Shit. Shit. Shit.

Maggie was ducked behind the piece of machinery she was using as cover, and pulled her handgun close to her chest.

From what she could tell, in the initial hail of bullets, she hadn't been hit – though that could change any second.

The men were yelling, and undoubtedly one of them had rushed back into the portal to yell for back-up.

Maggie knew that this was the end. She'd never get out of there alive.

But she'd be damned if she wasn't going to take some of those Cerberus lackeys down with her for what they did to the DEO.

So she took a deep breath, and jumped up from behind her cover, firing off round after round at the men in the center of the room.

She could only see two of them, and assumed that the third had headed back to the portal.

One well-timed bullet sent one of the men down, and she couldn't help but smirk, ducking back down at the retribution coming in the shape of rapid-fire bullets from the other man.

Worth it.

Though she'd been so intent on firing at the two, that the man running up to her in the corner of her eyes came so out of the blue that she could barely turn her head before he'd tackled her onto the ground.

When she hit the ground, she saw stars. Cursing herself momentarily for letting her guard down and probably worsening whatever concussion she had, she didn't have much time to dwell on it before the man punched her in the face.

Her head snapped to the side, but with the man's face in plain view, she recognized him immediately. The NCPD SWAT leader.

Seeing the man's face terrified her beyond measure, because she'd worked with the man. Coordinated with him during dangerous raids, during joint taskforces and hostage extractions.

She'd respected the man.

"Miller!" She moaned. "Please…"

The man didn't show any sign of remorse as he socked her in the jaw once again, leaving her breathless and unable to get up.

Were the last eyes she'd ever see really going to be those of a traitor?

No, apparently the universe decided to buy her some more time.

Because she second she closed her eyes and braced for another fist to the face, there was a loud crash.

Maggie looked up to see that the ceiling had a big hole in it, debris raining down into the open space as Kara landed on the floor, looking ready to murder.

Miller seemed distracted enough for one second for Maggie to kick him in the chest, sending him backwards. But she didn't get further than that, instead crawling away from him weakly with whatever upper body strength she had left after the fight.

"Maggie!" She heard Kara yell, before she realized that Kara probably wasn't able to see any of the men.

Though it didn't take Kara long to figure out that Maggie was terrified of something, as she kept scooting away from the empty space in front of her.

The blonde narrowed her eyes and made an educated guess about where the assailant was, firing off her heat vision into the direction.

Maggie's eyes widened as the man in front of her screamed, as if he was being burned alive, as he dropped to the ground.

"H-he's gone!" She said quickly. "The other guy must have run into the portal."

Kara ran to her side and checked her over quickly, wincing slightly at the sight of blood dripping down her nose. "Is the portal still open?"

Maggie nodded, glancing to the brick wall before pulling Kara closer by the hem of her suit until they were almost face to face. "I'm dead, Kara. If I don't walk out of here right now, then they'll send more people after you, and Alex, and everyone else." She hesitated, swallowing a mouthful of blood with a grimace. "… Listen to me, okay? I'm going to yell out names, and you need to remember them, alright? And tell J'onn and Alex."

"Maggie…" Kara shook her head. "No. We're going to fly out of here and get you back to safety, get you in witness protection if we have to, but you're going home to Alex."

Maggie laughed weakly. "Just… Tell Alex to move on, okay? I know that she'll never forgive me, I don't expect her to. But she deserves someone who she can trust."

The words made a stab of pain shoot up Kara's spine, but she shook her head again vehemently. "No. I won't."

The detective grimaced, getting up from the floor slowly, a helping hand from Kara supporting her around her waist. "Suit yourself."

Kara watched with a frown as Maggie reached for her gun and checked how many bullets she had left, before walking over to the brick wall.

At that moment, Kara realized what exactly Maggie was going to do.

Immediately, she used her super speed to get in front of Maggie, pulling her away from the wall. "Stop!"

"Get off me!" Maggie yelled, trying to push Kara back but realizing that it was useless. If anything, it just fatigued her body more.

"Going on a suicide mission isn't the answer! Alex is never going to forgive you if you do this!"

"I don't deserve her forgiveness!" Maggie yelled back, realizing that things were getting critical. She had to get Kara out of there before the blonde was accidentally sucked into the portal, or worse.

But Kara ignored her, instead grabbing her by the shoulders. "This is the only way in or out of whatever room or dimension they're in, right?"

Maggie nodded weakly.

"Well, then, we have to find a way to either close the portal, or smoke them out." Kara continued. "But we need a plan, and we need you. So please. I know you know that you made mistakes, but this is the way to rectify them."

Maggie seemed to calm down at least slightly, and Kara knew that she had to press on.

"As soon as you told me that you were coming here, I went to Alex to tell her. And she told me to get you home, no matter what. So if you jump into that portal now, just know that I'll be right behind you."

"They could kill you." Maggie snapped back.

But Kara only huffed. "I'm taking that risk if it means getting you back to my sister."

Suddenly, Kara's words hit her like a punch to the gut.

Because all of the retorts, the pushing-Kara-away-and-jumping-anyway's were off her mind, as she found herself sinking to her knees and sobbing.

She felt Kara pull her into her arms, a sudden gust of wind indicating that her feet weren't on the ground anymore, but she was barely aware of it.

She knew that they were never going to win this war.

"You don't want to do this, Jordan."

Lyons laughed, cocking his head. "You're a loose end, J'onn J'onnz. You should have died with the rest of them."

"Why the DEO?" J'onn raised his hands slowly, subtly trying to reach for the tracker in his shoulder. If he could tap it twice, that would send an emergency message to the servers.

He wasn't sure what Lyons was up to, or what technology he thought he possessed that could beat him, but he didn't want to wait around to find out.

Before he could touch his own skin, though, the man stopped him. "Ah, ah, J'onn. No touching. Just keep your hands up and I'll make it quick."

"At least tell me before you kill me." The martian hissed through his teeth. "Why did you bomb the DEO?!"

"We didn't destroy the DEO." Lyons replied. "We made it better. We cut the rotten parts, so only the strong will survive."

"So you took a bunch of my agents and brainwashed them into thinking they were irreplaceable?!" J'onn huffed. "You're a bigger idiot than I thought."

Lyons growled. "You should have never stuck your nose in our business. I could have spared you, like Schott or Danvers."

"You may kill me, Jordan, but you'll never destroy the DEO, or what we stand for."

J'onn lowered his arms, suddenly feeling nothing but anger. "And I'll make you and everyone in that organization of yours pay for what you did to my people."

"I won't hold my breath."

As J'onn ran forward, hands stretched out to wrap around Lyons' throat, the CEO fired his gun.

A shot rang through the air.

Now that most of the rescue workers had been sent home, the rubble of the DEO site seemed eerily quiet, apart from the sporadic camera flash or conversation.

Alex had flashed her badge at the tape, but the two posted officers had already pulled it back before she could even reach into her pocket.

She guessed they recognized her from the news.

The agent took slow steps around the rubble, kneeling down once in a while to pick up pieces of debris that she recognized.

Computer keys. Broken Erlenmeyer flasks.

Further down, a piece of the table at the command center she'd leaned over thousands of times.

As much as it had weirded her out at first, the DEO had been her true home.

And now, all there was left was ruins.

A voice in her head told her that Maggie had done all she could given the circumstances. She'd risked her own life to make a deal with the organization, sparing J'onn, Winn, Kara and her from death at the hands of one of their assassins.

But in return, Maggie hadn't been able to stop all of it from happening.

On the contrary.

She got back up from her crouched position and explored further. A few volunteers were already clearing the debris, using heavy machinery to drop large chunks of building into containers by the side.

If Cerberus really was some sort of illuminati-like elite group that wanted to take over power in National City, then they had to get names before they could do anything else.

Map out the branches, to see how deep the network ran in both the DEO, NCPD and undoubtedly – the government.

They already had a couple of names.

Maybe all they needed is to get back to those names and figure out what bound them together in order to find the rest of them.

Alex clenched her hands into fists and swallowed thickly.

They had to give them a taste of their own medicine.

Decapitation.

Cut off the heads, and the rest would surely follow.