The excessively loud thunderous groan made Alex put her hands over her ears. The sunlight that streamed in next brought a series of different sounds from people and Alex had to shield her eyes. She had no idea how long they'd all been in there. Long enough for anything battery powered to have died. J'onn had stayed close to her the entire time and now...all she could think was…

The storm had passed.

Max was still dead.

Non had won.

They were going to all die.

It took her a moment to take it in because the previously dark space was being suddenly flooded with radiant and blazing sunlight. All four sides were lifting and slowly the sights and sounds were becoming easier to tolerate. Everyone was getting to their feet and so did Alex, she felt J'onn move away and she couldn't take her eyes off of the doorway that she'd last seen Max at before-

Putting aside the hum of new found hope behind her, Alex took a step towards the now open area and though she wasn't even at the panel yet, she could already see that the entire section was completely burnt. It wasn't just slight burning, no...this was something far worse...far more severe...even the Fort Rozz cells had partially melted. Alex had no idea how they'd been so lucky (if that was even a true term) to have survived Trigon's wrath...but Max…

"Alex?"

It wasn't his voice, so she ignored it.

"Alex?"

She took steps until she reached the panel, her fingers stroking it slightly as she stared out at the devastation in The Pipeline ring. That was the last place he'd been standing-

"Alex?!"

This time, Alex found herself being spun around on instinct she started to fight back. She wasn't in the mood to be bothered. Max was gone. Nothing else mattered now. Non had won. He'd won…

It took her a minute as she realized that there was no use fighting back until she realized the eyes she was staring into were her sister's. "Kara…" she breathed. It had been...well, she didn't know how long...and she'd just hoped that her sister had stayed safe.

"You're safe," Kara whispered.

"Max-"

"I know," she responded empathetically. "I'm so sorry, Alex…"

She watched as her sister looked into the devastation that Trigon had caused and she could see it in even Kara's eyes, no one could have survived that. "I yelled at him right before…" Alex whispered through sobs as she looked off into the burnt rubble.

"Alex-"

Pulling free from her sister's grip, she moved into the ring and looked up. The entire top of The Pipeline's ring was likely missing if what she was seeing was any indication. It looked like there were still things on fire on the surface from Trigon. She sucked in a breath and looked around for any indication of Max-

"Alex, there's no time for this right now!" Kara shouted at her. Alex could tell from the look on her sister's face that she felt bad about it...about how harsh she had to be in that moment, but at the same time...the world kept spinning. "I'm sorry, but J'onn said that you could make a cure...that Max gave it to you. So many people have already died, Alex. I'm sorry about Max, but we're going to have to mourn him later."

And she knew Kara was right.

She hated that she was right.

It was so wrong.

The world kept moving around her and it was so hard for Alex to grasp in that moment that it could. Doctors Hernandez and Hamilton had worked with her in order to replicate the cure that Max had developed right before his-

"Aunt Alex? Can I sit in here with you?"

The little voice pulled her attention away from the resituating of the furniture and the monitors above Vasquez's head. Charlie Benanti was standing right there, hugging the doorway. There was no door and the glass had been swept up, it had been a casualty of the storm and Trigon's escape. "Sure, Sweetheart," Alex whispered, unable to say anything else to the little girl. No matter the mood, Alex was fairly sure that no one on Earth could ever say 'no' to that little girl, at least with her question.

"Everyone else is getting shots," Charlie said as she moved to the chair next to Alex after slinging a bag of 'fun size' chocolates up onto the table.

"Charlotte!"

Alex looked over, Charlie now at her side, to see Lara Benanti in a state of early panic. "She's here, Lara," Alex said quietly and evenly. "She's fine."

"Oh...I hadn't meant for her to bother-"

"She's not, I promise," Alex said. "And if she hangs out with me...then it looks less like I'm sitting here doing nothing...especially when there's so much to be done."

"Okay," Benanti said slowly before moving in and stealing a small handful of the wrapped chocolates. "But if you need to-"

"She'll be fine, I promise," Alex insisted.

"See! I'm fine with Aunt Alex!" Charlie said as she sat with her legs tucked under her and started to work on unwrapping the first chocolate.

As much as Alex had wanted to be alone before, she found herself loving having Charlie there. It was a different kind of company. "Do you know any good stories?"

"I can tell you crazy Moms stories…" Charlie said with a tad more attitude than Alex had expected to come from the little one. "You wouldn't believe what happens when I go to bed… Mom Alice moved Toothless from his position high up and put him where I had my unicorn guard…" She acted like it was the biggest atrocity to have ever befallen a child's bedroom. "Everyone knows that Toothless needs to be up high so he can fly down if there's a bad guy…"

"You would think she'd know that," Alex said as she popped a chocolate in her mouth.

"You should have a talk with her, Aunt Alex."

Time passed and Alex found herself talking to Charlie about pretty much anything. At one point, Charlie had even fully recited (and Alex was fairly sure it was even done so correctly) the entire 'Where The Wild Things Are' book. There had been different voices and Charlie had pretended to dance at one point, while still sitting in the chair. At one point, though, Alex found her attention being pulled to the door like she was being watched.

There standing on the other side were two people she hadn't expected to see, her parents. It had been some time since she'd seen them because they'd both been doing in Peru together, hopefully uncovering memories and making new ones. She blinked for a moment and realized that Kara must have brought them. It was likely that her sister had told them everything and they were there for her, but Alex just wasn't sure that she needed that yet...she wasn't ready to break down...to mourn...the shock was still very firmly there.

"Alex," her father greeted first as he moved into her lab, her mother following right behind.

Getting up from her chair, she hugged them both and then turned to Charlie. "Mom, Dad...this is Charlie Benanti… Charlie, these are my parents."

"Oh, Kara's talked about you," her mother said as she moved over to the little girl.

Charlie had figured out about Kara being Supergirl during a barbecue and had been sworn to secrecy. It had been easily done because she liked to tell people that she was such good friends with Supergirl. "My Moms talk about me a lot too, they think I'm not listening, but I hear them…"

"I was hoping that we could drive you home," Eliza said, turning her attention to Alex. "Kara's already flown by and says that it seems mostly intact."

"That's a window that got blown out, but we can handle that," Jeremiah piped up.

The truth was, normally Alex would argue with her parents. She'd fight being taken out of the DEO, seeing so much that she could be doing to bring things back to normal and then there were the things outside of the base...there was so much to do out in National City and the world… There were already DEO teams deployed working with other agencies along with superheroes worldwide. That's where Kara was...out...helping people. Alex just couldn't bring herself to snap out of it...she was aware of the fact that she wasn't motivated to help, which was odd for her...but she just couldn't...she was numb. She didn't know how to snap out of it. She'd done the best she could when she'd extracted her own blood to work on the cure.

A cure they still didn't know if it would work on both phase one and two.

It was all she'd been able to do.

That's why she'd wanted Charlie to stay.

To trick herself into thinking she was doing something.

"Can I come too, Aunt Alex?" Charlie asked.

Before Alex could say anything though, J'onn entered the room. He'd likely sensed what was going on. She'd always thought it was sweet how Charlie Benanti could always melt J'onn instantly, and Alex was fairly sure that it was because he'd rescued the Benantis from such an abusive situation...and he'd known Charlie nearly all her life. It probably hurt because of the memory of his own daughters, but then happy as well…

"Where is my tiny Agent Benanti?" he asked.

"Here!" Charlie said quickly as her hand went flying upward.

"I was hoping that you could help Agent Vasquez at the controls," he said quite seriously with his hands on his hips as he looked down at the little girl.

The little girl looked up at her as she hugged Alex. "Sorry Aunt Alex, I have to go."

"It's okay, Sweetheart," she said gently as she crouched down to hug Charlie properly. "You go and make sure people are doing what they're supposed to be doing… I'll expect a full report next time I see you."

Charlie left with J'onn without a second thought. Alex could tell that J'onn had wanted to say something, but instead, she just got a look. He was concerned, that was for sure, but Alex really wasn't sure she could take his touch, his words, or his kindness.

They'd taken her home to her apartment.

They'd wanted to do everything to make sure that Alex could do exactly nothing when she got there. They'd temporarily covered the broken window, her mother had picked up everything, and her father had gone to work with what little food she actually had in her kitchen. Alex didn't care. Alex didn't mind. Alex didn't even engage with them. She'd gone straight to her room and just collapsed into her bed, pulling the covers over her.

You're stronger than this, she told herself.

As she squeezed her eyes shut, though, all she could think about was River and then the little girl in her dream when she'd passed out...and Max's words…

"You and me, time and space. You watch us run!"

It wasn't them.

It was only her.

There was no time machine.

No TARDIS.

It was a fixed point that she couldn't rewrite.

She didn't want to run.

She just wanted to sleep...

Time passed.

She didn't know how much.

Enough for the world to remember how it once functioned. The true test of that was turning on the TV and seeing CatCo Media in full swing. She'd barely seen Kara since Cat had decided that they had so much catching up to do, plus she was working with the DEO as Supergirl (or so Alex assumed).

She missed Kara.

As she lay in bed, her hand clutched around her locket as she stared at the clock on her bedside that was still flashing because she had never reset the time properly. Alex had finally made a decision, she couldn't hide in her bed...she couldn't be useless. This was her mourning period even though she'd hardly shed a tear since going home.

Pushing herself out of bed, she was suddenly on a mission.

Alex yanked clothes from her drawers and moved to the bathroom to shower. She couldn't stay here in her room any longer. With the shower started, she stalked back to her bedside and plugged in her dead cell phone before moving back to the bathroom. She didn't know if she was truly ready to just jump back into the world, but she was going to just have to be.

Max was gone.

It was harder, she felt, because they'd never solidified what their relationship was in the end. Did he love her? She knew that without a second thought. He was completely enraptured with her. But her? Did she love him? She didn't know...it had been so complicated...and she'd yelled at him right before-

Alex completely broke down in the bottom of the shower. Wrapping her arms around herself and curling up under the hot spray, she just let it all out. As much as she hated it, she knew that she needed it. There was no going forward without mourning...properly.

"Tell me everything," Alex said as she moved to the table where her parents were sitting quietly. She was jittery, she didn't know why...maybe it was nerves...or maybe it was low blood sugar. Her mother had been forcing her to eat, but Alex couldn't remember when she last ate or what it was. "And coffee...I need-"

"You need food is what you need," her mother said firmly as she guided her to one of the chairs and pressed her firmly down until she sat.

Her fingers tapped against the table and she turned her attention to her father. "Tell me...please?"

"The fact that you're alive is a miracle," he whispered and reached out and stilled her hand as his covered hers. There was a warmth and a gentleness there and it was almost like he remembered. Normally, it was something she would have questioned, but it had to wait. She needed this to be a priority...her pushing forward with life...to keep her sanity. "But that's not what you meant," he said a moment later.

Her mother was shuffling through the kitchen now, apparently on her own kind of mission. "I'm making you eggs-"

"I don't have any-"

"I went shopping-"

"The stores are open?" Alex questioned in confusion.

"You've been in that room for nearly a week," Eliza told her. "They've gotten quite a few of the Fort Rozz prisoners that had been locked up in your Pipeline locked up."

"Where?" she questioned. That obviously wasn't the question that her mom had expected to hear from her lips. Alex had to know.

The conversation shifted and her father started to talk. "Kara said that she has other friends who are superheroes out there? A lot of them are being temporarily housed in Central City...I think there's also some secret prison on an island near China?"

None of that rang any bells for Alex and she just blinked. "But they're locked up?"

"Yes," he said. "The Pipeline prison has been undergoing an obvious overhaul and serious repairs, so that they can once again house prisoners. Though, when I was down there the other day, I did hear General Lane trying to convince J'onn to send them to Project Cadmus...and that's not a place that I would want to send my enemy."

"What about Trigon?"

They were both quiet and she could only hear the sizzle from the pan. Alex looked between the two of them. She needed to know.

"Kara's had run ins with him...she and her friends have tried to apprehend him a couple of times, but even your sister came back injured-"

"Is Kara okay?" Alex snapped quickly.

"She's going to be fine," Jeremiah said gently. "But these prisoners need to be re-apprehended smartly… There needs to be plans carefully made and laid out."

Her mother set a rather large glass of orange juice in front of her and a piece of buttered toast. "Start with this."

"I need to go-"

"No," Eliza said firmly. "You're going to sit here, Alexandra, and you're going to eat breakfast."

It was a jolt to Alex's brain, slowing down everything that had been spinning in her head. She blinked and just stared at her mother for a moment. Alex tried to take in everything that had been said. "It's been a week?"

"Almost."

Sucking in a breath, she looked out the window and just tried to breathe.

"Talk to us, Alex," her father whispered gently.

"Max's funeral…"

"Since there were no remains recovered, it wasn't something that they felt the need to push ahead," her father explained. "It's in two days…"

"He'd have wanted his ashes sent up into space or...or...or something more than this," she whispered and squeezed her eyes shut. Alex had thought that she'd gotten everything out. The emotions still welled up in her, though. "I can't believe he's gone."

Her mother was hugging her and Alex held onto her, one hand gripping the locket as she wished her sister was there. She knew that she wasn't alone, but there was a different kind of comfort when it was her and her sister...but she realized...maybe in those moments...what she really needed was exactly what she had.

Trigon wouldn't be able to hide from her.

The world wasn't wide enough.

As she pulled away, she looked down and focused on breathing for a moment before looking back up at her mother. "I just need to get out today-"

"Of course," her mother said gently. "Breakfast first, though."

"The world was wide enough...for both of us...for us to be together…"

"I know," J'onn said.

Alex just stared at the section of Pipeline they were rebuilding. She hadn't realized it before, but really the section that was so severely damaged had been the far section that Max had been dragged into right before the barrier had slammed down. The section with Trigon's cell had taken the brunt of it. She could still hear, smell, feel...it all.

"I should have told him that I loved him-"

"Alex, he wouldn't have wanted you to live with regrets," J'onn told her.

Looking over at him as his hand rested on her shoulder, a comforting gesture, she let out a breath that she'd been holding. "I need to be here right now...and I need you to let me."

"We're going to find him, Alex," J'onn said confidantly. "All of us...together."

The End.