A drumming noise, echoing from somewhere beyond, drew Kara out of her head. She blinked. For just a moment - one small beat of her heart, time stood still. Shadows swooped across shadows along the ceiling, sunlight streamed against the wall and floor registers hummed. Then, a film swept across her cornea and the images came.

The molten rock spouting up from the ground. The wall of yellow flames. The maddening howls. The cold stare. The panicked screams.

The horror reached into her body and stole her breath. She couldn't suck in air deeply enough and she twisted in panic, thrashing like an animal on the couch. Stumbling off it onto the floor. Clinging to the rug like a woman dangling over an abyss. She breathed in and out but air wouldn't enter her lungs. Her mind clawed desperately at her subconscious to tear it away and expose reality. She squeezed her eyes shut, pulled her knees up under her chest and methodically began rocking back and forth.

"Supergirl."

Alex's plea pierced her ears and slammed into her mind, shattering the remnants of the shell that surrounded the latent images to break her free. She lifted her head and whipped it around trying to take in everything but, seeing nothing.

"Alex?" She gasped.

Using the coffee table, she pulled herself up and struggled to her feet, swaying back and forth as she rose. Her legs were heavy and sluggish, her muscles spent. She took a step and fell back to the floor.

"Supergirl," Alex's voice cried to her again.

That's it. I'm going to die. Alex thought as she stared up at the man and waited for the gun's blast. Her eyes remained fixed on his face. She dared not look at the gun. She didn't want to see the bullet coming. And she wanted him to see her lack of fear.

But, he hesitated.

"Supergirl no longer cares about this world. She's abandoned you," the man told her.

His egotistical gloat was the opening that Alex needed to buy some time. She shook her head. "No. You're wrong." she countered.

"Even now", he smirked as he waved the gun, "you still believe in her?"

The pain in Alex's side deepened. She looked down at the wound and noticed that the blood was spilling past her hand, running freely, its crimson color spreading and soaking her pants. She pressed harder onto the wound and sucked in a deep breath. The room began to sway but, she pushed through it and glared back up at him.

"Yes," she hissed through gritted teeth. "Always."

"Haven't you watched the news? She promised to protect this city and she hasn't. She's abandoned us and now she is abandoning you, Agent Danvers."

He knows my name.

She stared back at him. Trying not to blink, to physically acknowledge this revelation. "You're delusional. This is her home. She will come and she will save us," Alex pressed.

But, she could see it in his eyes. He was aware that he had made a mistake and realized that Alex had registered it.

Her time had run out.

His finger began to squeeze down on the trigger. But, in that instant a force blurred in red and blue slammed into the man's torso, lifting him off the floor and across the room.

Kara and the man landed in some overturned tables along the far wall of the restaurant. She quickly fought her way out of the pile of rubble to her feet and reached down and grabbed the man's shirt collar. She lifted his torso toward her, balled up her fist and laid a punch across his cheekbone, throwing him to the floor unconscious.

The act left her surprisingly breathless and as she stepped away from the man, she nearly stumbled in the process before quickly regaining her balance. She turned to find the man's partner standing across the room, brandishing a weapon and watching Kara. The woman's face was unreadable, no fear or concern. In a frozen second, her eyes flicked down to her partner on the floor by Kara and then to Kara. And suddenly Kara understood the coldness.

"No!" She started toward the woman. But, her awareness came too late. Swiftly, the woman brought the gun up to her head and pulled the trigger. The act halted Kara in her tracks. She turned away. Death was never a solution for her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Alex was slumped over behind the bar.

"Alex!" Kara ran to her.

Alex's eyes were closed, her chin resting on her chest. Kara bent down beside her, surveyed Alex's body, taking in the bullet hole in the back shoulder and on her side. She placed her own palm on top of Alex's and pressed down to try and help slow the bleeding.

At her touch, Alex lifted her head and opened her eyes to find Kara's.

"Knew you would come," she heaved.

"I'm so sorry I didn't get here sooner." Kara said.

She looked up to quickly survey the rest of the room. Dust swirled through the late afternoon sun that broke through the area and illuminated the injured crawling among the cemetery of furniture and fallen bodies. Whimpering cries were drowned out by the crashing of glass from authoritative voices barking orders to contain the area.

"Not. Your. Fault," Alex's breathless whisper pulled Kara's head back down. Her eyes stared into Alex's glassy chestnut one's. She swallowed her guilt and shifted her attention to the pool of blood that was spreading under Alex's body.

"We need to get you to the DEO," she muttered. She scooped Alex up and carried her past the medical and police personnel that were swarming into the building.

Today we feel strong. We've watched with a hungry gaze and nibbled at the surface. She is a wounded beast. A witness to death. To the pain and horror of it. Feels it seeping inside of her, breaking the walls and sending her body crumbling, folding into itself. And now, she is waiting to be claimed. Desperate to find relief.

Death is necessary for life and tonight she will come to us and we will offer her relief.

Kara sat vigil at Alex's bedside in the small area within the DEO infirmary. The room was quiet but, even without super hearing she could hear the sounds of a normal day at the DEO: the ringing of a cell phone, the chime of the elevator, the laughter of agents sharing a joke. They reminded Kara that in the aftermath of tragedy, life still went on.

She watched as the attendant recorded vitals and adjusted Alex's bed before quietly walking away. So many tubes, she thought. And in the middle of the twisting, plastic pieces laid a very pale Alex. Kara didn't touch her but rather sat with her hands curled in her lap, staring at Alex with vacant eyes, her mind numb with cold and exhaustion. Death and destruction had been pursuing her and now it had caught up with her, cutting deep and festering within her.

This can't continue.

Dr. Hamilton had told her that Alex's condition was stable. The bullet didn't hit any major organs and they had been able to stop the bleeding in time. But, this was Alex. The part of her that was most loved and that had almost been ripped away from her.

Alex's eyes fluttered open.

"Alex," Kara whispered.

Alex's eyes tracked around the room, trying to push past the effects of the pain medication and get a better grip on her surroundings. They finally landed on Kara.

Kara leaned in closer. She smiled and her eyes softened. "Hey." She reached up and rested her hand on Alex's arm. "You're at the DEO. You're going to be okay."

"Shooter?" Alex asked, her voice thick.

"Got 'em."

Alex closed her eyes and fell silent. She could feel herself being dragged down, back into a worry-free sleep. She forced her eyes to open.

"Casualties?"

Kara swallowed. "Some survived," she murmured. The evidence of death still fresh in her mind.

Alex nodded. Through the impending numbness overtaking her body came an urgency of something that she needed to remember. Words that had been spoken. But, the door to her mind began to close and her eyelids dropped back down.

Kara watched Alex drift back into sleep.

"You know, she'll get through this."

Kara looked up to see J'onn standing in the infirmary doorway. She rose from her chair and walked to him. When she stood before him under the light, J'onn was taken aback at her beleaguered features: sallow cheeks and sunken, haunted eyes.

"Yes. This time," she replied.

"She is fully aware of the dangers that come in this line of work. And just like you, she chooses to go out there and help as many as she can anyway."

"This isn't a consequence of being an agent, J'onn. None of those that were injured and killed in that restaurant or at CatCo signed up for this." She looked back at Alex's still form. "They were victims."

Of me.

She glanced back at J'onn, eyes searching for answers to unasked questions. She brushed by him and out of the DEO.

Threads of red, blue and violet filled the night sky, leaving only a sliver of orange on the horizon by the time Kara flew out of the DEO. Amber lights glowing from windows and street lamps mingled with the silver stars of the night on the National City skyline. Kara hung in the sky, watching as the city came to a rest, families reuniting for the evening, sharing their day and relishing in the moments with each other. These short glimpses used to give her joy and comfort now brought pain and regret.

Ignorance and naivety blinds these people. Crippling them just as it did my own people.

"Supergirl, we've received a call of a robbery in progress at the Longshore Warehouse on Pier Drive," Winn's voice crackled through the COMMs. "Multiple shots have been detected and police are on the scene."

Another crime, another cry for help, another injury or death. When does it end?

"Supergirl?" Winn inquired.

"Yeah, I'm on my way now." Kara replied.

Kara landed outside of the warehouse. The building was dark and appeared to be undisturbed. No police cruisers or other emergency vehicles were in sight.

"Winn, are you sure they said Longshore Warehouse? It seems pretty quiet here." Kara walked around the outside of the building, surveying it for a forced entrance.

"Yep, Longshore Warehouse on Pier Drive." Winn responded.

A man's voice yelled for help from within the building. Kara's head snapped to the sound. "I got something." Using her x-ray vision, she was able to see a figure of a man lying on the floor inside the building. She broke the handle on the nearest door and pushed her way through it.

The door led her into a large depository. At the end of the room, alongside a row of large cartons, the man was on his stomach, writhing in pain. Kara ran to him.

"Sir, are you okay?" She bent down next to him.

The man turned toward onto his side. "Yes, Kara Zor-El. Now that you're here, everything is fine."

Kara scowled at him. "How- who are you? What's going on?"

As the man made his way to his feet, Kara stepped away from him.

"Don't you recognize me?" He asked. Kara frowned and the man chuckled. "No, of course you don't. Surely though, you recognize my voice."

Something shifted inside of her. A sense of familiarity prickled the back of her neck. No, that can't be.

She shook her head. "No - no, I don't."

"Come now, Kara. You never were good a lying," the man smiled. "Not when you were a little girl and not now."

It's impossible. Seconds passed, her brain was trying to take it in, struggling to comprehend what she was hearing.

"Uncle Jor-El?" She hesitantly replied.

"Yes."

"But, how? How are you here?"

"I'm here because you need me. And it's not just me, Kara Zor-El. We're all here." The man turned away from her and peered into the darkness behind him.

Kara watched as men and women slowly stepped out of the shadows of the room. Each one greeting her in voices that had been silent to her for fifteen years.

"No. This isn't right. It's - it's impossible." Kara's eyes darted from the large group to the man standing before her. "You're all gone. You're not real." Her voice trailed slowly. What the hell was going on here?

"Oh, we're very real, Kara."

Kara swung her head to see a slender man with flinted hair and high cheekbones stepping out from behind the group. He approached her. "Yes, you may have lost us for awhile but, we're here now."

Kara staggered backward, almost tumbling in the process, her mind swirling, her breath shallow.

She glanced nervously between the man and the group before finally resting on the man.

"Dad?" She whispered.