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“Please, please, you don’t have to do this!” Kara begs, her last attempt to stop what is about to happen. It’s no use, she knows it’s no use, but the fear is overwhelming and she really, really does not want to die— not like this. Half bared and strapped to a table— completely and utterly powerless.
The man— Thawne— smirks from behind his surgical mask. Glancing at the hooded man standing guard over her doppleganger, he says; “I think we’ve already waited long enough.”
Even without her super-hearing, Iris and Felicity’s shouts reach her ears, their hands pounding at the glass doors that separate them from the lab and the Nazi doubles within. The saw whirs to life, drowning out their cries and as it draws nearer to her chest, Kara finds herself transfixed; unable to look away from the impending bloodbath, even though she desperately wants to. Abject terror eats at her psyche, and her breath catches in her throat. I’m so sorry, Alex, she thinks, just as the blade pierces her skin.
It’s excruciating, all consuming, and unlike anything she’s felt before. In all of her fights with super-powered individuals and rogue aliens alike— she’s never felt pain this blinding. Kara shouts, her back arching involuntarily off the table as her muscles seize and her arms contract. The restraints bite into her forehead, her stomach, her wrists— failing to ground her, and she chokes. Not even her battles with Kal-El or Rhea compare to what she feels now.
Not even Kryptonite.
The spinning blade bites deeper, tearing through skin and muscle and bone like butter as Thawne drags it down her sternum, his hands steady and aim true despite the heaving of her chest from laboured breaths. Her blood, as red and deep as the false red sunstone above them, spills from the open wound. It coats the blade, her skin, his stark white gown. Tendrils wind down her chest, pooling in her collarbones and at the hollow of her throat. She screams louder than she ever has before, throat raw, but she cannot even hear herself, for the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears deafens her. The pounding of her still-beating heart that they’re trying to cut out of her chest alive.
The gown grows saturated and it sticks to her skin, each heart beat one step closer to bleeding her dry. Her eyes do close now, squeezing shut so tightly that she sees stars, and she thinks that if she was human, she’d certainly be dead now. She can’t move anymore, she’s in shock, her body limp, her mind clouded and dazed.
She catches a brief moment of relief, not from the pain, but from the lack of sawing, but it’s short lived. Agony floods her anew as something cold mixes with the heat of the fresh blood on her flesh. It digs into her chest, splitting bone from bone and finally, finally, the world grows dark.
***
The portal opens into the greyed halls of S.T.A.R. Labs, and Alex takes off into the direction of the unmistakable screams. The hallways are unfamiliar, winding, and she does her best to follow her ears. She knows that her new friends are shouting at her to wait, but she can't, because they have Kara, they're going to kill Kara.
Her screams aren't hard to miss— but they're different from the others. Alex has never heard Kara scream like this before. She's seen her sister loose it at holograms and androids, has heard the rawness tear out of her in grief and in anger alike, has witnessed as it rips itself free of her throat as she stops fleeing spaceships and submarines, but not this, never this.
This time her baby sister's screams are guttural, animal. Alex's heart breaks, but some part of her knows that the screaming is good, it means she's still alive. It's when she stops, that Alex should worry, because then she'll be too late. Like a canary in a mine, the moment it stops its song, death has arrived.
The cacophony grows louder now, the sound of her feet pounding on the pavement below joining the rising chorus. Her gun is already drawn, it's safety released by the time she rounds the last bend. The two Nazi thugs drop to the ground before they even know what's hit them, the gun still smoking as Felicity and Iris jump at the newest intrusion. They're panicked gazes soften minutely when they see Alex, but not for long as they take in her crazed expression.
"Let me in!" she yells, barrelling past them.
They scatter, Iris out of the way and Felicity to the digital key pad, and Alex is forced to stop in front of the locked glass doors. Just beyond lies her sister, and she screams too, pounding on the glass at the bloodbath before her. She manages to draw the attention of Thawne and the Fuhrer, the former's hands pausing with what looks to be some sort of retractor in his grasp.
They wear twin expressions of surprise and fury on their faces, and Alex only allows herself to feel the slightest hint of satisfaction for being able to pull one over on the so-called superior Earthens.
The door slides open and she stumbles past the threshold, gun arm raising. The speedster has her by the throat and pinned to a wall in the blink of an eye, and she chokes, weapon clattering to the ground as she claws at the hand around her neck. The man grins, his eyes sparking wickedly and his hand tightening, and Alex counts one, two, three seconds before she's convinced she's going to die—
A flash of scarlet and she's on the ground, coughing on her hands and knees as she struggles to suck a breath past her parted lips.
An army of boots thunder past her wheezing form, and only then does she notice the silence where her sisters screams once were, and suddenly, she's back on her feet, rushing to Kara's bedside.
She's ignorant of the raging fight around her, all of her attention on her sister's pale face and the gory glimpse of cracked sternum that greets her.
"Kara!" she cries, hands fumbling for her neck.
All she can think is she's dead, she'd dead, you're too late as her fingers fight to find a pulse beneath her sister's sticky lifeblood. It's there, faint, but there and Alex thanks the blonde's Kryptonian genes and Kryptonian God, for any human surely would have perished by now. She tugs at the straps holding Kara's limp form, releasing them as hastily as she can with shaking hands.
A shout draws her gaze, Oliver and Sara tag-teaming the other Oliver, guns and bows clashing. A stray arrow whizzes through the air, and Alex lunges instinctively, her upper body covering Kara's as the arrow finds its home in the red stone above them.
It shatters, raining crimson shards over them and Alex hisses as one nicks her shoulder, but she ignores the sting. Kara needs her now. She slides her jacket off, pulling her tee shirt over her head until she's left in her sports bra, and balls up the soft fabric, pressing it to Kara's chest. Her blood soaks through in seconds, coating her hands and Alex panics.
"Sun!" she calls to anyone who might be listening. "She needs sunlight!"
Within the moment, she's outside on some rooftop— not the lab, they're much too high, higher than any other building in the vicinity. Kara's unconscious form lays at her feet, and Alex drops, ignorant of the dust and debris that dig into her knees as she shifts Kara's head into her lap. The strong rays of the mid-morning sun beat down around them.
Barry stands off to the side, shock and disgust evident on his face, and Alex is sure that it mirrors her own. He turns away, nauseous, but Alex doesn't have that luxury, Kara's out of imminent danger, but she's still not awake.
"I'm sorry," she whispers, tearing at the snaps on the front of her sisters gown, maximizing the surface area for her sister's solar energy absorption.
"Do you uh, do you need anything?" Barry asks, still sounding a little queasy. His eyes remain averted— either out of respect for Kara's temporary immodesty, or to avoid looking at the gruesome wound— or perhaps out of both.
"No," Alex says, brushing Kara's hair from her face, dragging her shaky fingers through the matted curls. Colour has already started to return to her sister's cheeks, and hope ignites in her chest. "Nothing left to do but wait."
Barry looks uncertain, but he nods in the end, giving Alex a supportive smile. He tosses her an in-ear comm.
"Let us know if you need anything," he says, before disappearing in a streak of light.
Alex tucks the comm into her ear and waits, alternating between stroking Kara's hair and tracing her finger down the sides of her face. She's seen Kara through many scrapes since she'd come out as Supergirl— more metaphorically of course— but nothing has ever come close to this. Kara's been sore, bruised and human even, but she's never been cut into, has never faced an enemy so evil as to try and cut out her still-beating heart. And Alex, well she's had to wait for Kara to wake up from many a super-powered scuffle, but she's never had to stanch the blood flow from a wound before, or had to worry about her being vivisected before her very eyes.
Eyes that water now that the adrenaline fades from her own intact bloodstream, and she's finally able to feel the whole weight of the situation, and of just how close she truly was to loosing her baby sister.
The sky is cloudless, the sun unrelenting, and though Alex starts to feel her own exposed skin toasting in the sunlight, she's thankful for it. Thankful that Kara is still here.
"Come on, Kara," she whispers, closing her eyes against the bright rays and the tears that threaten to fall.
The Kryptonian seems to heal inside out, the bone mends, and the muscle fibers knit themselves back together. Kara's shallow breaths become deeper, more even, and Alex finds that she's also able to breathe easier, now that her sister is almost back to one hundred percent. The scientific portion of her mind is fascinated, watching as Kara's body repairs itself, watching as the skin closes without so much as a blemish in its wake.
Kara begins to stir then, fingers twitching and eyebrows furrowing, and it's not much longer until her eyelids flicker open, consciousness returning as she takes in the stimuli around her.
"Alex?" she asks, throat raw from her earlier screaming.
A sob overwhelms her, sudden but not unexpected. "Kara," she answers, tears running off her nose and onto her sister's cheeks. "Oh my God."
Kara sits up gingerly, hands prodding her bloody chest. She stares at her fingers, coated in red, and looks over to see that Alex's are the same. Her face crumples too, and she rushes to bury herself into Alex's awaiting arms.
"You saved me," she weeps into her big sister's neck. "I thought I was a goner."
Alex chuckles wetly, holding her tighter still. Kara's nails dig into the skin of her ribs, almost painfully so, but she can't bear to ask her to loosen up, not when there'd been a chance that Kara would never hold her like this again.
"Never," she breathes. "I'll never let that happen."
Kara sniffles. They hold each other for who knows how long, long enough that Alex's muscles ache from the awkward position and she pulls away reluctantly. Kara allows it, but isn't ready to fully let go— Alex can see the need for reassurance still written clear as day on her face. Kara's hands raise, cradling Alex's face between them, and rests their foreheads together. Their exhalations mingle as they breathe as one, and Alex's hands come to rest on her wrists, the pads of her fingers pressing into the pulse points on either side, feeling the thrumming life-force beneath.
"Nazis!" Kara exclaims suddenly a few minutes later, eyes opening wide. She jumps to her feet, gaze dropping down to rest on her sister. "We have to go help!"
"Maybe we should get you some clothes first," Alex teases, though her voice is still a little hoarse.
Kara looks down at herself, at the blood that covers her chest and the rag that barely preserves her modesty. She huffs a small laugh.
"Good idea." Then, she scrutinizes Alex as well, noting the district lack of shirt. "Maybe we should go get you some too."
Alex chuckles, climbing to her feet as Kara looks out over the city. "Lead the way, Supergirl."