Archive of Our Own

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Six months ago, Alex had loved the birthday surprise of getting her own bedroom. She loved her twin sister, she did, but after nine years together, they were ready to make their spaces. The ceiling full of glow-in-the-dark stars was her favorite part of having a room all to herself.As she held her nose to avoid sneezing, she couldn’t spend another minute in the big, lonely room. Taking a breath, Alex rolled her eyes before squeezing them shut. She tried to swallow against the cough and barely managed. Carefully twisting the knob to Sam’s room, she glanced down the hall at her parents’ room to make sure they were still asleep. She opened the door just enough to let herself in before softly closing it.“Sam?” Alex tiptoed closer. “Sam?”Sam groaned, then coughed. “Al?”Alex twisted her hands in Sam’s surfboard print sheets. “Can I sleep with you?”Sam didn’t say anything, just shifted over. Relief swept through Alex as she climbed into the bed.  She wanted to curl up close to her sister, but they were both so hot, it wouldn’t be comfortable. She settled for holding Sam’s hand.“Got you, Al,” Sam murmured, fingers barely flexing in Alex’s. She coughed again, the hacking sound rough enough to shake the bed.Alex closed her eyes. Sam was with her. They could make it through this stupid flu together.Alex woke up to her nose feeling like an ice cube. The blankets were heavy and itchy and smelled weird. Her eyes refused to open, she was so exhausted. “Sa-“ She coughed, tears filling her eyes at the pain when she couldn’t stop.“Shh, Alex, shhh,” her mom said, her hand on Alex’s hair. “Sam is with Dad, okay?”“Wan’ Sam.” Alex didn’t care that she sounded like a baby. She wanted her sister.“I know, honey, I know.” Her voice got softer. “Go back to sleep, sweetie.”Alex was so tired, she couldn’t fight the suggestion.It was dark when Alex woke up. Seeing a hospital room made her wake up faster. The lights were off, and the sky was black outside the window. Everything ached. She yawned, wincing when her throat protested. “S-Sam?”Something moved by the window. Her mom stood from a couch, and her dad was pushing himself up. Alex looked to the other side of the room, but there was no bed for Sam.“Where’s Sam?” It hurt to talk, her throat and her chest and ears ached.Her mom simply put a hand on her head and looked down. Her dad moved to the other side of the bed and sat on the edge. Something was wrong. They were both so sad.“Alex, sweetie…” He took a deep breath and put his hands where one of her’s were under the blankets. “Sam was very sick. A lot worse than you.”“Daddy, where’s Sammy?”“Alex…” He swallowed, tears starting to escape his eyes. “Alex, we’re in the hospital because the two of you were so sick. And Sam, she… The flu hit her harder. Alex, honey, Sam is…”“No. No!” Everything hurt as she struggled to get out of the covers. “No! Sam! Sammy!”Her dad lay half on top of her and hugged her tight. Her mom's sobs broke loose as she lowered her head next to Alex's. But Alex didn’t want them. She wanted her sister. She wanted Sam.Alex screamed for Sam until her throat gave up.Alex doesn’t remember Sam’s funeral. She doesn’t remember the crowd of people, how her dress itched, or how hot she was under the sun. She doesn’t remember the wake or who hugged her.She remembered claiming Sam’s surfboard when her parents finally opened the door to Sam’s room. Alex’s board was longer and wider, easier to control. Sam had been trying to learn how to do tricks on her board. That was the only thing Alex remembered taking from Sam’s room.Alex doesn’t remember much of the school year. The only thing she can recall is when Trevor Green decided he could shove her around again.“Who’s gonna save you now, nerd?” He shoved his hand in her face, smashing her glasses into her eyes. “No Sammy here to sto-”Alex didn’t know how to fight, not back then. But she did know how much it hurt when something hard hit a face. She’s not too sure how she and Trevor ended up on the ground, with him crying as she pounded her fists into his nose.She remembers it wasn’t a teacher who yanked her off, but Vicky Donahue and Josie Newman.“If you say Sam’s name again,” Vicky told Trevor, “we’re not stopping Alex next time.”Trevor never bothered her afterward. No one teased her for being a nerd ever again. Alex knows she got in trouble for breaking Trevor’s nose, but she doesn’t remember that part. She knows that’s when Vicky became her and Josie’s friend.Alex wished she remembered more of her time with Sam. She understood childhood memories fade. There were so many home movies of them, but Alex couldn’t watch them. She didn’t know if she ever could.Alex spent a whole month being angry when Kara moved into Sam’s room. It wasn’t Kara’s fault. Alex knew that. Sam’s room had become a kind of storage room. No one used it. Her mom didn’t go into it if she could help it. Kara made it her own space.Alex realized, years later, she was mad at Kara for erasing any chance of Sam somehow, some way, coming back.At the time, however, Alex was just mad at how quick her parents were to call Kara her sister, how much they looked after Kara, how easily Alex was to blame for Kara’s shortcomings. Alex and Sam had never been held to the same standards; Alex was the straight-A student, but Sam never struggled in school. Sam liked sports, and while Alex didn't follow Sam out onto every field, they shared a love of surfing. Now, if Kara wasn’t doing well, it was Alex’s fault.Then Alex and Kara went on that stupid flight. Then her dad was taken. Then her dad was dead.Alex didn’t talk to Kara for a week. Kara had tried to say something to her, but Alex didn’t want to hear it.“Go away and stop pretending we’re EVER going to be sisters. I already lost my REAL sister. And now, because of you, my dad is gone, too.”Kara, at least, knew better than to bring up Sam. Kara never said Sam’s name, never asked about her, and never said anything about Alex’s twin, ever.Alex eventually learned to love Kara, learned how to accept Kara as her own person and not as Sam’s replacement. Kara became Alex’s to protect, just as Sam had looked out for Alex. She learned how to be just a little bit tougher, learned how to be a bit more like Sam when it came to Kara.Alex brought a handful of pictures of her and Sam to National City when she went to college. It was easier to look at pictures of Sam than her mom and Kara. It was easier to remember the dreams they had than to live up to the expectations.Or, well, it was easier for a while.But the work got harder, Kara was in National City as well, and Eliza never let up. Alex had to keep up on her studies and make sure Kara had no problems, ever.Alex woke up hungover one afternoon, stared at the picture of her and Sam at the beach, and threw up. Once her stomach settled, and the world stopped spinning, Alex boxed up the photos of Sam.Her sister was gone. Their childhood dreams meant nothing. Alex was already going to fail Kara and Eliza. She couldn’t bear it if Sam’s forever young eyes watched her fail as well.Alex never spoke of Sam. Kara knew better, and Eliza never wanted to talk about the daughter she lost. As far as Alex knew, the only records of Sam existed in the hospital and school. She certainly never told her brief boyfriends, her coworkers, or the handful of friends she slowly made when Kara became Supergirl.But then Maggie happened. And Lucy. And they were still going strong after a year. Maybe, just maybe, they could be told. But did it matter? After twenty years, what point was there?Then Lucy got sick. Working underground, away from the sun, around so many aliens, with circulated air, it was bound to happen. Alex was only surprised it didn’t happen sooner. Lucy was sick and refused to wait in medical for it to pass. Alex couldn’t really force the issue, given how many times she walked out and insisted on healing at home.Except… Lucy was running a fever. And she was coughing. She sounded horrible. Alex made sure to be at her side for every hack, made sure Lucy took her medicine on time and stayed up all night to watch over her. Alex held Lucy’s wrist, keeping a constant measure of her pulse.Only when Maggie woke up the next day did Alex close her eyes.“If you need a nap, wake me up. Understood, Sawyer?”Maggie nodded slowly. “You got it, Danvers.”Alex didn’t see the strange look her girlfriends were giving her as she passed out. She didn’t know Maggie texted Kara about her behavior, didn’t know Kara lied and told her that Alex was just in doctor mode.(Kara knew how Sam died. By the time Kara had come to live with them, they could stand to had a few pictures of Sam on the walls again. Kara never asked, but Alex knew her parents had told her.)A coughing fit startled Alex awake. She reached across the bed- “Sam?”The world came into focus. Her apartment. Her bed, with Maggie and Lucy. Maggie and Lucy, looking at her with confusion. Kara standing at the foot of the bed with pints of ice cream, eyes wide.Alex rubbed at her eyes. “What?”“Who’s Sam?” Lucy asked, voice hoarse.Alex felt her brain crash. She looked at Kara, her stomach sinking.Kara nodded slowly. “You said her name when you heard Lucy cough.” She was quiet, careful. She put the bag of ice cream down at the foot of the bed and sat next to Alex. “Breathe, Alex.”Alex squeezed her sister’s hand. Sister. Her chest seized.“Hey, Alex,” Kara moved closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and turning her to face Lucy and Maggie. “Tell me who they are.”“Lucy. Maggie.”“What year is it?”“2018.”“Where are we?”“National City.”“This isn’t Midvale. It’s not 1998. Lucy is here, and she’s getting better, okay?”Alex nodded jerkily. “Kara-”“I know, Alex, I know.” She pressed a kiss to Alex’s hair. “I can tell them?”Alex shook her head. “No, I should-”“It doesn’t have to be right now,” Maggie said, soft and steady.Alex swallowed. She looked at her girlfriends, held their gazes one after another. They were so worried, so full of love. Maggie never spoke of her parents, Lucy rarely spoke of her mother. They would understand? The loss, this kind of pain, they wouldn’t judge her? They wouldn’t hate her?Alex licked her lips. “Sam-” Fuck, it had been years since she said that name. “Sam’s my sister. She… She was my twin.”Maggie gasped. Lucy’s jaw dropped. Kara squeezed her shoulders.“We were nine. The flu hit us hard. We were hospitalized.” Alex swallowed the knot in her throat. “Sam didn’t…”She couldn’t say it.Twenty years later, and she still couldn’t say it.Kara kissed the side of her head. “It’s okay, Alex, breathe for us.”She did. Barely. Sorta. “Kara doesn’t get sick. Mom… was never sick enough for me to notice. I haven’t… I haven’t been around someone I love who’s been sick. Lucy, your cough, I’m sorry-”“Hey.” Lucy shifted and wrapped Alex in a hug. “Don’t ever apologize for caring about us, okay?” Her voice was so scratchy. She sat back. “We can sign me into medical right now if you want.”Alex wanted to say yes, but her heart began to race. Lucy, on a gurney, connected to machines, coughing-“Breathe, Alex,” Kara murmured.She did.“How about I stay here with you guys?” Kara offered. “I can tell Lucy is getting better, I can hear it in her lungs and heartbeat. I can keep track of her vitals for you, and if anything changes, I’ll fly her straight to the DEO, okay?”Alex looked to Maggie and Lucy, wanting to say yes, but not wanting to force Kara on them. They nodded in agreement, and so did Alex.Kara reached for the bag of ice cream and distributed the pints. “You dig into this. Do you want me to go get the box from the loft?”Alex nodded, knowing what she was talking about. The box of photos had been left under the bed. She couldn’t handle seeing them, seeing Sam, knowing she would have to withhold even more truths after joining the DEO.“I’ll be back in a minute.” Kara kissed the top of her head as she stood up. “Less, even.”The moment Kara was gone, Lucy tugged Alex close next to her. Maggie settled on Lucy’s other side. Alex had barely swallowed her first bite of ice cream when Kara was back. The shoe box was worn, soft at the edges, and made something in Alex’s chest ache. Kara set the box in front of Alex and sat next to her.Alex carefully opened the box. The photos weren’t in their old frames. The plastic they were wrapped in was thick, the backing firm.“I took them to get preserved properly,” Kara murmured.“Thank you.” Alex handed over the photo of her and Sam at the beach, surfboards planted in the sand next to them. Sam had a rash guard over her one piece swimsuit, shoulder length hair dripping water. Alex wore a blue and black wetsuit, her longer hair plastered all over the place.“Holy shit, you were so adorable,” Maggie said, a smile slowly spreading over her face. “I don’t think I can tell you apart.”“We rarely used that to our advantage, surprisingly."Lucy just about squeaked at the Halloween photo of ‘95. “The two cutest Power Rangers ever!”Alex leaned her head on Lucy’s shoulder. “Sam insisted I had to be the Yellow Ranger since she was the smarter one.”Kara leaned in a little. “Really? From what little I understand, the Yellow Ranger was the fighter. Which, if the home movies are anything to go by, you were definitely not.”“Shut up, Kara,” Alex growled playfully. She had watched exactly one home movie of her and Sam with Kara on a birthday when they were both in college. Kara said nothing the entire time, and Alex offered no explanation. They left a cupcake on the fire escape before going to sleep that night.She took out the next picture, which was the perfect example of how they had been as kids. Sam was barefoot in jean shorts and a dirty X-Men tank top, a neighbor’s puppy under each arm. Alex had a dusty sundress with sneakers and lopsided glasses, arms around the mama dog’s neck. “Sam was the leader who insisted on adventures. She excelled at every sport she tried, I got all the honor student awards. But Sam certainly wasn’t stupid, and I didn’t fall behind when she would take off. We were both astronomy nerds and surfers.”Kara looked over Alex’s head at Lucy and Maggie. “Please don’t think Alex was hiding this from you? Even the two of us don’t talk about Sam, and Eliza never brings her up.”“Of course,” Maggie said, reaching over to lace her fingers with Lucy and Alex’s. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose someone that close to you, Alex. I’m nowhere near upset that this is the first time we’ve heard of her, okay?”Lucy nodded in agreement. “I understand how losing someone so suddenly makes the memory of them hard to bring up. We’re okay, Alex, I promise.”Alex took a deep breath, still unsure how she ended up with such amazing girlfriends. “Thank you. I haven’t… I think, on the handful of nights when I thought about Sam, I was sure I could tell you. The two of you mean so, so much to me. It’s just… how do you bring up a twin sister that’s been gone for twenty years?”“It’s okay,” Lucy said. “There’s probably no perfect time, no moment where it would make sense. This works. This is pretty much our lives, to be honest.”Maggie nodded. “Yeah, we do tend to just bring up heavy topics with no warning or prompting.” She looked at Kara. “How fast can you get to Midvale and back? Because I will buy you lunch for a month if you can get us even just one of those home videos.”Kara perked up, but looked at Alex. “The one we watched is still behind the t.v. at my place.”Alex nodded. “Yeah.” She nudged Lucy. “We’re gonna have to move to the couch, though. It’s a VHS.”Lucy capped her ice cream. “Worth it.”Alex took a deep breath. Yeah. Worth it.Telling Lucy and Maggie about Sam didn’t change much. They watched the one six hour video, they asked Alex some questions, and then they put the video and photos away. Alex put the picture of her and Sam at the beach up by Maggie’s bonsais, out of the way, for the most part, unnoticable unless someone was actually standing in front of the shelves. But Sam wasn’t brought up again. Just like Maggie’s parents and Lucy’s mom, the knowledge was there. It just… wasn’t relevant.Sam mattered. She did. But she played no active part in Alex’s life anymore.A few weeks later, and Alex was back to rarely thinking about her twin sister. Seeing the photo would make her smile, but then the thought would pass. She would probably dig up a few more pictures and videos the next time they were in Midvale, though.Alex felt lighter for having told Lucy and Maggie. But life, as it did, continued on.“I’m taking a wrench to the kneecaps of the mole when we find them," Alex growled as she punched another Cadmus agent.“Get in line,” Lucy’s voice came over the comms, monitoring the op from the desert through the body cams. “I’m tempted to lock down until someone admits to it.”Alex glanced up as Kara flew through the rafters before refocusing on the room in front of her. Someone had leaked to Cadmus the details of Kara’s interdimensional extrapolator. Lillian had, of course, proceeded to recreate something like it on a larger scale while barely understanding what, exactly, she was doing.Alex was infinitely relieved Lena was on their side. Lena, at least, knew how to brainstorm with everyone to make sure she had as successful a first attempt as possible.“We’ve got every escape route covered out here,” Maggie said, speaking for the SWAT and extra DEO teams she was coordinating outside. “If they somehow make it past you, Danvers, they’ll find us.”Alex shot another Cadmus idiot with her blaster. “I’m really hoping I make your job boring, Sawyer.”“Killjoy.”“Uh, Alex? Supergirl?” Winn said over the comms. “The portal’s energy is fluctuating in not so good ways.”“Do we get out or shut it down?” Kara demanded, hovering over Alex.“It can be shut down safely if you can disconnect the energy source,” Winn said in a rush. “If the energy keeps warping back and forth, the device Cadmus is using won’t be able to contain it. I really, really don’t wanna know what happens with a dimensional Stargate explodes.”“Do not just yank or blast the conduits, Supergirl,” J’onn ordered. “That will cause a different kind of explosion.”“I see the connection sites,” Kara said before she flew off.Alex shot another agent. “Winn, can you talk me through powering this thing down?”“If you can get to a computer, probably?”“Got it.” Alex ran through the shelves of supplies, eyes scanning back and forth for threats. She caught sight of her teammates moving throughout the warehouse, taking out Cadmus goons as they went. “Anyone have eyes on Luthor?”“Negative,” Griff growled. “Unfortunately, I don’t think she’s stupid enough to stick around for an experimental test of a portal.”“Holy shit, is Dex right about something?” Mitchell asked.“I have a clear line of sight, asshole.”“Can’t keep your eyes off me, can y-”“Mitchell, report,” Alex demanded even as she knew Griff was headed his way.“Sneaky little bastard tried to tase me,” Mitchell grumbled. “Scientists are the worst.”“I’ll remember that during our next sparring match.” Alex looked around before approaching a computer. “Alright, Winn, I’m at a terminal.”Before he could speak, the portal five feet in front of her rippled and steadied. Kara landed between her and the swirling white mass, ready for anything. The energy fluctuated again, causing the portal to snap into a larger bubble that engulfed her sister.“Kara!”The portal shrank out of existence.Kara was gone.In her place stood a mirror image of Alex."Sam?"

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Alex stared at the woman on the other side of the table, who looked so much like her, and yet wasn’t her. Their eyes were the same, having seen so much. They held their guns the same, and the way they stood, offering as little profile as possible, was the same.Their hair, though, was different. Sam’s was still in short waves where Alex had shaved the sides.“Well, fuck.” Lucy’s words jolted Alex back to reality.She quickly took stock of the situation, looking to see if anyone else came through. “Winn, I’m going to need you to get those dimensional coordinates.”“I-I can’t do that from here. I’m going to have to use those computers.”“Can you talk me through it?” Alex asked, even as she reached out to Sam and motioned her to the desk.“I’ll do my best.”Sam took her hand and laced their fingers together. “Did someone go through to my end?”Alex squeezed Sam’s hand. “You wouldn’t happen to have an adopted alien for a sibling, would you?”“I would.” The way she kept her voice entirely even told Alex that the topic of Kara was likely to be an interesting conversation.Alex didn't doubt the possibility of a conversation; she would make time for Sam. She wouldn't let her slip away unless it was imperative to their lives that Sam leave as suddenly as she arrived.“Well, if I don’t get mine back to this Earth, Mom will be very disappointed in me, and I really would rather deal with a hacked together Cadmus operating system than her.” And, oh, Alex wasn't looking forward to having a conversation about Sam with Eliza, either.Sam snorted. “Fair enough.”“Holy evil twin, Batman,” Mitchell said as he entered the workspace.Sam tugged her hand free from Alex’s, and they both winced at the loss.“Pretty sure she would’ve shot me if she was evil,” Alex said, listening to Winn in her other ear tell her what to click on.“Unless she’s here to infiltrate our Earth and slowly sabotage us.”Sam raised an eyebrow at him. “You watch a lot of sci-fi, don’t you?”He nodded once. “It helps deal with the job.”“The alternate Agent Danvers is no threat to us,” J’onn said over comms.“Switching over to radio,” Alex said before twisting the knob on her vest’s handheld mic. “If I were on another Earth, I’d want to hear what was being said around me.”“Thanks, Ally,” Sam murmured. That wasn’t a nickname Alex had ever heard from her Sam, but she could live with it.“Alpha Team, secure that warehouse,” J’onn ordered. “Beta team, move in and help clear out hostiles. Detective Sawyer, if your team can stand guard over the entrances?”“I’ll see if they’ll continue to work if it means pizza for them,” Maggie drawled.“May I request Hawaiian with extra pineapple?” Mitchell asked.Alex, Maggie, J’onn, and Lucy replied at the same time. “No.”“Damnit.” Mitchell headed off to deal with the trail of unconscious bodies he had left in his wake.Sam passed Alex a hastily scrawled note. [Are you safe with these people?]Alex wondered what had happened to Sam to make her ask without anyone being able to see or hear. She quickly wrote back. [Without doubt.]Sam nodded once, and her shoulders relaxed.“Are you the evil twin, though?” Alex asked casually. J’onn may have cleared her, but she didn’t know that. “Cause Mitchell’s already had his ass kicked by an evil version of me and he’ll pout for a month if you kick his ass.”“I promise you, Ally, if I were evil, you’d know.” Sam grinned a little as she looked through the energy readings on her screen. “Does your black ops organization have a lie detection test I can trick?”“I don’t, but the Army does.”Lucy’s reply was instant and only a little bit unamused. “There’s a whole twenty-page file on the various forms of treason you’ve committed since Myriad, Danvers. Keep talking, and I’ll pick a way to arrest you again.”“Only twenty pages?” Sam scoffed. “You clearly need to get out more.”Alex grinned at her twin. “How big is your file?”“I have six federal warrants out on me, twenty-six grand theft auto charges of various degrees, and sixty-two local level warrants across eleven states.”The radio chatter went silent. Alex was both impressed and a hint appalled. What the fuck had Sam been getting up to on her Earth?“I’m gonna need these two separated, ASAP,” Maggie half commanded. “Between rogue Agent Danvers and the embodiment of America’s Most Wanted, National City will burn to the ground.”“First of all, I’ve only technically gone rogue once-”“There are the coordinates!” Winn shouted. “Second column from the left, third row.”“Got it,” Alex said, refocusing on her actual job. “We’re gonna have to reconnect the power relays, but then should we be good to go?”“As long as we can maintain a stable portal, yes,” Winn said. “We have the coordinates for Earth-1 if this doesn’t work. Opening an unstable portal to Star Labs will probably be enough to get their attention so they can help us.”“That can be Plan B.” Alex looked at Sam. “I’ll leave the radio with you so Winn can walk you through setting up the portal while I get the power going?”Sam nodded, and Alex saw her jaw clench. Sam wasn’t comfortable with being left alone, but she was willing. She tapped at the note again. Alex made sure her body cam didn’t pick up what they were doing and linked her pinky with Sam’s. She looked Sam in the eye and tried to pass every assurance she could through the small motion. Sam nodded, took a deep breath, and unhooked their pinkies, motioning for the radio. Alex detached the mobile unit and jogged off, turning over Sam’s actions in her mind.She wore no uniform and looked more ready for guerilla warfare than a sanctioned black ops mission. The level of paranoia was higher than Alex would’ve had for people who weren’t outright shooting at her. Sure, Alex would’ve been hesitant to trust anyone, but not to the point asking for reassurance more than once unless the evidence was substantial to the contrary. Sam also reeked of not having showered in a good while, and the curls were greasy upon closer inspection.Sam wasn’t DEO, that was for sure. But J’onn cleared her, and if there had been any kind of doubt, he would’ve ordered Sam be knocked out. Alex had a feeling Sam might’ve experienced a very different life due to sharing a bathroom with a Kryptonian in high school.With Ford’s help, the interdimensional extrapolator was receiving power in just a few minutes. She returned to Sam’s side, who looked ready to bolt. Although J’onn couldn’t respond to her, Alex thought as loud as she could.{Did Sam step through the portal on purpose?}“Alpha team, I want you ready to step through that portal if Supergirl needs assistance,” J’onn ordered.Well, that might be answer enough. Winn walked her and Sam through the system startup as Mitchell, Dex, and Ford joined them. Sam seemed to tense at their presence. Once the guys were in front of the desk, Alex linked her pinky with Sam’s again. Sam tightened the small grip and didn’t let go. Okay, then.“Here goes,” Alex said, activating the portal.The bubble of bright water bloomed into existence. The readings remained steady, and the coordinates held.Alex tapped her comm. “Supergirl, do you read me?”There was a brief delay, then, “Alex. Help.”Weak. Kara was so very weak.“Alpha team move out,” Alex ordered, tugging her hand free from Sam’s, feeling all kinds of conflict because of it. She yanked a UV grenade off her vest and chucked it through the portal ahead of them.“Ally be careful!” Sam was definitely panicking.Alex pointed at her twin. “Keep this portal steady, Sam!”“Any particular reason you’re calling her Sam?” Dex asked.“Because that’s not me.” Alex stepped through the portal, fighting back a grin as Dex cursed behind her.On the other side of the portal, Kara was on her feet. Barely. A handful of Kryptonite bullets littered the ground around her. Three agents were sprawled a few feet away, Kryptonite cattle-prods in hand. The warehouse was far more official looking than Cadmus’ set up. All the people recovering from being blinded by direct sunlight were in uniforms.Dex was at her shoulder, rifle up, as she zeroed in on Kara. Getting an arm around her sister, she said, “Earth Thirty-Eight?”Kara nodded, the green of kryptonite barely fading from her blood vessels. “Race Earth One Barry for ice cream.” It was always best to be sure of identities and origins when dimension hopping.“Let’s move out!” Dex ordered, supporting Kara’s other side.They hurried back through the portal as a commotion rose behind them.“Shut it down!” Alex ordered Sam, not at all surprised to see Maggie had joined her. Maggie had likely been making her way over to them the moment Alex spoke Sam's name in shock. Maggie would've wanted to check in on Alex and keep an extra eye on Sam.Sam typed in the code, and the portal blinked out of existence. “How do I lock out those coordinates so they can’t connect through this device? It won’t necessarily stop them from using their extrapolator but, hopefully, they’ll think twice.”Winn quickly talked her through it, and it took less than a minute.Kara took a deep breath now that she was in a Kryptonite-free atmosphere. “Hey, that’s not another you.”“It’s not.” Alex guided her over, watching as Sam grew taut with apprehension.“How can she even tell that?” Mitchell muttered.Kara smiled kindly at Sam. “I like to think that after all this time around Alex, I’d be able to tell the difference.”“I’m still so very, very lost,” Ford admitted.Alex raised an eyebrow in question to Sam. She nodded, just a hint, still more worried about Kara than the humans around her. Alex could now see the note had a handful of other questions, all answered in Maggie’s neat script.“This is Samantha Danvers.” There were dozens of ears on comms, but they didn’t have a choice. “When we were both nine years old, we lost each other to the flu.”“Your family has the worst origin stories,” Winn said after a moment of silence. “How are all of you good guys?”“Didja miss the list of criminal activity?” Sam asked, far more comfortable with trading wit than trusting anyone around her.“Psh, you were probably saving lives. Don’t go into detail around our favorite Detective, though, she has, like, this hour-long speech about vigilantes.”“I can still throw you and Olson both into lock-up, Schott,” Maggie warned. She focused on Dex. “You got this so I can get these three back to HQ?”Kara whined. “Maggie, I’m fine.”“And you’ll be more fine after the sun lamps,” Maggie said, amused.Alex didn’t have a chance to wave off her team; they were already dispersing to disconnect power and round up Cadmus agents. “What do I need medical for? I shot everyone before they could touch me!”“Are you telling me you’re gonna let her,” Maggie nodded to Sam, “out of your sight for the next week?”Alex huffed and nudged Kara to Maggie’s side of the table. “Sometimes I don’t like you.”“That’s fine, Danvers, I know you love me every other time.” She pocketed the scrap paper of notes, putting Alex between herself and Sam.Kara scuffed her boots on Maggie’s other side. “So that dimension sucks.” She looked over at Sam. “I’m guessing Kryptonite is more common there?”Sam nodded. “Capes like yourself don’t work with anyone. You still save the world, if it’s any consolation.”Kara obviously wanted to ask what became of Sam’s Kara, if one even existed, but refrained for the moment. “I guess if I’m not evil there than it’s fine.”A few minutes later, they were in the SUV Maggie had commandeered from Beta Team. Kara flipped a switch on the control panel and opened the center console box between the seats. Alex, Maggie, and Kara dropped their comms into it, and Alex took the radio from Sam and stuffed in there as well. Kara shut the box, and it sealed with a hissed. Maggie started the SUV and headed for the road.“There are no ears or eyes on us,” Alex told Sam, turning in her seat to face her. “You’re not wearing any kind of uniform similar to those on the other side of the portal, you haven’t bathed in days, and you’re more paranoid than I’ve ever been. You have two minutes.”“I’m the one they send through the portal to see what was on the other side.” Sam took a deep breath and steadied herself. “They caught up to me about a week ago, and when I’m not five feet from the portal, they have me in a suit of Kryptonite to prevent a rescue. Maybe they’re not as organized here, but where I’m from, they know what they’re doing.”Alex raised an eyebrow. “You’re afraid of Kara.”Sam glanced at the front passenger seat. “The Kara I know isn't so free with her emotions enough to whine about sunlamps and drag her feet.”Alex leaned back against the door of the SUV. “And if that’s what you’re willing to tell us, what aren’t you telling me?”“You left me unattended at the portal controls.” Sam shook her head. “Isn’t it too late to be asking if I’m trustworthy?”“You didn’t know about the sniper,” Maggie said, voice even.Sam’s eyes widened for a moment. She sighed. “Alex, I don’t know if you’re safe, either.”“Fair enough.” Alex closed her eyes for a moment. "It's obvious sending you back through that particular extrapolator is a bad idea. While it'd be relatively easy to get you back, as long as you don't betray us, I don't think there will be a problem with you recovering on this Earth for a few days.""Thank you." Sam was grateful if still a little tense. "Give me a few days, Ally. My gut tells me I’m safe, but it’s gonna take my head some time to know that.”Alex nodded, then reached forward to lace her fingers with Sam's. “Okay.” She smiled a little. “It’s good to see you, you know.”Sam returned the smile. “You, too, Ally, you, too.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Under normal circumstances, Alex would never put her back to anyone picked up from a Cadmus base. But Sam was nervous about being the parking garage from a black ops base, so Alex entered first. Sam followed a beat behind, and when they turned, Maggie and Kara had their backs to the twins. Alex knew it had to be bothering Maggie in the same way, but she trusted Alex and Kara enough to deal with Sam.Then the doors opened, and the first thing Sam saw was the D.E.O. logo. Her grip on Alex’s hand tightened, and she turned wide eyes on Alex.“Sam,” Alex kept her voice low and steady, “talk to me.”Kara and Maggie stepped out of the elevator to keep any curious onlookers at bay.Sam swallowed and managed to keep the panic at bay. “The D.E.O. is on my side of the portal.”“And if I were going to treat you the same, you would be in cuffs and not trusted with the portal controls.”Sam nodded stiffly. “Okay. I trust you.”Alex knew Sam’s trust was for her alone. She hoped she did nothing to destroy that trust. “C’mon, Doc Fraiser will hunt us down if we’re not on time.”Sam regained a bit more composure and released Alex’s hand. Once in a private room away from the central medical bay, Sam relaxed a bit more. Fraiser found them, though none of them had any time to flag her down. Alex wasn’t exactly surprised; the doctor knew of everything that happened in her domain.“I heard you missed the action, Detective Sawyer,” Fraiser said as she looked between Maggie and Kara. “Any injuries to report?”“No, ma’am,” Maggie said, grinning a little. “But Alex did have to slam her shoulder into the body armor of a Cadmus agent.”“Tell Bates no one likes a tattle-tale,” Alex growled, knowing it was the SWAT team’s sniper that ratted her out.Maggie grinned wider. “I’ll make sure this one gets under a sunlamp.” She put both hands on the back of Kara’s shoulders and shoved.“Thank you, Detective,” Fraiser said with an approving nodded. “Let’s see that shoulder, Agent Danvers.”“It’s not even bruised,” Alex whined as she worked her tac-vest off.“I’ll be the judge of that.” She turned her attention to Sam. “Do you have a rank I should address you by?”“Not one that means much to this organization, ma’am.” Sam sounded far more comfortable with the doctor then she had with Maggie and Kara.Fraiser nodded in understanding, but said, “I can still use it unless you’d like to go by Miss Danvers?”Sam wrinkled her nose. “The best conversion would be Major.”Alex raised an eyebrow at her twin, curious as to what that meant. But then Fraiser was poking at her shoulder and making sure nothing had been damaged. Alex watched her twin, and while Sam had an eye on the door every time the sound of footsteps passed, Sam seemed to like being enclosed by four walls with no windows. Although Sam had surrendered her blaster, Alex had a feeling Sam would be able to use any weapon Alex handed to her if they were attacked.When Alex was free to put her top back on, Sam started to give a rundown of her various injuries and the last week of treatment as a DEO inmate. The level of honesty surprised Alex, but also made her sick to her stomach. Sam’s version of the DEO hadn’t been at all kind. Two meals a day, and only if she went through the interdimensional extrapolator. There were sores where the Kryptonite suit had dug in, as well as bruising and small wounds where shackles had been tightened. If the marks on Sam’s knuckles were anything to go by, Alex knew a few agents were regretting getting anywhere near her.Alex had half a mind to go to Sam’s Earth and help dismantle that version of the DEO. Clearly, J’onn wasn’t in charge there. Even before he dropped the Henshaw act, J’onn would’ve never treated even the worst of escapees in such a way.“You’re giving me a weird look,” Sam told Alex as Fraiser started to clean up the more accessible injuries.“You’ve been nervous since you stepped through the portal,” Alex pointed out. “I don’t see any of that right now.”Sam shrugged. “It’s pointless to hide any injuries around people with x-ray vision.”Alex knew that was a truth and was a little relieved she wasn’t the only one suffering a tattle-tale Kara. It wasn’t too long before Sam was shrugged off her jacket and lifting her shirt so Fraiser could examine the injuries on her torso.Alex’s eyes zeroed in on a mark on Sam’s shoulder.A House of El crest.“There’s a long story to that,” Sam murmured.Alex swallowed. “That’s a brand.”“Yeah, uh, there’s a reason I’m a criminal.” She shifted a hint, glanced at Fraisier. Alex gave her a slight nod; there was nothing the doctor didn’t know about her, Kara, and their antics at this point. “How long was Kara in your house?”“Until she moved out to go to college.”Sam nodded. “Kara spent six months with us. Her aunt Astra found her.”Neither of them was surprised when Kara appeared in the doorway. Sam motioned her in, knowing this was as much a story for Kara as it was Alex. Maggie came running a few moments later, thinking Kara had bolted because something was wrong. Sam gave Alex another questioning look.Alex nodded. “Maggie is one of two people I’ve told about you.” Her stomach twisted. “She’s...She’s everything, Sam.”Realization dawned on her, and she smiled a little. “Good to know.”Relief flooded through Alex. She didn’t know how she would handle any version of Sam being unaccepting her sexuality.With an attentive audience and a doctor determined to clean her up, Sam took a deep breath and nodded to herself. “So, yeah, your aunt managed to track you down on my Earth, Kara. She watched us for a week, to see if you were better off with us than with her. After she decided she could do a better job, she came for you one night. You came to my room at like two in the morning to tell me you were running away. So I said I’d go with you, cause I didn’t want to face the fallout.” Sam grinned a little. “I didn’t know Astra was outside and talking to you. She said she was willing to give me a chance if you agreed.”“How does running away from home end up with you being branded?” Alex asked. A tattoo she would’ve understood. A brand, being burned on purpose, spoke of something far more sinister to her.“With the D.E.O. hunting us, the convicts that would’ve settled for killing Kara if they couldn’t have Alura, and Astra and her unit dealing with alien injustice in her free time, we learned to fight back. We eventually joined Astra’s troop in helping aliens.” She shrugged. “That involved being branded by an iron made of Fort Rozz’s hull. The metal leaves a signature in the mark that can’t be replicated. And very few are willing to burn a mark into them, especially with various law enforcement agencies keeping an eye out for the crest.”“You said I save the world on your Earth,” Kara said.“You do, just not like Kal.” Sam motioned to Kara’s suit. “We keep to the shadows. When we help people, we get the job done and move on. You don’t shake hands and do interviews with kids like he does.”Kara frowned but didn’t press any further. Alex wanted to know if the brand was a choice, or if Sam thought she had no other way. For all Alex never meant to become a field agent, she knew she could walk away, and J’onn wouldn’t stop her. She couldn’t imagine Astra being so lenient with a human.Sam was allowed to pull on her shirt back on while Fraisier gave a rundown of the various things she needed to recover from. Alex made her own mental notes so she could keep track of everything as well. Sam nodded along and slid to her feet once Fraisier declared her fit for the mess hall.“Food?” Sam asked, puppy eyes in full effect.Kara got to her feet and offered her arm. “I knew I would like you. C’mon, I know the quickest route.”“It involves jumping down the center of the stairwell, doesn’t it?” Sam asked, tentatively putting a hand on Kara’s elbow.“It totally does.”Sam nodded once. “I’m down.”Alex gripped Maggie’s hand as they hurried off. She didn’t want Sam out of her sight, but she didn’t want to hinder Sam in learning how to trust Kara.“Hey, Kara’s not gonna let anything happen to her,” Maggie said, leading Alex out of the room.“I know. I trust her. I just… twenty years, Mags.”“I know, babe. C’mon, let’s go use your override codes to get the elevator to take us straight to that floor.”Alex managed to grin, and they rushed to the elevator. Once inside, she kissed Maggie’s cheek. “Is it alright with you if we bunk here tonight?”“Tonight, yes. Probably tomorrow, too. We’re gonna have to figure out something long term, though.”“I know. I promise I won’t sleep here every night Sam’s here. You were right, though. I don’t want her out of my sight.”“Perfectly understandable. But as much as you instinctively trust her, I don’t think me or Luce would be quite ready to have her on the couch for a bit.”Alex nodded. She wasn’t going to push her girlfriends into accepting Sam as quickly as she had. She knew they would need time and experience. “I know my emotions are in full control of this situation and that I’m not using most of my training to deal with her. I would know if Sam was going to hurt me, though. It’s not just wishful thinking. Ever since Allen visited from Earth One the first time, I’ve given thought to this kind of scenario.”“Knowing you,” Maggie said as the elevator doors opened, “you never expected it to become a reality.”“I figure I’m lucky enough.” Alex laced their fingers together. “Getting to know any version of my sister would be asking for too much.”They entered the mess hall just as Kara and Sam hit the salad bar. Kara made faces while Sam loaded up a small plate of veggies.“Oh, you definitely have to be evil,” Alex said as they joined them. “No Danvers sister eats their veggies.”Sam crunched a baby carrot in half. “This one does because Astra allowed an equal weight in junk food.”Kara snickered. “She would, too.” She suddenly looked shy. “Hey, Sam, do you think, when we’re able to get you back safely, I could meet her? Things… aren’t the same here.”Sam nodded, eyeing the way Alex was looking at anywhere but Kara. “Yeah, of course. My Kara will probably give you so much shit over the suit, though.”Kara puffed up. “I can take her. I’ve beaten up two versions of me already.”“Bizarro doesn’t count.” Alex grabbed the meat option and ignoring the three baby carrots Maggie and Sam dropped on her plate.“She does too!”Maggie sighed and nudged Sam along, mutter about how this particular debate was going to take a while. Alex would get revenge on Maggie later. Once she and Kara reached the table in the corner, Alex smirked at Sam.“Speaking of beating up our doubles, you and me are gonna have to spar when you’re a little more healed up.”“I could absolutely take you down as is,” Sam said, “but I think I’d rather wipe the mats with you at full strength.”“Oh, it’s so on.”Kara sighed. “Why are you so violent?”“Poor anger management,” the twins said as one.Kara’s jaw dropped, and Maggie snickered. “Please, please do that to Lane.”“You two have been around each other for an hour,” Kara protested.Sam shrugged. “Old habits-” She winced and looked at Alex. “Bad phrase?”“Yeah,” Alex nodded, “maybe we skip that one.”It wasn’t long before Kara was finishing up her third plate when her phone chirped at her. She looked at her phone as she drained her glass of water. “It’s James, there’s a story he wants me to cover.” She saw Sam’s curious look and smiled. “I’m a reporter when I’m not in the cape.” Looking between Alex and Maggie, she asked, “I’ll bring dinner from Chicago?” When she had their eager nods of agreement, she was gone.When they were done eating, Alex asked, “You up for a debrief?”Sam scrunched her face. “I have a feeling your kind of debrief doesn’t have alcohol and bean bags.”Alex raised an eyebrow as they took their trays to the counter. “The alcohol I understand. The bean bags, not so much.”“We chuck them at each other for being wrong.”Maggie grinned. “I love this idea. I’m introducing it to Evan’s team.”Alex rolled her eyes. “Evan will murder you for giving them the idea, but sure, arm them with bean bags.” She glared. “Just don’t you dare mention it to Ford.”“Aiden?” Maggie frowned. “He’s the one you're worried about?”“He’s the one that used his first paycheck to buy enough Nerf guns to keep in the team office and our homes.”“You mean that massive barrelled thing you keep in the closet next to the door?”“Yep.”Maggie grinned and said nothing.Alex glared at her twin. “This is your fault.”Sam shrugged. “It usually is.”Alex looked up when the door to the conference room opened. She, Sam, Maggie, and Kara had taken over a windowed room high in the building so they could enjoy the sunset. Lucy smiled at the sight of them and brightened further when Kara held up a full paper bag of food.“You’re my favorite super,” Lucy said as she sat beside Maggie.“Sam, this is Director Lucy Lane,” Alex introduced, her stomach twisting again. “She’s the second person I’ve told of you. She’s, uh, she’s with Maggie and me, too.”Sam shook Lucy’s hand and looked between Alex’s two girlfriends. “Has anyone given you two a proper shovel talk?”“Sam!” Alex turned bright red and lightly punched her in the shoulder.Maggie shrugged. “Kara’s threatened to drop us from low atmo.”“And I will, too.”“In that case,” Sam mused, “you two should join me for a walk down a gardening aisle at some point.”Alex frowned. “Gardening...Oh. Shovels. Sam!”“I’m your twin in all the ways that matter! It’s my job!”“Ugh, fine.” Alex groused tore a bite out of her burger. Around the mouthful of food, she asked, “But you’re okay with me having two girlfriends?”Sam shrugged. “I might have spent the first sixteen years of my life around straight, monogamous people, but being around various aliens the last decade and some has changed my views on things. As long as you're happy and safe, I’m cool.”Lucy swallowed her bite of food. “So you’ve never met a version of us on your Earth?”“No, but, again, criminal. It probably wouldn’t end well if we did meet.”“I don’t know, I arrested Alex for treason, and we still ended up together .”“May I ask what kind of treason?”“We’ll actually have to double check on the classification of that,” Alex said, unsure if J’onn wanted to be known just yet. During the debrief, they kept to his Director Henshaw title, which was probably hint enough.“Fair enough.”Though they finished dinner relatively quickly, they stayed in the room until night had well and truly set in. Alex felt Sam slowly relax between her and Kara as she learned more about Maggie and Lucy, as well as Alex’s life. Sam didn’t say much about herself, but Alex had a feeling that would be a conversation between just the two of them. Alex actually wouldn’t mind some time with her twin alone. Once everyone had gone to work in the morning, Alex would bring Sam to her lab so they could talk between themselves.When Alex and Sam yawned at the same time, Maggie declared everyone had had a long day and turning in early wouldn’t be a bad idea. Kara hugged them all before flying off for a quick night patrol. Alex and Sam stuck close to each other as they made their way down to the sleeping areas.“I’m scared this is a dream,” Sam admitted when Lucy and Maggie were in the room Alex had claimed upon transferring to the city base.Alex nodded. “Yeah, me, too.” She took a deep breath. “But we’ll hate life tomorrow even more if we stay up all night.”Sam wrapped Alex in a hug. “Even if this is a dream, it’s the best one I’ve had in years.”Alex held tight to her twin. She didn’t want to let Sam go. But she had her girlfriends to talk to, and she really was exhausted. “G’night, Sammy.”Closing the door between them was the hardest thing either of them had done in years.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Alex closed to the door to the room and took a deep breath, leaning against the metal. Lucy was wrapping her in a hug a moment later. Alex wrapped her arms around Lucy and squeezed. Neither of them moved, not even when a few tears leaked onto Lucy’s shoulder.“She’ll be there in the morning,” Lucy murmured.“Yeah.” Alex managed to pull herself off Lucy and saw Maggie step out of the bathroom. The perk of claiming a room on the “guest” floor instead of the barracks meant no sharing a bathroom with anyone else staying on site.Maggie dug into her tossed aside jeans and pulled out the note from the Cadmus warehouse. “She was worried about you.”Alex looked over the handful of questions and smiled sadly. “She’s the one who looked for me as a kid. I’m not surprised by any of this.”“I happy J’onn was able to clear her for you,” Lucy said as she nudged Alex towards the bathroom. “I’ll be happier once you’ve showered, though.”“I don’t smell that bad.” But Alex started shedding her clothes, tossing them towards the duffle bag that would eventually find its way to their washing machine.“Sam’s funk is all over you,” Maggie said. “I’m surprised she didn’t grab a shower after medical.”“From the sounds of it, she might be used to going a few days without a chance at getting clean.” Alex shut the door halfway, not wanting to be cut off from them even if they were in the other room.Sam. She had a chance to have Sam back in her life. If Sam wanted that, which Alex was almost sure she would. And, yes, Alex knew it wasn’t her twin. Coming to terms with that was part of her thought process after learning of other Earths. But, still.Sam.There was no getting back the years they lost. Alex didn’t know if she would take the opportunity even if that were an option. The life she led had brought Maggie and Lucy into her life. Alex saved the world with Kara. Maybe those things would still happen, but Alex had no idea if she could give up her current happiness for a chance at a relationship with her twin that might not work out.Once clean, Alex squeezed onto the bed between Lucy and Maggie. As long as they cuddled, they could fit. “Will the two of you keep me in check, please? I think I’m doing okay, but…”“I can think of a handful of reasons to stay in the city for a few days,” Lucy said. “I won’t hover, but maybe meals together will let me get a read of you?”Alex nodded.“I can probably convince Sheppard to let me have a long lunch if I bring him the good tacos.” Maggie pressed a kiss to Alex’s shoulder. “We’ll make sure you won’t lose yourself.”“Thank you.” Alex sighed as Lucy turned off the lamp. “No matter how many times I tell myself this isn’t the Sam I lost, it’s still Sam.”“Which is completely understandable.” Lucy settled a bit more against her. “Though, how did you know it was her and not another you?”Alex smiled a little. “It’s a twin thing. We used to be subject coded; Sam wore the ocean stuff, I got the space stuff. Every once in a great while, before our personalities became more obvious, we’d be dressed in the other’s clothes. We would switch shirts without prompting and remind our parents who was who.”Lucy laughed. “I imagine that was adorable.”“They did it once on purpose when they had a camera rolling. We were so exasperated with them. I’ll see if I can find that tape the next time we go to Midvale.”“Do you think you’ll take Sam there?” Maggie asked softly and carefully.“I think we should Skype with Mom first,” Alex said slowly. “Maybe have her come here. I can see all three of us having issues with being in the house at the same time after so long.”Lucy kissed her. “This is why I’m not worried. You think about the consequences like this.”“I’m also here with you two at the moment. I can’t promise I’ll stay sane around Sam alone.”“We’ve got you, Danvers,” Maggie said.Lucy nodded against her shoulder. “And we’re not letting you go.”Sam opened her eyes and frowned. She wasn’t where she expected to be. “Oh. Right.”Alex.She stretched and shoved the blankets off her. It was nice to sleep in a real bed without a body suit of Kryptonite. Eyeing the pile of clothes in the bathroom, she wrinkled her nose and decided she could live with the DEO sweats that had been left on the tiny dresser. Alex would probably give her more suitable clothes.The knock on her door was rushed and eager. Her spine went rigid, but a guard or someone with ill-intent wouldn’t bother with knocking. Sam opened it to find Kara smiling on the other side. Sam grinned. This Kara was a welcomed surprise; the one Sam grew up with only ever pounded on doors and announced it was time to move out. “You were listening for me to wake up, weren’t you?”Kara nodded. “I brought breakfast. It’s up in the conference room we used yesterday.” Her smile grew a little sharper. “It’s the only way I’m gonna get Alex up and moving; otherwise we’re all gonna have to squeeze on that bed that barely fits the three of them.”Sam finger-combed her hair. “Good plan. Do you think Ally has clothes I can wear?”“Be right back.” And she was, quite literally.Alex popped her head out of door across the hall. She smiled. “Morning, Sam.” She glared at Kara. “Was the speed necessary?”“The sooner you’re all dressed, the sooner we can eat.”Alex rolled her eyes and shut the door. Sam motioned Kara in and headed for the bathroom. Kara sat on the desk chair and turned away since Sam left the door open.“So, how much do you know about the breaches?” Kara asked.“Not much,” Sam admitted, folding up the sweats to use that night. “I was kept in the dark, only told I was being sent to different realities to look for potential allies.”Kara frowned. “They sent someone they were holding hostage as an ambassador?”“They send a probe before me. It gives them a live feed they can monitor so I don’t have the chance of betraying them. The device here fucked with theirs. I had just gotten back from a shittier reality when the breach opened.”It was apparent Kara wanted to ask what “shittier” meant, but she moved on. “So this is considered Earth Thirty-eight, and Earth One is the central crossroads for a local cluster of fifty-two alternate realities. We’re friendly with the people who made my extrapolator on Earth One, and I sent a message to them this morning about getting one for you.”Sam swallowed the bile in her throat. “Thanks.” She shoved her feet into her boots. “So, I’m starving.”Kara was up and moving towards the door, and they met the other three in the hall. Sam and Alex were instantly at each other’s side, Kara leading the way to the elevators. Maggie and Lucy trailed behind them, Maggie trying to negotiate for less paperwork for joint ops like yesterdays. Lucy was very fond of her documentation by the sound of it.“Did you sleep well?” Alex asked.Sam nodded. “Surprisingly. I thought I’d be too paranoid.”“Exhaustion will do that. You can consider that room your’s while you’re here if you want.”“Thanks.” Sam bit back the question about how long she was allowed to stay.Breakfast happened a bit quicker than dinner since everyone had to get to work. Sam found herself pleased and surprised to see that Alex’s law enforcement girlfriends hadn’t turned Alex against her. Sam had been sure Maggie and Lucy would disapprove of someone with her rap sheet. She knew Alex was willing to give her every chance to prove herself but hadn’t been expecting it of anyone else.Half an hour later, Kara flew off to her day job, and Maggie headed off to the precinct.Lucy stood and cleaned up the mess of food cartons. “I’m going to talk to Henshaw about which budgets we can adjust now that three Danvers sisters are in the same city.”Alex tossed a napkin at her. “We’ve already torn up our Cadmus base for the month.”“I’m not idiot enough to think some kind of trouble won’t find one of you before a week is out.” She kissed Alex quickly. “Don’t blow up your lab.”“No promises.” She looked at Sam. “Fraiser wants a quick check-in, and I have to look in on a few things, but then the day is mostly ours?”Sam nodded. “I wouldn’t mind just letting you work if you need to. After the last week, I don’t want to do much of anything.”Alex squeezed her hand. “If it becomes necessary, I’ll help you burn that DEO to the ground.”Sam squeezed back., her stomach knotting. “Hopefully that won’t be necessary.”After checking in with medical, Sam found herself perched on a stool in Alex’s lab. Her twin started to babble about her experiments and Sam followed as best she could. Sam wasn’t surprised the Alex of this Earth was as much of a nerd as her own had been. It was kinda surprising to learn Alex was also a physical badass as well as a mental one. Alex had been nothing but competent with a gun in one hand and Kara in the other.“Stupid question,” Sam said when Alex wasn’t focused on something. “Which one of us is the older twin?”Alex fumed. “I’m younger by six minutes.”“Me, too!” Sam grinned. “What time, then?” Alex rattled off a number, and Sam smirked. “I’m older than you by an hour.”Alex rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t count.”“Oh, it does, little sister.”“Hurry up and heal so I can kick your ass.”Sam eventually dozed off in a computer chair with her feet propped up on a stool, an extra lab coat draped over her. The sound of typing and the click of glass slides wasn’t her usually background noise, but knowing it was Alex made her relax even if she was in the heart of the D.E.O. The agency was so very different than the one that had captured her; this Henshaw had a firm hand, but he wasn’t cruel. The agents were at ease in the halls instead of on guard. Alex’s lab was also another mark of difference; there would’ve no floor to ceiling windows like this, but solid walls and closed doors. A dozen agents had stepped into the doorway to wait for an acknowledgment and spoke to Alex about one thing or another.Sam had thought her paranoia would keep her awake. Either she was that exhausted, or she trusted Alex a stupid amount for only knowing her a day.Lucy’s voice roused her from sleep if only due to familiarity. Sam blinked awake, surprised by the low lights on her side of the lab. “Lunch time?”Lucy tisked. “Such a Danvers, always thinking with your stomach.”“There are other thoughtful parts of me?” Sam asked, feigning confusion.Lucy rolled her eyes. “C’mon, Kara is spoiling us again.”“You like everything she’s brought,” Alex pointed out as Sam got to her feet.“Of all of us, I have the least active job. I’m going to get fat.”“Sounds like someone needs to get on the sparring mats more often,” Alex teased.“You volunteering?” Lucy demanded.“You know what? Yeah. Next time we’ve got a fresh batch of recruits, let’s scare the shit outta them.”“You’re on, Danvers.”Sam shook her head as they got into the elevator. “Such a violent relationship.”“I’ve been literally body-slammed for trying to take the last cupcake,” Alex said, resting her head on Sam’s shoulder.Sam pat her back. “You poor, poor thing.” She looked at Lucy. “She probably had four to your one?”“Make it six,” Lucy groused as they stepped out of the elevator.Sam nodded once. “I wonder if it’s a universal constant that every Alex Danvers has an insatiable sweet tooth.”“You’re not supposed to side with her!” Alex protested.“As your older twin, it’s my job to side with any and everyone against you.” Sam shrugged. “I don’t make the rules.”Alex muttered threats in Kryptonian. Sam raised an unimpressed eyebrow. Lucy murmured about needing to pick up the language sooner over later.Maggie and Kara were already eating when they arrived in the conference room. The greetings Sam got made her chest ache. She hoped her recovery was slow; as much as this wasn’t her world, she felt far more at home here than she had anywhere in years.Sam waited for Alex to stand away from the microscope and stretch before speaking. “What are the chances of me getting yard time?”Alex winced. “Oh, right, you probably want some fresh air and to get outta here, huh?”“I’m actually adapting pretty well with all these DEO agents not looking like they want me dead.” Most of the looks sent her way were curious and alarmed. She figured the alarmed looks had to do with Alex’s reputation being doubled. “But yeah, fresh air would be nice. I’ll settle for sitting on the roof with a book or something.”“I’m sure if we had a chaperone the Director would be okay with us going around the block.” Alex tossed her lab coat aside. “My team needs practice blending in while following a target, anyway.”“More used to storming in and shooting things?”Alex nodded. “We’re the main back up for Kara. She isn’t exactly covert.”“Or subtle.”“That’s what she wants you to think. As much shit as I give her about everyone knowing her secret identity, very few people remember she’s lost her entire world.”Sam only hummed in response.The Director was in the main briefing room, papers and folder around his laptop. Alex had told her the Director stuck to the conference room when he was available for conversation. If he needed privacy, he would be in his actual office and was to be left alone. Alex said it made agents more willing to approach him if they didn’t feel like they were trapped.All Alex had to do was tell him they were going for a walk and would being the team with as chaperones. There was no real asking for permission. Sam was surprised he was letting her out, and that he asked she not push her healing body too far. Sure, Astra gave a damn about her, but Sam didn’t expect anyone else to be so lenient.“Seriously,” Sam said once they were all in the elevator, “how can you all trust me? How do you know I won’t bolt the moment I’m out of here?”“We don’t know,” Mitchell said as he adjusted his jacket to hide his gun. “Right now, we’re going on the good faith that you haven’t fucked with us since arriving.”“Plus we’ve already shot one evil Danvers,” Griff said. “Won’t be hard to shoot another.”Alex punched him in the arm. “Dex!”“What? She wants to know where she stands. As far as I can tell, she’s on our good side. Moment that changes, well, there’s a reason we’re your team.”Alex rolled her eyes. Sam nudged her as they got off the elevator. “Hey, I’m glad you have a good group looking out for you.”“I suppose they have their uses,” Alex grumbled.Ford walked backward as they headed for the front doors. “If you stick around long enough or visit often, I’ll have to get you a Nerf gun.”“Do I wanna know why?” Sam asked.As one, the quartet said, “Constant vigilance!”Ford tugged a palm-sized Nerf gun from his pocket and popped Mitchell in the face before taking off. Mitchell started to curse him out and gave chase.“This is the crack time that saves the world here?” Sam asked.Alex nodded, smiling fondly. “Yep.”“You’re enemies should be deeply ashamed.”Griff laughed, and Alex shoved them both. Sam grinned and pushed back. The game continued until they were on the main sidewalk and Griff had fallen back a good ten feet. Ford was up ahead, and Mitchell across the street.“Around the block first?” Alex asked as she set an easy pace. “See how you feel after?”“Sure. You should know I’ve suffered worse and had to run.”“That doesn’t mean you have to push yourself now.”Sam glanced over at Alex. There was no pity in her eyes or condensation in her voice. Alex had stated what she considered a fact, and that was it. Sam was allowed recovery time with Astra and Kara, the entire unit was allowed to rest, but being one of a few humans meant keeping up. And that meant less recovery time. Here, healing was on a human schedule, not an alien’s.Maybe, if she were lucky, she’d get a whole week with Alex before having to go back to her world.Sam let the silence settle over them until they turned a corner. “Hey, can I bring up a touchy subject?”“Sure.”“When Kara said things were different here for Astra…”Alex looked at Sam and looked worried for the first time since seeing the brand. “Astra didn’t have two teenagers to look after here. All she had were the other escapees and the DEO hounding them for years.” Alex stuffed her hands in her pockets and her shoulders hunched just a little. Sam knew that motion. Alex was scared. “Did you ever hear of Myriad?”“Non went a little power hungry behind Astra’s back.” Sam sighed, that had been a long week. “We barely managed to stop him and Indigo.”“They succeeded here. But, before that...” Alex ran a hand through her hair.“You know I’ve picked up on the fact Astra isn’t alive here, right?” Sam nudged her twin gently. “And you mean something to me, but this Astra has no bearing on my life.”Alex nodded but didn’t look relieved. “Kara gave her a chance. We all did, in some way. But then she was standing over Director Henshaw and I… I made my choice.”Sam gently tugged Alex out of the flow of foot traffic and wrapped her in a hug. Having a hand in Non’s death had stung; he had taught her how to be cunning, how to lull those around her into believing she was “only human.” He didn’t care for her as Astra did, but he didn’t want her dead, either.“It’s been three very long years and it’s still hard to talk about.”“That means you have a heart, Ally.”Alex took a deep breath, and they continued on their way. When they started to head back towards the DEO, Alex huffed and scrunched her face before saying, “I should probably tell Mom?”Sam wrinkled her nose as well. “Will that go over well?”“It’ll go over a lot worse if she finds out you were here and I said nothing.”“Sounds like you want to avoid her as much as I have with mine.”“It’s not that she’s horrible,” Alex explained. “She’s been great about Maggie and Lucy, and she’s helped out at the DEO a handful of times, but she’s still…”“Mom, and very few things we do actually measure up?”Alex nodded once. “Exactly.”“Is she here in the city?”“No, she’s still in Midvale. She comes here for the big holidays, we go there for small vacations.”“Were you thinking about a phone call or a visit?” Sam wasn’t sure how she felt about either. She hadn’t spoken to her mother in sixteen years and had no intention of doing so in the next fifteen years, either.“I was thinking Skype. Voice alone won’t be enough, but a visit is too much right now.”Sam snorted. “You really think she won’t be here in under six hours after learning of alternate Sam’s?”“Well, no, but it’ll give us all time to prepare.” Alex looked over at her. “But it’s up to you. If you don’t want to, we won’t.”“I…” She sighed. She didn’t want to admit so much, but she didn’t want Alex to think seeing Eliza was a bad thing. “So far, everything else here has worked out. I’m up for it.”Alex winced. “Yeah, uh, if you see Dad, maybe shoot him in the kneecaps and run?”“What the fuck did he do?”“He’s Cadmus?”Sam blinked. “How the fuck-”“Really long story. If we can get Kara to chaperone, we can go get drunk tonight, and I can tell you all about it.”“Alcohol, yes, please.” Sam watched Alex’s team melt back into view as they headed up the walk of the building. “Just to be clear, Cadmus is where they experiment on aliens, right?”“That, and they’re also anti-alien terrorists.”Sam was thoroughly confused, and it showed. “How do you have an anti-alien organization when the DEO exists?”“I think our DEO’s are very different,” Alex said. “We’ll kill aliens that resist surrender or are too great a threat to attempt arresting. But for the most part, we lock them up.”Sam glanced around at the team as they joined them at the door. “Yeah, the DEO I deal with shoots to kill, no questions asked.”“Seriously, I’ll help you burn it to the ground.”“I’m so in on that,” Griff said, looking far too gleeful for a man employed by the organization to be burned.Sam shook her head. “I’ll think about.” Going back to her world was hard to think about as it was. Sam didn’t want to consider what Alex would think of her life if she ever knew the truth.Sam watched Alex pace in front of the laptop in the corner of the lab. She wished she could provide Alex something other than, “We don’t have to do this now.”“The sooner, the better.” Alex sighed. “Knowing my luck, the same person who leaked Kara’s extrapolator has told Cadmus about you.”Sam grimaced. She would not want to face the Jeremiah of this Earth.Alex tapped at the keyboard and took a deep breath. A few moments later, she forced a smile. “Hi, Mom.”“Alex, what’s wrong?”Sam felt something in her chest ache. She hadn’t heard the voice since the night she ran away with Kara. And Eliza sounded so concerned, so ready to help Alex. Sam wondered if that could even be possible for her.“Nothing’s wrong, just….complicated.”“Does it have to do with Maggie and Lucy?”“No, and they’re okay. Great, even.” Alex shook her head. “We’ve told you about the other Earths, right? And how we’ve been to a few? Well, long story short, there was an accident.”“You said nothing is wrong, so that means no one was hurt.”Alex nodded and started to twist her hands together. Sam kept her hand low and out of sight, offering it. Alex stepped closer to the laptop to hide how she took Sam’s hand. “All those Earths are almost the same as this one, with a few major differences. There was a breach that connected to another Earth at random and pulled someone through.”“Who was it, Alex?” Her voice wavered as if she had a suspicion but didn’t want to hope.Alex gentle tugged Sam into the frame. Eliza’s gasp made Alex squeeze her hand hard for a moment.“Samantha?”She nodded. “Yeah.” And, oh, she didn’t know how she was breathing with the way Eliza was looking at her with such awe.“She’s not,” Alex cleared her throat. “She’s not our Sam. But if I have any chance at all to know any Sam, I’ll take it.”“Of course, sweetie, of course.” Eliza smiled at her. “How long are you on this Earth?”Sam glances at Alex before looking back at her. “I think I can stick around long enough for a few days of talking. Or...or a visit, if you want.”“I can be there tomorrow morning.”“You don’t have to rush, Mom,” but Alex was cut off.Eliza raised an amused eyebrow. “Do you expect me to do anything less?”“No. But I promise I won’t let anything happen to her until you’re here.”“I’ll see you soon, girls.”The call ended. Alex slummed against Sam, resting her head on her shoulder.“That went well,” Sam commented.“She’s gonna smother you in attention," Alex muttered, "and I’m gonna let her.”“You say that like it’s a fate worse than-“ Sam frowned. “Maybe we don’t use that phrase, either.”Alex snickered. “Yeah, maybe not.” She took a deep breath. “So, you any good at pool?”“Passable. Why?”“You haven’t properly met Winn, and the best way to do that is across a pool table with a beer.”Sam nudged them towards the door. “Is that the best way, or most amusing?”Alex grinned. “Definitely most amusing.” Outside the lab, she leaned over a rail and shouted, “Lane!”“Fuck off, Danvers!” Lucy yelled without looking up from where she was violently pointing at a screen next to a civilian tech.“Pool, tonight. Make sure that one and Olson show up.”The tech started to whine about pool sharks, and Lucy held a thumbs up in Sam and Alex’s direction.“C’mon,” Alex said, “let’s go see how much alcohol Fraiser will let you have.”Sam shook her head but followed. She had a feeling they were more informing the doctor instead of asking permission. Still, she had a feeling tonight was going to be interesting one way or another. She made a mental note to only get a little buzzed. She wanted to remember as much of this Earth as she could.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sam finished off her first beer and leaned into the corner of the booth. “So. How did your dad end up a Cadmus agent?”Alex glanced over at where her sister was trying to be subtle with James. “Long story very short, when we were kids, Kara convinced me a flight would be a great idea. The DEO tracked us back home and demanded we hand over Kara. Dad went instead, saying he’d be of more use.” She sighed. “We didn’t know that part until a few years ago when Mom found out I was working for the DEO.”“I’m guessing that was a fun conversation.” Sam didn’t want to imagine what a conversation with her mother would’ve been like before she was declared a criminal on national television.“On Thanksgiving, too.”Sam winced.“Kara and I eventually learned it wasn’t a plane crash that killed him, but a DEO mission. Then we learned that since he was left for dead, Cadmus picked him up and turned him to their cause.” She finished off her second beer. “He has since released Kara from Cadmus custody, pretended to come back to us only to steal the alien registry, and been part of a Cadmus plot to send those registered aliens across the galaxy.”Sam wanted to be surprised but honestly wasn’t. “My Dad never ended up with Cadmus. Instead, he’s still with the DEO.”Alex raised an eyebrow. “He’s part of the same DEO that’s sending you through breaches and keeping you in a Kryptonite suit while also starving you?”Sam ducked her head. “Picked up on that, huh?”“It’s not hard to miss what a week of small, sporadic meals under stress does to a body identical to mine.”Sam wanted to ask when Alex had suffered such treatment but decided that it could be a later conversation. “After we ran away, Mom and Dad spent about six months trying to find us before the DEO stepped in. They offered to help in exchange for having two brilliant scientists in their employ. They agreed, but after a couple years of no results, and then with how I was labeled a criminal by the entire West Coast, Mom eventually left Dad and only worked on medical advancements to save lives.”The waitress brought over two new beers, and Sam drained half of hers to get rid of the bile gathering in her throat.“I have a question,” Alex said. “I would’ve probably run away with Kara even when we hated each other, but why did you stay when you learned she was going to be with Astra?”Sam tried not to chug the other half of her beer. “How bad were your parents when it came to Kara?”Alex shrugged. “I taught her English, made sure she wasn’t picked on in school, reminded her to keep her voice down when she talked about being an alien. Which I'm guessing is nothing in comparison to you?”“I couldn’t do anything unless Kara was there and enjoyed it, too. You can understand how my friends didn’t want my new, quiet, and slightly weird sister around all the time. I had to give up surfing and the handful of shows I watched. Even when Kara protested and said she didn’t want to do everything with me, it was on me to make sure Kara found something she liked and that I was there holding her hand every step of the way.” Sam sighed. “I figured that’s why she was running away, to save us both from the bullshit. But then Astra was there, and I didn’t want to go back and have her running away being blamed on me. So I asked to stick around.”Alex grimaced. “Yeah, that makes sense.” She reached over the table and offered her hand.Sam laced their fingers together and squeezed. She honestly wished she could stay on this Earth. But she couldn’t abandon her responsibilities, and Alex probably didn’t want her around all the time, anyway. They were just a novelty to each other, a chance at something they lost. But they weren’t what the other really wanted. Well, Sam would take any Alex over no Alex, but she understood why no one else would feel the same.“So, this conversation sucks. Wanna go save your girlfriends?”Alex looked over to where Maggie was pinching the bridge of her nose, and Lucy looked ready to stab Winn with a pool cue. “Save their sanity and Winn’s life, yes, let’s.”After Sam finished her second beer, she stuck to water. She was feeling relaxed enough but didn’t want to get too drunk to forget the details of the night. Alex switched over to water after her third beer, saying she didn’t want to be hung over when Eliza arrived. Sam was surprised by how easily everyone included her in whispered plots and bad jokes. She figured the group was putting up with her because of Alex. But while it was taking a bit of time to warm up to her, everyone was trying to include her in conversations, in-jokes, and even future plans for another visit.After a few games where they all switched partners, Alex and Sam were tie for the number of games won.“There’s only one way to settle this, then,” Alex said, stepping up to Sam and putting her pool cue down.Sam nodded once and raised her fist. “I hope you’re not a sore loser.”Lucy and Maggie nearly dropped their beers. “Danvers-”The twins shook their fists three times and revealed their chosen attack. Alex had an open hand, and Sam was wiggling her fingers up in the air.“What the fuck, Sam?”Sam frowned. “Ditto, Ally.”“How is rock paper scissors confusing?”Sam shook her head. “It’s not earth fire water here?”Alex blinked, her hand dropping as her confusion grew.Sam grinned. “I’m fucking with you. Let’s go again.”Alex fumed but couldn’t help her smile. On the other side of the table, Lucy sighed and shook her head. “I hate you both so much.”“Oh, Rao, I can hear Kara coming,” Sam muttered as she tugged a pillow over her head.“At least we’re not hungover,” Alex pointed out as she hooked their pinkies together.“No, we just stayed out until three a.m.”After closing down the bar, Alex and Sam had gone home with Kara to give them a more welcoming atmosphere for interacting with Eliza. The twins got the bed to themselves while Kara took the couch. If Sam hadn't been so exhausted, she wasn't sure she could've fallen asleep next to Alex. The last time she had done so was when they had the flu.But she had slept and slept well. Now she was here, about to have a morning with a family that wasn't her's but felt so right despite that. Were Sam actually a brave person, she would ask if she could just stay on Earth 38. But Sam didn’t want to become another Kara for Alex to help through setting up a new life.The door to the loft opened, but neither of them moved. It was still far too early for anything other than mumbles and vague gestures as far as Sam was concerned.Eliza and Kara walked closer to the bedroom, and they heard Eliza gasp. Thinking she was just shocked at seeing Sam, neither twin moved.“What is it?” Kara asked. “They’re fine, everything’s fine.”“I know, it’s just...the last time I saw them share a bed, one of them didn’t wake up.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sam heard Alex gasp and the grip on her pinky tightened. She picked up her head, the pillow falling away, and watched the horror grow on Alex’s face.Oh, shit.Alex didn’t know.Sam reached out and carefully brushed a few strands of hair off Alex’s face. “Hey, Ally, breathe for me, please?”Alex sucked in a breath and was sitting up a moment later. The look of pure betrayal she was giving Eliza broke Sam’s heart. “You told me she died in the hospital!”Eliza was probably more held up by Kara at this point if the pain on her face was anything to go by. “How was I supposed to tell you?!”“I hated you both for keeping me away from her!” Alex wrapped an arm around Sam to anchor herself; both to confirm Sam was with her, and to keep herself from getting up. “I spent YEARS thinking we would’ve both made if we were together!”“How could I possibly tell the daughter who barely survived herself that her sister didn’t make it to the hospital?” Tears were starting to roll down Eliza’s face. “Alex, it was horrible enough to find you both like that; I didn’t want you to live with the knowledge.”Alex’s face crumpled, rage and understanding mixing. Sam wrapped her arms around her as a sob broke loose. Eliza and Kara made their way over to the bed and joined the hug. Alex took a few moments to regain her composure before pulling back. She considered Sam for a long moment. Sam looked down.“Oh, Sammy,” Alex murmured before wrapping her in a hug.Sam’s heart was in her throat as everyone shifted to surround her. “I’m okay, Ally.” That only made everyone tighten around her for a moment. “I was too out of it to really understand why you wouldn’t wake up…” Or why Alex was cold, why her parents hurriedly separated them, why she was in the only one in the ambulance with her mom...A broken noise came from Eliza. “Oh, my girls, I’m so sorry you three had to suffer such loses.”Sam could no longer fight back the tears at being included. She pressed her face into Alex’s shoulder and took a slow, deep breath. This wasn’t her mom, but damn if she didn’t feel cared about.It was so easy for them to accept each other as family. Sam wished it could stay this way, wished she could keep them in her life for more than just a visit.Stomachs growled, and Kara let out a wet chuckled. “Mood killer, but I think we need it.”“Definitely,” Alex said, wiping her face with a sleeve. She reached over and grabbed the box of tissues for them.They migrated to the couch, where Sam was planted between Alex and Eliza, and Kara sat against Alex’s legs. Breakfast consisted of coffee and sticky buns and Sam telling Eliza a more sanitized version of her life. She had a feeling Eliza wasn’t exactly fooled but was kind enough to not press for details.“Oh,” Eliza said during a lull in the conversation, “Kara, could you bring me my bag? Lucy and Maggie sent a request my way and, as your mother, I had to oblige.”Alex groaned. “Oh, no, not more home movies.”“I did not carry that camcorder on my shoulder for years for nothing,” Eliza pointed out. She opened her bag and pulled out three VHS tapes. “And since you’re the only one with access to your embarrassing childhood, you need to provide it.”“Using that logic isn’t fair,” Alex grumbled.“May I ask what that means?” Sam asked, treading carefully. It wasn’t her business, after all.“Lucy is an Army brat, and they didn’t hold on to a lot between moves,” Alex said. “Maggie was kicked out for giving a girl a Valentine Card when she was fourteen and hasn’t spoken to her parents since.”“Winn was right,” Sam said, “how are any of us good guys with our origin stories?”Eliza put the tapes on the table and held both their hands. “It’s because none of you want others to suffer as you have.”Sam rested her head on Eliza’s shoulder and closed her eyes. Years of being unable to show any weakness around aliens was all that held her emotions in check.“But, also,” Alex said after a moment, “never tell Winn he’s right.”Kara and Sam laughed while Eliza lightly scolded her because Winn was such a nice young man and friend.They eventually stuck one tape in the player. Sam was both haunted and pleased by how their childhoods were identical. It made it easier and not to talk about things. On both Earths, Alex was more of the brains while Sam was the brawn.It was another reason Sam couldn’t stick around. She didn’t want anyone to think she was replacing the Sam they had lost.They left the loft for lunch, going to a small corner cafe a few blocks away. They were eating outside, enjoying the sun when Kara leaned in a little and grew serious.“Jeremiah is watching us.”Neither Sam nor Alex did much more than relax for fight or flight. Eliza stiffened a little but otherwise didn’t react.“I’m not surprised he’s heard of you,” Alex said quietly. “Whoever leaked the extrapolator would’ve leaked your arrival to Cadmus, too.”“How long has he been there?” Eliza asked, trying not to look around.“He just showed up.” Kara tilted her head. “He’s just watching, hasn’t said anything to anyone, and I don’t hear any recording devices.”Alex put both hands on the table, a clear sign they were empty. “This once, and only this once, if he makes no move, neither do we.”Kara nodded and leaned back, looking to Eliza. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t follow us back to the loft?”Eliza took a deep breath but agreed. “I suppose I can’t blame him. I came down here myself when I heard.”“And if there’s a next time?” Sam asked.Alex snorted. “Oh, next time Kara’s freezing him, and we’re hauling him in, no questions asked. He’s still Cadmus, and he still betrayed all of our trust. I can forgive curiosity this once, but I won't forgive it again.”That was fair enough. Eliza changed the conversation, and Sam linked her pinky with Alex’s. Ok, then. Alex would forgive Sam’s curiosity for this visit. If Alex learned of the depth of Sam’s own betrayal, at least Sam won’t be surprised when Alex turned her out.Alex smiled at the text from her mom, reporting a safe arrival back to Midvale. Putting her phone away, she looked around the warehouse and was pleased with the progress that had been made over the weekend. The lines of sight were clear, and the towering metal shelves were replaced with shorter ones, as well as storage against the walls. It wouldn’t be so easy for anyone to sneak through. Sitting down next to Winn, she asked, “What’s better: this or the transmat?”“I definitely like the Stargate more,” Winn said without hesitation. “More control, less chance of evil twins.”Alex rolled her eyes. “Sam isn’t evil.” Well, not in bad ways. Sam had decided to run with her "earth fire water" joke and change other basic phrases. Alex would happily be tricked if it made Sam laugh.  “Not, like, literally, but she totally cheated at Mario Kart, and I’m gonna prove it.”She grinned, proud of her twin. Winn had been the Game Night reigning champion for far too long, even after she, Lucy, and Maggie practiced at their place. Watching Sam kick his ass repeatedly had been one of many highlights of the night. Alex couldn't wait for Sam's next visit. There would definitely be a Game Night every time Sam was on Earth 38.Her phone beeped, and she shook her head at the message.Dex: [This is definitely your evil twin.]Alex huffed. [Maybe don’t go easy on her and she won’t take it as an insult.]Cam: [Fraiser will MURDER us if we add to her bruises.][Then run her through the other tests. Or just take her to the laser tag place with other agents who look like they need the training.]Aiden: [I’m buying her a Nerf gun if she kicks ass.]Alex snorted and put her phone away. With her taking a shift at the warehouse with Winn, Sam was left in the hands of her team. Sam had wanted to join Alex, but since she had no knowledge of the extrapolator and was still in recovery, Alex convinced Sam to stay on base. The rest of Alpha team volunteered to keep Sam occupied, which apparently meant running her through a less intense version of rookie training.So far, Sam was making them regret their decision to go easy on her.Winn’s computer started to beep rapidly. Alex stood up and looked at the extrapolator, demanding an explanation.“The lockout is failing! I don’t know how, but Sam’s dimension is about to-“The breach burst into existence. Alex motioned the teams on guard to prepare to fire.The flashbang filled all of Alex’s sense; the ringing in her ears, the lack of sight, and the acrid smell of smoke. She tried to fight it off, she was trained to handle this-Hands grabbed her, and a shock to her spine crumpled her knees. Alex dropped her weight and forced them to drag her.They were here for Sam. If they thought they had Sam, they would go back through the breach. Kara would go to Cisco and Barry for help in Earth hopping.The disorientation of the breach was brief. She was held on her knees as heavy boots approached. She managed to focus and glared up at the Jeremiah of Sam’s Earth.He frowned down at her. “This isn’t her!”“It’s just a haircut-““No, it’s not.” He was looking at her with an interest that twisted her stomach. “Major Danvers has no fight left in her. This one...this one is ready to kill us.”Alex’s glare turned into a smirk. She took a slow, deep breath. There was no reason to make a liar out of him. Twisting out of her captors’ grips, she launched into an attack that would make everyone regret messing with a Danvers sister.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sam’s heart was hammering as she followed Mitchell off the elevator and into the command center. Alex was gone. Alex was taken, and it was all her fault. If only she had gone with Alex-“Stop blaming yourself, Major,” Director Henshaw ordered as they approached. “Don’t believe for a moment Agent Danvers would’ve let you go through that breach without a fight.”Kara landed next to the table, ruffling hair and uniforms as the wind died down. “I’m going to Earth One. Barry and Cisco will be able to open a breach to a safer location, and we can figure out how to grab Alex.”“I’m going with you,” Sam said. “And if anyone says something about recovery, I’m gonna start breaking noses until it’s clear I can handle a fight.”Silence filled the command center.Mitchell whistled low. “Can we keep her?”“You can’t just collect them like Pokémon,” an agent with a name tag of Demos said. “Besides, do you really want to be reigning in three Danvers?”Mitchell shrugged. “Benefits outweigh the costs.”“I would like you to wait for a more viable plan,” the Director said, “but as neither of you is in the direct employ of the DEO, that’s not an order I can give you.”Kara looked at Mitchell. “Can you gear her up while I talk to Cisco?”Mitchell snapped off a salute before waving Sam to follow him. “Plus side of you being a twin, all her gear should fit you.”Sam frowned. “I thought she went to the warehouse in full gear?”“Oh, she did. We sometimes run back to back missions and have a second set ready to go.”Sam was shown to Alex’s locker, and Mitchell went to stand in the doorway while she changed. Everything needed to be tightened just a little; Alex was more muscular than her even after the last four days of good eating. When she was ready, Mitchell led her back to the command center.More than one agent did a double take at her appearance.“I thought everyone was aware of me being here?” Sam asked Mitchell. It was no longer a secret that Alex had a twin.“No, it’s not that. You’re wearing a helmet.”Sam raised an eyebrow. “I run with a bunch of rebels with alien abilities and we wear all our safety gear.”“That would make you the smarter Danvers, then.”Sam tried to keep her cool at the sight of the breach in the middle of the room. Breaches always meant trouble. Kara was standing in front of it, and it wasn’t that large, which helped Sam reason with her fears. Kara was speaking into one palm, and two large devices shaped like her crest hung from her other hand. She gave Sam a grim smile as they approached."I'll do my best to keep Lane and Sawyer on this Earth," Mitchell said. "But if they threaten to shoot me, I'm making no promises.""Buy us at least three hours," Kara said. She handed her extrapolator to the Director. “We won’t need it while we’re with Cisco.”He nodded and wished them luck. With Kara’s hand on her elbow, Sam stepped the light of the breach. Her stomach roiled, past experience prepping her body for an onslaught of bad times.Earth One had two welcoming people on the other side. The man in the red suit stepped up to Sam and held out his hand. “Barry Allen, welcome to Star Labs. This is Cisco.”Cisco waved. “I was just about done with your extrapolator.”Sam shook Barry’s hand and nodded at Cisco. Usually, she liked meeting new people. But she was heading back to her Earth far earlier than she wanted. At least she got a few days with Alex. Perhaps an emergency was best; no long goodbyes this way.“Ready to go when you are,” Cisco said, opening a breach with his gloves.“Let me go first,” Sam said. “They’re a little less likely to shoot me.”“Just a little less?” Kara asked.“As far as they know, I’ve been in enemy hands for the last two weeks.” Sam stepped through before they could stop her.The sun had just risen over the foothills surrounding Fort Rozz. Sam felt something in her settle at the sight despite what it represented.Kara landed in the dirt in front of her before Sam could pinpoint all the snipers aiming at her. “Sam?”“Yeah, it’s me.” She glanced behind her when Kara’s eyes went wide. “Sooo did you know about the multiverse and other Earths?”Kara wrinkles her nose. “Are those Earths gaudy?”Sam smacked her shoulder with the end of the rifle. “Be nice, she helped me escape the DEO.”“Okay okay,” Kara raised her hands, “fine. What are we doing that you’re ready for war?”Sam locked eyes with her adoptive sister. “There’s an Alex without her Sam on that other Earth. The DEO has her.”Kara understood immediately. “Count me in. I don’t know how much I can help, though. The amount of kryptonite they have will kill us.”Supergirl stepped up next to Sam and held up the devices. “These are kryptonite shields.”Sam watched Kara take one and examine it. She wrinkled her nose at the crest shape. “I’m not taking back the gaudy comment.”Supergirl shrugged. “That’s fine. I know what my suit means on my Earth, and that's all that matters.”Kara nodded, then looked at the others. “And everyone else?”Supergirl introduced her friends and their abilities. Sam could tell Kara was intrigued and was likely to challenge Barry to a race when they were done saving Alex. Sam was fine with Kara’s competitive streak; it would mean a few more minutes with Alex.“If we’re gonna do this.” Kara said, glancing around, “we should go now before-”“Before someone informs me?”Astra landed beside Kara, unimpressed but still amused. Behind Sam, Supergirl gasped.“I do believe I benched you after your little stunts?” Astra asked as she glaring Kara.“What did you do?” Sam asked.Kara crossed her arms. “Attacked the DEO to get you back. Twice.”“And had a dozen Kryptonite bullets pulled from various parts of her body as a result,” Astra said, clearly annoyed. “We are not doing this without a proper plan of attack.”“Do we have a hack of the DEO running?” Sam asked. While it was possible for Fort Rozz to get into the DEO systems, staying there was difficult due to how the DEO used alien tech as well.Kara nodded. “It’s working now, but it’s only a matter of time before we get kicked out again.”Cisco stepped forward. “I might be able to help with that.”Astra looked them over once more before nodding. “Let’s go.”Sam took a deep breath and hoped Alex could hold her own until they could get to her.Alex was bored. Okay, maybe not bored. She was handcuffed and vigilant, but she wasn’t in danger. Her little attack had ended when someone tased her again, but she took down four agents. She had been escorted out of the breach room, disarmed, and searched. Jeremiah’s curiosity grew when her DEO badge was handed to him.“What did Samantha tell you that made you so willing to attack another dimension’s DEO agents?” he asked her.“It wasn’t so much what she said as much as it was our telepath reporting she told us no lies.”He frowned. “You trust an alien to tell you the truth?”Alex shrugged, picking up on his derision of aliens. “We trust all our alien allies.”The agents searching her stepped away. She had been surprised by their professionalism; none of them tried to grope her or plant damning evidence. But, given she looked like Sam and they were standing in front of Jeremiah, perhaps they just hadn’t wanted to risk it.“That’s everything, sir,” the lead agent reported.Jeremiah nodded. “There’s something I want to show you.”Alex fell in step next to him, refusing to follow. She would respect her own father and his curiosity, but this man had done so much wrong by Sam that Alex couldn’t grant him the same favor. Three agents followed behind them. Alex wondered what, exactly, they intended to do if she decided to attack again. Sure, they held tasers, but she hadn’t been knocked unconscious by the jolts.“We have been using Samantha as an envoy to other worlds, yes, and she is an inmate here.” He said Sam’s full name, which Alex knew her twin disliked as much as she did Alexandra. “But she has committed a crime we cannot forgive. I can’t bring myself to order her death, and Director Henshaw agrees that she still can be of use.”Alex wanted to punch him in the face. He had no real love for Sam. Even when she and her mother were at the lowest part of their relationship, Alex knew Eliza would never say something so callous as Alex “still being of use.” Sure, he didn’t want her dead, but he was offering her no life.Alex was sure that even if her dad had stolen Sam from them, he would give Sam options.The office wasn’t cluttered, but Alex could tell it was lived in and only vaguely organized. There were photos taken from what had to be the probe sent with Sam due to the angle and having her twin in the frame. She stood next to the chair Jeremiah motioned for her to use. As much as her knees hurt from being tased twice, she wasn’t going to be so compliant.Jeremiah sat and turned his two flat-screen monitors to their sides so they both could see them. He was quick to open a video file; one screen showed the inside a lab, the other show four different views from outside.Alex felt her stomach sink when she saw Eliza appear on the screen. She was in a lab coat and speaking with a handful of others, clearly in charge. They were excited about something. Outside, various aliens were setting up with rocket launchers.
Sam stood with Maaldorian, clearly competent with the heavy weapon.
Alex’s hands fisted. No. There was no way Sam would-
The rockets were launched at the same time.
J’onn would’ve-
There was a flash of light from the window behind Eliza.
J’onn would’ve respected Sam’s privacy, and Alex knew that.
The lab camera became static.
Alex didn’t want to believe it. But Sam and the Fort Rozz aliens were at war with the DEO.
Sam handed the launcher over to the Maaldorian and headed back the way they came without a backward glance.
Jeremiah closed the program. “I know now that Samantha had no idea Eliza was in that building.” He stood up and looked Alex in the eye. “That doesn’t excuse what she did. And you might be Alexandra, but you aren’t my Alex. Therefore, your life means nothing to me. So. Who’s side are you on?”Knowing her answer meant life or death, and she couldn’t be sure how quick Kara would arrive, Alex used every single skill J’onn taught her about deception. “Your side, sir.”He nodded once and motioned for an agent to step forward. “Excellent.”Alex rubbed her wrists when the cuffs were removed. She told Sam she would burn this place to the ground for her. Might as well do it from within. “Where do we start?”Sam was impressed with Cisco; he had managed to learn an alien computer system on the fly with only a few tips from Kara, all the while explaining the multiverse. The Fort Rozz system had an English interface mostly because of her at first, but now there were a few dozen humans that found it useful. It only took minutes to locate Alex.Her twin was in a conference room with a map of National City spread out before her. Jeremiah stood beside her, and five team leaders were seated around the map.“What is she doing?” Kara demanded. She looked at Sam, “You said she was on our side.”Supergirl shook her head. “That’s her Rogue Agent face. The moment she gains access to an armory, things are going to start blowing up.”“You say this as if it happens often,” Astra said.Supergirl shrugged. “If she doesn’t commit treason every eight months, we get worried.”“Then what is she showing them?” Kara asked.Cisco zoomed in on the map, and Supergirl's eyes went wide. “On our Earth, that apartment building is protected by telepathic aliens. If a strike team goes anywhere near there with ill intent, their memories will be wiped.”“Well now that we know where she is,” Barry said, “we can breach to her.”“That won’t stop them from opening the breach again,” Sam said. “We need to destroy their extrapolator and all related data.”“I, personally, am all for destroying the entire site,” Kara said. “But they’ve also shot me multiple times with Kryptonite. I might be biased.”Cisco frowned. "We do need to shut down that extrapolator. I don't like how it can access other Earths without going through a crossroad."“If we can evacuate the base," Barry said, "I’ll help plant the explosives.”“I would usually argue for more thorough measures,” Astra said, “but I will defer to your respect for human life.”“Is there a server room we can access?” Kara asked.Cisco brought up that camera. “I can get you there.”Astra nodded and told Kara to get what they would need to download as much information as they could. Kara sped off, and Cisco used a blueprint of the base to discuss with Barry the best places to plant the explosives.Sam fisted her hands and relaxed them as she watched Alex. Jeremiah looked so proud of Alex that it twisted her stomach. She had no chance of him ever looking at her the same. Any amends she could’ve made by him were impossible now.Astra put a hand on her shoulder and led her away from the preparing group. “Are these people truly allies?”“Yes,” Sam said, resisting the urge to lean against Astra. Now wasn’t the time to seek comfort. “They’ve trusted me and been nothing but kind.”“Will you be returning to that Earth with Alex?”Sam’s jaw dropped out of shock and surprise. “What? No, Astra, my life is here, I would never abandon my responsibilities.”Kara returned, laden down with bombs and electronics.“We will speak of this later,” Astra said as she went to help Kara distribute the gear.Sam stared after her. There was no way Astra could know Sam wanted nothing more than to learn what it was like to have a twin again. Alex wasn’t around for Sam to interact with, and no one had time to talk about the antics they had gotten up to over the weekend. In fact, Sam had made a point of introducing Supergirl to Astra so attention would be focused anywhere but her.Cisco opened a breach, catching Sam’s attention. Kara and Astra were wearing the Kryptonite shields as they stepped through and vanished from sight.“You and I are going after Alex,” Supergirl said as another breach opened. “Cisco is going to keep our breach open. We grab her and come right back here before she does something insane.”Sam nodded but grinned just a little. “Do you really think we can stop her?”“Well, no, but at least we can say we tried.”This time, Sam didn’t hesitate to step through the breach.Alex barely bit back a grin when she heard the running of boots. An agent entered the room and headed straight for Jeremiah.“Sir, we have intruders in the server room, and a base-wide evacuation has been ordered.”Jeremiah frowned. “How did this happen?”“We’re not sure yet, sir. The cameras went off-line after a small breach opened in that room.”Alex now understood what was going on. Kara had not only gone to Earth One, but she also recruited help. She wondered if it was just Cisco, or if Barry would make sure to join in on a rescue mission.The tablet in the agent’s hands beeped. “Uh, sir? The ventilation shafts are pumping air out of the base.”Probably not just a rescue, then. Alex wasn’t surprised; Sam would want to render the base useless to prevent further breaches. Sam just didn’t want everyone dead. Which, fair enough.Alex must not have been hiding her grin anymore, because Jeremiah glared at her. “What the hell is going on?”“You said it yourself: I have a fight in my eyes.” She raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think I wouldn’t surround myself with the same kind of people?”A breach opened at the far end of the room. Alex leaped onto the table and ran towards her sisters while Kara created a wall of ice with her breath.“Astra and Kara are downloading all the information they can,” Sam reported. “Barry is planting explosives so we can destroy the extrapolator.”“Let’s go before they shoot through that,” Kara said, tugging them back to the breach.Alex pouted. “I want my blaster back.”Kara rolled her eyes. “Fine, we’ll have Cisco breach us to the room it’s in. Let’s go!”Alex followed Sam through the breach and into a room full of advanced alien technology. Most of it was Kryptonian, but there were added on systems from other races.“Welcome to Fort Rozz,” Sam said, motioning around her with a flourish.Alex grinned at her before looking at Cisco. “Thanks for the help.”He shrugged. “It’s no problem.”Alex looked at the screen of cameras. “Can you get me to that room there?” she asked. “It’s where all my gear is.”Cisco nodded and opened the breach. She and Sam were quick to grab everything of Alex’s before heading back through to the prison. Cisco then opened a breach for Astra and Kara, who signaled at the camera he had control of.Alex blinked at the sight of them; they weren’t in the black body suits she had grown used to seeing on the Fort Rozz escapees of Earth-38. Instead, they wore everyday clothing that would allow them to fit in with the humans around them.Barry returned through another breach, breaking Alex’s focus. Sam was standing next to Cisco, watching the DEO agents run out of the base. When there were no more life signs in the building, Astra brought up the detonation program.“The base is empty. Would you like to do the honors?”Sam’s fingers hovered over the button that would blow it all up. Alex understood her hesitance and stepped up next to her. Lacing their fingers together, Alex asked, “Together?”Sam nodded. After a double check of the perimeter cameras, they hit the detonation key. The interior security cameras were wiped out in a wave. They watched from the outdoor cameras as the base collapsed in on itself.No one was hurt. Jeremiah was accounted for. No one would die due to Sam’s actions to protect herself and others.Sam rested her head on Alex’s shoulders as their hands slipped off the control panel. Alex linked their pinkies together. Sam was free from that particular hell, which was immensely relieving for Alex. Except now Sam didn’t need her help anymore.Alex wasn’t ready to let her go.She didn’t think she ever would be.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

After getting word back to Earth-38 of a successful rescue mission, Sam brought Alex up to the second room she had claimed as her own. As a teenager, she and Kara had roomed across from each other near Astra. When Sam got older and had explored more of Fort Rozz, she found a room in the highest points of the prison that got a lot of evening sun. She would hang out the destroyed window and watch the stars come out as the sky darkened.Both Kara’s had flown them up to the room so the twins wouldn’t have to spend hours making their way up to the top of Fort Rozz. While most of the elevators were functional, it still involved traipsing through the prison to get to the operational areas. They sat on the ledge, legs occasionally swinging back against the hull, shaded from the afternoon sun.“I think Barry’s learned his limits,” Alex commented as the races took to the sky.“It’s only been three hours,” Sam drawled. “Though, it did result in ice cream for us.”Alex scooped at the last bite in her pint. “The best lunch after blowing up a black ops base.”Sam grinned and rested her head on Alex’s shoulder. “Kara said you do that pretty often.”“Not as often as I’d like,” Alex said with a pout. “Usually because someone starts talking logically.”“Then I’ll make sure to invite you here next time someone wants to blow up something.”Alex rested her head on Sam’s. “But not you.”Sam closed her eyes for a minute. “I didn’t know. That doesn’t make it better or okay or anything, and I don’t know if I could have stopped them.”Alex set aside her empty pint and took one of Sam’s hands in her own. “This has been going for years, right? They knew neither side took prisoners and how deadly attacks could get.” Alex took a deep breath. “I may not agree with the tactics on either side one hundred percent, but I’m not going to judge you, Sammy.”She lifted her head and looked at Alex. “Yeah?”“Yeah. I killed Astra, remember? I took away Kara’s last blood relative. I hesitated, and I regret it, but I still did it.”Watching the two Kryptonians churn the clouds above, she said, “She seems to have forgiven you.”“It took a lot of talking and a lot more food, but yeah, we worked it out.” She sighed. “But my relationship with Kara has always been there. When was the last time you spoke to Jeremiah?”“The night we ran away.” Sam rubbed a hand over her face. “For a while, I was glad to be away. Then the DEO stepped in, and I didn’t know if I would be safe if I went back. After that… It always felt like it was too late.”Alex wrapped an arm around Sam’s waist and squeezed. She was grateful Alex didn’t say anything about how it probably wouldn’t have been, how their parents would’ve taken her back. Sam wasn’t so sure, and Alex didn’t know this version of Eliza and Jeremiah. Pulling her arm back, Alex hooked their pinkies together. “May I ask how he caught up to you?”Sam run her free hand through her hair. “I went to her grave. Six months later and he still had someone watching it.”“You know, I don’t like my dad all that much anymore,” Alex groused, “but I hate your’s even more.”She nodded in agreement, capped her ice cream, and set it back inside the room. “Ever since that attack, I’ve stepped back. I’ll deliver things, drive aliens to new lives, anything that isn’t violent. I want to save lives, but not at the cost of others.” She sighed. “Not anymore, at least.”“You’re allowed to change, you know.” She thumped her heels against the hull. “Until I met Maggie, I figured most aliens were nothing but trouble. I was proud of how many escapees I caught and killed. Lucy wasn’t exactly all the different, either. Maggie showed us that there were aliens who just wanted a quiet life. The DEO is still very much against the illegal alien activity, but we’re also welcomed into places like the bar.” She huffed. “More than one alien has almost blown Kara’s identity by approaching her when she’s not in the suit.”Sam chuckled. That was a perk of not hiding what she did with her life. The downside was, well, having to wear a wig and contacts if she wasn’t on a mission.The silence settled between them as they gazed out across the desert. Sam wondered when they would get another moment like this; together, calm, without anything to do. Even if she saw Alex next week, Sam would still miss her. It was almost unfair, to be given a taste of having her twin, only to have her leave. Then again, this was better than nothing.“I should probably let you get back to your Earth,” Sam said with a sigh.Alex sighed as well. “Yeah. Even if they heard my voice, Maggie and Lucy won’t be satisfied until they see me.”Neither of them moved.~Kara felt her shoulders relax under Astra’s hand. This wasn’t her aunt, and now Kara understood what Alex had to be feeling. This could never be her life or her world, but, Rao, was it tempting to hold on to it with both hands and never let go. This Astra may have looked into the same abyss of the Phantom Zone, but having her Kara and Sam kept her grounded.From Astra’s other side, her look-alike said, “You should definitely visit with Sam.”Kara blinked, frowned, and looked at them in confusion. “What do you mean, “with Sam?” Why are you implying she’s not staying here?”The other Kara rolled her eyes, and Astra nudged her gently. She looked back at Fort Rozz and said, “I haven’t seen Sam so happy and relaxed in over a year.”“I thought the accident was only six months ago?”Kara nodded. “Sam’s committed to this, to us, but she’s... It’s wearing her out. Your Alex gets to leave the DEO, gets to move freely in the world without looking over her shoulder too much. Sam can’t have that unless she leaves the country and maintains a disguise for the rest of her life. If she’s not traveling to relocate an alien family, she’s here surrounded by the work we do.”“Sam is far too much like Alex to just walk away,” Kara pointed out. “You could give her every reason in this world and ours, but she’s not going anywhere.”“That’s why it’ll be an order,” Astra said, firm but quiet. “If we take the choice from her, then she must go with you.” She looked at her. “If you’ll have her.”“Yeah, of course, Sam’s always welcome, but don’t you think she’ll see this as being kicked out for not being enough?”“I’ll be dealing with that,” the other Kara said. “Trust me, I know my sister.”Kara nodded, then grinned a little. “Apartment hunting is gonna be fun. And getting furniture! There’s definitely gonna be a housewarming party, and you both should be there.”Astra was smiling and nodded in agreement while the other Kara wrinkled her nose. This world’s Kara was rougher around the edges, but it was obvious she cared for Sam. There had been no hesitancy in taking Sam up to her perch and knew which ice cream was her favorite without thought. Not to mention the instant agreement to breaking Alex out of the DEO despite being shot at twice.“We should get this started then,” Kara said. “We’re gonna need to figure out if Sam stays in the DEO tonight or comes home with one of us.”“And, you know,” other Kara drawled, “set up an identity solid enough that no one asks questions about Alex getting back a twin that’s been dead for two decades.”Kara waved her off. “That’s the easy part. Pam from HR probably has half that paperwork filled out and ready to go.”She honestly didn’t understand their confused and impressed looks. Surely if they were moving aliens to new lives, they had someone as equally competent with paperwork. If not, Kara would just have to find a way to get Pam to straighten things out here. It would be Pam’s idea of a vacation.Astra looked down at the main entrance to the prison. “Cisco has finished his work. Will the two of you retrieve your sisters?”They nodded and flew off. Kara hoped this was everything Alex wanted; if not, things were about to get very awkward.~Sam rolled her eyes as Kara reached behind her and blew cold breath on her ice cream. “It tastes just as good melted, you know.”“You’re so weird,” she said as she shoved the pint back into Sam’s hands. “Hold on to that.”Supergirl pulled Alex off the ledge. “Elevator going down!”They dropped fast, Alex whooping all the while. Sam tucked her ice cream close before she and Kara began to free fall. They did a few lazy barrel rolls before landing beside everyone else.Alex stole a nacho from Barry’s large bowl after hauling him to his feet. “Did you honestly think you would win?”“Nope!” He smiled. “Still fun, though.”Cisco handed Sam an extrapolator. “This one’s a little different from the others. Green button will get you to Earth One, which you should do just to keep the multiverse walls stable. Blue button will get you Earth Thirty Eight, and red brings you back here.”Sam wrapped her fingers around the device, feeling her heart in her throat. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye. “Thanks. I owe you, uh, a few by this point?”He shrugged and smiled. “It was fun to figure out. But can we keep you in mind in case we need some help?”“Of course! It’d be interesting to see what trouble looks like for you two.”“You say that now,” Barry drawled, “and then you end up on an Earth where your double wants to kill you.”“It’s a good thing we’re too pretty to die,” Cisco said.“That we are,” Supergirl agreed, grinning at them.Astra joined them with two familiar looking duffle bags. She set them at Sam’s feet. “I believe this is everything.”Sam didn’t notice Kara nudge Barry and Cisco away as she stared up at Astra. “What?”Astra put her hands on Sam’s shoulders. “Rao knows I’ve tried my best with both you and Kara, and I am so proud of who you’ve become. That said, I know I can’t help you find a real place in this world.”Sam’s stomach sank. “My place is here-”“Sam, we are and always will be your family. That will never change, I promise you. But you’ve been given a chance to know everything that was lost to you.” Astra squeezed her shoulders. “You forget that I’m a twin as well. Though I would bring you both with me, I would walk away from this war without hesitation if I could have Alura by my side again.”Sam wiped at her eyes and refused to let the tears fall. She looked at Alex, who was surprised but trying to hold back her hope. Kara stood behind Astra, hands shoved in her pockets as she watched.“We’re not sending you away because we think you’re weak,” Kara said as she stepped closer, “or because we think you can’t keep up, or don’t want to kill anymore. Rao knows you’re one of the strongest around here.” She took Astra’s place and held Sam’s free hand. “You’ve recognized that you have a new limit and I respect that. It means you haven’t lost yourself to this fight, Sam. I will absolutely call you if I want someone at my back that I know I can trust without thinking twice.” Her other hand cupped the back of Sam’s head. “When Astra found me, you were nothing but supportive. Alex is family, Sam. I know what it feels like to find that after losing it all.”Sam wrapped Kara in a hug. She was squeezed back even harder. She had thought the idea of letting Alex go was going to be hard; this was almost impossible.When Kara finally pulled away, Astra immediately hugged Sam. For all Sam had never found it in herself to call Astra “aunt” as Kara did, the understanding was there. As far as Astra was concerned, Sam was her niece as much as Kara.“This isn’t goodbye,” Astra said as she stepped back. She nodded towards Supergirl. “There’s apparently going to be a housewarming party.”Sam chuckled and wiped at her eyes again. When she reached for Alex, her twin was there and wrapping an arm around her waist. “I’ll visit as often as I can.”Kara nodded. “This might be the only place where you can get a view as good as what you’re used to.”Supergirl led Cisco and Flash back over and smiled. “True. I tossed our Fort Rozz back into space after Myriad.”Astra blinked. “All of Fort Rozz?”She nodded. “It’s where the energy wave was coming from. Had to get rid of it.” She didn’t seem to understand that was a feat even for Kryptonians under a yellow sun.Kara was starting to grin, but Astra pointed back at her without looking. “You are not lifting this structure, or Rao help me-”Both Karas laughed. Sam shook her head and looked at Cisco. “So it turns out we’re gonna need a second extrapolator.”“Consider it done,” he said. “I’ll even figure out a way for the breaches to open near the other device.”Alex picked up one duffle bag, and Supergirl grabbed the other. Sam took a deep breath and opened a breach. Barry and Cisco went through first, followed by Supergirl. Sam hovered at the edge, Alex at her side.“Sam, I love you,” Kara said, “but I will push you through that thing.”She smiled at her sister. “Love you, too, Kara. See you next week.”With her arm around Alex, Sam took her first step through a breach with a calm heart.Two Weeks Later Sam opened the door to the loft and laughed as Ford presented a huge Nerf gun to her. “This is perfect! Thanks, Aiden.”“You have no excuse to be unprepared now,” he warned as he entered.Sam set her new weapon on the kitchen island with the other housewarming gifts and leaned against it as she took everything with a smile.It had taken Kara and James two days of talking before it was decided Kara would move in with him. There had been no question about Sam getting the loft. Once the paperwork was processed, the only thing that had changed about her legal information was her social security number. Alex and Eliza were more than willing to have her keep the Danvers name; they told her they wanted it no other way. After a whirlwind shopping adventure with Kara and Lucy, Sam had a place furnished to the new tastes she had decided to explore now that she was no longer living in a refurbished prison cell. The only remnants of her old life were some clothing and the photos she had stolen from her childhood home when she was nineteen.Eliza settled next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “How are you, sweetie?”“Amazing, really.” She smiled at the woman who was and wasn’t her mother. “Thank you for cooking.”“You’re welcome, though Maggie deserves as much credit.”“Yeah, how is Ally not fat with how Maggie cooks?”“Chasing after Kara is what I tell myself.”Sam snickered, then straightened when a breach opened by the door. Kara and Astra stepped through, slowly relaxing as they recognized Sam, Kara, Alex, Barry, and Cisco. Sam was hugging them before Kara could protest about showing her soft side in front of strangers.“This is a nice place,” Kara said when she was released.“This was Kara’s place,” Sam said. “She moved in with her boyfriend so I could get out of the D.E.O. faster.”“This seems to be where new beginnings happen.” Eliza held out her hand to Astra. “As a mother, thank you for giving Sam a family and taking care of her.”Astra took her hand and smiled. “She’s done all of us proud, and I’m pleased her family has grown.”Eliza started to guide Astra away. “Now, Sam has shared some stories, but I must know what other embarrassing activities she and your Kara got into.”“Oh, of course,” Astra said, smirking at the duo she had raised before following Eliza away. “Let’s start with the time they decided to have a swimming race against a far more aquatically adapted alien…”Sam groaned and rested the side of her head on Kara’s shoulder. “We’re doomed.”“That we are.” Kara smiled. “No different than usual, then. Hey, Alex.”Alex greeted her as she came to stand next to Sam. “If we need more food later, Barry and Kara will wanna race you to see who can get the most. Legally.”Kara perked up. “Oh, it’s so on. I’m gonna need them to loan me money, though, cause I don’t think my cards work on this Earth.”“Winn can fix that for you,” Alex said, pointing him out. “Which, not legal, but hey at least businesses will get paid.”Kara headed off with determination in her eyes.“You good?” Alex asked as they watched their friends and family enjoy themselves.“You know what? I really am.” She grinned. “Thanks for not shooting me on sight.”“Ditto,” Alex said. “C’mon, let’s go wipe Winn’s high scores off Mario Kart while he’s busy.”Sam smiled and joined her twin in hurrying across the room. A month ago, she had next to nothing; just a war to fight alongside the only two people who gave a damn about her. Now she had an unimaginable new life with not only Alex, but a mother who loved her, another Kryptonian sister, and a group of people ready and willing to call her their friend. No longer a wanted criminal, she had a world of possibilities open to her. And while this wasn’t the Alex she was born with, this was an Alex she wanted to live with. Given how Alex leaned in close and whispered their plan of attack, she knew Alex wanted this life just as much.Sam had, finally, come home.