"This isn't going to work."

The Legends and team Supergirl were in one of Cat's old TV stations. It was a bit old and dusty, but it would be good enough for the job they had to do. The plan was to piggy back off Myraid's signal, shove a symbol of hope in people's faces, one they wouldn't be able to ignore even with the mind control spell over them. There were a few skeptics, namely Leonard, Mick, and Lord.

"Have a little faith, Leonard," Kendra told the crook.

"I have faith that this won't work," he retorted.

"Would it kill you to be a little more optimistic?" Ray asked.

"Yes."

Dez leaned against the desk, watching her team mates needlessly argue like a bunch of children -- like siblings. Once again, the likeness to her own children uncanny. "It's not enough to just give a speech." She'd give Leonard that much. "Things don't just get better because you hear a few inspirational words. You have to take action, too."

Martin rounds the corner, speaking with his hands as he so often did when he entered, what Deserey was beginning to think of as, his professor state. "Which is why Raymond and I are continuing to disrupt the signal." A small, prideful grin spread over his lips. "And, dare I say it, I believe we are on the verge of a break through."

"Besides, there's scientific evidence to prove this plan will work," Ray puts in.

"Myriad works by shutting down the connection between the amygdala and the rostral anterior cingulate cortex: the parts of the human brain that give rise to optimism and hope," Supergirl said. "All we have to do is turn the connection back on."

"With hope?" Lord asked skeptically.

"With optimism, positivity, and, yes, hope," Cat nodded.

"What about the robo chick outside?" Mick asked.

"What robo chick?" Sara moved to the window the arsonist was looking out of, Dez and Kara right behind her. A woman stood outside the building dressed in thick, glowing green armor.

"Alex!" Kara gasped. She was about to charge out there, but Sara stopped her.

"Hey, take it easy!" It was one of those rare moments where Sara let her eyes soften, let her emotions show, showed that she cared.

"That's my sister!" Kara fretted. She was running her hands through her hair, her eyes never leaving the window through which she'd spotted Alex. "I can't believe this. I told her not to come. I knew this would happen! I have to help her!"

"She's armed with kryptonite weapons and she's wearing kryptonite armor," Lord noted, glancing out the window as well. "She'll kill you in seconds."

"Well, I have to do something!" Kara insisted.

"You can," Dez said. "With the speech."

"But --"

"You're not really good to anyone if you're killed by your own sister, trust me. Just get ready for your speech." She glanced at Kendra and Sara, a silent agreement passing between the three of them: the League of Hotties were about to have their first solo mission without the boys. "We'll take care of your sister."

Kara hesitated, but eventually she nodded. "Okay... Okay, just don't hurt her too badly. She's not in control."

"You have our word," Kendra nodded.

Sara grinned. "Satellite, camera, action!" Dez smiled back. It was nice to see her joking around for a change, despite the dire circumstances.

The fight was actually over pretty quickly. Non hadn't learned his lesson from the last time he'd tangoed with the Legends; he was still undeeestimateing them, thinking they were useless humans. He thought, even though they had powers, they would be no match for him and his army of drones.

He was wrong.

Alex was a decent fighter. She gave Sara a run for her money, being able to block or dodge most of the attacks the assassin and Kendra sent her way. The woman was insanely flexible too. But in the end she was out numbered and out matched. Dez used her abilities to turn her weapons into sand, meanwhile Sara and Kendra pinned her down. The fact that Alex and Kara's mother showed up just in the nick of time to save her daughter with a little hope speech of her own was a coincidence. (It only furthered the idea that this speech thing would work.)

It wasn't long before Supergirl was sitting behind the desk, cameras on her, and they were broadcasting to the whole city. As Ray and Martin continued hacking Lord's satellites on the other side of the pane of glass, Supergirl stared in to the cameras, head held high. "People of National City. This is Supergirl, and I hope you can hear me. We have been attacked. Mothers and fathers, friends and neighbors, children, everyone, suddenly stopped by a force of evil as great as this world has ever known. Your attacker has sought to take your free will, your individuality, your spirit. Everything that makes you who you are.

"When facing an attack like this, it's easy to feel hopeless. We retreat, we lose our strength, lose our self. I know. I lost everything when I was young." Her eyes got a tinge of emotion here, and her voice wavered slightly, but she kept pushing through, strong as ever. "When I first landed on this planet, I was sad and alone. But I found out that there is so much love in this world out there for the taking, and you, the people of National City, you helped me."

On the other side of the glass Ray jumped excitedly. "We've almost got it! Keep going, it's working!"

Supergirl did just that, more determined than ever now. She was going to get back her home, save her people. She would not fail them this time. "You let me be who I'm meant to be. You gave me back to myself. You made me stronger than I ever thought possible, and I love you for that. Now, in each and every one of you, there is a light, a spirit, that cannot be snuffed out. That won't give up. I need your help again. I need you to hope."

"We got it!!" Martin and Ray hit the last button on the computer, breaking through the last bit of coding. The signal was broken; the people of National City were saved.  Supergirl kept going just for good measure. "Hope. That you will remember that you can all be heroes. Hope. That when faced with an enemy determined to destroy your spirit, you will fight back and thrive. Hope. That those who once may have shunned you will, in a moment of crisis, come to your aid. Hope. That you will see again the faces of those you love and perhaps even those you have lost."

Outside, the zombified crowd slowly started coming to; one by one they stopped marching. They turned around, running for their loved ones. They were free again.

The Legends stayed another few days to make repairs to the ship. In that time Kara and Alex reunited with their friends and mother; Alex even confessed to Eliza, their mother, that their father, Jeremiah, was alive. Apparently there was all this drama in which they'd thought he'd been killed ages ago by a green martian named J'onn J'onzz. Evidently, he was actually innocent and it was all Hank Henshaw's doing, who J'onn, incidentally, had been pretending to be all these years. Martians could, apparently shape shift, which Deserey thought was pretty neat. (Dez's reaction to learning of the existence of martians was: "hot damn, I just me a martian! My horoscope was right!")

Alex was pretty cool. They met officially when Kara insisted the Legends join her and her friends for a celebration party at her apartment. She was a bit sore after her fight with the League of Hotties, but otherwise she was perfectly okay, if not mildly annoyed at Kara's mothering.

"I guess I should apologize for clocking you on the head," Sara said, recalling one incident during the fight.

Alex waved the thought away carelessly. Her auburn hair was cut in a short pixie cut, brushed over to the side; her eyes radiated with pride, and strength, and sisterly love. She was ripped too. The Sara Lance of Earth 38 Deserey thought. "Bygones." She smiled at the three of them. "Thank you for helping my sister."

"Happy to help," Kendra said.

"Okay, but seriously, we should all get compensation." Winn was easily pegged as a nerd before he even opened his mouth to say anything. He wore movie t-shirts and jeans and rambled on and on the way all geeks seemed to do. "A paid vacation to the Bahamas for the emotional trauma we endured while at work."

"The Bahamas suck," Mick put in. He pointed his beer (because god forbid he stay sober for more than a few hours) at Winn. "You should go to Aruba."

Jax gave him a look. "Man, what is it with you and Aruba?" 

Alex snorted. "Good luck getting Cat on board with that one." That got a laugh from Kara and James.

James was a well built man -- very, very easy on the eyes. His shirt left little to the imagination, fitting him just right. And those eyes. Deserey had to all but force herself to stop staring like a perverted creep. "I actually wasn't at work when it happened. I was here at Kara's."

"Oh?" Winn leaned forward, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at him. "And what, pray tell, James, were you doing here at Kara's?"

That got both their faces redder than Supergirl's cape. James shifted his weight from foot to foot, fiddling with his ear. "Oh, uh, we were just, um..."

"Just what?" Eliza quizzed. She had that look that all mothers got when they were getting protective of their children -- that mother bear look. But there was also the tiniest spark of amusement too.

James stammered, and Kara slouched down in her chair, whining in protest.

Eventually, they topic of the Waverider came up. Winn was especially interested. So, they gave him a tour. "This place is sweet," he said, spinning around the bridge.

"It'll look even better after we finish the repairs," Jax told him.

"Can I help?" Winn asked, looking all too hopeful. "It would be like a dream come true for any nerd."

Jax shrugged. "Knock yourself out, man. Engine room is this way."

After a few hours of working, the Waverider was nearly completely repaired. While they were taking a break, Winn found the blueprints for Dez's super suit. She had once again forgotten all about it. "This is a pretty nice design."

"Yeah, it's designed by Cisco," Dez shrugged.

"I keep hearing about this guy. I feel like we could be good friends if we ever met."

"I'm sure. You seem really similar."

Winn grinned at that. He took one last look at the super suit before sitting up. "You know, I could help you out with this too."

Deserey was quick to shake her head. "No, no, I couldn't ask you to --"

"Consider it a 'thanks for helping save my life,'" Winn insisted. And well that pretty much left her no choice but to accept.

While he did that, Dez went to find Ray; the two of them sat together just outside the DEO building where they had once again moved their time ship. "So, I didn't get to tell you earlier between the prison breaking and the dimensional travel, but I found the art studio."

Ray sat up, frowning. "Wait, what? Really?" His shoulders slumped. "Aw, man. I really wanted to surprise you with that."

Dez laughed in to her hand. He really was just like a child sometimes. "Believe me, I was surprised." She smiled back when Ray gave her a bright grin. "Jax said it was your idea."

Ray shrugged. "I just thought your room was getting a little cramped with all those art projects you have. You should have somewhere to put them all."

Dez gave him the biggest hug she had given anyone in a long time. "Well, thank you. I love it."

He grinned, but after a moment he started shifting. "So, does this mean you're not uh..."

"What? Suicidal?" He didn't say anything, but she thought that was in the ball park. She had to think about it for a moment. "I don't know. I can't imagine ever being completely happy, at least not right now. But..." She eyed the other Legends from across the room, a small smile forming. "I think this is definitely an improvement, and I owe it to every one of you."

"We didn't do anything," Ray protested. "You did it all on your own."

Dez shook her head. "Not true. You helped me."

"Really? How?"

"You gave me friends."

The Waverider was finished within the next few days, but there was still the issue of getting back to their own Earth -- Earth one. (Barry had only gotten back by combining his own speed with Kara's, but the Legends has a particular lack of speedsters on their team.) In that time the Legends had taken to training with Kara in their spare time. It was amazing, the way she could take them all on at once.

Deserey learned to control her new ability that she had uncovered upon entering Earth 38. She also discovered a weakness: whenever she over used her powers her skin became very dry. Martin suggested she keep moisturizer on hand, just in case worst came to worst. (Ray even offered to help her with making a solution that would be sure to work.)

"I feel like we could have names for all your abilities," Alex suggested when they were all taking a break in their training. "Like, the giant sandstorm could be called The Sandstorm, because it's pretty much your signature move. Then, when you throw the sand: that can be called the Sand Blast."

"Yeah, and the sleepy thing can be Sandmare," Kara jumped in. "Like nightmare, but... Sandmare."

"And Sand Paper Skin for that thing that happens when you use your powers too much, because dry skin looks like sandpaper," Ray supplied. "And the clones can just be called Sand Clones."

Dez nodded, really falling in love with all the suggestions. Maybe she was just too easily pleased. "And that thing where I can turn other things into sand: Sand Form." There was one other ability they hadn't named, but she preferred not to bring it up, especially since Leonard was a little less than six feet away. It was the ability she'd used to spy on him. (She still wasn't sure exactly how she had done that one... Not that she really fancied spying on anyone, it would just be nice to know.) She didn't want to bring that up again in front of everyone, but that didn't stop her from naming it in her head: Hour Glass. 

Trouble started brewing the second Maxwell Lord stepped in to the building. (Technically, he wasn't threatening them, Dez just thought his mere presence was a bad omen on the grounds that he annoyed the shit out of her.)

"Ew, no. Who let that loser in?" Dez complained.

Lord rolled his eyes. "Bitch."

"Jerk."

"Don't you have somewhere to be? Like at Lord Tech helping your employees through what just happened?" Alex demanded, folding her arms over herself. It seemed she trusted this guy as much as Dez did -- which was to say, not at all.

"That's what corporate shrinks on retainer are for." The lack of empathy in Lord's tone was enough to get Dez's blood boiling. How dare he dismiss a person's -- his own employees at that -- trauma?! How dare he act as though their mental well being wasn't important?! She had half a mind to knock his teeth down his throat, and she hoped he'd choke on them. (Though after calming down a bit, even Dez had to wonder if that thought wasn't a bit too violent.) "Me, I'm more concerned with what's still happening."

"Still happening?" Supergirl frowned, coming to stand next to her sister with her arms folded. She didn't seem to share Deserey's rage towards Lord's ignorance; in fact no one else seemed to care at all. At least not at the same intensity. "Everyone's been protected. Ray and Professor Stein checked. No one is being mind controlled."

Lord still held that cocky grin of his, as if he thought he was the smartest one in the room, and Dez could just see the way he was all but dying to say 'I told you so.' "True. But I went to see how much damage the Kryptonians had done to my LTE network and I found out that since we ended their mind control, the Myriad wave has been amplified ten-fold and is rising exponentially." 

"Amplified?" Martin spoke up. He sounded much more concerned than Lord. The professor may have been a man of science, but he still knew where the lines were and when not to cross them. He cared about the people. At least someone had their priorities straight. "To what end?"

"Emergency rooms all over the city have been filled with people complaining about headaches," Lord said. "They're from Myriad, which, by my calculations, will continue to amplify until pop goes the cranium."

"You want me to tell you where you can shove those calculations of yours?" Dez asked, fiddling with the pen she found at the desk she was sitting at. Her voice was surprisingly calm given that a) she was shooting for hostility and b) this was a very serious situation.

Lord ignored her and kept going as if she hadn't said anything at all. (Dez thought that was pretty rude of him. He could have at least acknowledged her attempt at getting a rise out of him with an eye roll, but no. Nothing.) "The Kryptonians couldn't control us, so instead, they're going to kill us. All of us."

"We get it," Leonard sighed, rolling his head around to look at the billionaire jerkwad. He was half leaning on Dez's desk, almost looking as irritated as she was; but she suspected his irritation was more from the redundancy of Lord's sentence rather than the cocky attitude he had. "Impending doom. I'm quaking." He gave a dramatized little shutter to help prove his point.

"The Kryptonians were using Myriad for mind control because the frequency penetrates neural tissue. Now, they're increasing the frequency. Exponentially," Ray said after he and Martin had gotten a look at Lord's findings a few minutes later. As if that hadn't already been established. (Though Dez was much more inclined to listen to him.) "We're talking terahertz jumps." Deserey had no idea what a terahertz was, but from the way he'd said it she could only assume it was a number that involved a lot of zeroes. 

"That's like using a Uzi on a mosquito," Ray explained after taking note of everyone's confused faces.

"And we're the misquote," Alex nodded. She seemed oddly calm in the face of danger, as if it was all just another Tuesday for her. (It probably was.) "Once the wave reaches its full potential, the electromagnetic energy will create enough pressure to..." She let out a heavy sigh. "To kill every human on the planet like you said."

"How long do we have?" Kara asked.

"Four hours," Lord said. That got everyone to be quiet for a count of thirty seconds. What does someone say when they've just been told they've only got four hours left to live anyway?

The talking only resumed when the computer's in the DEO's bunker started flickering wildly. Everyone frowned at the screens. What the hell?

"Uh...maybe it's a glitch?" Ray said hopefully.

"No, no, Miss Springs is on that other Earth," Rip shook his head, waving the thought away.

"What?"

"Hm?"

"Livewire is still MIA," Alex said, though Deserey had no idea who Livewire was.

"It's Indigo," Kara said.

"She's trying to distract you," J'onn pointed out.

"I know."

"But Supergirl isn't alone. She's got all of us!" Ray reminded.

"Who's up for kicking more evil alien ass?" Dez asked, just itching to get back out there. Maybe she just wanted to show off some more since they were back in the desert.

"Oh, don't go just yet." Winn ran into the room, carrying a box in his arms. "You have to try this on first."

Deserey lifted the box's lid, poking her head inside to see what was inside. She broke out into a huge grin. "Oh, this is perfect."

✧ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ's ɴᴏᴛᴇ✧

This chapter sorta sucks I think, especially at the end. But I hope you enjoyed it anyway. I know it's taking forever to get through this book, and updates are getting scarce. There are a million and one reasons for that. Work, a bunch of other fics, original works, sleep, hygiene... I'm sure you don't really care. 😂 but I am sorry about that. I'm trying my best. Really.

Uh, while I've got you though, I got a question... If you don't mind... How would y'all feel about Dez going all the way back to Arrow season one on a solo adventure?? 😱😱

Let me know in the comments!

✧ᴛʜᴀᴛ's ᴀʟʟ ғᴏʀ ɴᴏᴡ, ᴛᴏᴏᴅʟᴇs✧

~ ᴇʟsɪᴇ