panem showed her saying speeches she’d read off the cue cards. She did believe what she was saying and tried to trust that all of this would work, if only things would move forward faster. She was getting tired of following everyone’s instructions.Go to this meeting, wear that, stand in front of this camera, and, no, look into that one.She had to remind herself that she’d agreed to this. This was only the beginning. It would all amount to something, and Alex just wished she knew what that something was. She knew what she wanted that something to be.She could picture it pretty clearly, what Panem might look like a year from now, five years.But since that picture included a lot of seemingly impossible things, she kept her dreams to herself. Just in case. If she didn’t get her hopes up, then they couldn’t come crashing down.For now, all she could do was attend the meetings, make the videos, and very soon have a chance to venture outside of 13.She was going a bit stir crazy in here. Not seeing the sun, feeling like she was breathing recycled air every minute of every day, and having a routine was started to get to her.But she was lucky. She had a roof over her head, and all the people she loved around her.Speaking of which…Alex hurried to rinse her hair, dry off, and rummage through her one box of clothing to pick out what to wear for the day. It would be better if she was early and waiting outside so they could talk before the meeting. Especially because President Grant was coming to this one and they had to be inside before she got there.As Alex secured her father’s watch around her wrist, her eyes flicked over the note Kara had left on her bed this morning. It had been vague—it only said that she’d gone and would see her later—which was weird, so Alex made a mental note to find her as soon as possible after this was over. She would go now and ditch the meeting, but she wasn’t that worried. (Yet.)It wasn’t like there was any way Kara could leave 13. Plus, she was a big girl. And she’d lived here half her life; she knew this place much better than Alex did.She was probably with Mom and Dad, helping with Dad’s exercises. Jeremiah was slowly getting better—he’d recognized all of them as his family six weeks ago, but the doctors still wouldn’t let him be alone 24/7. Or Kara was with Clark because he was going on more DEO assignments and she always tried to see him off. Except Alex couldn’t help but think that if she was doing either of those things, then why wouldn’t she just say so?Two little girls tried not to stare at Alex as she fast-walked down the corridor, and Alex put on a smile and gave them a wave. It was weird, having all the young kids in awe of her. She didn’t think she had really done anything to be someone to gawk at.After she swiped her I.D. card to get through the three DEO ACCESS ONLY doors and reached the conference room, she leaned against the wall and waited. There was no one in the room which was good; they would have more than a minute alone.The PSA system turned on, and Alex listened. Not that she had a choice, really.“Attention citizens of 13…this is a reminder of the emergency protocols. The weekly lockdown drill will commence tomorrow at o-nine-hundred hours. The alarm for the drill will consist of two short blasts followed by one long blast. All persons will report to the lower holding blocks according to their assigned groups. If there is a real emergency, you will be informed by the alarm emitting five short blasts in succession. All persons will then follow the outlined emergency procedures unless instructed otherwise. Please stay safe and report any suspicious activity. Thank you.”Alex glanced at the alarms she could see at the corners of the corridor. That was the same announcement they made before every lockdown drill; Alex probably could’ve recited it from memory. The DEO had tried to give Alex and Maggie their own reinforced holding blocks down below, but the two of them had insisted that they be with everyone else. Partly because it didn’t feel fair, but also because Alex wasn’t going to leave her family—and particularly Kara—alone without her, especially if it was a real emergency.Luckily, Alex didn’t have to wait much longer. And this time, she didn’t have to force the smile that tugged at her lips as she saw the person she’d been waiting for at the end of the hall.Maggie had Winn by her side as they walked towards her, the latter talking animatedly with his hands. It was probably about some new tech thing they were doing down below. It always was.Maggie noticed her and, despite everything Alex knew they were both going through right now, smiled right back at her. A quizzical expression also flashed on her face, but Winn quickly diverted her attention back to him.“…the energy is released in these huge quantities and then it goes boom! The explosion is like, off the charts. It’s so cool, Maggie—”“Uh huh. Very cool,” Maggie said offhandedly, glancing at Alex as they got closer. She held up a finger to Winn. “Give me one second.”Alex still, after three months of knowing her and being with her, got a good feeling in her stomach whenever Maggie was around. And especially when she touched her—even just her hand, as she did now. That…that was what saved her, every time.She should tell Maggie about whatever was happening when she took showers. But Maggie was too stressed right now for Alex to bother her about her own problems.She made herself push it aside for now to lean down slightly as Maggie stood up on her toes to plant a lingering kiss on her lips, and she squeezed Maggie’s hand.“Hi,” Maggie said softly when she pulled back.“Hey,” Alex replied.And she didn’t have a chance to add anything else because someone chose that moment to loudly clear their throat right beside her. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.“Do you guys have to do that every time you see each other as if I’m not two feet away?”Alex stared Winn down. “Yes,” she said matter-of-factly, just to annoy him, as she maneuvered Maggie’s arm around her waist. Maggie squeezed her hip.Winn scoffed. “They should have a rule about P.D.A. around here.”“Well, they don’t, so…deal with it.”“You know what? Kara and I are gonna start a petition, that would probably work.”“Oh, my god, Winn—”“Guys,” Maggie said a little sternly, but Alex could tell she was amused. Both of them shut up, and she continued. “Just finish your story, Winn.”It was as if the last thirty seconds hadn’t happened as Winn launched right back into his fascinating tale. “So, anyway, this device’s explosion radius is bigger than they predicted, which is good but also bad ‘cause now they have to redo all the calculations. But it’s almost done and should be ready to use on the next mission. Or, if not, the one after. It won’t have my name on it—I didn’t really work on this one, but Beetee lets me watch.”“It sounds like they’re making a lot of progress.”“Oh yeah. They also have the blueprints for this one idea to set off a group of bombs, but I’m not supposed to know about that.” Winn grimaced. “Or tell you guys about it, I’m guessing.”Alex narrowed her eyes. “How do you know about it?”“I, uh…may have snuck in after hours when I couldn’t sleep and saw a piece of paper sticking out of a drawer?”Alex should probably have focused on the fact that Winn was sneaking around when he shouldn’t have been, but she was more worried about the other part. “Why haven’t you been sleeping?”At that question, Winn scratched at his head. “I don’t know. Sometimes it’s hard to sleep. It’s so silent in our room.”“Have you told J’onn about this?”“No. He’s…it’s fine. I’ll get tired enough to sleep through the night. Besides, I have a lot more time during the day to do stuff ‘cause I wake up early.”Alex and Maggie glanced at each other. She was definitely going to tell J’onn about Winn’s sleeping habits, or lack thereof, as soon as possible. He would help. Alex mouthed, “I’ll handle it,” to Maggie and got an imperceptible nod in return.“Well,” Maggie turned back to Winn, “if you’re ever up at a weird hour you can come to my room. There’s space to sleep on the floor if you bring a blanket.”That made Winn happy. “Okay, thanks. We should probably go grab the good seats before everyone gets here.” He started to move towards the door and Maggie made to follow him, but Alex kept her grip on her hand.“You go ahead, Winn. I need to talk to Maggie for a minute.”“Oh, sure. But don’t blame me if you get the crappy chairs.” Winn had a bounce in his step as he went in, and Alex knew it was because this was only the third meeting he had been invited to. Since he’d gotten more involved with a few of the tech projects, Beetee started bringing him along.Alex watched Winn make a beeline for the one Alex guessed was his favorite. He started pulling sheets of paper out of his pockets as if he’d made notes for the meeting, and Alex couldn’t help a grin at his enthusiasm.“So, you’re here early,” Maggie said, the curious look on her face again.Alex moved them away from the window. “Yeah, I…wanted to talk to you. Before we go in there.”Maggie tilted her head. “Okay. What’s up?”“Well, I was actually wondering what was up with you. If you were okay?” Alex asked, trying to approach this carefully. Maggie’s confusion deepened. “During the last couple meetings, you seemed nervous. About the trip to District 4.”The trip kept getting postponed since it had been brought up a while ago. But now it was only a week away, which was not helping to ease the worries Alex knew Maggie had.Maggie stiffened and crossed her arms over her chest. “I told you, I’m fine.”“I know you told me that, but are you really? It’s okay if you’re not,” Alex reassured her.“I am. I—I will be.”“You don’t have to go—”“No. I’m going. They’ve already got everything figured out. Plus, there’s no way you’re travelling anywhere outside of here without me,” Maggie said, and Alex knew not to argue with that tone. “And besides, we probably won’t even see them.”“The families?” Alex ventured, and Maggie nodded after a moment. Alex stepped closer to her which made her look back up from the ground. Her eyes were glistening, and Alex’s own chest ached. “Maggie, we were in the arena. They’ll know you had no choice.”“Does that matter? I still killed both of those kids,” Maggie whispered. “Veronica and Anthony,” she said, as if she was making sure she didn’t ever forget.“That was his name?” Alex asked, realizing she didn’t even know the boy’s name. All she got was a nod.Alex really wished they were going anywhere other than District 4. Or, where District 4 used to be. The Capitol had bombed almost every District, and 4 had gotten hit pretty hard. But there was a large resistance group there and the DEO needed their intel and numbers for a mission. They were their best way forward, right now.Instead of brushing it off like she usually did, Maggie continued, her voice a little shaky, “I can’t imagine…seeing their families. Facing them.”“You don’t have to,” Alex repeated. “But that would be like running away from what I did. I don’t want to ignore or avoid what happened. It happened. And I have to deal with it.” The way Maggie said it made Alex think she was talking more to herself.Alex swallowed. It was at times like this that she remembered how strong Maggie was, how tough she had had to be her entire life. It just made Alex admire her more.“If we see them, and I think you’re right that we most likely won’t even run into them, but if we do…I’ll be there, right by your side. I promise. You don’t have to do this alone,” Alex reminded her. She rubbed her thumb over Maggie’s knuckles.A flicker of a smile appeared as Maggie released some of the tension in her shoulders. She inched forward into Alex’s space, and Alex wrapped her arms around Maggie’s lower back. And Maggie’s gaze made Alex catch her breath; she couldn’t really believe that someone as amazing as Maggie would look at her like that. Or kiss her like she never wanted to kiss anyone else. Alex sighed against her lips. After a long moment, Maggie pressed her forehead to Alex’s and whispered, “Thank you.”Those two words and the sincerity with which she said them let Alex know that telling Maggie she’d be with her the whole time meant more than Alex thought it would. So, Alex decided right then and there that she’d do everything to help Maggie through this.Even if right now all she could do was try and distract her.“Anytime,” Alex told her. Maggie slowly put her heels back on the floor. “Let me know if you’re feeling overwhelmed during this,” Alex went on, pointing to the meeting room that was slowly starting to fill up. “I can make up a pretty good excuse to get us out of there. And they have to listen to me, I’m the Mockingjay.” Alex winked as she found Maggie’s hand again and reluctantly stepped back, starting towards the door. Maggie rolled her eyes and, thankfully, relaxed a bit more at the change in subject. “I think your ego is getting a bit out of control.”“What? Pfft, no.” Alex stopped in her tracks. “Unless…is it not normal to have a shrine of yourself in your own room?”Maggie bumped her shoulder. “You’re a dork. C’mon, you’re gonna make us late. Which would be extra embarrassing for you considering you were actually early for the first time in your life.”“Excuse me? This is not the first time,” Alex grumbled. She always got there before President Grant, and that was what mattered. But Maggie raised her eyebrows, and Alex caved. “Okay, fine. It’s the second.”Maggie let out a laugh that seemed to light up her whole face. There she is, Alex thought. This was the happy Maggie she knew, the one she wanted to see all the time. She knew that wasn’t possible, but every time she got to witness this side of Maggie made her grateful that she had some part in bringing it out of her. Especially after everything they’d gone through.The low chatter in the conference room was building as too many people piled around the long table. Somehow, they made them all fit.Alex caught J’onn’s eye and waved him over to sit next to her. She tapped Maggie’s wrist to remind her to make sure that Winn was distracted and then leaned over to J’onn.“Good morning,” J’onn said as he sat down.“Morning.”J’onn’s gaze wandered. “Ah, I see that Winn got the good chair. I should make my way to him, unless…” he scrutinized Alex. “Is there a reason you called me over?”How did he always know? Alex wondered. It was borderline creepy. Which made her even more sure that giving him a nudge would help him to realize and fix whatever was up with Winn. If he could learn to read Winn as well as he read Alex, then Winn wouldn’t be able to hide stuff like this anymore.“Yeah, actually. Winn told me that he isn’t sleeping well.” Alex kept her voice low.J’onn’s brow furrowed. “He did? He hasn’t mentioned that to me.”Alex shrugged. “Well, he doesn’t like to bother people. About personal, important stuff,” Alex clarified. “God knows he bothers me a lot, but not about stuff like this.”J’onn leaned back in his chair in thought. “Didn’t Maggie check up on him a while ago? Around the time we got Jeremiah back? She told me he wasn’t having nightmares like you two were.”Were. That wasn’t entirely accurate, although it was slightly better now; they were definitely less frequent.“Yeah, she did. But now…I have no idea if it’s nightmares, or if he’s not comfortable here, or if he’s nervous about something. You should ask him.”“Is that a good idea? Won’t he be upset? There must be a reason he is not telling me.” J’onn seemed almost sad, or disappointed. Not in Winn, but in himself. “J’onn, he loves you. He does. It’s just hard for him. I imagine he’s not used to having a father or any kind of parental figure around to tell things like this to. You need to let him know it’s okay to come to you. No matter how unimportant he thinks it is.”J’onn had a twinkle in his eye as he focused on her. “When did you become so wise?” he asked, the closest Alex had seen to a smirk on his face.Alex felt a surge of pride. “I learned from the best.”J’onn grunted, but Alex could tell that he was pleased with her answer. “Perhaps M’gann will be able to help, too, if he is uncomfortable talking to me.”“Yeah,” Alex agreed. She was so glad that J’onn had M’gann; he seemed to love her a lot. Not that he would ever tell Alex that directly, but Alex knew. “Where is she, anyway?”“She has a special project that she has been working almost non-stop on. I believe it is for you.”Alex turned to him. “Me?”J’onn nodded. “It sounds like a new costume they want you to wear, but I am not entirely certain. We will have to see.” Before Alex could ask any more questions, he patted her shoulder and stood up. “I believe the President will be here shortly. I should go take my regular spot.”Alex would have to corner him or M’gann later and find out what this new outfit they were making for her was all about. Hopefully it wasn’t another flaming one.Alex had a moment to herself, so she surveyed the room.She only recognized some of the senior agents who were in attendance. If Alex had to guess, she’d say they were all in their 20’s and 30’s. James was sitting across the long rectangular table from her, and she waved to him through the chaos when she spotted him. He always had a soft smile on his face and his camera slung around his neck.And all Alex could think when she saw him at these meetings was that he was way too young to be here.She supposed that technically Winn was younger than him, but Winn would be staying in 13 on the tech team while James did actual dangerous work in the field, in the line of fire.And then, suddenly, Winn wasn’t the youngest person in the room anymore.The woman they were all waiting for stepped into the room with someone by her side, and everyone stopped their chatter.President Cat Grant was a tiny woman with a tiny build, but she still commanded the attention of every person in any space she entered. It was probably the combination of her high heels, power suits, and the way she walked that screamed, ‘Get out of my way because I’m certainly not going to go around you.’ Alex had only been in her presence and talked with her a few times, but she frequently found herself envious of her natural ability to get people to respect—and somewhat fear—her. But President Grant wasn’t what made Alex freeze in her seat. It was the person she’d brought along with her.“Kara?” Alex said breathlessly in between the murmurs of confusion spreading throughout the room. She felt Maggie touch her arm as she noticed her, too.Kara caught Alex’s eye immediately and a nervous smile flicked across her features. Alex could see worry reflected there as well.What was happening? Why was she here?Kara had never even been to a single meeting—the closest she’d gotten was when she’d ran into the room for two seconds to tell Alex that Jeremiah was asking for her—let alone met the President. She shouldn’t be here. It was like Alex’s two worlds were colliding; Kara wasn’t supposed to be involved in DEO stuff.And what the hell did President Grant want with her anyway?Kara looked like she wanted to say something, to explain. J’onn was just as bewildered as Alex about this whole situation, which did not make Alex feel any better. She almost demanded to know what was going on but, as always, President Grant had her own agenda.Ignoring all the eyes on her, she marched towards the head of the table and dropped her thick folder onto it. It made a loud enough sound that everyone went silent. Kara hesitantly started to follow her up there, but Alex grabbed Kara’s forearm to stop her.“What the hell is going on?” Alex asked, but President Grant ignored her.“We have some good news,” she started, “some bad news, a lot to discuss about what’s happening in the next week and beyond, and no time to waste. So,” she paused and took a barely-noticeable breath in as if preparing herself while she still, somehow, remained stoic. And instead of sitting down, she placed her hands on the edge of the table, finally looking around at all of them. Her gaze stopped on Alex. “Let’s get started.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Alex wanted it on the record that she did not like this.Granted, she knew nothing of what was going on right now, but she was sure she wouldn’t like it. Whatever it was.If it involved President Grant, the DEO, and her sister, then it couldn’t be anything good.And she was right. Mostly.“Bad news first,” President Grant continued, glancing away from Alex to peer at her folder, which she flipped open.Great, Alex thought. She kept her hold on Kara’s arm, trying to discern why she had that look on her face that was a mixture of a whole lot of different things.“We’ve had an unfriendly message from the Capitol and Snow specifically,” President Grant paused, annoyance crossing her features, “who seems to think that he can scare us—me—with a message in which he states, and I quote, that ‘you and your rebel group must give up this meaningless fight against the Capitol or we will have no choice but to show you our true power.’” President Grant rolled her eyes. “I would like to ignore it, but I have received intel that the Capitol is planning a strike against where they believe District 13 is located. Soon. And we are not entirely sure whether they have the correct information.”Alex shifted in her chair and worried whispers spread around the conference room.That was one good thing about living like a mole—they were pretty hard to find.But what the hell did all of this have to do with Kara? Yeah, sure, it was important—really important—but could she just get to the other point that also mattered already?It seemed as though President Grant could sense Alex’s restlessness and focused back on her.“The good news is that we could have an opportunity to get the correct information.”The murmurs increased in volume.“What do you mean, ma’am? Do we have someone on the inside?” An agent asked, but Alex kept her attention on the woman in the front of the room while Kara flexed her hand.“Yes and no,” President Grant answered. “This morning, Kiera, Alex’s sister—”“It’s Kara,” Kara corrected her hurriedly but quietly.President Grant ignored her and went on, “—told me that we might have an ally. J’onn, I believe you’ve had indirect contact with her as well. District 12’s mayor Lillian Luthor, who is in the Capitol, has a daughter that is Kiera’s age. Lena.”Alex’s hand slipped away from Kara’s arm.Lena. She’d almost forgotten about her.“Lena is in the Capitol with her mother and could have, or get, access to much more information than we could ever dream possible. We just have to know if she’s on our side. And even if we didn’t need her, it is vital that she is because she has much more knowledge than is safe for us. She was the point of contact between the DEO, J’onn, and Kiera when we needed to get Alex and Winn out of the arena.”Alex flinched at the casual mention of her and Winn, and not Maggie. She didn’t want to remember how she’d felt when she’d realized that they’d left Maggie behind. Maggie shifted her hand to Alex’s knee, and Alex put hers on top of it.(Alex saw Kara purse her lips as if annoyed that President Grant couldn’t seem to get her name right. But that was a miniscule problem compared to what they were discussing.)“Is that correct, J’onn? She delivered the candy, then got the note to Kara and back to you?”Alex finally tore her gaze away from the President and to J’onn. She knew about the candy, which she still carried around in her pocket most days, but she hadn’t heard much about what had happened while she was in the arena right before everything went down.“Yes,” J’onn answered, clearly uncomfortable. “I did not mean to use her as a mule, but she was the only inconspicuous way to—”“It is fine that you did. But now we need to set up communication between them again. You two were friends?” President Grant clarified.“Yeah,” Kara said. “I only knew her for a couple weeks but—”“A couple weeks is more than nothing. We need you to work directly with our tech team and with me to—”“No.” The conversation stopped. Alex didn’t look away from President Grant.Alex felt Maggie put more pressure on her knee again, but she remained steadfast. “No. She’s not doing anything that will put her in danger.”“Alex—” she heard Kara say.But Alex just stood up from her chair and attached herself to her sister’s forearm again. “She is not going to be involved with the DEO, or Lena, or the Capitol. That’s not happening. Kara, you’re leaving.”Alex didn’t want to, but she tightened her grip and pulled Kara after her. Kara had already been in here too long.She heard both J’onn and Maggie say her name but went for the door. She needed to find Eliza, but she only managed to get Kara outside the meeting room before Kara planted her feet on the ground and seemed to grow roots.“Alex, I want to,” Kara said sternly. She moved to block Alex’s gaze, and Alex finally looked at her. “I want to help. Please, let go of me.”Alex reluctantly did. She clenched her jaw and glanced back inside where it seemed like J’onn was conversing with President Grant.The silence of the hall was nice—it was a little stuffy in there. Finally, she answered Kara. “It’s too risky. There’s no way you’re going to be talking to someone in the Capitol. Someone who may not even be on our side. You and Mom and Dad are staying out of this. I already told them that. I don’t know why President Grant would even…” she trailed off with a huff.That was the agreement. They decided—but it was still the topic of many Sister Nights—that Kara could be there for the tapings of the videos and to see Clark off but nothing else. Alex loved that she was always there when Alex—and Maggie—got frustrated with the amount of times they had to reshoot certain lines when they inevitably messed them up.But getting this involved? Not a chance.“Alex, I can do it.”“This is not a discussion, Kara.”Kara’s expression hardened. Alex didn’t like making her mad, but most of the time it was necessary. She was naïve and had a much-too-optimistic view of the world. She didn’t know what this would entail. What would happen if something went wrong.“What if I did it anyway?”Alex shrugged. “I’d make sure you wouldn’t.”Kara tapped her foot. “I know you’re trying to protect me, but you don’t need to. All I have to do is reach Lena somehow and then convince her to give us information—”“There are at least ten steps involved in what you just said, Kara. And that’s not even half of it. Listen to me,” Alex leaned down and put her hands onto Kara’s shoulders. She’d have to make Kara understand the scope of what she was volunteering for. “Are you thinking about what could happen?”“Yes, of course—”Alex barreled through. “What if they can trace the communication back to District 13? What if Lena plays you, strings you along? Makes you believe she’ll help and then gets close enough to turn on you? Turn on all of us?”Kara paused, her voice quieter. “She’s not…she’s not evil, Alex. She’s my friend.”“I know what President Grant said, but a two-week friend is not really a friend.”“Oh, right, like you decided that Winn was your friend in, what, three days?” Kara said, crossing her arms. “And you decided in those three-days-time that were ready to risk your life for him?”Alex pursed her lips. “That’s different.”“How?” Kara asked, and she didn’t wait for an answer. “She helped me. She…she talked to me when Mom wouldn’t. And she was there.” When you weren’t, went unsaid.Alex was silent, not quite sure how to respond.She knew that Eliza had been distant for a while when she had gone to the Arena. She knew that Kara had had to essentially take her spot—do the cleaning, the shopping, take care of Eliza, take care of herself, all of it. Alex had asked her to. And now Kara was different, and it was weird. It was like everything that had happened during those few weeks Alex was in the Games had hardened her somehow.Alex wished it hadn’t.“I want to help,” Kara repeated. “And since I can’t do anything else—mostly because you won’t let me—I’d like to do this. They need me, specifically. President Grant said I’m the only one who has a chance of getting through to Lena. She’s their best chance at getting ahead in this…war, or whatever this is. And…” she sighed. “And even if I can’t do this, I still want to make sure that Lena’s okay. She’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a good friend. Not including family,” she made sure to add.Alex rubbed at her temple. Kara was making a lot of good points, but there was still the huge risk factor. “Kara…”“I know it’s dangerous. But the benefits could outweigh the costs, by a lot. I mean, she could…we could win, Alex. Because of her.”Kara looked so hopeful; Alex hated to crush her spirit.“That is the best-case scenario.”“Yeah, but we have to try. Like President Grant said—we need her on our side anyway. She knows too much. She already has information about me, so we have to keep the Capitol and Snow from using it against us.”“You didn’t tell her you were from 13, did you?”“No, no. Of course not,” Kara reassured her. “But she could figure it out, I don’t know.”Alex crossed her arms. She was almost ready to say yes to this insane plan, which surprised her, but there was one more thing that she was sure would make Kara realize the gravity of the situation.“I agree with…most of what you’re saying. I do. But,” Alex lowered her voice a bit, “she could get hurt, Kara.” And she was not ready for the way Kara’s face became pained as if she’d been trying to push that possibility out of her mind. “There is a very strong possibility that she could get really hurt. And…they could use the same tactics they used on Dad, or do other things just as bad, if they wanted to. If they find out she has information on us, or worse, that she’s working with us, they might resort to it. I’m sure they would.”Kara’s eyes became glossy, and Alex’s chest ached.The Capitol—and President Snow—were merciless tyrants. There was no way that they wouldn’t use every method, no matter how violent, they had at their disposal to make sure they won this war.They were already willing to bomb half of their own Districts to make sure that no new Rebellion groups popped up. And Alex was willing to bet that they had more plans up their sleeve they were just itching to use.And if they hurt Lena because of this, Kara wouldn’t be able to handle it.“I’m sorry, but it’s the truth,” Alex said. “I need you to think about what you’re agreeing to. All of what you’re agreeing to.”Kara nodded but kept her mouth shut, a pensive expression on her face highlighted by the deep crease in her brow. Alex couldn’t just stand there, so she bent down and gathered up Kara in her arms. “C’mere.” She squeezed tighter when she felt Kara’s arms come around her. “I love you and, yeah, I’m trying to protect you. That’s my full-time job.” She felt Kara let out a light breath and couldn’t help a small smile. “And I don’t mean to be harsh, but you need to be prepared.”She felt Kara nod against her shoulder. “I love you, too,” she whispered.Alex pulled back and brushed Kara’s hair away from her face.A corner of Kara’s mouth flicked up for a moment, and then she seemed to straighten up. Alex could tell she was biting the inside of her cheek as she became thoughtful again.“Maybe…” she started to say after a moment. She squared her shoulders a little bit before she went on. “Maybe we should make sure that Lena is on board before we go all in on this. She needs to know all of the risks, too. If we can get in contact with her and she agrees to help, I’ll make sure she knows what could happen before we ask her to do anything. And if she says no, then we’ll call the whole thing off.”Alex almost sighed. That…actually sounded like a pretty good compromise. Dammit.Kara still wanted to do it. Alex was sure that would’ve made her reconsider. And Kara always supported her, no matter how crazy her own plans were. Alex supposed that the least she could do was give Kara a chance to try.Kara waited for Alex’s answer—and she finally, reluctantly, gave one.“Okay. Yeah.” Alex was sure she was going to regret this. “If you’re sure, then you can…then I guess I can be okay with you doing this.”Kara became marginally happier. “You know, I don’t technically need your permission.” Alex raised her eyebrows, and Kara pursed her lips to the side. “But thank you.”“I do have a couple conditions, though.”“Alex…”“Necessary ones. But we can negotiate those with President Grant, who I’m sure is getting impatient.”“Probably. Is she always so…” Kara couldn’t seem to come up with the right word.But Alex knew what she meant. “Yes, unfortunately. She is a bit…difficult. But she knows what she’s doing. She’s gotten us this far.”Kara agreed. She looked into the meeting room and then took Alex’s hand. “C’mon, I think Maggie is trying to signal us.”And as Alex followed her back in, she realized that Kara had not only hardened in these past couple months, but she’d also grown up, too. A lot. It was something Alex would have to start getting used to.Here she was, willfully signing up to be part of a war when she was way too young to even be considering it. She should be…well, a twelve-year-old. She should be having fun, going to school, having regular tween experiences. But the world around her wasn’t letting her be a kid.So the faster this war was over, Alex reasoned, the faster she could make sure that Kara—and Winn and James and everyone this war was affecting—could be part of the better world that they were fighting for.Unfortunately, that meant Kara being an essential piece of the puzzle.But Alex would watch her closely, and she’d make sure others would, too.“Ah, nice of you two to join us again,” President Grant said with a strained smile, and Alex kept her face neutral.She had to negotiate some necessities for her sister’s safety, and she needed President Grant to realize that she wasn’t going to back down when there was, inevitably, going to be an argument.“Have you decided?” President Grant looked at Kara, while everyone else was glancing between the three of them. But Alex pulled up another chair for Kara and answered for her.“We’ve decided that it would be okay to attempt to start preliminary contact between Kara and Lena,” Alex told her.“I asked her,” President Grant countered.“When you ask my sister to risk her life for your cause, you’re asking me, too.” Alex knew she had a lot of leverage as President Grant couldn’t strengthen this rebellion without her. Anything Alex needed or wanted, she was usually given. And she didn’t mind using this to her advantage when it came to Kara. “Before anything happens, we have a few conditions that are necessary.”President Grant stayed silent for a moment. Then, she sighed and conceded. “Alright. Let’s hear them.”Point for Alex.Alex ticked off a finger. “Number one, since I can’t be there all the time, the DEO’s tech team will be with her monitoring any and all interactions between her and the Capitol. If they deem that it has become anywhere near unsafe for her to continue, then she will be pulled out from the mission entirely.”President Grant seemed to mull that over.J’onn piped up first. “This entire mission is unsafe, Alex. And I know you know that,” he added when Alex was about to say exactly that, “so I think you need to explain for everybody what you mean.”Alex knew that he already knew what she meant, and that ‘everybody’ meant President Grant, who wasn’t on board yet.“If they get wind that Kara is behind this, that Kara is connected to this somehow, they will come after her. So,” Alex explained, “the tech team needs to be monitoring everything—every hack or potential break into the system or…or whatever, so that that doesn’t happen. And if it does, she’s out. Immediately. End of discussion.”Alex thought that was reasonable. And, surprisingly, President Grant did, too. “Okay.”“Okay?” Alex repeated, not believing it was that easy.“Yes. If we get hacked, we’ll take her off the mission. But,” President pointed a finger on the table, and Alex thought, Oh, here we go. “We will try again once we determine that it is relatively safe. We will try as many times as possible because I believe this has the chance to turn the tides in our favor. And we need every chance we can get.”The two of them looked at each other. Alex thought for a bit and figured that was the closest she was going to get. Besides, she’d refuse later if it came to it.Alex pressed her lips together before nodding. “Okay. But I want Winn to do it.” She glanced at him from his spot in the corner next to J’onn, and he seemed confused.“You want Winn to do what?” President Grant asked.“I want him to be the one monitoring everything. I want him by Kara’s side.”“I could assign my best tech team to lead this. We have Beetee, and Volts—”Alex shook her head. “No. I want Winn.” She looked at Winn again and tried to communicate with him silently. He sat up, and his knowing smile already made Alex feel better.He was the only one Alex trusted out of the President’s tech team to be there and ensure that no harm would come to Kara. He understood better than the rest of them what having that responsibility meant. And, most importantly, he would know when to pull her out.“I can do it, madam President,” Winn said, and Alex had never seen him surer of himself. Alex gave him a grateful smile.President Grant almost laughed. “I…okay. If that’s what you want. You’re writing all this down, Hornsby?” She looked at her assistant who was furiously scribbling on his notepad. She didn’t wait for confirmation before she moved on. “Anything else?”Alex nodded and turned to Kara, figuring she’d better let her do one of these. Kara was almost as stubborn as Alex, but she could use a little practice. “Kara? Do you want to explain?”“Oh,” Kara jumped to attention. “Yes. Our…third?” she said quietly to Alex, who nodded. She jumped right back in, “Our third condition is that we’ve decided that this mission isn’t happening unless Lena is fully on board and knows every risk. And only when she knows and agrees will we have her start helping us.”It didn’t take as long this time for President Grant to say something. “That seems reasonable.”“And,” Kara took a deep breath in, “if the DEO has a chance to take her out of the Capitol and bring her here, and she wants to come here, then you will. By whatever means necessary.”Alex furrowed her brow as hums spread around the room. They hadn’t talked about that.Maggie, who had been stealing glances at Alex throughout it all, focused on Kara. “Kara, that probably won’t be possible,” she said carefully, echoing everyone’s thoughts.“I know,” Kara said. “But they got you out, Maggie, and Jeremiah. They can try.”“They weren’t expecting us last time. Going back there will be dangerous, deadly. And we need her in the Capitol,” President Grant reminded her. “We will not be able to get inside info if she’s not.”“You need her to stay somewhere that’s not safe for her? Where they would hurt or—or torture her if they know she’s not on their side?”“Kara—” Alex started to say, but her sister barreled through.“Is keeping her there to help us more important than making sure she’s safe?” Kara asked nobody in particular. “I know we won’t be able to get her today, but the moment we can, we should. We have to.”Curiously, the expression on President Grant’s face wasn’t frustration. Alex caught a hint of the look she got from J’onn whenever she made him proud. President Grant seemed pleasantly surprised at Kara’s resolve.“I…cannot promise you anything,” President Grant said carefully. “But we will look into it.”Alex could tell that Kara was trying not to be too happy about that response and remain serious, but she wasn’t very good at it. Alex found her hand under the table and squeezed it.“You two are quite the pair, aren’t you?” President Grant asked, amusement and annoyance in her voice. She probably wasn’t expecting to be, or more likely wasn’t used to being, pushed back on so much.Alex and Kara glanced at each other with smiles on their faces. They always got through everything as long as they were together. With Kara by her side, Alex felt like she could do anything. And she knew it was the same for Kara.“Alright,” President Grant went on, “well, if that’s done, then we’ll get started on this mission as soon as possible. Agent Lyme, you’re in charge of beginning the process. Kiera will be working with me on the finer details and preparing for the communication, but you’ll need to collaborate with Agent Schott and his team directly on everything else.”Winn’s eyes widened. It seemed he wasn’t just one of the DEO’s tech liaisons anymore by the sound of his new title. J’onn seemed amused at Winn’s excitement and squeezed his shoulder.Alex was just surprised that President Grant knew his full name.As President Grant went on with the other meeting materials in her agenda, Kara put her head on Alex’s shoulder as if she could sense her underlying hesitation about this whole thing that didn’t want to go away.“It’ll be fine, Alex. I have a good feeling about this,” she whispered.All Alex could do was pull Kara closer, still not sure what exactly they had just signed up for.But she hoped she wouldn’t live to regret it.------Alex had forgotten about one crucial step—telling Eliza.Alex’s first thought was to keep it from her for as long as possible because there was no way she would agree, but then Alex remembered her promise to not horde secrets anymore. So, reluctantly, Alex and Kara went together to tell her that evening.Jeremiah was having his dinner with J’onn that night as they usually did on Thursdays. Alex was grateful as at least they could deal with Eliza’s response first without having to argue with the both of them. Alex shot Maggie, who was across the cafeteria with Winn and M’gann as Alex had told her what was going to happen and that she should probably join them later, a “wish me luck” look and got a smile and a nod back from her. She and Kara carefully brought it up once they’d filled their trays and sat down.Eliza’s initial reaction wasn’t good (“She’s doing what?”) and consisted of her yelling more at Alex than Kara (“They already drafted you into this war, how could you let them involve Kara, too?”), which Alex was expecting. She didn’t seem to care that they were in a very crowded space.Then, Alex articulated that it wasn’t her idea at all, that it was Kara’s decision, and that they’d already made sure that the DEO understood their conditions to keep Kara safe. And Eliza seemed to remember her promise also. She calmed down a little bit and apologized for snapping. But she was still very uneasy about the agreement they’d made without her.“I swear, that woman…” Eliza said, trailing off and stabbing her fork into her asparagus. She’d taken to calling President Grant “that woman” more times than Alex could count. It was actually pretty amusing. Kara reached her hand out across the table to calm her. “She enlists my girls into her battles without even asking my permission…”“She’s trying to get this war over with as soon as possible. And we need every advantage we can get.”Eliza huffed. “I am going to have to talk to her. You can get me a meeting?” she asked Alex.“Um, I don’t think so. I only see her at the DEO meetings. She’s kind of hard to get on her own. She’s a bit busy.”“Not too busy that she can’t run around recruiting my children in her suicide missions,” Eliza mumbled under her breath.“I talked with her one-on-one. This morning,” Kara piped up around a mouthful of bread. Alex whipped her head to her. She’d kind of figured that they had had someone else there. She hadn’t realized… “Maybe you can come with me next time she needs me.”President Grant hadn’t asked Alex—or even her and Maggie—for a meeting alone yet. Why the hell would she talk to Kara alone? Was this more important than what she and Maggie were doing? Maybe it was.Alex had a feeling that whatever was going on inside of President Grant’s head was unintelligible to just about everyone else. She had many more plans stored in there than what she ever told any of them at any meeting.Eliza was surprised, too. “Yes, I will most definitely be coming with you next time. Do not meet with her again alone without me.” Eliza waited for Kara’s nod and then turned to Alex. “You trust Winn to keep an eye on Kara?”“That’s the only part of the plan I feel good about,” Alex told her truthfully. She scooped a spoonful of beans into her mouth.Eliza assented. “He’s a smart kid. With a good head on his shoulders,” she said as if trying to reassure herself. She sat back in her chair. “All of this, and your trip is in a week?” Alex had a feeling that she was counting down the hours.Alex swallowed. “Yeah.” It wasn’t that much time. “Don’t worry about me, Mom.” She could see stress lines start to appear on Eliza’s face. They did anytime someone mentioned that she was leaving for District 4 soon.“I’m your mother, Alex, I’m always going to worry. I wish you weren’t leaving. It’s actually nice being underground. It feels safer,” Eliza said wistfully as she looked around.It felt more like being trapped than anything, in Alex’s opinion. But she could see how it would feel better being enclosed and not out in the open at a time like this.“They’re debriefing us tomorrow on all of the details, so I can get them to printer—print the notes,” Alex corrected herself, “if you want. On a paper.” “That would be great. And it’s just you and Maggie?”“Well, we’ll have a team of DEO agents and the film crew with us, I’m not sure how many. But yeah, just me and Maggie. I think she’s more worried about the whole thing than I am. Actually, I know she is,” Alex said, taking a chance to look at her again across the crowded room.She was chatting with M’gann and Winn; she seemed fine. But Alex knew better than anyone how fine Maggie could act when she wanted to.“Go over there, Alex,” Eliza said. “Talk to her.”Alex whipped her head back. Both of them were giving her reassuring smiles. Alex didn’t know why, but she felt uncomfortable just leaving them. “Oh, it’s okay. I can talk to her later. I said I was having dinner with you two.”“We’re fine. I don’t know why she’s been way over there this whole time anyway,” Kara pointed out.“We needed to tell Mom, Kara, about the very dangerous thing you’re doing?” Alex reminded her.“Kara could’ve told me alone.”“But then who would you have yelled at?” Alex asked, a smirk on her face to make sure Eliza knew she was kidding.“Funny,” her mother deadpanned. “But I mean it, go over there. Be with her. It sounds like she needs you.”Alex looked at Kara, who agreed. But Alex could’ve sworn that Kara wasn’t one-hundred-percent okay with this, so she asked, “You’re sure?”She wasn’t really used to not being by Kara’s side all the time. During the Games had been torture—for that and many other reasons—and now she had her back. But their family had grown, and she did really want to be with Maggie just as much as she wanted to be with Kara and her mom and dad. It was weird to be pulled in so many different directions.“Yeah, I’ll see you tonight,” Kara said, giving her a side hug. “Don’t forget, we have to get up bright and early for the drill.”Alex groaned. “Ugh, don’t remind me.” She started to stand up. “Okay, well, I’ll see you later.”They both gave her a wave as she took her tray and weaved her way over to Maggie’s table. Someone must’ve given M’gann and Winn the memo to leave the two of them alone, because as soon as Alex reached them, they made an excuse to get up.“Hey, wait a second, J’onn told me about some new outfit you’re making for me. What is it?” Alex remembered to ask, raising her voice to M’gann before she could get too far.But M’gann smiled and hooked her arm around Winn’s as she led them away. “That is top secret. You’ll see it soon.”“You’re not gonna set me on fire, are you?”M’gann mimed zipping her lips closed over her shoulder and winked. Winn laughed.“Oh man, I would pay to see that again,” Alex heard Winn say as if he had forgotten the fact that he, too, knew what it felt like to be on fire.Alex rolled her eyes and dropped down next to Maggie.“Y’know, I wouldn’t mind,” she said after a moment, a smile on her face.Alex looked at her. “Wouldn’t mind what?”“If she set you on fire again. It was pretty cool. And hot,” Maggie added, a twinkle in her eye. “No pun intended.”Alex felt her neck get warm. Maggie thought it was hot? “You…really?”Alex definitely did not regret coming over here anymore.Maggie nodded and wouldn’t take her eyes off of Alex. “Really,” she said, her voice low. Alex could tell she meant it, which didn’t help Alex to not become flustered. “Or, if you don’t feel like being a matchstick, I also liked M’gann’s other choice she put you in.”Alex furrowed her brow. The only other one was… “At the interview? You liked the red dress, too?”It seemed like Maggie was trying to hold in a laugh. “Um, yeah, Alex. I liked it. I mean, you were…” she stopped to think of the right word, and settled on, “gorgeous.”“Oh,” Alex said, a bit breathless, willing herself not to brush it off because it seemed like Maggie would prove to her just how wrong she was.She wondered if Maggie would kiss her right now if they weren’t in a room full of people. And she also wondered if anything else would happen. Not that they had gone further than making out for the limited amount of time they could get without being interrupted, but maybe…That train of thought made Alex’s flush deepen, so she tried to switch it on its tracks.Alex would have to get M’gann to design her another dress to wear for something. Just because she, apparently, looked good in them. And, okay, if it was going to make Maggie look at her like that, Alex knew she’d wear anything.“Of course, I assume you don’t normally wear dresses,” Maggie said, half of her attention on her food now, “given that you’ve never voluntarily put one on since I’ve met you. So you probably don’t enjoy them, but—”Alex shook her head a little vigorously. She didn’t know if Maggie was just teasing her, but she hastily corrected her anyway, “No, no. I don’t absolutely hate them.” Kara could never hear her say that. “I…I would wear one, again. For you,” she added.Maggie’s eyebrows twitched up and her smile grew. Alex wanted to kiss her but her mother was about seven tables away and she really didn’t need to be very aware of that right now.Instead, Alex propped her elbow up on the table and reached out for Maggie’s hand to play with her fingers, and Maggie seemed to get Alex’s hesitance to do anything more than that.“Anyway, um,” Maggie cleared her throat, the look still there, “how did it go?” She indicated to her mother and Kara’s table with a tilt of her head.Alex glanced over—Kara and her mother were still talking about it, it seemed like—and then shrugged. “She’s not completely fine with it but, then again, neither am I. I think if she’s as involved as she wants to be then it’ll be okay. Hopefully.”Maggie’s expression shifted, and she squeezed Alex hand. “Hey, it will be okay. I think Kara can do it.”“Yeah?” Alex pursed her lips. “You don’t think I just agreed to sign her up for something that’s going to backfire in the worst way possible?”“It’s not,” Maggie reassured her. “And even if something goes wrong, we’re all here for her. We’ll protect her, make sure nothing ever happens to her. I know you’d…you’d do anything to make sure that Kara is never in harm’s way.” Alex wondered if she was referring to her volunteering to take her place in the Games. “And if you really thought that this was a death wish, then you wouldn’t have let her do it.”Alex huffed out a breath. She was right. As always.“I guess so,” Alex practically mumbled. “We’ll see.”Maggie seemed to let her dwell on that for a minute as they both started eating again.Then, Alex shook her head, suddenly remembering the reason she’d come over here in the first place.All of this did seem to be working as a distraction, which was Alex’s plan to get Maggie’s mind off their trip to District 4. But diverting Maggie’s attention by focusing on herself was a little selfish.“So, we have a week,” Alex started to say cautiously, trying to make it sound like an innocent statement when it was a very loaded one.In response, Maggie crossed her legs under the table and, to Alex’s disappointment, slipped her hand away from Alex’s to fiddle with her cup.“Yeah. Yeah, not a lot of time.”Maggie didn’t offer anything else, so Alex continued. “Do you want to…I don’t know, do anything before we leave? We could go check out the greenhouse or something. Pop in to see your…what are they?”That got Maggie to smile a little bit. “Bonsai trees.”“Right, those.” They were weird little things. They looked like someone had shrunk down a full-sized tree and put it in a pot. But Alex knew that Maggie had a soft spot for them for whatever reason; she went down there pretty often to help take care of them.“I don’t know,” Maggie said with a half-shrug. And that was when Alex knew that she was very far from fine. She always—always—jumped at the chance to visit the greenhouse. “They’re all almost dead anyway. They don’t get enough sunlight, even with the replicator.”“Maybe we can get someone to fix that.”Maggie finally looked at her again. “The botanists down there don’t really…it’s not that important, Alex. Relatively.”“If it’s important to you, then it’s important,” Alex insisted. “And it’ll help take your mind off of…other things.”Maggie let out a long breath and pursed her lips. Alex raised her eyebrows.Maggie still seemed hesitant, so Alex tried again. “Okay, we can just go down there to visit. So that we have something to do in between—we have to film tomorrow, right?” Maggie nodded. “Yeah, so, we’ll take a short trip down there afterwards, visit all your friends,” she said with a smirk, causing Maggie to narrow her eyes. “Just check in. No big deal.”Maggie tapped her fingers on the table, and Alex still wasn’t sure what her answer would be.But then she got another idea that would hopefully change her mind. “Actually, it can be a date.”Maggie tilted her head. “A date?”“Yeah,” Alex said, accenting it with a nod. She turned in her seat to fully face Maggie and took both her hands. “Maggie Sawyer, will you go on a very short, casual date with me tomorrow to your favorite place in the world?”That got Maggie to smile bigger than before, and Alex tried to convey how much she wanted to do this with, and for, her. She was actually kind of nervous she was going to get turned down. And in a room full of people, that would be quite embarrassing.Finally, Maggie said, “Well, I don’t think I can say no to a date with my girlfriend…”Alex’s grin widened. She’d probably never get used to the fact that she was Maggie’s girlfriend. She was the luckiest girl in the world.“I mean, just for the record, you could,” Alex pointed out. “But…that’s a yes?”Maggie had her ‘you’re being ridiculous’ face on that was reserved just for Alex as she nodded. “Yes. Of course.”Alex’s heart soared. “Great. I can’t wait.” Alex held her hands tighter for a second before letting go.Maggie’s smile didn’t let up, and Alex was actually looking forward to this. She liked to watch Maggie get excited about the plants and tell her so many things she probably never needed to know. And if it doubled as a way to distract her, then Alex would take her on a million outings there.She just wanted Maggie to be as happy as possible and had a feeling that tomorrow she’d be able to accomplish that, if only for an hour or two.But, as usual, the universe didn’t feel like letting them have it easy. Even when their lives were difficult enough already.Alex fell asleep early that night with Kara in the bed on the other side of the room in order to not be tired for her full day tomorrow.At about two a.m., Alex was jolted violently from sleep by a very loud, familiar sound.Kara was a bit slower to wake up—probably because she’d been used to hearing the warning alarm from when she’d lived here before—but Alex immediately started counting each short beep it emitted. Dread started to fill up inside of her.It wasn’t supposed to go off until nine o’clock.Her heart was pounding, and the screeching hurt her ears. But she was up and out of bed a few moments later, already crossing the almost pitch-black room to Kara.Because it hit five.And five short blasts meant that this was not a drill.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Kara, get up,” Alex hastily said, frantically starting to catalog the places she knew the rest of her family were.Mom and Dad were in their room across the hall, Maggie was right next door, and Winn and J’onn were on the floor above them. M’gann was probably—hopefully—with those two. She’d have to make sure she saw Winn, J’onn, and M’gann somewhere along the way. Or right when they got down to the lower holding blocks.Alex pulled Kara up to her feet. She could barely see her in the darkness, but Kara was rubbing at her eyes.Alex’s heart was beating way too fast, but it was because of the uncertainty.What was happening? How long did they have before something happened?“Wha’ time is it?” Kara’s grogginess disappearing by the second as she became more alert. The frantic BEEP, BEEP, BEEP of the alarm reverberated around the room.“I don’t know. About two. C’mon,” Alex managed to answer after letting her pause for half a second to put shoes on. She grabbed her sweatshirt and pulled it over her head.Who knew how long they’d spend down there.Alex always kept the backpack they’d given her—the one they handed out to each citizen of 13—by the door. It had two of everything: socks, rations of food, bottled water, and gauze rolls. For her and Kara.Alex remembered being surprised that Maggie hadn’t thought to do that the moment she got it but then remembered that it was just second nature to her because of the raids.District 12 had had raids almost every month at random times of the day and night. Alex had learned to be prepared to be rushed out into the cold and kept out there for, sometimes, hours at a moment’s notice. And it only took one time for it to be in the dead of winter with no socks for her to start a pile by her door that she could grab quickly.She hadn’t had to use this one yet.Alex swung the backpack over her shoulder, trying not to remember the orange one she’d had during the Games, and pulled the door open.Thankfully, the lights were on in the hall. She blinked against the brightness and knocked on Maggie’s door, letting Kara bang on their parents’.“Maggie,” Alex said over the noise as Kara yelled out, “Mom.”People were starting to pour out of the rooms down the entire floor—families, couples, Alex spotted a few kids being picked up and hoisted onto shoulders.“I’m coming,” Maggie replied before she opened the door.Alex flitted her eyes over Maggie, making sure she was okay before spinning around. Maggie looked scared, her expression probably a mirror of Alex’s. “Got everything?” Eliza asked before Jeremiah closed their door behind him.“You girls okay?” he checked, adjusting his own backpack.Alex nodded as an answer to both questions, already moving with the growing crowd. She took Kara’s hand when she noticed it was shaking. She was about to grab Maggie’s, too, but Maggie went around her to Kara’s empty one.Alex shot her a grateful look over Kara’s head. It was better if they made sure no one—especially Kara—got separated from them. And she probably needed the extra comfort.“Down the hall, take a left, ten flights down. Block A is at the end,” Maggie reminded them all as if they needed it.The lifts would be out of service—too much risk of them becoming stuck. Alex bumped into somebody and just tightened her grip on Kara, trying to will her to stop trembling. She thought about carrying her but then remembered that Kara wasn’t six years old anymore.Alex picked up her pace, glancing back over her shoulder to make sure her parents were still behind them.She must’ve been more worried than she thought because her father mouthed, “It’ll be okay.”Alex let out a breath and nodded again, trying to convince herself of the same thing.“It’s only gone off twice before,” Kara said around the increasing volume of more and more shoes hitting concrete.There was less and less space between Alex and the stranger next to her, now. They were shuffling more than walking, at this point.Alex looked at her sister.“I mean, the emergency alarm,” Kara clarified. She took three steps for every one of Alex’s strides. “I don’t really remember the first…I think I was like four years old. It was a false alarm anyway. But the second…we had to stay in the lower blocks for a week.”Alex put her hand on Kara’s side and moved her around an older, slower-moving man. She could only hear about eighty-percent of what Kara was saying but inferred the rest. Kara tended to ramble when she was nervous (Alex could guess where she’d gotten that from).Alex’s only response right now was, “We’ll be fine, Kara.”Kara’s quiet, “I hope so,” was forgotten as they rounded the corner. The stairwell was in sight, and Alex’s only goal was to get them there.Finally, the klaxon subsided for a moment as the speaker clicked on. “All persons report to their respective lower holding cells immediately. You have fourteen minutes before we lock the doors.”And that was it.Alex’s eyebrows raised, and she caught Maggie’s eye.Fourteen minutes?Why the hell would they say something like that, and not give any other information? It was just going to bring chaos—which, it only kind of did. Someone bumped—or was more likely shoved—into Alex’s back and she almost lost her balance. It caused her to push Kara into Maggie and instinctively grab Maggie’s backpack for support as the man went around her.“Sorry,” Alex said quickly, shifting her arm to Kara’s lower back to prevent her from falling.Maggie helped her upright. “You okay?”“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Alex huffed out. She shot the guy a glare he couldn’t see but was surprised and relieved to find that most everyone else seemed to be remaining calm.Their paces were a bit faster, but all these people had done this before. They knew what would happen if someone thought that they had to get down there first. The more they cooperated and coordinated, the more of a chance they’d have at safety. Only a few outliers didn’t seem to understand that.Alex felt her father’s strong grip on her shoulder and glanced at her watch—they only had twelve more minutes.The wideness of the hall didn’t help with funneling everyone into the skinnier stairwell, but soon enough Kara was hopping down the stairs, pulling Alex with her as Maggie had had to break the line they’d formed.Still, Alex stuck her hand out blindly behind her and recognized Maggie’s touch as she loosely intertwined their fingers. The faint screeching of the alarm and a constant thump, thump, thump was all Alex could hear as hundreds made their way down.The further they went, the more the air seemed to get chillier, and Alex wondered how far below the ground they currently were. Hopefully far enough that no one could find or hurt them.It seemed like forever before the five of them made it to the last flight. They filed out with the rest.Somehow, it was even darker down here. There were five huge rooms, each roughly the size of the Capitol’s ballroom that Alex had been in briefly during her visit to get Maggie. The few lights posted along the walls were glowing yellow instead of the usual fluorescent white, and it took a couple seconds for Alex’s eyes to adjust.The noise decreased bit by bit as people started peeling off into the different blocks, but Alex’s small group stuck together, making their way to the one at the end.“Everyone still good?” Jeremiah asked, taking the lead. Eliza stayed at the rear.A chorus of, “Yes,” “Yup,” and “Uh huh,” followed. Alex was pretty sure she had a bruise on her hip from that jerk guy but just adjusted her backpack.“We have nine more minutes until they close the doors, plenty of time,” Eliza said, putting a hand on Alex and Maggie’s backs to guide them forward.And it was when they could see the “A” in front of them that the ceiling started to shake.It was strange and hard to get used to—the fact that the ‘roof’ over their heads would tremble instead of floor. Earth tremors, they’d called them. Since she’d been here, it had only happened a couple times, but Alex had been reassured that it was normal. Alex had heard about the stronger tremors and thought they were a phenomenon, but actually experiencing them was much different.Because they were underneath the ground, they were more likely to feel them. Districts 5 and 6 were the only ones above the surface—or above sea level—who felt them regularly. Alex had learned that those areas were on the fault lines. This one was different, though. The ground was solid, but the walls and ceiling were definitely moving back and forth, albeit minutely. Bits of dust were falling from the almost-invisible cracks. It didn’t feel exactly like the quakes that Alex had just begun to get used to. Kara must have had the same thought because she breathed out, “Mom.”If it wasn’t familiar to Kara, then there was definitely something else causing it. Alex briefly wondered if they were under attack.“It’s alright, sweetie,” Alex heard from behind her.Alex remembered to breathe, recalling what J’onn had taught her when she’d get angry or nervous and, consequently, tend to space out a little. Jeremiah let the four of them go by into Block A and then followed them inside.Someone standing by the door took their key cards and quickly scanned them, probably to check them in and mark them as safe.Once Alex had gotten hers back, she scanned her eyes around the room, trying to spot J’onn, Winn, and M’gann.There were about two hundred people in their block. They weren’t with the higher-ups and officials as they’d requested not to be. Alex recognized some faces, so everyone must live in their quadrant. A lot of them had their backpacks like Alex although they didn’t look as stuffed full. That didn’t matter, though; Alex had no problem with sharing. Especially because there were a lot of kids down here that would need more of this stuff than she would.She spotted M’gann with a group of women that looked to be around her age. When M’gann saw her, Alex noticed some tension leave her shoulders, but she started fast-walking towards her. Maggie squeezed her hand before helping Kara and her parents get settled.“Have you seen J’onn? And Winn?” M’gann asked when she got close enough.“No, I thought you were with them.”M’gann shook her head. “Not tonight. J’onn told me that he needed to talk to Winn alone, and I told him that I could do it with him. But he said that he would get me if he needed me. He never did, so I assumed everything was fine.”“Oh, yeah, that was…Winn was having trouble sleeping. I thought J’onn could help,” Alex told her, glancing at her watch again. Six and a half minutes. “Well, that’s good that it seemed like it went okay, but why aren’t they—”Suddenly, Alex stiffened.She remembered Winn telling her that sometimes he’d get up in the middle of the night and roam around when he couldn’t sleep.Alex wondered if…“What?” M’gann asked, no doubt noticing her worry come back ten-fold.“Um, nothing. If J’onn talked to him, then he shouldn’t…I mean, he should be with him—”“M’gann,” a deep voice from the hallway yelled.M’gann whipped her head around and went to the entrance of Block A.J’onn looked out of breath and worried out of his mind, which Alex did not see often, thank god.But she sure as hell didn’t like seeing it now. He was limping—his leg still bothered him when he overexerted it—and he started searching the room even as he made a beeline for M’gann. There was no one beside him.“Is he here?” J’onn asked.M’gann went pale. “Winn? No. I thought he was with you.”Shit, Alex thought. She and J’onn exchanged a glance, and Alex immediately got the attention of the key card lady.“I hoped he would be here already,” Alex heard J’onn say. “He was not in the room when the alarm went off. I looked for him before believing he must have made his way here.”“Has Winn Schott checked into any of these blocks?” Alex frantically asked the woman.The woman started typing, and it only took a few moments before she lifted her head and, to Alex’s dismay, shook it.Alex’s heart clenched.“What’s going on?”Alex didn’t even notice Maggie come up behind her.“Winn’s not here,” Alex told her. “I…I think he must’ve gotten up again in the middle of the night and…” Alex trailed off, and Maggie understood.“Do you think he’s lost? There’s still some coming down, maybe he’s just late.”“I—I don’t know.” Alex looked at J’onn again, who was talking to M’gann; he subtly put a hand on his thigh as if it hurt more than he let on.He’d probably been running around everywhere looking for Winn before coming down. It didn’t look like he had the strength to go back up there. Maybe Winn had gotten hurt. Or lost, like Maggie said. Whatever had happened, he wasn’t here yet. And Alex knew they only had five minutes before—Another rumble shook the ceiling.Alex swallowed and, in the crowd, found Kara and Eliza, who furrowed her brow. If she knew what Alex was thinking of doing…But Alex was more worried about someone else. Alex bit her lip and then turned to M’gann. “M’gann, keep her here.”“What?”Alex ignored her question and spun around to Maggie. “I have to…Maggie, I have to go look for him. J’onn can’t. Just stay here, okay?”“Wait—wh…what?” Maggie seemed to comprehend what Alex had just said and clenched her jaw. “Alex, you can’t—”“I have to make sure he’s okay, before they close the doors,” Alex told her. “Don’t follow me. I’ll be back.” She hoped that was true.Someone had to go look for him. And she’d promised him a long time ago—she’d always find him. She wasn’t about to break that promise.Alex took two seconds to grab Maggie’s hands and look her in the eye. She tried to smile. “I love you,” she said, just in case. She didn’t know what she was about to get herself into. But she’d never forgive herself if anything happened to him, or Maggie. So she had to do this alone.Maggie let out a sharp breath and looked at her like she was absolutely crazy, but Alex backed up and then ran out of the Block before anyone could stop her.“Wait, Alex—”Alex snuck a glance over her shoulder to see that M’gann had grabbed onto Maggie to prevent her from coming after her. Alex wondered how she’d make sure Maggie stayed there.Turned out, she couldn’t keep her hold on Maggie.“Alex Danvers, I cannot believe you just told me you love me right before shit happens. Again.”Alex was just rounding the corner to the stairwell and almost tripped over herself at Maggie’s voice.She reached out for the railing and only slowed down a little bit. She wasn’t imagining it—Maggie was sprinting after her. “Maggie, what the hell?”“I could ask you the same question,” she countered.Alex gaped at her as she continued running up the stairs, sidestepping a woman who looked around her mom’s age going the opposite way. She wanted to stop and make Maggie go back but couldn’t afford to lose any more time. “I told you to stay—”“And I…decided not to listen,” Maggie retorted between breaths. “So are we gonna waste any more time arguing or…are we gonna go find Winn?”Maggie raised her eyebrows at Alex’s silence, and, for some reason, Alex felt like laughing. Then she remembered what they were currently doing and that it was definitely not a laughing situation.The alarm was still blaring in her ears, which was most of the reason Alex couldn’t get her thoughts completely straight.“Come on,” Maggie said as she passed her on the stairs as Alex wrapped her head around the fact that Maggie, apparently, still surprised her sometimes. She wouldn’t let her do what she was so used to doing her whole life—which was everything, but by herself.It felt good to know that Maggie would be by her side anytime she could be.Plus, she had no idea if she could do this alone. She usually just started running and figured it out from there.For having such short legs, Maggie managed to skip two, three steps at a time. They both bounded up the stairs, and it took about a tenth of the time as there were only a few people still on their way down, which only served to make Alex more anxious as to why Winn wasn’t one of those people.“Okay, think. If he has, let’s say, two hours to roam around, where would he go?” Alex asked mostly herself.“Tech labs? He did say he usually goes over there,” Maggie supplied.Alex nodded. “Right. Let’s check those first.”She said ‘first’ as if they had time to look into other places he might be, which they did not. But Alex tried not to think about that.On the next landing, they both took a sharp right and ran down yet another hallway. She and Maggie had to brace their hands on the wall when another, much stronger force seemed to slam into the ceiling. It was louder, like…“It’s probably bombs, isn’t it?” Alex said, hoping Maggie would disagree. She just pursed her lips.They were definitely being attacked right now, and Alex would bet anything it was the Capitol with some kind of explosive. The lights began to flicker.She remembered President Grant say that they were planning to attack where they thought 13 was, soon. But ‘soon’ was a lot closer than she’d thought.Alex quickly caught up to Maggie and took a moment to squeeze her hand. As a thank you for blatantly ignoring her request—which she was surprised to find she was thankful for—and because she needed it. Maggie always made her feel more stable and less like everything was falling apart around her. Like now, when it was literally most likely about to.Thankfully, the door was open to the labs as if someone hadn’t had the time to close it.Alex and Maggie briefly split up to search for Winn.Alex called out, “Winn?”Maggie did the same, but still—nothing. Where the hell was he?“Shit,” Alex mumbled as she slammed a fist down onto one of the metal tables. The prototype on it had already been knocked over but wobbled at the force of it. “Maggie…”“Alex, it’s okay. We’ll find him. We’ve got a couple minutes. Where else could he be?”Maggie’s attempt at a soothing voice wasn’t really working as Alex could sense the worry interlaced in it. They’d checked all the storage closets, the one adjacent room, anywhere he could be. The sad truth was that they needed to those couple minutes to make it down to Block A. But Alex wasn’t going back until she had Winn.“C’mon,” Maggie said again, pulling Alex away from the lab bench and out of the labs before she could spiral. “Clark isn’t here…Where does James sleep? They’re friends, right? Maybe he was going to see him or something.”“I…I think two floors above us.”“Okay, so we’ll go up there.”Alex shook her head. There was no way they’d find him in time. They had to split up or something. “Maggie, we—”“Maggie? Alex?”Alex and Maggie stopped in their tracks, each turning in place to see where that muffled voice had come from.“Winn?” Alex said loudly, hope trickling in.“Alex! Oh, my god.”Okay, yeah, definitely Winn. Alex craned her neck and started running to where she thought it was coming from. He did have a knack for climbing up. “Winn, where the hell are you?”“The elevator! I—I’m stuck,” Winn said. And as soon as he said it, Alex spotted the gate.She could hear Maggie behind her as she sprinted the last hundred feet to it and skidded to a stop. They’d ran right past this before, not even thinking to check the lifts.Maggie helped her pry open the checkered gate. Immediately, they could see that the bottom, maybe, fifth of the actual elevator was in view. It looked like Winn had been taking it down, but it got stuck right before it reached this floor.They’d turned all the lifts off as soon as the alarm sounded and, it seemed, didn’t bother to check them because who would be using them in the middle of the night?Only Winn, apparently.“Winn?” Alex asked again, just to make sure. She couldn’t really believe it.Winn had managed to pry open the doors just enough so there was about half a foot of space for him to stick his forearm out. “I d-didn’t think anyone was coming. No one heard me…”Alex let out a breath as she stood up on her tip toes to grasp his hand. “Are you okay?”“Y-yeah,” Winn said, clearing his throat. He’d definitely been crying, which was quite understandable given his situation. “I mean, this thing’s been shaking every ten minutes and I keep feeling like I’m gonna die every time it does. But other than that, I’m just peachy.”Alex didn’t have time to roll her eyes. She put her heels back down on the floor. “Alright, well, we’re gonna get you out of here, somehow.”“If we cut that huge wire in the middle it should un-stick the elevator,” Maggie said, having already been inspecting it to figure out how to accomplish going about this.“Right, but I will also plummet about two hundred feet to my death,” Winn pointed out.Alex bent down to see what Maggie was seeing. “Okay, if we do cut it, then we’ll need something that can stop the elevator at this floor—”“There’s a platform, there.” Maggie pointed to it. “It looks like it pops out when it knows the elevator’s coming to help stop it and then goes back in to let it move again.”“But if the whole system is turned off, then how do we know it won’t just go back in again when the lift comes down?” Alex asked.Maggie chewed on her lip. “We need to lean something on it. Something strong, heavy.”Alex popped back up and snapped her fingers. “Those metal tables, in the labs. I’ll go get one, and something to clip the cord.”“There’s clampers in the storage closet.”“Thanks, Winn. Maggie, you stay here with him, don’t let him freak out.”Maggie let her go this time, and the last thing Alex heard was a disgruntled, “Too late.”The watch on Alex’s wrist was taunting her, but she didn’t look at it. She was afraid of what she’d see. Instead, she ran through the steps of their half-baked plan in her mind as she picked a table that looked long enough to stretch across the shaft. She pushed everything off, not caring how important the gadgets on it were, and went to sift through the storage closet. Finally, her fingers touched what felt like huge scissors. They were heavy, but she just put them on the table and leaned all her weight behind it as she rolled it back down the hallway.Maggie came to help her—Alex could’ve sworn she looked mad about something, but Alex couldn’t figure out what it was right now. Alex asked, “Okay, Winn, can you fit through that amount of space you’ve got up there?”Winn tried to reach his arm out all the way to his shoulder. Meanwhile, Maggie and Alex positioned the table.“Uhh…no,” Winn said, and Alex’s heart dropped. “The doors opened pretty easily this far, but then they seemed jammed or something.”“Okay. Okay, so,” Alex licked her lips, trying to remain calm, “we gotta pry them open further. All three of us at the same time should work, yeah?”Maggie shrugged. “Possibly. I don’t know how else to do it. We’ll make it work.”“Right. Okay.” Alex took a deep breath in and let it out.“Alex, you’re really bad at seeming not nervous, y’know.”“Winn, this is not the time.” Alex placed her hands on the table. “Maggie, we have to push it fast so that it doesn’t just fall straight down the shaft.”Maggie nodded and positioned herself on the other side, backing it up a little bit. “On three?” She didn’t really wait for Alex’s answer. “One, two—”“—Three.”The wheels of the table spun, and Alex lurched it forward at the last second. Their momentum made the table bang into the wall on the far side of the shaft.But it stuck.The end of the table stuck out right in front of both Alex and Maggie, and they both managed relieved smiles. Although they quickly disappeared when another rumble shook the room. Alex heard Winn make a noise as she held her breath, but it wasn’t as bad as the last one.When it stopped, Alex launched right back in. “Okay, Winn, we’re going to cut the cable now. You need to be ready to help us push apart those doors. We’ve only got—shit—” Alex checked and read, “less than two minutes.”“Got it. I’m ready.”“Alright. Let’s do this. Grab onto something, Winn.”Alex got on her knees and grasped the end of the clippers. Maggie held onto her hips as she leaned as far as she could over the table, aiming for the biggest cord…assuming that was the right one. She prayed it was.She clamped the blades over it and squeezed, hard. Alex grunted; it seemed to be taking forever.But then, finally, a snap.And all in two seconds, Alex had dropped the clippers and Maggie yanked her back as the elevator free fell down, slamming onto the metal table.Winn let out a yelp, but Alex immediately got up once the elevator settled, gripping the right side of the door and pulling it with all her strength. She definitely did not think about the fact that she could’ve just gotten her head cut off. She shut her eyes, mumbling, “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon…”The doors slowly started screeching open, a quarter of an inch at a time. She could hear her and Maggie’s boots scraping against the ground.Alex switched to pushing. If only they had some kind of oil or—“I think I can—” Winn started to say, and Alex opened her eyes again. She wanted to reach a hand out to pull him but was afraid the doors would just slide closed again.Alex could see Winn’s hair, his shoulder, his collarbone. Alex’s arms were starting to shake, but she just pushed even harder. They were so close.“That’s gotta be enough, just—just pull me out!”Alex shook her head. “It’s gonna hurt—”“I don’t care! I can handle it. It’s gotta be enough, just…"Winn turned his head to the side and managed to get stick his foot in the space, keeping it open as Alex relented and switched to pulling on Winn’s arm.“Oh shit this hurts,” Winn gritted through his teeth a moment later.“I told you.”“This is not the time, Alex.”Alex almost laughed, glad Winn was mocking her instead of panicking when Alex’s feelings were leaning the complete opposite way.Winn sucked in as much as he could, and Alex was grabbing onto anything—his shirt, his far shoulder—and pulling with everything she had.Alex lifted her own foot and pushed it against the door, putting all of her weight on it.Which was a good idea, until a few moments later when Winn seemed to pop right out from between the elevator doors and went tumbling onto Alex.They both crashed onto the floor, Alex’s head bobbing back to hit it.Alex heard Maggie gasp, but Alex just laid there until Winn managed to scramble off of her. It gave her four seconds to blink away the stars in her vision and get her bearings.“Oh, my god. I can’t believe we just did that. And that I didn’t die,” Winn said, his breaths coming out in sharply. Adrenalin seemed to be pumping through his veins.Hopefully that meant he could run—and fast.Maggie stopped Alex’s undesirably slow attempt at getting up when her head felt a bit cloudy. She kept telling herself that she’d been through much, much worse than this. But why did it always have to be the back of her head?“You okay, Alex?” Maggie brushed Alex’s hair from her forehead, and Alex managed a nod. As long as Maggie was there—which she always seemed to be—she’d be more than okay.“We gotta go,” she said, letting Maggie grab onto her wrists and pull her up the rest of the way. Luckily, most of the lights were either dim or off by now so there wasn’t any brightness to bother her. Unfortunately, the alarm didn’t seem to be subsiding.And even though it was a tiny bit harder to run through the impending darkness, Maggie held her hand as they followed Winn.They went back to the stairwell that she was becoming way too familiar with in such a short span of time and headed back down. The three of them were mostly silent, knowing that they probably already missed the mark of when the doors had closed. If they could just get down there, maybe they’d kept one open. Alex highly doubted it.The first sign of life Alex heard was her mother’s voice as they rounded the last flight of stairs.“If you even think about closing this door when my daughter and Maggie and—and his son are still out there, I swear—”Somehow, her, Maggie, and Winn picked up their pace. Surprisingly, Winn was leaping down the steps the fastest—Alex was surprised that the technology they’d used to fix his leg worked that well.“Ma’am, all the others are already…we really need to—”Alex shouted, “Mom!” hoping they’d hear.“Alex? Oh, Winn,” Eliza gasped.Once Winn had reached the door, Eliza pulled him inside, holding her arm out to beckon Alex and Maggie right after him. As soon as she was inside, Alex let out the breath she felt like she’d been holding for the past five minutes.Alex heard two beeps and the door quickly airlock itself before she was engulfed in a hug by her sister.“Kara, I’m fine,” Alex mumbled through a mouthful of Kara’s hair as she held her.“You scared me, Alex! Wh-why in the world would you do that?”“I—”“I mean, Winn was out th-there, so of course you would go after him, but…” Kara let out a wet breath, and Alex tried to soothe her. “You didn’t even say a-anything to us first. What if something had ha-happened?”“I didn’t have time.”Kara huffed and sniffled as if she didn’t want to admit that Alex was right and just squeezed her tighter. Alex pursed her lips as she realized that she had taken an extra ten seconds to say goodbye to Maggie—for no reason—and immediately felt bad about it. But Maggie had been right there, it would’ve taken even more precious time to go to Kara, too.“I’m sorry,” Alex said sincerely, vowing to herself that she’d take those seconds for Kara instead, next time.Not that she wanted there to be a next time. But if there was.Alex saw her mother wrap Maggie in a hug, too. “I’m really glad you’re alright, Maggie,” Eliza said. Alex could practically feel the surprised happiness radiating off of Maggie from over here at the gesture. Alex mirrored Jeremiah’s smile that he sent her way as he patiently waited.It took a couple seconds, but Kara finally said, “I…It’s okay. Just…never ever do that again. Ever.”“Yeah, I second that,” Maggie piped up.Alex thought about promising them she wouldn’t. But she knew she’d always try and save the people she loved. It didn’t matter if it seemed impossible, or crazy, or a sure way to get herself hurt or worse. She’d go through anything and anyone for them.“I can’t really…promise that,” Alex said to Kara while looking at Maggie.Maggie crossed her arms over her chest, but she didn’t seem angry or shocked at Alex’s answer.Kara dropped out of Alex’s arms slowly, and now Alex was worried about what her father would do.But he started with a hug. And whenever Jeremiah hugged her, the feeling she got was always nostalgically familiar. Sometimes it was like she was transported right back to being twelve years old, which always made her sink into it, wishing life could be that simple again. “I don’t even know what to say,” he whispered.“Are you mad?” Alex asked, swallowing.“No. Well, a little. I understand that it’s quite a common occurrence—you running head on into danger.”Alex let out a breathy laugh. “Maybe.”“From what I can tell, it would be useless to try and stop you. And I trust you. So…” Jeremiah sighed. “I won’t be mad, as long as you’re smart about it. And you come back to us.”Alex nodded against his neck. “Always.”Jeremiah gave her a last squeeze and let her go. Alex gave him a grateful smile, remembering how he used to understand her in a way that Eliza couldn’t seem to. Probably because they were so much alike.Alex shifted her gaze over to Winn, who was wrapped in a three-way hug by J’onn and M’gann. J’onn seemed both relieved and angry, and Alex could’ve sworn she saw a tear roll down his cheek that he inconspicuously tried to wipe off.Alex overheard J’onn talking—or more like chastising—him.“What were you doing in the elevator in the first place?”Winn wasn’t facing Alex; she saw him scratch the back of his neck. “I…I couldn’t sleep.”“I told you to tell me if that happened again.”“I know, but I had already woken you up once, I didn’t want to—”“Winn,” J’onn said, holding onto both of his arms. “You are to wake me up as many times as you need to.”“But—”“Five or ten or fifty times. I do not care,” J’onn said, his voice thick. “I will even stay up with you all night if I need to. If something is wrong, I want to know. If you cannot sleep, I want to know. I thought I made that clear.”Winn nodded, but didn’t really answer J’onn. “I’m sorry.”J’onn sighed. “I don’t need you to be sorry. I need you to promise me you will not do that again. Who knows when we’ll have an emergency. I would like to know where you are. Not…every second of the day, I—I understand that that might not be possible. But we are family. I cannot stand to think of you in danger and not be able to help you.”Alex hugged her arms around her stomach and felt the corner of her mouth turn up watching them. Kara leaned into her side and whispered, “He’s not so bad at the whole being-a-dad thing, is he?”Alex shook her head. “No, he’s not. He’s much better than he thinks he is.”“Okay. Yeah,” Winn finally said, nodding again. “I…I promise.”“And if you don’t feel as though you can talk to J’onn, you can always, always come to me, too,” M’gann said. “Especially if he’s snoring too loud and that is the reason you cannot sleep.”Winn let out a laugh, and Alex covered her mouth to stop her own from escaping. Unsurprisingly, J’onn didn’t seem annoyed at M’gann’s quip; he never seemed annoyed at her for anything.Winn turned halfway around to see Alex, Maggie, and Kara watching them.“I’m sorry I made you come after me. I mean, you two…you didn’t have to, y’know.”Alex furrowed her brow. “What? Yes, I did.”Winn sighed. “I know you always think you need to, Alex, but they said fourteen minutes. And it probably took you, what, half that time to get down here? What if I hadn’t been at the tech labs floor? Then you and Maggie would’ve—”“Alright, nope. That’s enough. We’re not doing this again,” Maggie cut in sharply.Even Alex didn’t know what was going on when Maggie pried Winn away from J’onn and M’gann, reaching her other hand out for Alex’s forearm.“Maggie, what—”“We need to talk. About things we should’ve talked about a very long time ago. We’ll be right back,” Maggie threw over her shoulder to everyone standing in her wake. Maggie weaved the two of them through the mess of people camping out in Block A until they reached a place that looked just big enough for the three of them.“Sit,” Maggie ordered as she let go of them. Then, she added as an afterthought, “Please.”Alex and Winn followed suit, not really knowing what else to do and afraid of what would happen if they didn’t, sitting cross-legged with Maggie on the floor.Maggie looked between the two of them and rubbed a hand over her eyes as if suddenly very exhausted. It was then that Alex realized how tired she was, too. Technically, she had only gotten about four hours of sleep before they were unceremoniously woken up.Maggie took a deep breath in. “First things first, Winn, you gotta stop saying stuff like that. He told me, while you were getting the table,” Maggie glanced at Alex, “that it would be better for us to just leave him there. Which,” she continued before Alex could react, “I told him was bullshit. But, apparently, he doesn’t listen to me.”Winn gaped at her. “I…but it would’ve!”“Did you really think we were just going to up and leave you? Winn, we’re…we’re a team,” Maggie insisted desperately. “We’re still a team. All three of us. And I would really like us to be a team for a very long time.”The three of them were silent for a moment.“Me too,” Winn said quietly.“Okay, so…being a team means no one is left behind. Ever.”“Yeah,” Alex agreed with Maggie. “There is no way in hell I was going to let you possibly die out there, Winn. If I have a chance to save you, I always will.”“Exactly. So will I. It’s just like in the…the arena,” Maggie mentioned, and both Alex and Winn flinched. “We were a team in there, and it doesn’t just stop when we get out. Everything that happened in there, happened. And we were, dare I say, the best team,” Maggie said with a slight smirk. “We did manage to blow up the Careers’ shit.”“That was pretty cool,” Winn chimed in.“It was pretty damn cool. And we did it because we worked together. Even though someone wasn’t one hundred percent on board at the time—”Alex huffed. “I had a reason—”Maggie interlaced their fingers, her dimples showing. “I know, I’m just teasing. But I think…” she turned serious. “I think some of the reason was that you didn’t like being alone for your part of the plan.”Alex pursed her lips.“Like I told you, I hated being alone in there,” Maggie continued.“Oh god, yeah, I hated that, too,” Winn agreed.Maggie nodded. “I didn’t have someone to watch my back. And, granted, I didn’t think I needed anybody to, but…now that I have both of you, and I know what it’s like to be surrounded by people who will, I…” she shrugged. “It feels really good. Doesn’t it?” she asked Alex.She looked a little vulnerable, and Alex could guess just how much it meant for her to say that she had a group of people like that when she’d never really had any before—except for Jamie.Alex shifted her position a bit, trying to keep Maggie’s gaze. She knew exactly what she was referring to in regard to herself. Having someone refuse to let her do things all by herself was something she never knew she needed.Alex smiled. “Yeah. Yeah, it does.”“So, next time, don’t try and tell me you love me right before you leave to do something reckless like you’re never going to see me again.”Winn guffawed. “You did that?”Alex glared at him and could feel her ears get hot. “Shut up.”“Oh, no wonder she’s so mad,” Winn said as if it all made sense to him now.Maggie gently slapped his leg. “I will come with you, whether you like it or not. Ride or die, Danvers,” she said, and it sounded like a promise.Alex didn’t know if it was possible to feel this much love for someone, but she definitely did. And she wanted Maggie to know that that promise would go both ways. She nodded once and repeated back, “Ride or die, Mags.”“Aw, cute.”Alex tore her eyes away from Maggie. “Really? Every time?” she said, exasperated.Winn smiled sheepishly. “Sorry.”“Hey, one more thing,” Maggie said, bringing them back to the discussion at hand. “Being a team means that no one gets left behind. But that also definitely includes no more self-sacrificing crap that I know you two tried to pull during the Games.”Alex leaned back. “Woah, woah, hold up. You also did that, Maggie,” she reminded her.Maggie sighed. “I know. But I had a good reason—”“So did I,” Alex and Winn insisted at the same time.Maggie dipped her head down at that and let out a laugh. “We’re quite a trio, huh?”Alex couldn’t help but agree. Maggie bit her lower lip and reached out for Winn’s hand. Winn clasped hers so the three of them formed an interlocked triangle. It kind of felt like they were back in the cave.Maggie kept going, “I just want us all to promise that, from now on, we’ll be a team. And we understand everything that comes along with that. We’ve been through a lot and I really don’t want to lose what we had.”Alex squeezed both their hands. “I promise.” She knew it was the easiest promise she’d probably ever make.“Yeah, I promise,” Winn vowed.Maggie smiled at the both of them. They all sat there for a minute, not really wanting to break this little bubble they had.“Well,” Winn finally said with a sigh, “as much as I’d like to stay here and continue this little chat, I think J’onn wants to yell at me some more.”“Oh, he definitely does,” Alex agreed.Winn stuck his tongue out at her and got up. He was about to walk away, but then he paused and spun around again.“I guess what I should’ve said earlier was…thank you,” he told both of them before flicking his eyes to Alex, “for finding me. And not giving up on me.” He smiled, and before Alex could even come up with a response, he’d turned on his heel and left.Alex tipped her head down to hide her growing smile, feeling Maggie’s eyes on her.“So, um…I need to thank you, too,” Alex started to say. She lifted her gaze again to Maggie. “For not listening to me.”“Alex…”Alex wrung her hands together. Winn was right, that was probably the primary reason Maggie was mad, so she tried to explain. “It was…a very stressful situation, and I needed to think fast. And my first instinct is to keep you safe. Which means keeping you away from whatever shit I’m about to get myself into.”Maggie managed a small laugh at that. “Alex, I would much rather be with you, unsafe, then alone or not with you. And if that means following you to whatever you’re leaping face-first into, then I will. I want to.”“Yeah, I keep forgetting that,” Alex said, her voice quiet. “But the same goes for you, with me.”It was then that Alex realized that if the situation had been flipped, there was no world in which she wouldn’t have gone with Maggie. She never would’ve let Maggie do something like that by herself if she could be with her and help. She felt like a bit of a hypocrite. But hopefully, someday soon, Alex wouldn’t have to remember that Maggie wanted to be—and would be—by her side, always; she’d get used to it, and it would be a new normal. Maggie nodded in understanding. She tilted her head towards where they’d came from before. “Should we go back? They’ve already started camping out over there.”“Yeah, let’s go.”Maggie put her hand on top of Alex’s, allowing Alex to pull her to her feet. Maggie leaned into her side as they made their way over, and Alex, after a quick glance around to make sure no one was really watching them, kissed her cheek. She felt Maggie smile against her shoulder and savored the warmth of her hand in her own.They took their time as there was a short lull in chaos, allowing Alex to survey the room around her. They stepped over and around various laid-out blankets and lanterns and bags and people. Everyone was huddled into groups of five to ten, presumably with their families and neighbors.A thought popped into Alex’s mind that they all looked like sitting ducks waiting for something worse to happen, but she just shook it off.She hoped someone would tell them all what was going on, soon.Mostly because she had a strange feeling that all of this was just the beginning.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
They all managed to sleep on-and-off for about four hours, but babies crying and people attempting to talk in hushed tones didn’t allow them to get much rest. Soon, everybody was awake again and only a few toddlers managed to sleep through everything.Sometimes the room would shake, and Alex just hoped that everything above them wasn’t crumbling to pieces.The low lamps in the holding block would flicker but stay on, thankfully.Her eyelids still felt heavy, her head a bit cloudy, but she was more awake than before.She could feel Kara’s head resting against her upper arm, Maggie’s hand in hers on the other side. As long as she could feel them, her pulse didn’t quicken when she had a bad, spiraling thought.“So, no one brought games to play?” Winn said from across the circle they’d all formed to lighten the mood.It did make Kara, who was sitting on Eliza’s lap, laugh and Alex roll her eyes.Alex could look around and see everyone she’d let in, everyone she trusted, everyone that had helped her through the hard times and made them better. She saw her family.She saw the people she wanted to have in her life when this was all over.The last time they’d all been together at the same time had been during Winn’s birthday party, probably. Since then, all nine of them hadn’t been able to eat meals at the same time or even just hang out, ever.Alex took a mental snapshot of this moment in case she wouldn’t get it again for awhile. And James, who was seated by Winn, seemed to have the same idea.Alex caught him sneaking a picture—because of course he’d brought his camera down here—and dipped her head to hide her smile. She would ask him for a copy of that later when he developed it.Actually, she had to remember to ask him to see the photo room, too. She’d been meaning to get down there and see how it all worked.“I should’ve brought some playing cards,” Maggie added with a smirk.Alex furrowed her brow. “What are playing cards?”“Like, you know…a deck of playing cards,” Maggie repeated as if Alex should know what those were. Alex had no idea what she was talking about, and the rest of her immediate family didn’t either.“You all didn’t have those?” M’gann asked. “We had a deck or two in my house.”Maggie agreed. “Yeah, same here.”M’gann seemed to realize something amidst the confusion coming from a majority of the circle. “Oh, you…we had them, in the Capitol.”“And I guess in District 1,” Maggie added. She wrung her hands together; she didn’t even like mentioning District 1. She didn’t like talking about the home she’d lived in for most of her life.It was a stark reminder for Alex that Maggie and M’gann had things in common. Probably a lot more things in common than she and Maggie did. They’d both grown up in or near the Capitol, meaning they’d had a lot more luxuries than the rest of them did.All of them had lived in Panem, but sometimes the difference between the two halves—as Alex classified them in her mind—was a bigger gap than she realized. The Capitol, as well as Districts 1 and 2, were so separate from the rest.It was simple things, like playing cards, that highlighted it.Alex learned that there were fifty-two cards in each deck, and they were numbered one to ten plus the face cards. There were hundreds of games to play with them, but Maggie and M’gann only knew about five each.It was something to do to pass the time, they said.Alex’s version of “passing the time” had been training with J’onn, taking care of Kara (and Eliza), assisting with her mother’s patients, or reading every schoolbook she could get her hands on to make sure that she was on top of her classes and, oftentimes, ahead.She remembered how Maggie’s mentor during the Games had sent her extra items while Alex and Winn weren’t. They’d gotten their second mentor cut before the Games even started.But she wondered if it was even worth spending time thinking about—all of these parts of Maggie’s life she couldn’t comprehend because she’d never had the chance to experience them herself. Did it matter? They were all in District 13 now, in this bunker. They each had rations, they each only had the clothes off their backs.And, it was worth pointing out, Maggie and M’gann weren’t like the others in the luxury districts. They were grounded; they saw the ugliness and corruption amid the glittery picture the Capitol tried to sell its citizens. They fought against it just like the rest of them. That was the most important part.It had been Maggie’s intimate knowledge of how the Careers worked—and her hatred of them—that led to the trio’s success in knocking them down a peg during the Games.They were all equal now—as equal as they could be.They’d all been shoved underground into hiding.Or, not really hiding. Alex didn’t like that word. District 13 was being smart, keeping their most important assets—their people—safe. It didn’t matter how many guns or cannons you had unless you also had people to fire them. People who were willing to fire them.Alex checked her watch. It had been six hours since the alarm had gone off, and no news since then.She wondered how much damage had been done, and if there was more to come.Alex noticed Kara staring at something across the room almost wistfully. Alex craned her neck as subtlety as she could, following Kara’s line of sight.Most kids were with their parents, but about ten or so that looked a older—maybe Winn or James’ ages—had made their own circle. Alex saw some smiles on their faces; they were entertaining themselves.Alex looked back at Kara, who hadn’t taken her gaze off of them.“Hey,” Alex said quietly, and Kara finally turned her head back. “You should go and take Winn and James over there.”Kara scratched at her arm. “What? No, I can’t…I’m not gonna leave you right now. Or Mom.”Alex saw Jeremiah glance over at them, but Alex just laid a hand on Kara’s.“Kara, they look like they’re having fun. Well, as much fun as they can have. Maybe you can make some friends.”“What’s going on?” Eliza said, pressing her temple against Kara’s from behind.Kara seemed to burrow more into Eliza’s lap. Alex sighed and spoke up. “There’s a group of kids over there, you guys should join them.” She looked at Winn and James.She wanted Kara to have as normal of a childhood as possible, which was becoming difficult with each passing day. Kara spent her hours with Alex or Eliza. Sometimes her and Winn hung out, too, but there was no harm in branching out a little.“What if something happens?” Kara asked.“Then we’ll be right here. We’re all in the same bunker, Kara,” Alex reminded her. She looked to her mom for help.“Alex is right,” Eliza said. “You can’t be hanging out with us boring grown-ups all the time. They seem to be making up games and such.”“Oh, Brainy’s over there,” Winn said, perking up. “That’s not his real name. But he works in the tech labs, too. He’s really smart,” he explained.“See? C’mon,” Alex stood and held her hand out for Kara. Winn and James were already getting up. “Go meet that Brainy kid and the others.” Kara reluctantly took her hand, and Eliza pushed her up as well. “And maybe meet a girl, too, to make friends with,” Alex said next, only to Kara. “You can’t hang with those guys all the time.”Kara finally nodded. “Okay.”Alex ruffled Kara’s hair before giving her a little push and was grateful that Winn came around and put an arm over her shoulders to steer her.Alex sat back down with the—now slightly smaller—group. She looked to J’onn.“Do you have any contact with President Grant?” she asked, but he shook his head.Alex had been hoping he had, as President Grant had very quickly moved him up the ladder in terms of seniority within the DEO. He was level-headed and practical, and he knew how to strategize, which made him very valuable.“She has not called on me since we’ve been down here. I admit, I may have ignored a message or two while I was looking for Winn,” J’onn glanced away for a moment, “but she has not given me any information.”Alex heard her father sigh. “My guess would be that they’d keep us down here for a few hours after everything stops shaking, just to ensure that another attack isn’t coming,” he said.“So you think it was an attack?” Maggie asked. She pointed between herself and Alex. “That’s what we thought.”“It wasn’t an earth tremor, that’s for sure,” Alex commented.“No, definitely not,” M’gann agreed.Then, Eliza asked a question Alex was sure she wouldn’t ask if Kara was around. “What kind of bombs are we making? To counteract their attacks?”Everyone was silent for a moment, prompting her to continue with, “What? It is a valid question, which I’m sure there is an answer to.”Jeremiah laid a hand on hers. “Lizzie, I’m sure if we were, they would be kept secret.”“If we were?” Eliza asked. “We must be. All of our children are involved in this war, contrary to my belief that they should not, and in order to win we need to fight fire with fire. We cannot win with peaceful discussions.”“You’re right,” J’onn piped up. “Discussions are definitely part of it, from what I gather from meetings with President Grant. And I believe that we are making bombs, but I am unsure of the scale.”A thought popped into Alex’s head that hadn’t before, and she realized that she knew a better, more specific answer to Eliza’s question. And two others did, too.She’d kind of forgotten about it, what with everything else that was going on. But how could she have? She thought about not bringing it up, but her mother seemed very intent on getting to the bottom of this, so…“There’s a plan to make a group of explosives, actually,” Alex said, her voice low. Mostly because she didn’t want anyone else around them to hear. She wanted to take it back as soon as she said it.Alex felt everyone’s eyes on her and Maggie shift beside her as if she had just remembered as well.“How do you know that?” J’onn asked.“Winn,” Maggie said, so Alex wouldn’t have to. “He told us yesterday. He found blueprints in a drawer in the tech labs that he wasn’t supposed to find.”Eliza let out a sharp breath. Alex had a feeling her growing frustration with the DEO and President Grant was slowly reaching a breaking point—anything dangerous and deadly involving the younger ones of the group was bound to make her seethe.“Is he involved with the project? Is he…programming the bombs?” J’onn inquired as if he didn’t want to know the answer.Alex shook her head. “I don’t think so. He’s not even supposed to know about it. We all aren’t supposed to, actually, so maybe don’t mention—”“Alex,” M’gann interrupted her, looking at something over her head.Alex swiveled around, and there was Agent Vasquez.Vasquez was the director of Alex and Maggie’s filming sessions, but she wasn’t much older than them. Alex guessed she was about twenty. Alex didn’t know her very well, but she seemed nice. If not a little demanding sometimes.But now she was here with her small crew of two behind her. And they had two cameras with them—the filming ones. Which normally wouldn’t be surprising. Yet, given the circumstances…Vasquez lifted a hand up in greeting as she came closer, stepping around people on her way. Alex and Maggie locked eyes.“Are we…do you think we’re filming down here? Right now?” Maggie asked. Alex shrugged. They both got to their feet.Their confusion must have been evident, as Vasquez held a finger out towards them to stop the barrage of questions she knew was coming and put her other hand on her hip.“I hope everyone’s doing okay,” she started with. “President Grant sent me—us—to shoot some material. She thought it necessary for both the people down here and those up above to hear an update from you both.”They knew “up above” meant those in the Resistance. The Capitol had been trying to label them and the whole movement as the Rebellion, but President Grant kept insisting on the former.Maggie tilted her head. “An update?”“Yeah. An update and a kind of…” Vasquez paused to gather her words before settling on, “call-to-action.”That did not clear anything up for Alex. “What d—”Vasquez just silenced her by handing her and Maggie one-page scripts to start reading and memorizing, most likely. Usually their scripts were three or four pages, but this one had probably been typed up quicker than the others.Alex felt Eliza put a hand on her shoulder. “Everything okay?” she asked.Alex glanced at her. “Um, yeah. We just gotta film some stuff, I guess. Last minute. I didn’t know we were doing this.”“Well, okay. Have fun,” she said with a wink. Alex huffed out a breath.Her mother knew how ‘fun’ this usually was for her. But filming, Eliza had argued more than once, was much safer than going into the field. She didn’t mind the filming aspect of this at all. But she wasn’t even the one actually doing it.“My team will go and scope out a good space,” Vasquez said next, indicating to her crew to go and do just that, “and we’ll start taping in fifteen minutes. Sound good?” A smirk formed on her face at their reactions. “You don’t have to have it memorized. Just get familiar with the wording, we’ll have the prompter. Follow me.”Vasquez started walking, and Alex and Maggie had no choice but to listen. Maggie pulled Alex—who was trying to start skimming what was on the paper—after her.
A.D.: Citizens of Panem and the Resistance, we have spent months building and forming an unstoppable coalition of fighters to take down the Capitol and its regime. People who believe that fighting for a better, more equal, more harmonious nation is necessary. And a possibility.
M.S.: We have shown our strength, determination, and resilience in the face of a regime that preys on its own and specifically targets those who dissent from their ways. They have hurt us, and destroyed our neighbors, our homes, our families. They have shown no restraint and, to combat this violence, neither can we. Recently…
Alex stopped reading momentarily when she bumped into someone. She almost scoffed at all the flowery language. But this was pretty standard. She always wished it sounded more…real, or something.The only part that seemed different this time around was, she noted when her line of sight jumped down to the end, the call-to-action that Vasquez had mentioned before. It didn’t really sound like a specific order or anything, but maybe it wasn’t for her to understand.They were standing around waiting for Vasquez’s crew’s go-ahead, and Alex noticed those around them start peering at them. She guessed it was kind of hard to miss the camera crew and the both of them standing while most everyone else wasn’t.Vasquez clapped as she came up beside them, startling them both. “Alright you two, finished yet? We want to get this started A.S.A.P.” They must not have looked sure, as Vasquez relented a bit. “Read it over once more, then we’ll begin. As always, Alex on the right, Maggie on the left. And don’t forget—we’re live this time.”Alex’s eyes widened; Maggie had a similar reaction.“Wait, what? We’re gonna be live?”Vasquez turned back around at that. “Oh. Did I not mention that? Yes, we’ll be live. It’ll be fine, you’ve done this before.”“Yeah, once,” Maggie reminded her.And that time they’d gotten even more prep time than usual.“It’ll be okay. You have the prompter. And you guys are pros by now.”Alex scoffed at that. They were hardly pros. “It’s only eight in the morning, will anyone be awake? And can we even get signal down here?”“Yes, we can get a signal. And, might I remind you, all these people are awake,” Vasquez said, gesturing to the entire room. “I guarantee you those up above are, too. There’s no time for beauty sleep in the midst of a war, Alex.”That’s not what Alex had meant, but she didn’t get a chance to defend herself before one of Vasquez’s assistants came over to move them to their places to set up the shot.Alex decided to ignore Vasquez’s answer and concentrate on this speech she was supposed to deliver in less than two minutes.Before she knew it, Maggie was squeezing her hand and—thankfully—not letting go. She whispered, “You’ll do great,” in her ear. Like she usually did.Alex knew Maggie was more nervous this time, but she always seemed to calm down right before they started. And she always smiled at Alex, her dimples on display, which made Alex smile back.They were now facing the crowd of people who had been told to quiet down for a short period of time. Which just made more of them curious as to why. The number of eyes on them grew each minute. All of it, frankly, was not helping.Vasquez took her place behind the camera. She held up three fingers and mouthed, “Three, two, one,” as she put each of them down.The red light turned on. She pointed to Alex.
Go.
“Citizens of Panem and the Resistance, we have spent months…” Alex started to say, her eyes following along with the scrolling words.As much as Alex disliked doing this, she had to admit that she wasn’t half bad at it.She could usually follow directions, and she instinctively knew when to pause and put emphasis on certain phrases. She attributed it to the fact that the writing team had learned how she spoke and, thus, wrote the speeches so the words slid right off her tongue.“Hope has been our primary tool of resistance…until now,” Maggie was saying about a minute in. “President Snow has attempted to destroy this hope, but we must not let it dim. Every bit of anger, of disgust, of contempt for them and their actions is valid. We must choose hope over fear.”Alex took a short breath in, seeing her initials pop up on the screen again. “With hope, we can brave every bit of the storms that may come. I…” Alex paused for a moment. She didn’t mind the “we” statements. It was the “I”’s she had to be careful of. But their team knew what they were doing. So at the touch of Maggie’s thumb rubbing against hers, she continued. “I hope to hear my children, and my children’s children, say that when we were tested at every turn, we refused to let this journey end. We did not turn back. We did not falter.”She glanced at Maggie as Maggie started up again.It wasn’t really the “I” that had made her stumble this time, she realized. It was “hope.” I hope to hear my children, she’d said.She was eighteen—almost nineteen—years old. And here she was, saying she saw the kind of future for herself that only existed in her mind. One that, right now, was clouded by the immeasurable odds stacked against them. One she had to fight tooth and nail for.She brought herself back to the present. They had already moved on from that word.She itched to say something more about it, but she couldn’t even form coherent thoughts. Let alone figure out how to articulate them.And Alex knew that what was said next would be important. So she just opened her mouth to say her last handful of lines.“Today,” she read off the prompter again, “Yes, today, we start fighting back with our resources. We’ve made our plans. We’ve endured the bombs they’ve thrown at us. We’ve built a Resistance, an unstoppable force, and now we must use it. We must begin the middle of this fight. Good luck.”Vasquez let the camera run for a few more seconds before she signaled to her crew to cut the broadcast.Once that red light turned off, Alex’s body sagged.Then, she caught J’onn’s eye.And she could tell, right away, that that last phrase she’d said meant something to him. Judging by the expression on his face, it was far from empty words.Alex wondered what she had just done.------They didn’t get an update on the situation until twelve hours into the lockdown.President Grant’s voice finally came through the speaker in the bunker, and everyone fell silent.There was a crackle when her feed connected to the speakers, but before long her voice filled the thickening air.“Citizens of District 13, this is President Grant. I hope you are all well. All of our citizens are accounted for and are in one of our bunkers, safe. I thank you for your patience, cooperation, and teamwork during this time.”“When is she actually going to tell us what the hell’s happening?” Alex muttered, and Maggie gave her a slightly reprimanding look.“I have no doubt that you are all wondering why we called this emergency. The truth…” There was an uncharacteristic pause. “The truth is that we were attacked.”Alex glanced around to find people’s eyes widening, their whispers gaining volume. “At approximately two thirteen a.m., the Capitol fired a succession of bombs—the type of which is yet to be identified—and managed to destroy a section of our living quarters. But do not fear—”That’ll be easy, Alex thought.“—we have prepared for this situation. Those in sections twenty-two through twenty-six of housing will have to be moved elsewhere, meaning some of those in the other blocks will have to compromise and combine rooms for the time being. This will be assigned as needed. Otherwise, we are perfectly safe and no other damage was done. For your continued safety and well-being, however, we will stay in the holding blocks until we are absolutely certain that the attack is over. Thank you all, again, for your cooperation and patience.”President Grant’s strategy seemed to be: give them enough of the truth so they feel like you’re telling them something, but don’t actually say anything of substance.Alex wondered if she and Maggie—or at least J’onn and M’gann—would get some more useful information soon. Alex would have to bug J’onn later.Right now, he was talking to Winn, no doubt asking him about what Alex had told them earlier. Alex hoped Winn wouldn’t be mad at her for spilling what was supposed to be a secret. “Hey, you’re Alex!” Alex furrowed her brow and spun around, and Maggie did the same next to her. They were wandering around, trying to release their nervous energy. It was difficult to just sit there waiting for nothing.But now, Alex had a distraction.A tiny, adorable distraction.Alex couldn’t help a smile as her eyes landed on the little girl who had called her name in a squeaky voice.The girl’s eyes widened as she turned her attention to Maggie. “And—and you’re Maggie Sawyer!”Maggie let out a laugh and nodded. “I am.”Alex leaned down to match the girl’s height. She couldn’t have been more than five years old. A bit younger than when Kara had first came to their home in District 12.The girl still seemed to be in shock, and Alex wondered where her parents were. Or if she had any. She was clutching a blanket to her chest that trailed on the ground behind her. Her brown hair was long and tangled.“What’s your name?” Alex asked her softly.“Nora.”“Nora. That’s a pretty name,” Maggie said, getting on her knees.“Thank you,” she said, ducking her head. “Where are your parents?”Nora looked back at Alex. “Sleeping. In the corner, over there,” she said, pointing behind her. “They’re really tired.”Alex tried to locate adults that might look like they could be this girl’s parents, but she got an unexpected question before she could do so.“Were you scared?”Nora’s big brown eyes were wide as she looked expectantly at Alex.“What...what do you mean?” Alex asked, focusing back on her.“When you’re on the camera. Were you scared?”Alex sat back on her heels, feeling she owed it to this little girl who seemed in awe of her to lie. “No, not at all.”Because of course she was scared. She was scared every day, about a lot of things. And, yes, about being on camera. But Nora didn’t need to know that. “It’s our job,” Maggie interjected. “The President asks us to do it.”The girl’s eyes widened again. “The President? I saw her one time.” She hesitated before whispering, “She’s scary.” Alex laughed. “Yes, she is a bit scary. But she’s doing a good job being President, huh?”“Yeah. She makes us safe.”Alex nodded and glanced at Maggie, who pressed her lips together. “Yeah, she does.”All of a sudden, Alex wished she were five again. She wished she didn’t know just how complicated the world was. She wanted to see it like Nora, black or white. Good or bad. Safe or unsafe.The gray uncertainty of it all was almost overwhelming.“Do you love her?”The question—once again directed at Alex—wasn’t asked with giddiness, as if Nora was asking about a secret. It was asked with concern, it had weight behind it, which made Alex furrow her brow.Nora went on before Alex could get anything out.“Mommy says that she doesn’t believe you on the screen sometimes ‘cause you’re too young. She says that you’re acting for everybody so that people will fight. But Daddy says it’s real. Do you love her for real?”Alex’s mouth was agape. Nora had ran through all that so fast, and she probably didn’t even realize what exactly she was repeating.Nora’s mother didn’t believe any of it was real. Her father did, but Alex wondered how many other people thought they were putting on a show. It a spark of anger flare up in Alex’s chest, but she stamped it down.“Of course I do,” Alex said, a bit sternly. Then she remembered she was just answering a curious little girl and softened her features. She reached out for Maggie’s hand and squeezed it. “I love her a lot.”Nora smiled. “For real?”Alex nodded and looked at Maggie, whose eyes were shining. “For real. I promise.”She thought that would be the end, that Nora would be satisfied, and then...“But you don’t kiss her.” There seemed to be no filter on this girl. “Mommy and Daddy kiss each other. Sometimes at dinner. And I see you at dinner and you don’t kiss her.”Alex blinked as the words seemed to hit her right in the stomach.Because this wasn’t a little girl repeating what she’d heard her parents say. This was a little girl, a stranger, noticing something Alex had been trying to understand herself for awhile now. Something Alex hoped even Maggie wouldn’t notice.Which Alex knew was stupid because Maggie didn’t miss much.She probably didn’t miss the way Alex had started hesitating.The way she looked around now to make sure that they were alone—or at least that no one was watching—before thinking about kissing her.The way her mind always made her self-conscious about showing affection in front of other people.Alex didn’t know what was wrong with her. She just knew that this had started happening and she didn’t like to think about it. Mostly because she couldn’t understand why she felt like this.But now it was in the open.Alex couldn’t get herself to speak; she was numb.Maggie spoke up for her. “That doesn’t mean anything. I love her, and she loves me. People show it in different ways. Everything between us is real. You believe that, don’t you?” Nora nodded, clutching her blanket closer to her. “You look at her like Mommy looks at Daddy.”Maggie smiled. “Exactly. And—”She didn’t get to finish because, just then, they were all plunged into darkness.The lights hadn’t even flickered before they’d powered down. Every single one of them at once. Some kids screamed, and Alex’s gut dropped.What was happening now?She was glad she was still holding onto Maggie; her next instinct was to reach out for Nora.She felt her blanket and grabbed onto the hand tightened around it. She heard tiny, sharp breaths. “Nora, it’s okay. It’s me, it’s Alex.”Alex shut her eyes for a second, but when she opened them, they hadn’t adjusted to the darkness at all. There was no light, anywhere.“Someone turn on a light!” She said loudly, turning her head so as not to shout in Nora’s face.“Mommy!”“Nora, it’s okay.”Finally, someone flicked on a flashlight, and then more turned on one by one. Not everyone had one, but enough did so Alex could make out shapes around her.“We have to find her parents,” Maggie said, and Alex agreed.Alex asked Nora if she could pick her up before hoisting her on her hip. The corner. She’d said they were in the corner.“Can you go find Kara, please?” Alex asked Maggie. “Just to make sure she’s not alone.”Maggie hesitated before nodding. Her hand slipped out of Alex’s as she went.Alex hugged the tiny body in her arms, trying to soothingly smooth her hand up and down Nora’s back. She carefully stepped over and around those camped out.It took another minute, in which Alex was asking her meaningless questions to distract her, but Nora lit up as she heard a woman’s voice calling her name.“Mommy!” Nora’s mom materialized out of a group of people, her face thick with worry and, a moment later, relief as she saw her daughter in Alex’s arms. She wasn’t even that much older than Alex.“Oh, my baby girl!” She ran up to them and scooped Nora up, pressing her to her chest. “Thank you, thank y—”She finally looked up, and Alex wrung her hands in front of her.“You’re…”“That’s Alex, Mommy.”“Yeah, I know, baby,” the woman whispered to Nora, a disbelieving laugh escaping her. “Thank you.”“No problem,” Alex said with a smile. “It was nice to meet you, Nora. Please stay safe. Maybe next time don’t wander off without your Mommy or Daddy knowing, okay?”Nora turned sheepish. “Okay.”Alex could feel the mother’s eyes on her as she turned away and started back to look for Maggie and the others.She thought about stopping, about telling that woman how wrong she was. She wanted to tell her that everything was real, and that was the point. How could anyone risk their lives for something that wasn’t real? Alex could never even imagine being comfortable with asking people to fight if it was all a lie.But maybe her daughter would tell her what Alex had said. And if she didn’t, so what? Alex knew it was real. That was all that mattered.She wasn’t going to let it bother her. She had much more important things to worry about.------The lights didn’t turn back on until a couple hours later.They weren’t told why it happened, but Alex guessed that they were conserving energy. The attack had been worse than President Grant made it out to be.She was probably right, as they didn’t get to sleep in their rooms that night.No one was let out of the bunkers for another eighteen hours. A full day and a half since the alarm had gone off.Alex had missed her chance at a date with Maggie, the one she’d set up right before everything went to shit. She tried to make it her priority to give her one anyway as soon as they were let back upstairs, but there was too much to do.Winn, J’onn, and M’gann were moved into Maggie’s room per the President’s team’s rearrangement of the sleeping facilities. Eliza and Jeremiah were moved into Alex and Kara’s. It was actually a pretty good scenario, given that they all could’ve been separated.But Alex didn’t even have a chance to get used to it before her, Maggie, and J’onn were called in by the DEO.And Alex didn’t miss the hitch in Maggie’s breath when the President said that they had to leave for District 4 tonight.They didn’t have time to wait any longer, to let the Capitol orchestrate another attack.President Grant wasn’t saying it outright, but Alex could see the meaning behind her words. Especially as she remembered what she’d said in that live speech down in the holding blocks.For the first time since all this had started, District 13 and their allies up above were going on the offensive.