Work Text
Sunday, October 26th, 2042
Zari is going to miss the Legends. There’s no question about that. They’ve become so important to her, like a second family, one that hasn’t actually replaced the one she’s lost, but resides right next to it in her heart and has helped her begin to heal from that loss.But she has another home to get back to. When Amaya tells them that she needs to go back to her own time once more – this time for good – Zari decides that it’s time for her to leave, as well. Like Amaya, she feels that there are people who are depending on her in 2042, and now that Mallus is done for, they have become her priority.She’s grown up hating A.R.G.U.S. So much that, when she first met Lyla Michaels during one stop in 2018, she nearly attacked the other woman. But her teammates stopped her, and to her credit, the other woman was horrified to learn of what her organisation was going to become. She told Zari that if and when she returned to 2042, she had to put a stop to it. Lyla herself would try to do so, as well, or die trying (and there’s a good chance that it’s the latter, because what Zari doesn’t tell anyone is that A.R.G.U.S. has been led by a man since the 2020s).So Zari says her goodbyes and doesn’t let the tears fall until the doors close, and then they blur her vision so badly that she can barely see the Waverider as it soars away.She gets straight to work, and notices some big changes right away. For one, A.R.G.U.S. doesn’t control even half the territory it did before she flew off on a time ship. Oh, it still holds a dictatorship over a good chunk of the western US, but only so many states, and most importantly, not Washington D.C. Second, it hasn’t been established for as long as she remembers. In this new timeline, it took longer for this regime to take hold. And thirdly, the resistance within is a lot stronger, possibly aided by agents from the free part of America. And she’s surprised to discover that most of them know of her, when they seek her out just days after her return.She’s infiltrated an A.R.G.U.S. facility to steal a copy of their records, so that she can get her bearings in this new version of the present – she can just imagine the looks both Len and Leo would give her if she just charged forward without having all the variables (even if she knew the latter for all of a day). In fact, Len even suggested it, with a look in his eyes that said that he had something planned. Given that he’s had over twenty years to carry it out, Zari decides that she shouldn’t be so surprised when a bunch of costumed resistance fighters break in at the same time.She freezes when she hears the sound of footsteps – more than one set – approaching the server room she’s currently in, then ducks behind one of the many shelves, hoping that whoever they are, they’ll just walk on by.No such luck. She hears the footsteps coming to a stop, hears a clicking sound and hushed voices:“Hurry up!” someone hisses, “We’ve got fifteen seconds until the guards come back this way!” The voice is male, and he sounds young.“Cut the attitude, ‘Bite,” an older man with a Spanish accent growls back, “I know how to pick a lock.”“You mean Khaji Da knows how to pick a lock.” That voice is female, also young-sounding, and with a far more subtle accent that Zari can’t place.“Hush, all of you!” another woman snaps before the lock clicks open.Zari holds her breath as they all enter the server room. She’s not sure if she can trust them, but one thing’s certain: if they’re worried about stealth and guards and lock-picking, they are not here with permission from A.R.G.U.S. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re her allies.The entire group moves quietly into the room and shuts the door behind them. Then one of them speaks, and he’s clearly talking to her. “Zari Adrianna Tomaz?” he calls softly, “It’s okay. The Legends told us where to find you today. We’ve got an offer for you.”It could be a trick. Who knows how much A.R.G.U.S. has learned about the Legends in the past twenty-plus years? But she knows Len was planning something, and this could easily be it. She doesn’t quite know if she can trust these people, but she can trust her team.So she steps out, her tablet clutched to her chest with one hand, leaving the other free to blow them all into the wall if they make any false moves.There’s five of them standing there, two men and three women. All are dressed in leather costumes much like those of the heroes of 2018, and some of them are armed. The one nearest her is a guy whose costume is mostly black and dark blue, but with a white hood, goggles, and gauntlets, and he appears to be the one who spoke. That is confirmed when he speaks up again: “Hey, there. Sorry for the scare, but we were told you’d be in here, on Leonard Snart’s suggestion.”“And Sara Snart personally told us to meet you here,” one of the women adds. She is dressed all in black leather, complete with a mask, and her shoulder-length hair is definitely not a natural shade of blonde.“We can talk about this later,” the second man says. He’s the only one not wearing leather; instead, he’s covered from head to toe in blue and black armour – mostly blue. He’s also the one with the Spanish accent. “The guards will be passing by any second, and then we’ve got to get out before the next round.” -She only gets their codenames, at first: Green Arrow II, Black Canary IV, Frostbite, Crystal Frost, Silver Scarab, Red Hood II, the Tornado Twins, Rocket, and Blue Beetle. The latter two are the oldest and most experienced, and they clearly lead this team. But it’s Frostbite who looks her in the eye and tells her: “The Legends told us where to find you today. We’ve got an offer for you.”Trusting that this is part of whatever Len was planning, she goes with them willingly – stolen data in hand. They encounter a team of A.R.G.U.S. troops on the way back to their base, and Zari gets to see what these heroes are made of. Green Arrow and Red Hood fire off arrows as if they’ve been doing so since birth. Crystal Frost and Frostbite, as their names suggested, had cold-themed powers, although they worked a bit differently, as Crystal Frost could attack at long distance by creating ice projectiles out of thin air, while Frostbite required direct contact to hurt his opponents. Black Canary and Silver Scarab had no powers, but she had a pair of escrima sticks and a Canary Cry necklace, and he wielded an odd, curved sword quite well. Rocket and Blue Beetle both joined Zari in the sky, Rocket using force fields while Blue Beetle seemed to be able to turn the limbs of his powered armour into pretty much anything.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“What the hell is this?”That was the first thing out of Leonard Snart’s mouth when he sat up and took in his surroundings. One minute, he’d been in the middle of a job, working with Mick to lift a priceless gem from a museum in Keystone City, and the next, he was waking up on a cold, stone floor, with old-fashioned chains and manacles on his wrists that attached to a brick wall behind him. And he wasn’t alone. The large, circular room was lined with twenty-five other people, all chained to the wall just like him, with one gap in between two of them, hosting a heavy-looking metal door. The other people were in varying states of consciousness, from awake and alert to stirring to completely out of it. He took a look at the ones on either side of him; on his left, one young black guy his sister’s age was stirring awake, while a man about his own age was already sitting up, eyeing him suspiciously.“Funny, that’s what I said,” he replied, “I don’t think anyone here knows where we are, or how the hell we got here.”A black man in fatigues was searching his pockets. “Damn. They took everything. Even my backup.”Leonard checked his own pockets, frowning when he found that his lock-picking set, penlight, and pocket knife were gone, as was the gun he’d had tucked into his waistband, which explained why it wasn’t digging into his ass as he struggled to sit up. The chains were short and attached to the wall less than a foot above the floor; he wouldn’t even be able to stand up straight as long as he was in these restraints.The sound of sniffling drew his attention to a person almost directly across the room from him. It took Leonard a second to notice how small they were; it was a kid, a little girl maybe ten years old. Whoever had brought them here had also abducted a fucking kid. “I want my mommy,” she whimpered, “I wanna go home!”“Okay, I am very confused here,” a man with black hair and a red leather jacket announced as he looked around the room.“Uh, I’ll say.” When Leonard looked at whoever had spoken next, sitting on the other side of his right-hand neighbour, he found another thing to add to the list of weird shit that was going on around him. This speaker looked like he could more than pass for the previous one’s younger brother; in fact, they looked almost like mirror images of each other, except that the first appeared to be a bit older, and the second was wearing a dress shirt and tie. The two of them immediately started staring at each other in shock.“Thea?” a young woman next to the younger of the near-identical pair asked softly, her eyes fixed on the little girl, “Hey, kid, is your name Thea Queen?”The elder looked over at her. “Uh, what are you talking to about? You’re Thea Queen, remember?”Her gaze snapped over to him. “Ray?” Then to the other man. “Two Rays?”Leonard took another look at the people around him. The guy in fatigues also had an older double in a black leather jacket who was starting to wake up on the other side of the room. He spotted Mick on the other side of the guy on his left, and found what looked like a somewhat older version of him next to the soldier. Another kid, this one a boy, could possibly be a child version of the young man next to Leonard. And lying unconscious on the little girl’s right…He couldn’t see the guy’s face, but if the pattern he was observing was correct, it would look like either an older version of his own face or a younger one.Somehow, there was two of everybody here.What. The. Hell?It wasn’t long before everyone who had woken up started freaking out about how they had a double of themselves somewhere in the room. Well, mostly everyone. The ‘older’ half of the room seemed to be handling it a bit better (‘older’ was a relative term, as there was quite a broad range of ages present). But it wasn’t until nearly everyone was awake that a piercing whistle silenced them all.Sara Lance was doing her best not to panic at the sight of her teenaged self, but perhaps it was the fact that she’d been on a time-travelling spaceship for the past few weeks that had her putting the pieces together so quickly. “Okay, show of hands, how many of you are from the year 2016?” She got a lot of strange looks from the ‘younger’ half of the room, but many of the older ones had expressions of dawning comprehension as they slowly raised their hands. She quickly noticed a pattern: everyone with their hands up had one person with their hands down on either side of them, and vice-versa. Well, mostly. There were two people who were still unconscious, but she recognised Len, lying next to her younger self, and a Barry Allen who looked older than his conscious double, so she guessed they would both have their hands up if they were awake. “Alright, and what about the rest of you?”“W-well…” Younger Kendra muttered from her right, glancing nervously to her older double sitting on her right, “Last I checked, it was 2006.” She got nods of agreement from most of the ‘younger’ ones. 2006 Leonard was quietly observing everything, a familiar calculating look in his eyes. Sara did a head count: there were doubles of herself, Laurel, Oliver, Thea, Diggle, Ray, Stein, Jax, Kendra, Len, Mick, Barry, and Cisco. Two times thirteen, twenty-six people in all, only half of whom were any good in a fight. 2016 Len and Barry were still out cold, Cisco’s powers weren’t combat-applicable, and of the past versions, she could only count on Len, Mick, and Dig to really know what they were doing (she wasn’t counting the basic self-defence training her and Laurel’s younger selves knew). That left thirteen fighters, fifteen if they could wake Len and Barry up.“So… you’re me?” The younger Cisco asked his double. “Like, some kind of doppelganger?”“No, that’s alternate dimensions,” the elder said, “We’re talking time-travel, here.”“Time-travel?” 2006 Mick grunted, “That shit’s actually real?”“It’s very real,” 2016 Mick responded seriously, “And whoever’s done this is gonna have a hell of a lot to answer for. This could completely screw up time, among other things.”“How?” 2006 Oliver asked.“All of us meeting and giving away too much about the future could cause a paradox that could basically… break the universe.”“Melodramatic, much?” 2006 Len commented.“No, it’s a real risk. Everybody from 2016 needs to give as little information about the future as possible while we figure out how to get out of here and back to wherever – and whenever – we belong.” Sara saw the 2006 selves of both crooks giving him odd looks, which, given his personality change at the hands of the Time Masters, was understandable. And at the beginning of their little crusade, Sara herself would never have expected Mick to suddenly become an expert on the complexities of time-travel.“Extraordinary,” 2006 Stein murmured, “I’ve studied the theory of time-travel for years, but to find actual proof, it’s-”“Remarkable?”“Astonishing?”2016 Jax and Sara simultaneously filled in their own words, much like they had early in their trip to 2147, and couldn’t help but grin. Most of their fellow teammates from the Waverider cracked grins, even 2016 Stein.“You people are taking this rather well,” 2006 Len drawled, an edge in his voice that said that he was a lot more freaked out than he was willing to show, “And since when is Mick, of all people, an expert on time-travel?”Sara sighed. “Some of us have had personal experience with time-travel quite recently, and the cause behind Mick’s knowledge is a big spoiler, one that could cause a lot of trouble on a large scale if it’s changed, so we can’t risk telling you that. But we will need to give some stuff away if we’re going to get out of here.”“First we need to figure out where ‘here’ is,” 2006 Diggle chimed in.“And when,” 2016 Kendra added, “And can we get a roll call so we all know who we are?”“Yeah, that alone could screw things up,” 2016 Cisco interrupted, “Secret identities being blown early will be a big problem.” Of course. Sara remembered hearing how Len had gone a few months without knowing the Flash’s identity, which would be a key factor in how the events of those months played out.“We’ve got something that can erase short-term memory,” 2016 Ray suggested, referring to the amnesia pills, “Getting out should be the priority. For example, waking Barry and Snart up would be a big help.”2016 Barry was lying in between the 2006 versions of Sara and Oliver. The latter started poking at him, trying to shake him awake, but stopped. “His head is bleeding,” he reported, “Someone must have hit him.”“This guy looks okay,” 2006 Sara said, peering over at 2016 Len and beginning to shake him.“I wouldn’t-” 2016 Sara began, but she was interrupted mid-warning.2006 Sara yelped as Len jerked and grabbed her wrist in a tight grip. Leonard Snart did not deal well with unexpected and uninvited contact. Touching him while he was unaware of his surroundings was bound to trigger a fight-or-flight response – usually fight. Ray had learned that the hard way, having once tried to wake the sleeping thief from a nightmare while recovering from the Boston Disaster in the Med Bay, only to receive a black eye for his troubles.Len’s first instinct was to grab at whoever was touching him, to make them stop. He had to admit, he’d been conditioned to expect pain when grabbed while he was in any sort of vulnerable state. His left hand closed around a skinny wrist, and the right one curled into a fist, ready to strike. But he was lying on his right side, and the position made it too awkward to throw a punch. He immediately tried to sit up, but a sound made him freeze.Rattling chains.Perhaps, if he’d been given a few more weeks, the noise wouldn’t bother him as much. Not enough to disturb his focus, anyway. But the memory of Boston was too fresh, too recent for him to be okay with anything that reminded him of being trapped in that hellhole.“Len!” Sara’s voice caught his attention, and he looked around frantically to find where it was coming from. He spotted her sitting against brick wall, also chained up. Kendra was next to her, staring at him, but something about her appearance was different. “Len, are you with me?”He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. “Yeah. Where the hell are we?”“Don’t know,” Jax replied, sitting across the room from him. Mick was sitting next to the kid, but he looked a bit younger than Len remembered. Were they in the past? “All we do know is that there are thirteen people here from 2016 and their doubles from 2006.”Len looked at her in disbelief before getting a good look at the other people in the room. And he was absolutely right. But he had to stop and stare when he saw his thirty-three-year-old self, staring at him from Jax’s other side. “Just when you thought you’d seen it all…” he murmured. His life seemed to get stranger and stranger ever since his armoured truck heist was foiled by a red blur. If he wasn’t careful, the sentence he just uttered would soon become his goddamn catchphrase. No thanks.“Okay, back to getting the hell out of here,” a man he recognised as Oliver Queen spoke up, crouched between the younger Len and a younger Raymond. Although Len had never seen Queen in person before, aside from their detour to 2046, he could guess that this one, with the shorter hair and muscular build, was the one who’d spent five years on an island and three more as a vigilante. “Sara, keep an eye on Barry – the older one – in case he wakes up. He’ll be our best shot at escaping. And Snart, you’ll need to let her go for that.”Len turned and saw that the person whose wrist he was still gripping was an eighteen-year-old Sara Lance, who was still staring at him with wide, frightened eyes. He released her, and she scooted away from him, sitting at the shoulder of the unconscious Barry Allen.“Okay, so, I guess figuring out how we got here would be a good start,” a young brunette woman spoke up. Len had seen her in the news as well – Thea Queen. “Does anyone remember anything about what happened before they woke up here?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The first thing Lisa did upon entering the cortex of S.T.A.R. Labs was sweep the room for any sign of a trap. She counted a lot of people in the room in addition to the usual crew, but only two of the extras were ones she recognised, the ones she’d come to see. “Lenny! Mick!” Her big brother and his best friend turned at the sound of her voice, and Lenny had that shit-eating smirk on his face as she pushed through the crowd and hugged him, before punching him in the arm. “Why haven’t you called?!”“I haven’t always been in cell-phone-friendly areas,” he replied casually, “But I’m back for good. Been keeping out of trouble, Trainwreck?”Lisa grinned, but didn’t admit to anything in front of so many unknowns. “You know me, Jerk. What do you think?” He smirked at her sardonically. “Now, where have you been?”“Hmm, let’s see… Germany, Russia, London, and a couple other places. It’s been a weird couple of months.”“And considering where we live, in a city full of metahumans, that’s saying something,” a black kid commented from the corner.It was then that Lisa began to really take a look at who was in the room with them. She recognised Cisco, Caitlin, and Detective West easily enough. She read enough tabloids to spot Oliver and Thea Queen, as well as the former’s ex-fiancée Felicity Smoak, and one tall guy talking to them looked a hell of a lot like the billionaire inventor Ray Palmer, except Ray Palmer was supposed to be dead. What they were doing there was a complete mystery. What kind of connection did they have with the Flash or S.T.A.R. Labs? What connection did any of these people have with them?“So you must be Lisa,” a blonde said as she walked up, “Len’s told me quite a lot about you.”Lisa gave her brother a curious look. Who was this woman who was on a first-name basis with her brother?Lenny smirked. “Lisa, this is Sara. She’s a… friend.”Lisa raised one eyebrow. Lenny didn’t really do ‘friends’, and the look he was giving the blonde suggested she was far more than that. “Nice to meet you.” Sara had callouses on her hand as she shook Lisa’s, so she was no delicate flower. But what she was had yet to be determined.“Sara!” Another blonde entered behind Lisa, and made a beeline for the three. An older man with a shaved head was right on her heels. His appearance and bearing practically screamed ‘cop’.“Laurel!” Sara immediately got swept up in a hug, a big grin on her face, “I missed you!”“I missed you, too, Sis.”Then Sara spotted the man. “Daddy!” Laurel let her go so that Sara could hug their father. “How have you guys been?”Lisa didn’t miss how Lenny eyed Sara’s father warily and started to move away, gently pulling his sister with him. Lisa guessed he’d picked up on the other man’s status as a cop, too. Why the hell had he gotten close to a cop’s daughter?“Honestly, it’s been better, but now that Darhk’s gone, things are looking up.”“That’s great; I knew you guys could do it. Oh, Len!” She’d spotted the Snart siblings starting to leave. “Len, come here.” Lenny froze, then slowly came back over to the group. Sara pulled him the last few steps forward by the hand. “Dad, Laurel, this is my friend Len. He was on our team. Len, I’ve told you about my dad and my sister.”“Many times.” Lenny held his hand out for each of Sara’s relatives to shake. “It’s nice to finally meet you both.”Sara’s dad shook his hand easily enough, but he had a speculative look on his face. Probably wondering where he’d seen his face before. The sister, on the other hand, seemed more interested in the contact between Lenny and Sara. A raised eyebrow and a small smile eloquently displayed her opinion on the matter.Laurel knew right away who Sara had dragged over to introduce to her and Dad. Oliver had been very concerned when Ray had given them the full roster of Rip Hunter’s team, particularly the two criminals. He obviously knew and trusted Ray and Sara, he had faith in Kendra and Carter, and when he’d called Barry to get his opinion, the speedster had given Professor Stein and Jax a glowing review. The two criminals, however… Barry had been cautiously optimistic about Snart, saying that the thief had it in him to be a hero, deep down. He doubted Rory would last long, however.But there was Rory, chuckling at something said by the young man Laurel remembered as Jax from their fight with Weather Wizard in Coast City. And there was Snart, greeting her and Dad warmly enough, though he’d managed to avoid giving his full name, which was probably the only reason why Dad hadn’t recognised him and tried to arrest him yet. And there was Sara, taking Snart by the hand like it was perfectly natural for her to do so. Huh.She couldn’t say Sara’s taste in guys or girls was exactly stellar, between Oliver and Nyssa. But there was something different about Sara, the way her smile actually reached her eyes instead of being contradicted by them. The way he moved in sync with her, and the way he looked at her like she was his world.And Sara just called him her ‘friend’? Yeah, Laurel wasn’t buying it. There was definitely something going on there.And it looked like Laurel wasn’t the only one who saw it. The brunette woman standing near them, soon introduced as Snart’s sister Lisa, was looking between the two of them, a smile growing on her face.Laurel couldn’t say that she would approve of her sister dating a known felon. But her sister dating a guy who brought back that light in her eyes, the light that Laurel hadn’t seen since before the Queen’s Gambit, well… she could probably look past certain other details. And if Sara had changed for the better because of him, who was to say that Snart hadn’t also changed because of her?“Have we met before?” Dad was asking. Uh oh.“No, I don’t believe so,” Snart answered smoothly, “Although Sara has talked quite a bit about you.”“Nothing bad,” Sara assured her father.Dad was still looking skeptical, so Laurel, trying to avoid a fight, decided to change the conversation. “So, what sort of… places did you guys visit?” She wasn’t sure how many people here knew about the time-travel.“Oh, you should’ve seen it! We went to the Old West, to the seventies, oh, and we went to the future! Star City 2046: not pretty, but we can fix it!”“I’m sorry, did you say the future?” Lisa asked, poking him, “Lenny, what haven’t you been telling me?!”Snart shifted uncomfortably, especially when Sara also poked him. “You didn’t tell her what kind of trip you were leaving on?!”“I didn’t think she’d believe me!” he protested, “And it’s not something you can explain in a phone message, anyway!”“Well, perhaps you could explain it to her now.”“Now?” Sara gave him a look, specifically the patented Lance ‘I Will Not Back Down’ Look. “Okay, now. Lis, four months ago, Mick and I were… approached by a career time-traveler to help him deal with an immortal madman who would have taken over the world in a hundred and fifty years if we hadn’t stopped him.”Lisa was staring at him with her jaw dropped.Snart turned back to Sara. “Told you she wouldn’t believe me.”“So… did you see what I thought I saw, or am I just seeing things?”Felicity looked over at Laurel, who was eyeing the group of heroes speculatively. More specifically, two specific conversations: Sara, Oliver, and John, in one, and Snart, Rory, Jax, and Ray in the other. It took Felicity a minute to see it, but then she noticed that both Sara and Snart were only half paying attention to their own conversations, constantly glancing over at each other quite frequently.“No, I think I see it,” Felicity murmured, “What, exactly, am I seeing?”Laurel grinned at her. “Sara and Snart. I know, it’s not exactly what I would expect to be as an ideal match, but just look at them! He’s obviously into her, and she’s into him!”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
THE TEMPORAL ZONE“Okay, this might sound funny coming from the guy who built a high-tech super-suit on caffeine and… well, more caffeine, but you really should get some rest, Rip.”Captain Rip Hunter looked up from the computer console to see Dr. Raymond Palmer standing in the doorway, coffee mug in hand and an expression of concern on his face. “Dr. Palmer? I’m surprised you aren’t still asleep.”“Well, it’s eight in the morning, at least in ship-time. The others are getting up, too.”Rip looked over to the wall-clock and saw, to his surprise, that it was, in fact, morning. He hadn’t even realised he’d been up all night with his research and planning.Ray strolled over and looked at the screen to see what Rip was working on. He cocked his head curiously when he saw a list of names, some of which were familiar to him. “What’s all this?”Rip ran a tired hand over his face. “With Carter already fallen, and Mister Rory under the Time Masters’ control, I thought it might be best if we were to add a new member to our ranks, to increase our numbers.”“Ooh, how about him?” Ray, having spotted the name of someone he knew, tapped it and brought up the person’s full profile: Roy Harper, also known as the red-hooded Starling City vigilante codenamed Arsenal.But Rip shook his head. “Unfortunately, we cannot recruit Mister Harper, because the circumstances surrounding his death, and the events that resulted, are what made him significant to the timeline. We can’t risk taking him before that moment, and obviously, it would be impossible to pick him up afterwards. It’s a shame, really; he would have made an excellent asset, and I know that both you and Sara worked with him previously.”Ray shuffled awkwardly, not sure if he wanted to ask the question that was on his mind, but decided to do so anyway. “When… How does Roy die?”To his surprise, Rip gave him an incredulous look. “You know how he died, Dr. Palmer. I understand it was less than a year before I recruited you all.”“What? How- Oh, you mean where he was stabbed in Iron Heights by one of the guards? Rip, that was all fake!”Now it was Rip’s turn to be surprised. “All of Gideon’s records say that Roy Harper was murdered in 2015 in prison.”“Maybe on paper, but the guard was actually an A.R.G.U.S. agent Team Arrow contacted for a favor; he went undercover and stabbed Roy with some kind of drug that made it look like he was dead, then his ‘body’ was smuggled out of the prison, he got a new identity, and left town. Officially, ‘Roy Harper’ is dead, but ‘Jason Reed’ is alive and well, just laying low in Midway City.”Gideon apparently took this point as her cue to chime in. “I have found references to a Jason Reed in Midway City starting in 2015, as well as references that are dated earlier but appear to have been fabricated. However, this Jason Reed is not significant to the timeline.”Ray turned to Rip with a grin. “So… can we recruit him, or what?”“Run that by me again?” Leonard Snart asked, after Rip announced that they were returning to 2016 to recruit a new teammate, “I thought this kid was dead.”“Roy Harper joined Team Arrow in 2014, and later took on the codename Arsenal,” Ray explained, “When the League of Assassins started framing Oliver, or rather the Arrow, for various murders, Oliver was actually arrested, and Roy volunteered to take the fall. He dressed up in the Arrow costume and turned himself over to the police. John Diggle has contacts in a Black Ops organisation called A.R.G.U.S., which Team Arrow has worked with before; one agent disguised himself as a prison guard at Iron Heights and helped Roy fake his death, because otherwise it would only be a matter of time before all those people put away by the Arrow would kill him for revenge.”“Mister Harper, under the alias Jason Reed, is now living in Midway City,” Rip continued, “I honestly would have recruited him sooner, but it appears that the Time Masters’ records are not infallible; we – they – knew of no connection between Roy Harper and Jason Reed, and neither did I, until Dr. Palmer informed me this morning.”“He’s a good kid,” Sara commented, “It’ll be nice to work with him again.”“I heard a few things about him from Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin,” Stein added, “I also would like to meet this brave young man.”MIDWAY CITY2016It was decided that Ray would accompany Rip to Midway City to talk to Roy (“And let’s actually approach him and have a nice conversation without the whole kidnapping shtick.”) while the rest of the team took the Jump Ship to visit S.T.A.R. Labs in Central City. The reason: if Roy was recruited, it would probably be a better idea to not raise red flags by having him running around in his Arsenal costume. Even though they’d be travelling through time, there were those who’d known he was Arsenal but who still thought he was dead, plus they really didn’t need him to run into Savage in the past, only to have the villain recognise him come 2014. The rest of them, except for Sara, were already running that risk. The best solution to that potential problem? A new suit and a new code name. And who could be better for either job than one Cisco Ramon?(Seeing Leonard Snart casually walking into S.T.A.R. Labs was either stressful or amusing, depending on whether you were a member of Team Flash or one of the Legends. Cisco made a point of hiding behind Joe or Barry the entire time, and while Caitlin wasn’t as obvious about it, she kept her distance and watched him suspiciously the whole time. Joe seemed to keep one hand near his weapon throughout the entire stay, while Barry, who was confused and moderately suspicious at first, calmed down when he saw how comfortable the rest of the team was around the ice villain.)Meanwhile, Ray and Rip were pulling a beat-up car into the parking lot of a family-owned garage. Ray walked inside and up to the front counter. “Hi, I was wondering if I could get someone to look at my car. The engine’s been making some weird noises for the past couple of days.” When they’d had Gideon fabricate the vehicle, she’d deliberately done so with a small flaw in one of the engine parts. Enough to make the funny noise, but nothing that would cause them any problems on the trip down.“Sure,” the stocky man at the front desk said, “One of my best mechanics just clocked in.” He leaned back and called over his shoulder: “Jason! Got a customer for you!”Seconds later, a short, brown-haired young man wandered in, dressed in a jumpsuit and wiping his hands on a rag. He stopped in his tracks as soon as his eyes landed on Ray, but he recovered quickly. “What can I do for you?”Ray told him about the funny noise, and ‘Jason’ agreed to go out and check the car for him. As soon as they were away from any listening ears, he turned to Ray and asked what was going on. “Is there something wrong?”Ray grinned at him. “Not exactly. We’ve got an offer for you. How’d you like to travel through time and help save the world?”Roy stared at him for a few seconds. “Huh?” he responded eloquently.“It’s kind of a long story. Meet us at this location after your shift is over, and we’ll give you the full details.”It took him a few hours, but Roy eventually met Ray and Rip on the empty top level of a parking garage. “So… what’s this about time-travel?”Ray grinned. “You’re not gonna believe this. Okay, so, Rip here is a Time Master. Basically, he’s a career time-traveler who goes around protecting history from time-traveling criminals. Anyway, he’s recruited a few of us from 2016 to help him with a mission, and after a few… setbacks… we were looking for a new teammate, and Sara and I recommended you! So, what do you say?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
CENTRAL CITYThursday, December 4th, 1986The first time and place the team tracked the Pilgrim to was Central City, in December of 1986. More specifically, the juvenile detention centre. Evidently, she was trying to kill two birds with one stone. Or rather, two criminals, because Snart and Rory recognised the date: it had been the day they’d first met, Snart’s first day in Juvie, the day Mick had stepped in and saved him from getting killed by four older inmates.They knew she’d arrived when Snart abruptly cried out in pain, clutching his suddenly-broken right arm. Rip stated that any new injuries that their younger selves hadn’t originally sustained would also be inflicted on the older versions. Knowing they would be liabilities in battle if their younger selves took any further damage, Rip promptly benched Snart and Rory and left Stein and Kendra in charge of them in case their younger selves – and by extension, the older versions – were hurt badly enough that their lives would be endangered. He took Ray and Sara with him into the facility, with Jax piloting the Jump Ship for a quick getaway.The young inmates were running frantically, some just trying to escape the Pilgrim while some of the more clear-headed ones were trying to take advantage of the chaos and escape. It was Sara who spotted the woman all in black, shrugging off the shots from the guards and putting them down without much thought. Two young inmates, one with brown hair supporting a shorter, scrawnier one with black hair, were trapped in a corner. The former had a cut on his temple and a couple bruises here and there, while the latter was covered with bruises on nearly every inch of exposed skin and appeared to be fighting unconsciousness, needing the bigger boy’s support just to stay standing. Rip fired at the Pilgrim, distracting her while Sara ran in and got close to the boys. “Come on, this way!” she urged.The brown-haired one – obviously a young Rory – glared at her. She had anticipated this, that the boys wouldn’t trust some stranger.Rip let out a scream, and Sara turned to see him fall. The Pilgrim turned her attention back to the boys, and Sara put herself in between them. Just as the other assassin was going to fire, Ray regrew to normal size and fired at her from up-close, knocking her across the hall.Trusting him to handle the threat, Sara went back to trying to talk Rory into coming with them. “Look, there’s no time to explain, but we need you to come with us. It’s for your own safety. So either you come willingly, or I’ll drag you with me. What’s it gonna be, Mick?”The first thing they did upon getting the boys back to the Waverider was to rush the teenaged Snart off to the Med Bay. He’d passed out from his injuries halfway to the Jump Ship. Rip was adamant that the boys get as little exposure to the futuristic time ship as possible, so Young Rory was kept in the cargo bay, Kendra taking care of his wounds with a First Aid kit. Also on Rip’s orders, Young Snart was not fully healed of his broken bones, but he was given regular treatment appropriate to his own time-period, to avoid any (more) confusion when the boys were returned.The adult versions quickly recovered, though Snart had been forced to wear a sling for the first ten minutes before he got annoyed with it and ditched it.Young Rory asked them the same questions over and over again. Who were they? Who was that woman? Why was she trying to kill him and the new meat? They weren’t sure how to answer him, so Jax told him they worked for a secret organisation called A.R.G.U.S. and that it was all classified. Young Rory had rolled his eyes, but had stopped with the questions – for now, anyway. Teen Snart was brought back in once he’d been treated, allowing him to wake up in the cargo bay without seeing the rest of the ship, and just in time to experience a time-jump.STARLING CITYSunday, March 16th, 2003Sara Lance was having a very weird and very scary day. The fifteen-year-old had been visiting her dad at work when some lady in black had walked in and started shooting up the place. Bullets seemed to just bounce off of her, so Sara’s dad had told her to run. But the woman had caught up to her, and it was then that Sara realised that the crazy lady was after her. She had no idea why, and the fact that another woman in white who looked a lot like Sara herself had come to her rescue, along with a big, scary, bald guy with a hand-held flamethrower didn’t help matters. Sara had wanted to find her dad after Flamethrower Guy blasted the crazy woman away, but instead she’d been dragged into some kind of mini jet and taken to a strange place that looked like the set of a sci-fi movie. Soon she found herself stuck in a room, left alone with two beat-up boys about her age. She narrowed her eyes as she took in their juvie uniforms and their obvious injuries, and sat further away from them, trying not to panic.“So, what’s your name?” one of them asked her after a long, awkward silence.She eyed him suspiciously, then muttered: “Sara.”“I’m Mick. This is…” He turned to the other kid, who was covered with a lot more bruises and had his right arm in a sling. “What’d you say your name was?”The other boy’s voice was quiet as he mumbled his name: “Leonard.”‘Mick’ scoffed. “What kind of name is that? That’s a grandpa’s name. From now on, I’m calling you Lenny.”The newly-dubbed ‘Lenny’ scowled at him, but didn’t argue.“So, Lenny, what’d you do to piss off Joar Mahkent? I haven’t seen anybody get him that mad, and you managed it on your first day.”Lenny shrugged, the very movement making him wince. “His dad doesn’t like my dad, and I wasn’t scared of him when he told me who he was.”Mick rolled his eyes. “Stupid. You don’t piss off the biggest guy in the prison yard, even in Juvie.”Lenny snorted back. “I’ve seen tougher,” he mumbled, before deciding to change the subject. Unfortunately for Sara, the new subject was her. “So, Blondie, why’d they grab you?”Sara scooted further away from them. “Some crazy lady tried to kill me, I don’t know why, and these people saved me from her before dragging me here.”“Was it a pale woman all in black? Bullets seem to bounce off her?”“…Yeah. I guess you don’t know why she was after you, either?”“Not a clue.”“Or who any of these people are? Or why one of them looks so much like me it’s disturbing?”Mick took another look at her. “Holy shit, you’re right. You look like you could be that other blonde’s little sister.” He smirked. “Is your ass as hot as hers? I can’t see from here.”“Subtle, Mick,” Len commented, sarcasm not dripping, but gushing from his words. He, Mick, and Sara were on the bridge, watching a live feed of their younger selves.The grown version of the horny teen in the cargo bay pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing, feeling the adult Sara’s glare burning hotter than any fire he’d ever started.“Do you seriously think that line works, you little creep?!” Sara was on her feet, now, glaring at Mick, who’d also stood up. Lenny stayed seated, partly because he was still aching all over, partly because the pain meds these people had given him were making him a little dizzy, but mostly because he wasn’t dumb enough to get caught in the middle of that.Mick leaned in, getting close to Sara’s personal space, but didn’t say anything else.“What?”“You smell nice.”Sara froze for half a second before winding up and slapping him hard across the face.By the time the older blonde came down, Mick was yelling and calling Sara a crazy bitch while Sara was yelling and calling Mick a pervert. “Hey! HEY!” The two arguing teens fell silent. “What the hell is your problem?!”“She slapped me!” Mick argued.“The little weirdo said that he liked the way that I smelled,” Sara defended, crinkling up her nose.“I’m usually a lot smoother, but I’m sorta freakin’ out right now.”“You!” the woman said, pointing at Sara, “Hands to yourself! And next time, hit with a flat palm. And you!” She paused, trying to think of what to say to Mick. “You’re not her type.”She then turned to Lenny, who put his good hand up. “I stayed out of it.”“Good. Now do I need to separate you guys?”Mick and Sara glared at each other, but it was Mick who answered. “No.”Satisfied, the woman turned to leave, but Sara had questions. “Hey! When do I get to go home?” Internally, she winced at how she sounded like a whiny six-year-old.“You’re safer here. Trust me.”“Well, where is here? And why do you look like me?! Please, will you just tell me what the hell’s going on?!” She was getting really freaked out, now.“It’s safer for you if I don’t. And we look alike because… Because we’re like family. And I need you to trust me.”Lenny didn’t think that made any sense, and it was fairly obvious that the woman was trying to hide the real explanation.Sara kept going. “Look, my dad, he’s gonna be freaking out. If he ever lost me-”“He won’t lose you. Ever.” There was a surprising amount of emotion in the woman’s voice when she insisted. “I promise.” Then she walked away, leaving Sara and Mick glaring at each other.…The man in the brown coat came alone this time, a few hours after his group had left again, but who knew how long it had been for him? Sara was the first to spot him, on her way to the kitchen to get Bonnie a Band-Aid. He looked really sad about something.“Hey, what’s with the face?” she asked, “Who died?”It had been meant jokingly, but something about his silent reaction gave her pause. And then it hit her.Someone had died.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Prologue
In early 2015, the citizens of Central City hadn’t been nearly as accustomed to weirdness and superheroes as they would be in the future, but even then, the two flashes of greenish light in the sky, spaced roughly five minutes apart, garnered very little interest. The few who even noticed just looked up at the sky for a couple minutes, then shrugged and moved on when nothing else happened.Both times, a small, grey aircraft shot out of a swirling green portal, twisting in the air as if the pilot didn’t know what he was doing. The first one made a beeline to the outskirts of the city, while the second took a slightly more controlled path to the warehouse district. It landed rather hard outside one apparently-abandoned warehouse, the door to which suddenly opened automatically as the craft slowly taxied its way inside, coming to a stop once it bumped against the opposite wall.Inside, a pair of teenagers groaned. “Mom wasn’t kidding,” the boy in the white and dark blue leather vest grunted, “Time travel… not fun.”The girl, dressed in black leather, got up out of her seat, stumbling a bit, but moving determinedly towards the exit hatch. “Are you coming, or what?”“Laurie, where do you think you’re going?”“To find Calhoun. That’s what we came here for, isn’t it?”The boy got up as well. “We don’t know where could be, and we can’t just go off half-cocked looking for him. We need a plan.”“You sound like Dad.” Laurie rolled her eyes as she pushed her black curls away from her face. She took down a case mounted on the wall and opened it up, revealing a blonde wig and a black mask.“I sound like anyone who knows what we’re going up against. Sis, just think about it. Wally, Oliver, and Kara weren’t able to beat Prometheus, and even if we’re going after him before he got powers, he had to have been dangerous before that. And the Prometheus with powers is out there somewhere, too.” He frowned. “We should have brought some other people with us.”“We don’t need them, Quentin,” Laurie insisted, snapping at her brother as she started putting the wig on, “Mom and Dad taught me how to shoot, Aunt Nyssa was my combat instructor, and you’ve got your tech skills and your powers. We can take out Calhoun without getting close to him, and then Prometheus will never have existed, and when we get back Lian will-” Her breath hitched. Her brother stood up and put a gloved hand on her shoulder.“I want her back just as much as you do, Laurie. I just want to make sure we actually succeed with it.”Laurie straightened up, a look of determination on her face. She slipped the mask on, and combined with her wig and black leather outfit, an observer could be forgiven for thinking the Canary, who had passed away mere months ago, had (already) come back to life. She grabbed a few other cases and opened another, smaller one, pulling two small objects out and handing them to Quentin before grabbing two for herself and heading for the exit hatch.
Chapter 1
Cisco blinked at the pair standing in front of him. “This… is new.”Barry kept looking back and forth between them, his eyes looking like they were about to pop out of his skull.Caitlin was catching flies with her dropped jaw. “H-how…”Dr. Wells stared back at them, gears turning in his head as he wondered what their appearance meant, not missing the way their eyes darkened at the sight of the wheelchair-bound scientist.The man shrugged. “I’m pretty sure you’ve seen this before. Like, just a couple weeks ago?”Caitlin finally found her voice. “When Barry from the future came here – now – by accident.”Cisco Ramon of 2036 nodded, a small, dark smile on his face, as he knew it hadn’t been by accident. “Well, this one isn’t an accident. We’re looking for nine people who stole two time machines and we tracked them both to Central City, on this day. Our… colleagues… are scouring the city on foot, but we came here to get your help.”“Are they metahumans?” Barry asked. After meeting his future self a few weeks ago, he was adapting to the concept a lot more quickly than he had initially.“Six of them are,” the future Caitlin Snow replied, “The other three are normal, no powers, but two of those three have been trained to fight hand-to-hand and with more weapons than I can name.”“Are they dangerous?” Wells questioned.“Sort of. One of the metas is a dangerous criminal we’ve been tracking for some time. The others are all on our side, but…”“They’re teenagers,” Cisco explained, “They’re not supposed to be getting directly involved, that’s the rule all their parents set: no heroics until they’re eighteen and out of high school. I’m still not sure what the hell they were thinking, stealing a time ship and chasing after this creep, and it was all we could do to talk all their relatives out of coming with us. The bigger problem is what kind of trouble they might accidentally get into. They have zero experience with time-travel, plus the guy they’ve followed… he’s dangerous. They could get themselves killed trying to fight him.”“We need to find them, get them home, and take down the meta, and I don’t think the six of us can do it alone. We would have brought some other allies, but they’re tied up with other problems at the moment.”“So, you need our help.” Wells (Thawne, rather) was suspicious of these two, but he couldn’t find a reason to turn their request down without arousing suspicion from Barry and his Cisco and Caitlin, and if there were dangerous metahumans from the future running around, they could cause trouble. The wild cards needed to be dealt with before his plan could proceed any further. “And your partners? Who are they?”The older Cisco winced. “That’s… something we will have to tell you sooner or later, so it might as well be sooner, but you’re not gonna like it. The first three are people you guys haven’t met yet, but they became our friends right off the bat, so I’m not too worried about you meeting them. The other guy… does not get along with us in this time, at all. We – Cait and I – were actually brought along as character witnesses ‘cause we knew there’d be issues.”“Who is he?” 2015 Caitlin repeated Dr. Wells’s question apprehensively.“Me.”The four present-day individuals turned at the familiar voice coming from behind them, shocked to recognise Leonard Snart standing in the entranceway, his arms crossed and an impatient expression on his face. Behind him hovered an unfamiliar Hispanic man in jeans and a grey hoodie.Barry reacted first, yanking his mask back on before speeding up to him and slamming him against the wall. “What the hell are you doing here, Snart?” he growled.“Woah, woah, woah!” 2036 Cisco yelled, “He’s with us! He’s here to help!”It was only then that Barry noticed the differences. This Leonard Snart had much more silver in his hair, his face was more lined, and he hadn’t bothered with the blue parka, though the goggles and Cold Gun were still present. Snart didn’t even reach for his weapon, glaring at Barry but not fighting back.“Captain Cold is helping us?” 2015 Cisco asked dubiously.“No, you’re helping me,” Snart answered tersely, “I need to get those kids back home, and like Cisco said, he and Caitlin are here as my character witnesses. You trust them, so when they say you can trust me, you need to listen. Now will you quit wasting time, and help me find them?”Another difference: he wasn’t acting like the smirking, confident thief who seemed to always speak like he was playing to an audience. He was dead serious, and there was more than a hint of desperation in his tone.“We’ll get them back,” the unnamed man said, seriously and almost reassuringly, “I promise. Oh, and I’m Jaime Reyes, you’ll meet my younger self in a few years.”Barry frowned, but let Snart go. The older man walked over to the rest of the group, pulling eight photos out of his jacket pocket and setting them on the table. They appeared to be professionally-done school pictures. “Their names are Quentin, Laurie, Lian, Izzy, Emma, Nora, and Vi,” Snart explained, pointing at each picture as he named them, “Quentin, Laurie, and Lian are the oldest at seventeen, and Vi’s the youngest at twelve. Crystal’s fourteen, and the other three are fifteen. Quentin and Laurie are fraternal twins.”Barry leaned over the photos, inspecting each one. Quentin had pale blonde hair and dark circles under his eyes. Laurie looked nothing like her brother, with short, curly, black hair and a confident grin. Lian appeared to have some Asian ancestry, and long, glossy black hair. Izzy was a Hispanic girl with frizzy black hair and a somewhat vague expression, like her mind was elsewhere. Emma had similar colouring to Quentin, but was grinning at the camera and showing off a mouth full of braces. Lastly, Vi was smiling shyly at the camera from behind her glasses and her black hair that framed her face.2036 Caitlin continued the explanation. “The metahumans are Quentin, Izzy, Emma, and Nora. All of them are second-generation, though Quentin’s a special case. Neither of his parents actually have powers, but his father was in Central City when the Particle Accelerator exploded; we believe he has the dormant potential for powers that just never surfaced. There are a few kids, like Quentin, who developed powers in their teen years, whereas the children of actual metahumans developed theirs earlier in life, if they did at all.”“What are their abilities?” Her past counterpart asked.“Nora’s a speedster. Izzy can see things that have happened in the past; she’ll stare at a specific spot and can tell you exactly what happened in the room the previous day, or even farther back. Emma and Quentin both have ice powers, although Emma’s more powerful and has more control. Quentin can only freeze anything he touches with his hands, and has to wear special gloves to keep his powers contained, because he doesn’t have full control over them. Our Cisco made them for him, and he can track them with the S.T.A.R. Labs computers.”“Why are they here?” Wells/Thawne asked abruptly.Snart sighed. “We’re not sure what the fugitive is up to, but the kids are probably just being reckless and trying to prove themselves.”“I was sixteen when I started,” Reyes pointed out quietly.“You’re also bulletproof when you want to be. And your parents were still freaking out every night, anyway. These kids don’t even have any proper gear; just stuff they’ve stolen from their parents or dug out of their own closets.” He scowled. “The costume of the original Canary was stolen from Team Arrow the day before they left, and I’m certain Laurie’s dressed herself up in it. Though why she didn’t take the old Black Canary costume is beyond me.”“Closer personal connection?” 2036 Cisco suggested.Snart shot him a look that said he’d said too much. “The original Canary costume is regular leather, and hasn’t been reinforced with proper body armor, plus it doesn’t even cover everything. If she was going to dress up as one of her heroes, I’d prefer it if she was at least properly equipped.”“You know her?” 2015 Caitlin questioned, “Personally?”She flinched when Snart shot her a look of his own. “Since she and her brother were infants. So you can understand why I need to find them.”“Cisco, Caitlin, may I speak with you for a moment?”Cisco knew Evil Wells – Thawne – would corner them at some point. He gave the tracking data for Mike’s gloves to their younger selves and let them have at it, under Jaime’s supervision to make sure they didn’t learn too much, while Len went to scour the streets again and meet up with Ray and Rory, accompanied by a still-suspicious Barry, starting with all the areas that the twins would be most familiar with. His brother-in-law was desperate, looking for answers and not finding any, and Cisco didn’t blame him at all for being worried. He was just as worried for his daughter; the only consolation he had was that she was less likely to run into an actual fight.His hands were shaking. He’d become a force to be reckoned with regarding his powers in the past two decades, but he was well aware that Thawne could get up and kill him before he had the chance to defend himself.But he swallowed his fears, replied “Sure”, and followed the ersatz paraplegic out of the cortex and down the hall. He just had to remain calm and, if Thawne figured out that Cisco and company knew his secret, talk him into letting the four of them live by convincing him they’d keep quiet. Which had the benefit of being the truth, even if Cisco hated it.Beside him, Caitlin was shaking. She could feel Khione on the edge of seizing control. Her other half was just as worried about Emma and Crystal as she was.“So, you two, it seems a lot has changed for you in the past twenty-one years. Or, from my perspective, the next twenty-one years. Tell me, how’s Barry doing?”“He’s fine,” Cisco replied nonchalantly, hands in his pockets, “Y’know, still running around and fighting bad guys and you know I’m lying, don’t you?” He hadn’t taken his eyes off of Thawne for a second, and hadn’t missed the way his lips tightened and his eyes narrowed upon hearing the lie.But Thawne was a damn good actor; if Cisco hadn’t been actively searching for any tells (something that Oliver had insisted he learn how to do), he never would have spotted them. “I’m sorry, what do you mean by that?”“Cut the crap, Thawne. Barry vanished in 2024 chasing you, just as you remember it.”Thawne gave up all pretenses at that moment, still sitting in the wheelchair but dropping the fatherly mentor guise and replacing it with an intense glare. Caitlin sucked in a worried breath beside him. “You know who I am. Are you here to stop me?”Cisco sighed. “I really wish we could. But changing more than twenty years’ worth of events is too big of a risk, and you know it.”“We really are here to look for the kids and the meta they’re chasing,” Caitlin said, speaking for the first time since they left the main room, “Coming here and having to deal with you was worth the risk.”“And what do Mr. Snart and Mr. Reyes know? Or the other two companions that you haven’t named yet?”“We filled them in on what they needed to know in order to not blow your cover. At least, the few little bits they haven’t heard over twenty-one years.”Cisco continued. “As much as it disgusts me, we need the events of this year to occur unaltered, and that means leaving you and your evil plan alone. So, let’s just agree to pretend everything’s good, we’ll get the kids and our meta, and we’ll be out of your way. And if you even think about killing us to keep your secret, we may not have left hidden letters like Barry did when he visited last February, but you won’t be able to cover up our disappearance like you would have with his. Just letting us do what we came here for will be in your best interest.”It was a bold move, making demands of the Reverse Flash. But Cisco had seen scarier things since him, as hard as that was to believe, so that made it a bit easier. Still, he flexed his fingers, hoping to get off at least one Vibe blast before Thawne reached them.Thawne stared at him, as if waiting for him to blink, but Cisco didn’t, so he nodded. “Very well. I’ll help you get your little heroes back. So long as you don’t drop a single hint to Barry, or your younger selves, or anyone else. Do we have a deal?” He stuck out a hand.Cisco glared at it, hating the idea of shaking the hand that killed him and so many others, but he relented and did so. “Deal. But cross us, and you’ll regret it.”“Barry, I can hear you staring at me. Just ask your damn question, though I can’t guarantee an answer.”They were in an abandoned warehouse, having located one cloaked Jump Ship hidden inside. It was one of the safe locations Rip would use to hide the Waverider, and they were just lucky that it was already abandoned in this time, as most of the safe spots in 2036 were unsuitable for use in 2015, and vice-versa. Len checked the ship’s computer; the single-use time drive was tapped out, meaning the kids wouldn’t be able to use it to return. But there was no sign of where they’d gone. He slammed his fist against the console in frustration.He looked back over his shoulder when Barry remained silent, seeing the young speedster blink in surprise (and God, did he really look that young back then?). Of course; this was before Len learned the Flash’s identity. Barry blinked a few more times before slowly peeling off his mask. “How do you really know those kids?”Len pursed his lips. He hadn’t exactly been the most obedient of Rip’s ‘don’t endanger the timeline’ rules, but he hadn’t had so much to lose before. “If I tell you… you have to swear you don’t mess things up for me.”“What things?” Barry asked, deep mistrust in his voice.“Swear it.” Not that there was much that Barry could do to prevent it, and by the time he could, he likely wouldn’t want to, but Len needed to be sure.There was a noticeable, hesitant pause before Barry spoke. “I swear.”Len frowned before turning to Barry, pulling out his phone and showing him another picture on it.“Their full names are Quentin and Laurel Snart. They’re my son and my daughter, and if anything happens to them…” He couldn’t finish the thought, partly because he couldn’t bear to think on that possibility for more than a second.Barry blinked down at the image in front of him. It was nearly a year old, taken by Lisa on the twins’ fifteenth birthday. Quentin hadn’t gotten his powers yet; his face had more colour, his hair was a bit shorter and a darker shade of blond, and he was wearing a big, cheeky grin that Len hadn’t seen in a long time. Laurel hadn’t changed much in appearance, save for the fact that she’d since cut her hair shorter, but a recent tragedy had also wiped her confident smile from her face.Len had never been a big fan of posing for a picture – it felt too much like an act, a façade – so most of his favourite family pictures had been taken in the moment. The twins had just blown out the candles on two small birthday cakes (they could never get the two of them to agree on what kind they wanted), and they’d also blown the smoke into each other’s eyes, and were now laughing about it. Len was standing behind Laurie, looking at them fondly with an expression that this Barry would never have seen on his face (and wouldn’t see for another couple of years), while Sara laughed along the twins, waving her hand to clear the smoke. She was smiling as if she’d never been near the Lazarus Pit or Lian Yu. It was one of the last events they’d celebrated before Quentin was hit by a dark matter blast while tinkering with his father’s gun, before everything changed.Len didn’t even realise he’d gotten caught up in his reminiscing until he noticed Barry staring at him. Hurriedly, he put the phone away and went back to searching for anything useful that the twins might’ve left behind.“Are these communicators?” Barry asked, looking into an open black box. Len walked over and peered inside. Sure enough, there were half a dozen ear-comms set in gray foam, in addition to four empty slots. The twins must have taken one and a spare each.“Yeah,” he whispered, grabbing another one, sticking it in his ear, and activating it. “Quentin?” he asked, “Laurel? One of you had better answer me.”There was a long pause of nothing but static on the other end of the line, then… “Hey, Dad.” Quentin’s tone was sheepish as he responded. “What’s new?”“Well, for starters, you’re grounded until you’re fifty. Now, put your sister on.” He glared at Barry, who was fighting a smile at the sight of him being all parental, even as he stuck a comm in his own ear to listen in.
“Uh… That’s gonna be a problem. She turned off her comm.”
“She what?!” Len had done that a couple times on missions when Rip got too annoying, but at least he had experience with taking care of himself in the field. Laurie did not. “Well, where the hell was she last?! And where are you?!”
“I’m at Curt Calhoun’s old apartment. He’s not here.”
Len took a deep breath. “Why would you go there?” His brain, which had already been screaming ‘Alexa’ before they even knew the twins were missing, screamed it even louder. “Quentin Michael Snart, what were you two planning to do?”Quentin hesitated. “Laurie… She wanted to make sure Calhoun never became Prometheus, so when Prometheus stole the first time ship and came to this time and place…”“You followed him. But what did you think you could do to him?” He was praying that they weren’t planning what he thought they’d been planning.
“She… She’s going to kill him. The past Calhoun. To save Lian.”
Len could think of so many ways that could go, and nearly all of them ended with his daughter dead on a metal slab. “Get to S.T.A.R. Labs. Now. Our Cisco and Caitlin are there, tell them everything. Now, where was Laurel heading?”
“She was going to Mercury Labs. There were a bunch of blueprints of the place on his desk, so we think Calhoun was planning some sort of job there.”
His blood ran cold. “Calhoun stepped up from plain theft years before this. He’s been trained as a mercenary. If he’s at Mercury Labs, it’s not to steal something. He’s going to kill someone.” Laurie could be walking into a death trap. Barry didn’t need telling twice. He zoomed out of there, most likely headed to Mercury Labs. “Flash is on his way there now; get to S.T.A.R. Labs.” He marched out of the Jump Ship, locking it behind him and making tracks to Mercury Labs himself, calling Raymond to fill him in on the situation.It didn’t take Barry long to find Laurie Snart, crouched on the rooftop of the building across the street from Mercury Labs, in full Canary garb, scanning the street below with a pair of binoculars. A long, black case sat next to her. “You know, it’s not a good idea to be spying on people from rooftops,” he commented, “Someone might get the wrong impression.”Laurie twisted around, shock evident on her face despite the black mask and blonde wig. Her hand instinctively reached for a knife tucked into her waistband. She froze when she realised who he was. “You’re the Flash,” she gasped.“And you’re Laurel Snart, from the year 2036. Your dad, Cisco, Caitlin, and Mr. Reyes came to us looking for you and your friends.”She gasped. “Did he tell you why we came? Did he tell you what kind of monster we’re chasing?” She kept glancing furtively down at the street. “His name is Curt Calhoun. He’ll become a metahuman in nineteen years, and he’ll kill a lot of people, including my best friend. You might know her father, Roy Harper. I need to stop this bastard. Before he can hurt anyone else.”Tears were running down her face, now. Barry recognised her grief, saw how it was controlling her decisions. He remembered Roy from their visit to Starling City, and wondered how he would be taking his daughter’s death. “Laurie, I think you need to think about this a little bit more.”“I’ve thought about it enough. It’s all I’ve been thinking of for the past two months. Calhoun needs to die before he gets his powers, before he can hurt anyone else.”Behind her, Barry saw a flash of light coming from one of the Mercury Labs windows, recognising it as a muzzle flash. Calhoun was already inside, and must have shot either his target or someone who’d gotten in the way. Laurie didn’t notice; he had to get her out of there before she jumped into a fight she couldn’t win.