Fic: A Time For Great Things - Chapter 10
FANDOM: Legends of Tomorrow
CATEGORY: Adventure, Romance, Fix-It, AU Canon Divergence, Team As Family
PAIRING: Eventual Len/Sara
Teaser: “How did this all go to hell? I thought we just got out of Purgatory!”
All roads seem to lead back to Lian Yu.
---
Over the North China Sea, June 20, 1945
“We can’t stabilize Captain Hunter with all this shaking, Sara!” Stein shouted over the comms from the Medbay. “Hold him down, Mr. Rory!”
“I’m trying to!” Mick shouted back. “Can’t we lose those Zeros?”
“We did lose the Zeros!” Sara snapped back from the captain’s chair. “We’re dodging American planes now!”
“We’re currently under attack by a squadron of American P-51 Mustangs,” Gideon reported. “And they are faster than the Japanese fighters.”
“Can’t we outrun them?” Stein demanded.
“Not until Ray gets back on board with the ion drive!” Jax shouted from down in the cargo bay.
Mick roared, “Haircut, move your ass!”
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” came the reply. “I’m pushing the suit as fast as it can go, but the salt water must have damaged the propulsion systems!”
“Hang on, everybody!” Sara warned. “We’ve got incoming!”
Stein cursed as the ship bucked again. “How did this all go to hell? I thought we just got out of Purgatory!”
--
Temporal Zone, Twelve Hours Ago
“This feels like a sick joke, Gideon,” Sara said flatly, staring at the holographic display.
“I assure you, joking is not part of my programming,” the AI replied. “The calculations show this is our final destination before intercepting Jurgen’s Ridge.”
Sara blew out a breath and leaned against the table. “It always seems to come back to this place,” she murmured.
Lian Yu. The place that had remade her, purging her of the foolishness and selfishness that had brought her on board the Queen’s Gambit all those years ago.
Purgatory.
“We are set to arrive in 1945,” Rip said. “Right before a Japanese submarine runs aground on this island with a cargo of the super-soldier serum that was supposed to be Japan’s last hope for victory.”
“Mirakuru,” Sara said with a nod.
Ray’s eyes widened. “You mean the same stuff Deathstroke’s army was on in Star City?”
“The same stuff that can heal injuries and give super-strength, along with a mega-dose of insanity,” Sara answered. “And I once thought it was going to save the human race.”
There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment. Then Stein asked, “So where do we need to put our last deflector?”
The holographic image zoomed in to the inland lagoon. A red X appeared on one of the tall peaks that surrounded the lagoon. “The chronium must be placed here, at 500 meters,” Gideon said.
“Easy enough for me to fly it up there after you drop me off,” Ray said. “No fires, no sinking ships…”
“Too easy,” Mick growled.
Jax nodded in agreement. “We never get it that easy.”
Rip glanced around the table. “Oh, come on, you lot. Don’t you think the universe owes us just one favor?” He strode over to his chair and motioned for the others to take their jump seats. “Gideon, set a course.”
Sara thought the universe owed her more than one favor, actually. But shortly after they emerged from the temporal zone, she knew that bill would keep collecting interest.
At least she wasn’t feeling anything from the time jump. Getting used to it, maybe.
“There is a problem, Captain,” Gideon announced as Lian Yu appeared in the forward window.
“Of course there is,” Stein sighed, pulling his glasses off and rubbing his temples.
Gideon continued, “My scan shows there is no way for the submarine to reach the inland lagoon where it will be found in 2008.”
“Are you sure, Gideon?” Sara asked, thinking back to when she and Oliver first spotted the site, stumbling through the forest with Slade and Shado. A decade ago in her personal timeline, but she still remembered their amazement at seeing the sub for the first time. “Look for a fissure below the water line. Slade said there had to be one for the sub to come so far inland.”
“I have scanned, Miss Lance. There is no fissure. As things stand, the submarine will run aground on the main beach, where it will be visible to Allied warships that will capture it and the Mirakuru.”
“And I bet that would not be good,” Jax said.
“That is an accurate assessment,” Gideon concurred. “Allied possession of the Mirakuru would lead to their use of the drug. A force of Allied super-soldiers would then stage a land invasion of Japan, with a greater death toll than resulted from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
“And that would probably be just the beginning of the troubles this serum could cause,” Stein observed, putting his glasses back on.
“So what now?” Ray asked. “What’s our Plan B?”
“I hate Plan Bs,” Mick grumbled. “But it looks like we’ve got to fix history again.”
Rip stood and walked to the holo table. The others rose from their jump seats to join him. “Gideon, can we open a fissure for the submarine?”
“Yes, Captain,” the AI responded. The projection shifted again, and a line appeared, running from the lagoon to the open ocean. “Concentrated photon blasts along this route will open a passageway from the sea to the inland lagoon.”
Rip furrowed his brow. “That’s several miles of blasting. How long will it take to perform this operation?”
“Longer than we have if the Waverider is to leave this area in time to avoid an incorrect diversion of Jurgen’s Ridge,” Gideon reported. “The ship must depart within the hour to avoid leaving residue of temporal radiation.”
“If we leave residue, it will alter the Ridge’s course too early,” Stein said.
“And everything we’ve done will have been for nothing,” Sara concluded bitterly, remembering what she’d told Rip just hours before. “I’m afraid of getting the rug pulled out from under me again.”
“Can’t we go back and blast it?” Jax asked, but no sooner had he finished the question than he figured the answer out for himself. “No, forget it. If we had gone back it would be open already.”
“I can open the fissure,” Ray said. “Photon blasts? Easy. I’ll just expand the suit and blast away.”
“You’ll have to go underwater,” Sara said. “Can the suit handle that?”
Ray nodded. “I made some modifications after that EVA when I had to fix the hole in the ship. Gideon, I will need you to fabricate a few extra oxygen tanks, too. Same specs as the ones I already have so they can grow and shrink. One set won’t be enough.”
“Affirmative, Dr. Palmer.”
“What about the power you need to expand the suit?” Stein asked. “I understand you used the auxiliary time drive to fight Savage’s giant robot, but if we’re not supposed to leave temporal radiation…”
“The Waverider has two other propulsion systems,” Rip said. “The electromagnetic drive for atmosphere and the ion drive for space.”
“Right!” Jax said. “I can pull the ion drive in less than an hour, so you can use that, Ray.”
“That takes care of fixing history,” Rip said. “Gideon, will there be enough time for Dr. Palmer to blast open the fissure and plant the chronium?”
“No, Captain. Someone else will need to place the last deflector. And the Waverider cannot approach the rock formation,” Gideon said. “It would retain too much temporal radiation.”
“So we have to climb it,” Rip sighed. “All right. Gideon, I’ll need some of my climbing gear. The ropes and pitons from the 1940s.” He grinned at the surprised looks around the table. “You didn’t know I suffer the particularly British madness of mountaineering, did you? Rock climbing isn’t that different. I’ve done 6,000-meter climbs, my friends. This one isn’t even a thousand meters. It should be easy.”
“I’m going with you,” Sara announced. When Rip raised an eyebrow at her, she said, “I know how to handle ropes and pitons. Nyssa and I did a lot of climbing in Nanda Parbat. Enough to know you shouldn’t go it alone.”
He nodded his assent. “All right, then. Let’s get ready. The clock is ticking.”
---
Lian Yu, June 20, 1945
Grunting with effort, Sara pulled herself up onto the ledge and sat next to Rip. She gratefully accepted the water bottle he held out to her and took a long pull before handing it back and looking down at the lagoon’s surface far below.
“Fifteen minutes rest, then we’ll make our last push,” he said. “We’re almost there and we’re making good time. Let’s not muck it up in the final ascent. Dr. Palmer should be checking in again soon.”
They’d quickly found that they couldn’t talk to Ray while he was blasting through the island’s bedrock. There was something in the geology that disrupted the comms. He’d taken to checking in whenever he emerged from the tunnel to swap his oxygen tanks.
Rip took the water bottle back from Sara for a drink of his own. “You know, if I didn’t know what a hellhole this place is, I would think it would be a nice spot for a holiday,” he said. “The view from up here is incredible.”
She had to concede that. The waters of the lagoon were as clear and blue as she remembered, lapping at a beach of white sand. A pair of seabirds flew over the scene.
It looked like a postcard picture.
But even under the beauty, she could feel an undercurrent of… she couldn’t think of a better word for it than evil. She shivered a little at the thought.
Rip noticed the tremor. “Are you all right, Sara?”
“Yeah. It’s just… this place,” she replied, tipping her head back against the rock face. “I know it’s going to be years before all the terrible things that Ollie and I went through… will go through… but when you get past the beach view, you can feel…”
“A taint,” Rip finished. “Yes. There are some places that seem to have a psychic stain, and they can draw the Ridge over and over again. This…” he waved his hand in a circle, “This is one of those places.”
He looked thoughtful, taking another pull from the water bottle before speaking again. “You know, the records say the Ridge manifests differently in such places than it does anywhere else,” he said. “For example, you’d think there would be tons of chronium left from all those visits… but you won’t find a speck except for what we’re carrying right now.”
“Because of this… stain?”
He dipped his head to one side in a sort of nod. “That was the theory.”
She thought about that for a moment, and then asked, “Did the stain come from the Ridge, or from things that have happened here?”
Rip snorted. “That’s a chicken or egg question, Sara. The Time Masters were never certain. Not that they cared after figuring out there wasn’t any chronium to be had. Practical bastards, they were. Not ones to delve too much into the nature of good and evil.” He smiled bitterly. “Which is why they backed Vandal Savage.”
The smile disappeared as he studied her. “You’re worried about the effect on Mr. Snart.”
She nodded. “I know the future version of him will be all right, but what about the Leonard who’s there on the Ridge right now?”
Rip stretched his arm around her shoulders. “We both know he lived through waking nightmares for most of his childhood. He’s got the strongest will of just about anyone I’ve ever met, Sara. Except maybe for you.”
Sara chuckled and leaned in to him as he squeezed her shoulders reassuringly. “From what I’ve seen of his future, and what I know of his past, I have faith that he can handle anything the Ridge can throw at him.”
--
Leonard could believe the images of Sara piloting the Waverider; after all, he’d seen her do it before. But against vintage fighter planes? That one took him by surprise.
He could also believe the images of her kicking the asses of a bunch of guys in Iron Heights jumpsuits. And he could believe her doing it with a troop of fighters in masks and multicolored leather. He recognized at least one of them, all in green.
Sara kicking ass wasn’t anything new to him, either. Not that he didn’t love to watch her work, with the grace of a deadly dancer.
But fighting a giant… shark? A walking giant shark, at that?
Really?
“I think you didn’t understand me before,” he drawled to the powers-that-be who controlled this show, whoever the hell they were. “Maybe I wasn’t clear. I want to see what the future held for her and me, before I went and blew myself to… whatever this place is.”
The image stream flickered for a moment. He eyed it, then said, “But you still have things you want me to see first, don’t you?”
He sighed. “All right. Show me what you think I need to see, but no Wikipedia crap. Then show me what I asked for.”
--
Ray took a deep breath. “One last blast,” he said to himself, and aimed his gauntlets to fire. “Now!”
Bolts of photon energy streamed from the gauntlets, pulverizing the stone barrier in front of him. He was buffeted by the colliding water flows, but managed to grab onto an outcropping of rock to wait for things to calm down. As the debris settled, he could see light ahead of him for the first time.
“I’m through!” he exclaimed.
And just in the nick of time. He could hear sonar pings headed in his direction. The Japanese were here.
He swam out of the tunnel and peered into the murky waters. The sub was approaching. His eyes widened as one of its torpedo ports opened, and a torpedo began gliding straight toward him.
“They must think I’m another sub! Better get back to normal!” he said, pushing himself upward, out of its path, and shrinking back to normal size.
The torpedo shot by, impacting on the rising surface of the island. He tumbled through the disturbance created by the impact. There was nothing for him to grab hold of this time, so he rode it out like a bottle on the waves. Once he’d re-oriented himself, the sub was gone.
He blasted toward the ocean surface and into the sky. He turned back toward Lian Yu. His computer readout told him he was now about a mile off its coast; he’d had to blast that far.
“Sara? Rip? I got history fixed!” he called over the comms. “Are you two all right?”
“Yeah. The sub is in the lagoon, just where Ollie and I found it,” Sara replied. “The soldiers are abandoning ship pretty quickly.”
“All right, I’m heading in your direction,” Ray said, flying toward the island. He furrowed his brow as he realized he wasn’t flying quite as quickly as normal. “Hm. I think the water might have affected my propulsion system,” he said. “The suit’s moving slower than usual.”
“That’s probably why Gideon said you couldn’t blast the tunnel and place the chronium,” Rip theorized.
“Be careful,” Sara warned. “They’re already in the forest. You don’t want them spotting you.”
“Right. The sub already fired at me once. I don’t want to give them a second chance,” Ray agreed. “I’ll be there in about five minutes.”
“I’m placing the chronium now,” Rip said. “The Ridge should manifest at any moment. Keep a sharp eye out. It may be a bit of a bumpy ride.”
“Sharp eye for what?” Ray asked, looking around.
The sky over the island seemed to darken suddenly. “Oh. That.”
He could see the trees bending in a sudden wind, and whitecaps forming in the waters close to shore. Then a great dark cloud appeared in what had been a clear June sky, hovering over the center of the island.
Dear God, Ray thought as the cloud descended. It wasn’t quite what Sara had described, but he could see flashes of color breaking through the darkness.
“Rip? Sara? Are you two all right?” he called as he finally reached the shore.
There was nothing but static over the comms. That and the sound of wind.
And… screaming? Many voices, screaming?
“Rip? Sara? Come on, guys, you’re scaring me!” Ray called again desperately, as he was buffeted by the same winds that were shaking the trees below him.
And then the darkness vanished, along with the sounds of screaming. The winds calmed.
And Sara was calling to him. “Ray? Raymond? Are you there?”
“Here!” Ray answered. “I’m almost to the lagoon. Are you all right?”
To his horror, Sara answered, “Rip’s down! He lost his footing and fell when the Ridge came down with all that wind.”
“Oh, my God. Can you see him, Sara?”
“He’s about 50 feet below me, on a ledge,” she replied.
“Are you all right?”
Silence over the comms for a moment. Then, “Not really. I’m hanging from a safety line, but I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”
He finally reached the lagoon. His visor zoomed in to the peak Sara and Rip had been climbing. He could see Sara dangling from her rope, and Rip on a ledge far below her. “Sara, I’ll be right there!”
--
“Hurry!” Sara urged. She looked at the rock wall before her, searching for some place to get at least a toehold. But this was a sheer surface, with nothing to grasp.
And her hammer and pitons were gone. They’d plummeted to the ground when the wind knocked her and Rip off their feet.
She gasped and closed her eyes as she felt her rope slip again. Hurry, Ray. It’s not supposed to end this way.
“Sara!”
Her eyes flew open at the sound of Ray’s booming voice calling her name.
“Let me give you a hand.” He chuckled. “Literally.”
A giant-sized Ray Palmer was hovering next to her, extending his right hand to scoop her from the rock face.
“You have got to be kidding me!” She unclipped her safety line and collapsed into his palm, shaking for a moment, both with relief and a little laughter at the situation. This is like a scene from a bad monster movie. No one will ever believe it.
Ray pulled back from the peak and put his open palms next to each other. He’d already picked Rip up. Sara scrambled over to him. The former Time Master was breathing, but very pale and still. “He doesn’t look good, Ray.”
“The bioscan shows severe internal bleeding,” Ray said, slowly descending toward land so he wouldn’t jar them.
“Gideon will take care of him,” she said confidently. “They’ll be here in ten minutes.”
“Sara, I don’t think he has ten minutes.”
She stared up at Ray’s face, which was grim through the visor. She thought for a moment, then gritted her teeth. “Ray, take us to the sub.”
His eyes widened. “What are you…”
“There’s Mirakuru on the sub! It can save him!”
Ray was still hesitating. She snapped, “He’ll die if we don’t! Now, Ray!”
He nodded and glided them over to the sub, placing them gently near the hatch before shrinking back down to normal size. Sara opened the hatch and climbed down the ladder, running down the passageway to find the box of Mirakuru that would still be there in about 60 years.
She found the box and pulled out one hypodermic needle. She turned and saw Ray had followed her, gently carrying Rip.
“Lay him down,” she directed. She looked at the cabinets, and reached into the one she remembered from her last visit. There it was: the syringe of sedative they’d found when trying to save Slade in 2008. But the syringe had been empty then.
It was full now.
She took a deep breath. “Ray, I’m going to give him the sedative first, then the Mirakuru. I’m going to need you to hold him for me when I do.”
Ray nodded, his own face looking pale. She rolled up one of Rip’s sleeves and injected him with the sedative. She returned the needle to the cabinet where she would find it again in the future. Then she picked up the Mirakuru.
“Here goes,” she murmured… and inserted the needle. Once the vial was empty, she pulled the needle and dropped it onto the deck, watching Rip’s face intently.
A minute passed. “My scanner’s not showing any change,” Ray said. Then, “Wait! I’m seeing an increase in metabolic activity!”
Rip began to shake. “Hold him!” Sara ordered. She grabbed onto his arms, while Ray held down his shoulders.
The shaking increased, and Rip cried out in pain. Sara tightened her grip…
And bit her lip hard when blood began to seep from his eyes.
--
The Waverider burst back into 1945. Jax gasped at the sight of the submarine in the middle of the lagoon. “Man, that’s freaky!”
Mick grinned from the captain’s chair. “You guys ready to go?” he called out, waiting for a response from one of the team.
Sara replied. “Mick, pick us up at the sub. Hurry. Rip is hurt!”
Mick exchanged a worried look with Jax and the professor. “I’ll get the Medbay ready,” Stein said.
Mick nodded. “Gideon, you’ll have to do the flying.”
“Of course, Mr. Rory.”
He rose from the captain’s chair. “Come on, kid. Let’s go see what our Captain did this time.”
They ran down to the cargo bay, where the external hatch was just opening. Sara bounded in, followed by Haircut, who was cradling Rip in his arms. Mick blinked at the trails of blood from the captain’s eyes. “What the hell happened to him?”
“He had a dose of Mirakuru,” Haircut said, passing Rip over to Mick. “We’ll explain later. Gideon, we need a cure for that stuff!”
“Creating it now,” Gideon replied.
“Where’s the ion drive?” Jax asked.
“Left it on the shore with my oxygen tanks,” Ray answered. “I’ll go get them and be right back.”
He had just turned back toward the hatch when the Waverider shook. “What the hell now?” Mick snapped.
“We are being fired upon by Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zeros,” Gideon reported.
“What’d I say before? We never get it that easy!” Jax exclaimed.
--
Outrunning the Zeros actually had been the easy part; they had a top speed of just over 330 miles per hour, and the electromagnetic drive could handle that speed and more. Once they’d blasted away from Lian Yu, it only took minutes to leave the Japanese fighters behind.
The problem was outrunning the American Mustangs while not outrunning the A.T.O.M. suit. Ray’s top speed should have been faster than the WWII aircraft, but the suit’s submersion in salt water for so long had done something to its propulsion system.
The weight of the ion drive wasn’t helping any, either. He couldn’t shrink that like he had done with his oxygen tanks.
Sara was sitting in the captain’s seat, but Gideon was the one in charge, executing a series of evasive maneuvers to avoid the American fighters while trying to rendezvous with Ray in midair. As the sky spun crazily in the forward window, Sara gave thanks for the Waverider’s artificial gravity and for her empty stomach.
A pair of Mustangs barreled straight toward the ship, firing their guns. Sara’s eyes widened as a small, splintering hole appeared in one of the window’s side panes.
“Gideon, don’t we have shields?”
“They are powered by the ion drive, which is still in Dr. Palmer’s possession,” Gideon replied.
There was a glimmer over the window pane. “I am able to create a localized force field to minimize the damage,” Gideon said.
“That’s great for you!” Ray said over the comms. “But I don’t have shields, and I do have too much company!”
“Ray, have you been hit?”
“Not yet, Sara! But they’re starting to figure out my moves!”
“Then we’ll have to throw them another one that they cannot copy,” said a cool voice from the bridge entrance.
Sara looked over her shoulder to see Rip standing there, traces of blood still on his face but otherwise looking like himself. “Are you all right?”
He strode over to her side. “Fine. Gideon’s cure worked.”
She looked at him uncertainly. “The S.T.A.R. Labs cure didn’t work that fast.”
He smirked. “Gideon was able to improve upon it. Now… Gideon, Dr. Palmer. We can’t play at the Americans’ level. We’ll have to… up our game. To about 43,000 feet, to be exact. The Mustangs can’t climb that high.”
“Confirmed,” Gideon said. The Waverider began to climb. “Sending rendezvous coordinates to Dr. Palmer.
“Be there in a minute,” Ray said.
“Professor Stein and Mr. Rory are standing by in the cargo bay to bring you in, Dr. Palmer. Then you and Mr. Jackson have to re-install the ion drive before we return to the Temporal Zone. We’re going to need the power.”
He gave Sara a slight smile. “Once we’re there, the real race begins.”
CATEGORY: Adventure, Romance, Fix-It, AU Canon Divergence, Team As Family
PAIRING: Eventual Len/Sara
Teaser: “How did this all go to hell? I thought we just got out of Purgatory!”
All roads seem to lead back to Lian Yu.
---
Over the North China Sea, June 20, 1945
“We can’t stabilize Captain Hunter with all this shaking, Sara!” Stein shouted over the comms from the Medbay. “Hold him down, Mr. Rory!”
“I’m trying to!” Mick shouted back. “Can’t we lose those Zeros?”
“We did lose the Zeros!” Sara snapped back from the captain’s chair. “We’re dodging American planes now!”
“We’re currently under attack by a squadron of American P-51 Mustangs,” Gideon reported. “And they are faster than the Japanese fighters.”
“Can’t we outrun them?” Stein demanded.
“Not until Ray gets back on board with the ion drive!” Jax shouted from down in the cargo bay.
Mick roared, “Haircut, move your ass!”
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” came the reply. “I’m pushing the suit as fast as it can go, but the salt water must have damaged the propulsion systems!”
“Hang on, everybody!” Sara warned. “We’ve got incoming!”
Stein cursed as the ship bucked again. “How did this all go to hell? I thought we just got out of Purgatory!”
--
Temporal Zone, Twelve Hours Ago
“This feels like a sick joke, Gideon,” Sara said flatly, staring at the holographic display.
“I assure you, joking is not part of my programming,” the AI replied. “The calculations show this is our final destination before intercepting Jurgen’s Ridge.”
Sara blew out a breath and leaned against the table. “It always seems to come back to this place,” she murmured.
Lian Yu. The place that had remade her, purging her of the foolishness and selfishness that had brought her on board the Queen’s Gambit all those years ago.
Purgatory.
“We are set to arrive in 1945,” Rip said. “Right before a Japanese submarine runs aground on this island with a cargo of the super-soldier serum that was supposed to be Japan’s last hope for victory.”
“Mirakuru,” Sara said with a nod.
Ray’s eyes widened. “You mean the same stuff Deathstroke’s army was on in Star City?”
“The same stuff that can heal injuries and give super-strength, along with a mega-dose of insanity,” Sara answered. “And I once thought it was going to save the human race.”
There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment. Then Stein asked, “So where do we need to put our last deflector?”
The holographic image zoomed in to the inland lagoon. A red X appeared on one of the tall peaks that surrounded the lagoon. “The chronium must be placed here, at 500 meters,” Gideon said.
“Easy enough for me to fly it up there after you drop me off,” Ray said. “No fires, no sinking ships…”
“Too easy,” Mick growled.
Jax nodded in agreement. “We never get it that easy.”
Rip glanced around the table. “Oh, come on, you lot. Don’t you think the universe owes us just one favor?” He strode over to his chair and motioned for the others to take their jump seats. “Gideon, set a course.”
Sara thought the universe owed her more than one favor, actually. But shortly after they emerged from the temporal zone, she knew that bill would keep collecting interest.
At least she wasn’t feeling anything from the time jump. Getting used to it, maybe.
“There is a problem, Captain,” Gideon announced as Lian Yu appeared in the forward window.
“Of course there is,” Stein sighed, pulling his glasses off and rubbing his temples.
Gideon continued, “My scan shows there is no way for the submarine to reach the inland lagoon where it will be found in 2008.”
“Are you sure, Gideon?” Sara asked, thinking back to when she and Oliver first spotted the site, stumbling through the forest with Slade and Shado. A decade ago in her personal timeline, but she still remembered their amazement at seeing the sub for the first time. “Look for a fissure below the water line. Slade said there had to be one for the sub to come so far inland.”
“I have scanned, Miss Lance. There is no fissure. As things stand, the submarine will run aground on the main beach, where it will be visible to Allied warships that will capture it and the Mirakuru.”
“And I bet that would not be good,” Jax said.
“That is an accurate assessment,” Gideon concurred. “Allied possession of the Mirakuru would lead to their use of the drug. A force of Allied super-soldiers would then stage a land invasion of Japan, with a greater death toll than resulted from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
“And that would probably be just the beginning of the troubles this serum could cause,” Stein observed, putting his glasses back on.
“So what now?” Ray asked. “What’s our Plan B?”
“I hate Plan Bs,” Mick grumbled. “But it looks like we’ve got to fix history again.”
Rip stood and walked to the holo table. The others rose from their jump seats to join him. “Gideon, can we open a fissure for the submarine?”
“Yes, Captain,” the AI responded. The projection shifted again, and a line appeared, running from the lagoon to the open ocean. “Concentrated photon blasts along this route will open a passageway from the sea to the inland lagoon.”
Rip furrowed his brow. “That’s several miles of blasting. How long will it take to perform this operation?”
“Longer than we have if the Waverider is to leave this area in time to avoid an incorrect diversion of Jurgen’s Ridge,” Gideon reported. “The ship must depart within the hour to avoid leaving residue of temporal radiation.”
“If we leave residue, it will alter the Ridge’s course too early,” Stein said.
“And everything we’ve done will have been for nothing,” Sara concluded bitterly, remembering what she’d told Rip just hours before. “I’m afraid of getting the rug pulled out from under me again.”
“Can’t we go back and blast it?” Jax asked, but no sooner had he finished the question than he figured the answer out for himself. “No, forget it. If we had gone back it would be open already.”
“I can open the fissure,” Ray said. “Photon blasts? Easy. I’ll just expand the suit and blast away.”
“You’ll have to go underwater,” Sara said. “Can the suit handle that?”
Ray nodded. “I made some modifications after that EVA when I had to fix the hole in the ship. Gideon, I will need you to fabricate a few extra oxygen tanks, too. Same specs as the ones I already have so they can grow and shrink. One set won’t be enough.”
“Affirmative, Dr. Palmer.”
“What about the power you need to expand the suit?” Stein asked. “I understand you used the auxiliary time drive to fight Savage’s giant robot, but if we’re not supposed to leave temporal radiation…”
“The Waverider has two other propulsion systems,” Rip said. “The electromagnetic drive for atmosphere and the ion drive for space.”
“Right!” Jax said. “I can pull the ion drive in less than an hour, so you can use that, Ray.”
“That takes care of fixing history,” Rip said. “Gideon, will there be enough time for Dr. Palmer to blast open the fissure and plant the chronium?”
“No, Captain. Someone else will need to place the last deflector. And the Waverider cannot approach the rock formation,” Gideon said. “It would retain too much temporal radiation.”
“So we have to climb it,” Rip sighed. “All right. Gideon, I’ll need some of my climbing gear. The ropes and pitons from the 1940s.” He grinned at the surprised looks around the table. “You didn’t know I suffer the particularly British madness of mountaineering, did you? Rock climbing isn’t that different. I’ve done 6,000-meter climbs, my friends. This one isn’t even a thousand meters. It should be easy.”
“I’m going with you,” Sara announced. When Rip raised an eyebrow at her, she said, “I know how to handle ropes and pitons. Nyssa and I did a lot of climbing in Nanda Parbat. Enough to know you shouldn’t go it alone.”
He nodded his assent. “All right, then. Let’s get ready. The clock is ticking.”
---
Lian Yu, June 20, 1945
Grunting with effort, Sara pulled herself up onto the ledge and sat next to Rip. She gratefully accepted the water bottle he held out to her and took a long pull before handing it back and looking down at the lagoon’s surface far below.
“Fifteen minutes rest, then we’ll make our last push,” he said. “We’re almost there and we’re making good time. Let’s not muck it up in the final ascent. Dr. Palmer should be checking in again soon.”
They’d quickly found that they couldn’t talk to Ray while he was blasting through the island’s bedrock. There was something in the geology that disrupted the comms. He’d taken to checking in whenever he emerged from the tunnel to swap his oxygen tanks.
Rip took the water bottle back from Sara for a drink of his own. “You know, if I didn’t know what a hellhole this place is, I would think it would be a nice spot for a holiday,” he said. “The view from up here is incredible.”
She had to concede that. The waters of the lagoon were as clear and blue as she remembered, lapping at a beach of white sand. A pair of seabirds flew over the scene.
It looked like a postcard picture.
But even under the beauty, she could feel an undercurrent of… she couldn’t think of a better word for it than evil. She shivered a little at the thought.
Rip noticed the tremor. “Are you all right, Sara?”
“Yeah. It’s just… this place,” she replied, tipping her head back against the rock face. “I know it’s going to be years before all the terrible things that Ollie and I went through… will go through… but when you get past the beach view, you can feel…”
“A taint,” Rip finished. “Yes. There are some places that seem to have a psychic stain, and they can draw the Ridge over and over again. This…” he waved his hand in a circle, “This is one of those places.”
He looked thoughtful, taking another pull from the water bottle before speaking again. “You know, the records say the Ridge manifests differently in such places than it does anywhere else,” he said. “For example, you’d think there would be tons of chronium left from all those visits… but you won’t find a speck except for what we’re carrying right now.”
“Because of this… stain?”
He dipped his head to one side in a sort of nod. “That was the theory.”
She thought about that for a moment, and then asked, “Did the stain come from the Ridge, or from things that have happened here?”
Rip snorted. “That’s a chicken or egg question, Sara. The Time Masters were never certain. Not that they cared after figuring out there wasn’t any chronium to be had. Practical bastards, they were. Not ones to delve too much into the nature of good and evil.” He smiled bitterly. “Which is why they backed Vandal Savage.”
The smile disappeared as he studied her. “You’re worried about the effect on Mr. Snart.”
She nodded. “I know the future version of him will be all right, but what about the Leonard who’s there on the Ridge right now?”
Rip stretched his arm around her shoulders. “We both know he lived through waking nightmares for most of his childhood. He’s got the strongest will of just about anyone I’ve ever met, Sara. Except maybe for you.”
Sara chuckled and leaned in to him as he squeezed her shoulders reassuringly. “From what I’ve seen of his future, and what I know of his past, I have faith that he can handle anything the Ridge can throw at him.”
--
Leonard could believe the images of Sara piloting the Waverider; after all, he’d seen her do it before. But against vintage fighter planes? That one took him by surprise.
He could also believe the images of her kicking the asses of a bunch of guys in Iron Heights jumpsuits. And he could believe her doing it with a troop of fighters in masks and multicolored leather. He recognized at least one of them, all in green.
Sara kicking ass wasn’t anything new to him, either. Not that he didn’t love to watch her work, with the grace of a deadly dancer.
But fighting a giant… shark? A walking giant shark, at that?
Really?
“I think you didn’t understand me before,” he drawled to the powers-that-be who controlled this show, whoever the hell they were. “Maybe I wasn’t clear. I want to see what the future held for her and me, before I went and blew myself to… whatever this place is.”
The image stream flickered for a moment. He eyed it, then said, “But you still have things you want me to see first, don’t you?”
He sighed. “All right. Show me what you think I need to see, but no Wikipedia crap. Then show me what I asked for.”
--
Ray took a deep breath. “One last blast,” he said to himself, and aimed his gauntlets to fire. “Now!”
Bolts of photon energy streamed from the gauntlets, pulverizing the stone barrier in front of him. He was buffeted by the colliding water flows, but managed to grab onto an outcropping of rock to wait for things to calm down. As the debris settled, he could see light ahead of him for the first time.
“I’m through!” he exclaimed.
And just in the nick of time. He could hear sonar pings headed in his direction. The Japanese were here.
He swam out of the tunnel and peered into the murky waters. The sub was approaching. His eyes widened as one of its torpedo ports opened, and a torpedo began gliding straight toward him.
“They must think I’m another sub! Better get back to normal!” he said, pushing himself upward, out of its path, and shrinking back to normal size.
The torpedo shot by, impacting on the rising surface of the island. He tumbled through the disturbance created by the impact. There was nothing for him to grab hold of this time, so he rode it out like a bottle on the waves. Once he’d re-oriented himself, the sub was gone.
He blasted toward the ocean surface and into the sky. He turned back toward Lian Yu. His computer readout told him he was now about a mile off its coast; he’d had to blast that far.
“Sara? Rip? I got history fixed!” he called over the comms. “Are you two all right?”
“Yeah. The sub is in the lagoon, just where Ollie and I found it,” Sara replied. “The soldiers are abandoning ship pretty quickly.”
“All right, I’m heading in your direction,” Ray said, flying toward the island. He furrowed his brow as he realized he wasn’t flying quite as quickly as normal. “Hm. I think the water might have affected my propulsion system,” he said. “The suit’s moving slower than usual.”
“That’s probably why Gideon said you couldn’t blast the tunnel and place the chronium,” Rip theorized.
“Be careful,” Sara warned. “They’re already in the forest. You don’t want them spotting you.”
“Right. The sub already fired at me once. I don’t want to give them a second chance,” Ray agreed. “I’ll be there in about five minutes.”
“I’m placing the chronium now,” Rip said. “The Ridge should manifest at any moment. Keep a sharp eye out. It may be a bit of a bumpy ride.”
“Sharp eye for what?” Ray asked, looking around.
The sky over the island seemed to darken suddenly. “Oh. That.”
He could see the trees bending in a sudden wind, and whitecaps forming in the waters close to shore. Then a great dark cloud appeared in what had been a clear June sky, hovering over the center of the island.
Dear God, Ray thought as the cloud descended. It wasn’t quite what Sara had described, but he could see flashes of color breaking through the darkness.
“Rip? Sara? Are you two all right?” he called as he finally reached the shore.
There was nothing but static over the comms. That and the sound of wind.
And… screaming? Many voices, screaming?
“Rip? Sara? Come on, guys, you’re scaring me!” Ray called again desperately, as he was buffeted by the same winds that were shaking the trees below him.
And then the darkness vanished, along with the sounds of screaming. The winds calmed.
And Sara was calling to him. “Ray? Raymond? Are you there?”
“Here!” Ray answered. “I’m almost to the lagoon. Are you all right?”
To his horror, Sara answered, “Rip’s down! He lost his footing and fell when the Ridge came down with all that wind.”
“Oh, my God. Can you see him, Sara?”
“He’s about 50 feet below me, on a ledge,” she replied.
“Are you all right?”
Silence over the comms for a moment. Then, “Not really. I’m hanging from a safety line, but I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”
He finally reached the lagoon. His visor zoomed in to the peak Sara and Rip had been climbing. He could see Sara dangling from her rope, and Rip on a ledge far below her. “Sara, I’ll be right there!”
--
“Hurry!” Sara urged. She looked at the rock wall before her, searching for some place to get at least a toehold. But this was a sheer surface, with nothing to grasp.
And her hammer and pitons were gone. They’d plummeted to the ground when the wind knocked her and Rip off their feet.
She gasped and closed her eyes as she felt her rope slip again. Hurry, Ray. It’s not supposed to end this way.
“Sara!”
Her eyes flew open at the sound of Ray’s booming voice calling her name.
“Let me give you a hand.” He chuckled. “Literally.”
A giant-sized Ray Palmer was hovering next to her, extending his right hand to scoop her from the rock face.
“You have got to be kidding me!” She unclipped her safety line and collapsed into his palm, shaking for a moment, both with relief and a little laughter at the situation. This is like a scene from a bad monster movie. No one will ever believe it.
Ray pulled back from the peak and put his open palms next to each other. He’d already picked Rip up. Sara scrambled over to him. The former Time Master was breathing, but very pale and still. “He doesn’t look good, Ray.”
“The bioscan shows severe internal bleeding,” Ray said, slowly descending toward land so he wouldn’t jar them.
“Gideon will take care of him,” she said confidently. “They’ll be here in ten minutes.”
“Sara, I don’t think he has ten minutes.”
She stared up at Ray’s face, which was grim through the visor. She thought for a moment, then gritted her teeth. “Ray, take us to the sub.”
His eyes widened. “What are you…”
“There’s Mirakuru on the sub! It can save him!”
Ray was still hesitating. She snapped, “He’ll die if we don’t! Now, Ray!”
He nodded and glided them over to the sub, placing them gently near the hatch before shrinking back down to normal size. Sara opened the hatch and climbed down the ladder, running down the passageway to find the box of Mirakuru that would still be there in about 60 years.
She found the box and pulled out one hypodermic needle. She turned and saw Ray had followed her, gently carrying Rip.
“Lay him down,” she directed. She looked at the cabinets, and reached into the one she remembered from her last visit. There it was: the syringe of sedative they’d found when trying to save Slade in 2008. But the syringe had been empty then.
It was full now.
She took a deep breath. “Ray, I’m going to give him the sedative first, then the Mirakuru. I’m going to need you to hold him for me when I do.”
Ray nodded, his own face looking pale. She rolled up one of Rip’s sleeves and injected him with the sedative. She returned the needle to the cabinet where she would find it again in the future. Then she picked up the Mirakuru.
“Here goes,” she murmured… and inserted the needle. Once the vial was empty, she pulled the needle and dropped it onto the deck, watching Rip’s face intently.
A minute passed. “My scanner’s not showing any change,” Ray said. Then, “Wait! I’m seeing an increase in metabolic activity!”
Rip began to shake. “Hold him!” Sara ordered. She grabbed onto his arms, while Ray held down his shoulders.
The shaking increased, and Rip cried out in pain. Sara tightened her grip…
And bit her lip hard when blood began to seep from his eyes.
--
The Waverider burst back into 1945. Jax gasped at the sight of the submarine in the middle of the lagoon. “Man, that’s freaky!”
Mick grinned from the captain’s chair. “You guys ready to go?” he called out, waiting for a response from one of the team.
Sara replied. “Mick, pick us up at the sub. Hurry. Rip is hurt!”
Mick exchanged a worried look with Jax and the professor. “I’ll get the Medbay ready,” Stein said.
Mick nodded. “Gideon, you’ll have to do the flying.”
“Of course, Mr. Rory.”
He rose from the captain’s chair. “Come on, kid. Let’s go see what our Captain did this time.”
They ran down to the cargo bay, where the external hatch was just opening. Sara bounded in, followed by Haircut, who was cradling Rip in his arms. Mick blinked at the trails of blood from the captain’s eyes. “What the hell happened to him?”
“He had a dose of Mirakuru,” Haircut said, passing Rip over to Mick. “We’ll explain later. Gideon, we need a cure for that stuff!”
“Creating it now,” Gideon replied.
“Where’s the ion drive?” Jax asked.
“Left it on the shore with my oxygen tanks,” Ray answered. “I’ll go get them and be right back.”
He had just turned back toward the hatch when the Waverider shook. “What the hell now?” Mick snapped.
“We are being fired upon by Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zeros,” Gideon reported.
“What’d I say before? We never get it that easy!” Jax exclaimed.
--
Outrunning the Zeros actually had been the easy part; they had a top speed of just over 330 miles per hour, and the electromagnetic drive could handle that speed and more. Once they’d blasted away from Lian Yu, it only took minutes to leave the Japanese fighters behind.
The problem was outrunning the American Mustangs while not outrunning the A.T.O.M. suit. Ray’s top speed should have been faster than the WWII aircraft, but the suit’s submersion in salt water for so long had done something to its propulsion system.
The weight of the ion drive wasn’t helping any, either. He couldn’t shrink that like he had done with his oxygen tanks.
Sara was sitting in the captain’s seat, but Gideon was the one in charge, executing a series of evasive maneuvers to avoid the American fighters while trying to rendezvous with Ray in midair. As the sky spun crazily in the forward window, Sara gave thanks for the Waverider’s artificial gravity and for her empty stomach.
A pair of Mustangs barreled straight toward the ship, firing their guns. Sara’s eyes widened as a small, splintering hole appeared in one of the window’s side panes.
“Gideon, don’t we have shields?”
“They are powered by the ion drive, which is still in Dr. Palmer’s possession,” Gideon replied.
There was a glimmer over the window pane. “I am able to create a localized force field to minimize the damage,” Gideon said.
“That’s great for you!” Ray said over the comms. “But I don’t have shields, and I do have too much company!”
“Ray, have you been hit?”
“Not yet, Sara! But they’re starting to figure out my moves!”
“Then we’ll have to throw them another one that they cannot copy,” said a cool voice from the bridge entrance.
Sara looked over her shoulder to see Rip standing there, traces of blood still on his face but otherwise looking like himself. “Are you all right?”
He strode over to her side. “Fine. Gideon’s cure worked.”
She looked at him uncertainly. “The S.T.A.R. Labs cure didn’t work that fast.”
He smirked. “Gideon was able to improve upon it. Now… Gideon, Dr. Palmer. We can’t play at the Americans’ level. We’ll have to… up our game. To about 43,000 feet, to be exact. The Mustangs can’t climb that high.”
“Confirmed,” Gideon said. The Waverider began to climb. “Sending rendezvous coordinates to Dr. Palmer.
“Be there in a minute,” Ray said.
“Professor Stein and Mr. Rory are standing by in the cargo bay to bring you in, Dr. Palmer. Then you and Mr. Jackson have to re-install the ion drive before we return to the Temporal Zone. We’re going to need the power.”
He gave Sara a slight smile. “Once we’re there, the real race begins.”