Chapter 2

Years Later...

Alex dodges the green fist flying at her, moving out of J'onn's range so she can watch him move. She keeps light on her feet, glad she's used to keeping up with Kara when she sees him coming towards her with superspeed. She blocks it and despite the fact J'onn always holds his strength back, the impact still makes her grit her teeth. Alex sweeps her legs, making him fall. Her smirk of satisfaction quickly falls when she sees him stop himself by floating an inch above the ground and righting himself in the air before his feet touch the ground.

"J'onn, using your flying powers is cheating!" She grumbles.

He just smiles proudly at her and they both look up when they hear the sound of approaching footsteps. Kara's walking toward them, but the furrow in her brow tells Alex that she's not here to make small talk or demand that they join her and her friends for food.

"Is anything wrong, Kara?" J'onn asks worriedly.

"No, no. At least I don't think so. Eliza wants us to get ready for dinner."

Alex groans and Kara gives her a sympathetic look, knowing how much her sister hates it. Whenever Eliza sends someone to tell them to get ready for dinner, its code for "I have an announcement/guest and you should wear a dress, Alexandra." Alex doesn't really mind wearing a dress, she just likes to on her own time when she actually wants to. Not because there's a stuffy diplomat kissing her mom's ass at every opportunity. She hates that almost as much as she hates people calling her Alexandra.

"Come on Alex, I'll help you pick something out." Kara suggests with a smile. Alex nods and walks over to her sister. "Oh and um, J'onn, Eliza wants you at dinner too."

J'onn looks surprised, "I cannot imagine why if there is a diplomat. I have heard he is from the Luthor Kingdom and is as pleasant as their ruler."

"Lillian's falling apart, has been since Lex was killed." Alex remarks. As the closest threat to their Kingdom and as a major threat to Kara, she's been having her spies watch the Luthor Kingdom closely. "She's in a downward spiral. There's no way she'll be in power too much longer."

"I wonder if her daughter's more accepting," Kara muses. "We really don't hear much about her." She shakes her head. "Anyway, I'm sure he won't be displaying his xenophobia here. Everyone knows how the Danvers family's accepting of aliens. Now Alex, let's go! Dinner will be ready soon and I don't want to be late!"

Kara drags Alex along toward the castle until she could jog fast enough to keep up with Kara's fast pace.

"The food isn't going anywhere, Kara." Alex teases. "It'll still be warm if we get there thirty seconds late." Kara pouts at her sister until Alex rolls her eyes. "I know, I know. I'll be quick, Kara. I have you to help me."

"Ooh," Kara exclaims. She's practically skipping as she walks backwards to face Alex, who's significantly less excited. "You should wear the blue dress, you look great in that."

"I don't want another creepy old guy staring at my boobs again. Mom won't be happy if I break another diplomat's fingers." Alex replies drily.

Kara nods thoughtfully, "Yeah. He definitely deserved that, though. Okay, what about that long black dress?"

Alex considers it. She always feels great in that particular dress, and it doesn't expose too much. "Fine. Now go change into your own dress, you excitable puppy."

Kara beams at her sister and bounces off, skipping towards her room across the hall from Alex's. Alex shakes her head in amusement and goes into her room to change. When she reemerges, she meets up with Kara, who looks as eager as she always does for the way-too-common fancy dinners. She's wearing her dark blue dress and pushes up her glasses, grinning at her sister.

"How are those glasses? Are they any better?" Alex asks after deciding that walking to the dining table in silence would be way too boring for her.

Kara has been wearing glasses since a few days after she fell to Earth. Jeremiah and Eliza had developed the lead-lined glasses for Kal-El when he came to them about his powers and they happily made one for Kara. Alex has been trying to improve them in her lab, especially since Kara has a bat habit of breaking them when she fiddles with them nervously. Alex has been working on making it more Kara-proof, and the latest version she deemed ready for Kara to try out only a few days ago.

"It's been great! I got nervous talking to J'onn about my powers yesterday and they didn't break!" Kara says cheerfully.

"Good," Alex responds.

She tries not to let her pride at her improvements that apparently work better than she expected show but she knows Kara notices anyways.

Alex holds the door to the dining room open for Kara. The guards used to insist on doing it for her, but after she knocked one of them out for implying she can't open doors for herself because she's a princess, they've left her alone. She takes a slightly calming breath before heading inside.

She resists the urge to scowl when she sees who the diplomat is. The universe must hate her because of course, out of all the pompous idiots it just has to be Maxwell Lord. He smiles cockily when he sees her, straightening his suit.

"Alexandra, it's lovely to see you again." Maxwell says, giving her what she assumes he thinks is a charming smile, but it just makes him look constipated.

"It's Sir Alex to you." She barely manages keep the ice from her tone. It's only Kara's hand on her arm that keeps her from betraying how much she loathes him.

" Alex, then." He smiles again, stressing her title in a way that makes Alex want to punch him in the face.

Kara and Alex make their way over to Eliza, who's sitting at the head of the table with Jeremiah to the left of her. Kara sits to the right of her and Alex sits next to her sister, relieved to see that J'onn is sitting across from her. Sometimes, when Eliza wants to set her up with some arrogant rich boy, she'll make them sit across from her.

The chefs bring out the food and set it in front of them. Eliza takes the first bite and then everyone else picks up their utensils and begins eating as well.

As much as Alex wishes she could just stuff her face and leave, she knows her mother is going to make some kind of dramatic announcement soon. Sure enough, after everyone has finished eating and some of the servants are clearing away the dishes, Eliza straightens her posture and waits for all eyes to be on her before she speaks.

"I'm sure you are all wondering why I've gathered you here today. It isn't just because of Mister Lord's visit. We would like to announce that we're getting another person to join the Guard."

That's hardly news. The Guard here either stays for years or transfer after a few weeks, so there must be something more to it.

"Alex," Jeremiah says, making her look over to him. "She will be working alongside you with your research and work. J'onn, she will be working under you."

Alex doesn't miss the pronouns her father's using and keeps her face carefully blank so she doesn't show her surprise. While having female Knights has become more common, especially since she was knighted, there still aren't very many. And for this Knight to be joining them here, working with J'onn and the DEO (which is what they call the group of Knights and Guards that study aliens), she must be really good.

"Good," J'onn nods in approval. "We could use another brilliant mind on our team."

"She?" Maxwell inquires, leaning back in his chair. Alex clenches her jaw and hopes he doesn't say something sexist again, because she won't hesitate to punch him. "You know, I don't think girls should be Knights. It's a dangerous job and the... frailty of women just doesn't do well with that."

Alex glares at him, wishing she had heat vision like Kara. She really wants to melt that smirk off his face.

"This frail woman happens to be Queen of this Kingdom," Eliza says calmly. "One of my daughters happens to be a Knight, and an amazing one at that. If you can't accept that women can be exceptional and strong, perhaps you should leave."

Maxwell's eyes go comically wide and he hastily bows his head. "Apologies, Your Majesty. I meant no disrespect." Alex wants to yell 'bullshit' at him, but somehow manages to hold her tongue.

"Speak like that again and you will never set foot in this castle again," Elisa threatens in an impressively calm tone.

"Yes ma'am." Maxwell bows his head to her. "May I ask if I can have the lovely Danvers sisters show me around the city?"

Alex raises her eyebrows, unable to stop her reaction. He's been here a few times (sadly) and she knows he's been to National City. He must be up to something. She looks to J'onn, whose calm expression betrays nothing but his eyes do. He's thinking the same thing as her. She exchanges a look with him and he nods subtly. She knows he will be increasing the number of guards around the castle during the rest of Maxwell's stay.

"If they want to, I'm okay with it." Eliza says.

"Oh, Alex can we?" Kara asks, her eyes shining.

"Sure," Alex responds, looking at Maxwell with thinly veiled suspicion.

Kara really doesn't get out too much, with her busy training schedule. She works out and tests her powers in the DEO facility daily as well as helping Eliza and Jeremiah with political things.

J'onn clears his throat and looks to Eliza. "Now that that's settled, who is this woman you were talking about earlier? Who's going to be joining our team?"

"Sir Maggie Sawyer."

Surprise, right? Maggie's a Knight! Oh, and I looked it up and there's no real female version of the title "Sir" for knights. The closest thing was "Dame" or something obnoxiously long so I decided to just use "Sir" with the women knights in my story. Also, I've decided to make the chapters at least 1,500 words. For perspective, this one is a little less than 1,700! I'm going to do the same thing with this story that I do with my others and update every three days, so the next one should be coming on Tuesday! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!