Keep Hoping, Rip - August 9th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 9
Title: Keep Hoping, Rip
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/LoT
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or DC’s Legends of Tomorrow people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: In which things get messy.
Notes: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Seasons: Post-Series/Season 1 “Pilot”
Characters: Xander, Rip Hunter, Firestorm, Captain Cold, Heatwave, White Canary, Hawkgirl, Hawkman
Word Count: 1660
Hours of repairs after Chronos’ attack, Rip was still making minimal amount of headway, with Gideon’s help it was getting accomplished, but not at the speed of a full engineering team.
Xander had learned long ago to nap anywhere and sleep lightly. He had managed to tune out Rip and Gideon’s byplay. But Kendra’s voice made his consciousness snap to attention.
“He’s gone. Our son…or our son from our previous life.” Kendra said.
The professor they had brought onboard bleeding from Chronos’s attack. He had been gravely injured. Xander had seen enough deaths to be glad he steered clear.
“I’m very sorry,” Rip said.
“Actually, you don’t get the blame for this,” Kendra told him. “This is my fault. If I hadn’t insisted on bringing him back here, he might have died peacefully, in his sleep maybe.”
“Don’t torture yourself with recriminations,” Rip said softly. “One of the great lessons of time travel is that many things cannot be changed. Time wants to happen. Chronos, even Vandal, won’t be the only enemy we face.” The remaining members of the team entered together, Xander stood. “Very often it will be time itself.”
“Whether it wants to happen or not, we’re going to change time,” Palmer said, “erase Savage’s future and earn our rightful place in history.”
“Doctor Palmer is correct,” Stein said. “We may not be legends in your time, Captain, but we are going to decide our own fates.”
“I don’t give a damn about being a legend,” Carter told them, “as long as we end Savage once and for all.”
“I can get down with that,” Jax agreed.
“And our malcontents?” Stein asked, looking to Snart and Rory.
“I like killing people,” Rory stated plainly.
“We’re in,” Snart agreed. “For now.”
The others looked to Xander expectantly.
“I’ve been saving the world directly and indirectly since I was sixteen,” he told them. “This was always going to be my fight.”
“So,” Sara stepped towards Rip, “how do we find this guy?”
“Professor Boardman had a theory about that,” Rip said as he sat down in the pilot’s chair. “I’ve already had Gideon plot a course.” The pilot chair swiveled to face forward. “Mister Harris, there is a temporary seat in my office.”
Xander saw it the moment he walked into the office. It was little more than an airplane steward seat bolted to the floor. He strapped in just as the Waverider phased out of the temporal zone and back into the flow of time.
It was a short time later the engines quieted.
“And we’ve arrived,” Rip said. “Gideon, if you wouldn’t mind camouflaging us as an alpine meadow, perhaps?”
Rory groaned, looking nauseous.
“What are you complaining about now?” Snart sneered at his partner. “It’s not like we time-jumped.”
“I hate flying,” Rory groaned, “especially in…whatever this thing is.”
Xander came out of the office, approaching the other chairs.
“We are in October 1975 on the fjords of northern Norway,” Rip told them.
“Sounds like a vacation,” Snart said.
“Or a chance to piss off Elsa,” Xander commented. The others looked at him, except Rip who walked into his office.
Rip picked up a notebook. “I’m sure we’ll avoid your specialty, Mister Harris.”
Xander’s eyebrow rose as he grinned. “Keep hoping, Rip.”
“Professor Boardman theorized Savage would be here. He did not die in vain if we can capture Savage.”
“Can’t we go back and save Aldus?” Kendra asked.
“He was our son,” Carter urged.
“Look, I’m sorry,” Rip addressed all of them while flipping through the notebook. “We can’t go back and change events in which we participated. Time would fold in on itself, creating a temporal vortex.”
“Which sounds way cooler than it is,” Palmer admitted.
“Forgetting physics for a second,” Sara interrupted, “shouldn’t we figure out what Savage is doing in Norway?”
“Cold war arms race,” Xander said.
Rip looked up in surprise. “How did you…”
“Some of my…friends are way old, used to organize things like this.”
“You have friends who participated in illegal arms?” Stein asked.
“They like money.” He shrugged. “And when you need a weapon guarded for long periods, there was nothing better than these guys.”
“Arms dealers and terrorist aren’t exactly our kind of people,” Snart said, leaning against the console, “but they are the next best thing.”
“Well, looks like you and your lapdog get to earn your keep,” Carter said.
“I’m no one’s lapdog, bird-man,” Rory growled.
“What does one wear to a black market arms bazaar?” Kendra asked.
“The Waverider has a fabrication room which can fashion temporally-indigenous, uh, fashion,” Rip told them.
“You got a room that makes clothing?” Jax asked.
“Doesn’t everyone?” Rip asked as he returned to his office, still flipping through the notebook.
88888888
Dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, Xander prepped and set a gun in the cargo bay in case the team got in trouble. He had been chosen not to participate, his skills too obscure. So he remained behind with Rip.
“Who do they think they are?” Rip ranted as he paced.
“Based on their history, they don’t trust easily,” Xander pointed out.
“I’m the former Time Master.”
“Which they were misled about when you recruited us.”
Rip came to a stop. “You are incredibly…calm.”
“About being left behind?” Xander guessed. “I’m human with Slayers, witches, and demons as friends. I remain behind a lot. Besides, they are all a little too hotheaded to listen at the moment.”
“You have a prediction?”
“Savage will burn all of them. Not literally,” Xander defended. “He is going to make all of them because Carter and Kendra.”
“You think there is a connection between them?”
“I don’t think you track two people down in every incarnation without the ability to sense them.”
“You did not make your concerns known.”
“They aren’t going to trust my intuition, especially because I can’t explain where my experience comes from.”
Rip studied him. “Do you trust them?”
“Palmer’s do-gooder intensions. Stein’s knowledge. Their skill sets, yes. But I don’t trust the people themselves yet.” Xander scratched his head. “I trust Rory and Snart’s partnership and Stein and Jax’s dependency. But that’s all. There is nothing to suggest a team, unity.”
“You truly see all that?”
“Yes.”
“What about Kendra and Carter?”
“That’s a situation I’m familiar with: he’s in love with her, she’s just being polite. She’s trying to figure things out and she’s made it perfectly clear she isn’t the woman he’s loved.”
“They are destined.”
Xander grinned. “Destiny is a tricky thing. Or you wouldn’t be rogue.”
Rip swallowed and looked away.
88888888
They had returned to the bridge to monitor the team’s movements, and it had gone bad. There was evidence of a firefight and a barely contained nuclear explosion.
Rip ranted under his breath as he checked data over with Gideon.
They could hear the team arguing as they moved on the ship.
“At least there’s one less nuclear bomb on the planet,” Kendra reasoned, trying to find something good to focus on.
“Here, here,” Rip said sarcastically. “Now you all deserve a hearty congratulations. Not only did you fail to capture Savage, you exposed yourselves and your powers to him, giving away the element of surprise for now and all time. Well don-”
Xander elbowed Rip. “They screwed up, they get it, stow the sarcasm.” He eyed Rip. “Time Masters worked alone, didn’t they?”
Rip glared at him, but Xander ignored it.
“We know Savage is in Norway, we’ll just find him…” Carter suggested.
“Unfortunately, we now have bigger problems than Savage,” Rip told them. He took a deep breath. “The timeline is delicate. It only takes someone paying attention to be able to alter the natural progression of time.”
“Or in this case, technology,” Xander said tapping the console table.
Palmer looked at his Atom suit, inspecting his arms. “Whoops.”
I am unversed in modern American colloquialisms. Is ‘whoops’ slang for ‘oh shit’? Gideon asked.
“Yes,” Rip sneered.
“According to this the entire timeline is changing,” Xander said.
“Come again?” Snart drawled.
“Armed with Doctor Palmer’s future technology, Savage’s engineers develop a weapon far more destructive than anything here in 1975.” He tapped the console, bringing up a holographic view of a crumbling city. “This is Central City in 2016. At least it was. I’m not sure what the neo-fascists who took control of it are calling it these days.”
“Th-there must be a way to correct this somehow,” Stein said.
Xander could see Rip battling some inner demon. “Fortunately,” Rip finally said, “Gideon is just showing us a forecast of the future you’ve all created. Time is like cement. It takes time to become… permanent. In this case, until Savage’s team have worked out the mystery of your future technology and molded it to their own ends. And when they do, that you see here is no longer just a forecast. This…this is history.”
Xander looked at the team, everyone seemed to grasp how far they screwed up. Except for Rory, but he seemed the simple type, the concepts of time were too complicated for him to bother. It belied, not stupidity, but apathy.
“Recharge, check your damages,” Xander said. “Meet us back here when you are willing to work as a team and follow directions.”
“Who put you in charge?” Rory asked.
“No one. It’s not about being in charge, it’s about cooler heads prevailing. And right this second, I’m the only one not racked with guilt over what has happened.”
“Rip wasn’t there,” Jax pointed out.
“But he is the Time Master, he recruited you and pointed you at an enemy. As far as he’s concerned, he’s allowed you to break the tenets of time-travel. Repairing it is now more important than destroying the man who slaughtered his family and hundreds of thousands in the future.”
There was a flash of guilt on all of their faces, except Rory who started fiddling with his weapon.
Title: Keep Hoping, Rip
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/LoT
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or DC’s Legends of Tomorrow people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: In which things get messy.
Notes: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Seasons: Post-Series/Season 1 “Pilot”
Characters: Xander, Rip Hunter, Firestorm, Captain Cold, Heatwave, White Canary, Hawkgirl, Hawkman
Word Count: 1660
Hours of repairs after Chronos’ attack, Rip was still making minimal amount of headway, with Gideon’s help it was getting accomplished, but not at the speed of a full engineering team.
Xander had learned long ago to nap anywhere and sleep lightly. He had managed to tune out Rip and Gideon’s byplay. But Kendra’s voice made his consciousness snap to attention.
“He’s gone. Our son…or our son from our previous life.” Kendra said.
The professor they had brought onboard bleeding from Chronos’s attack. He had been gravely injured. Xander had seen enough deaths to be glad he steered clear.
“I’m very sorry,” Rip said.
“Actually, you don’t get the blame for this,” Kendra told him. “This is my fault. If I hadn’t insisted on bringing him back here, he might have died peacefully, in his sleep maybe.”
“Don’t torture yourself with recriminations,” Rip said softly. “One of the great lessons of time travel is that many things cannot be changed. Time wants to happen. Chronos, even Vandal, won’t be the only enemy we face.” The remaining members of the team entered together, Xander stood. “Very often it will be time itself.”
“Whether it wants to happen or not, we’re going to change time,” Palmer said, “erase Savage’s future and earn our rightful place in history.”
“Doctor Palmer is correct,” Stein said. “We may not be legends in your time, Captain, but we are going to decide our own fates.”
“I don’t give a damn about being a legend,” Carter told them, “as long as we end Savage once and for all.”
“I can get down with that,” Jax agreed.
“And our malcontents?” Stein asked, looking to Snart and Rory.
“I like killing people,” Rory stated plainly.
“We’re in,” Snart agreed. “For now.”
The others looked to Xander expectantly.
“I’ve been saving the world directly and indirectly since I was sixteen,” he told them. “This was always going to be my fight.”
“So,” Sara stepped towards Rip, “how do we find this guy?”
“Professor Boardman had a theory about that,” Rip said as he sat down in the pilot’s chair. “I’ve already had Gideon plot a course.” The pilot chair swiveled to face forward. “Mister Harris, there is a temporary seat in my office.”
Xander saw it the moment he walked into the office. It was little more than an airplane steward seat bolted to the floor. He strapped in just as the Waverider phased out of the temporal zone and back into the flow of time.
It was a short time later the engines quieted.
“And we’ve arrived,” Rip said. “Gideon, if you wouldn’t mind camouflaging us as an alpine meadow, perhaps?”
Rory groaned, looking nauseous.
“What are you complaining about now?” Snart sneered at his partner. “It’s not like we time-jumped.”
“I hate flying,” Rory groaned, “especially in…whatever this thing is.”
Xander came out of the office, approaching the other chairs.
“We are in October 1975 on the fjords of northern Norway,” Rip told them.
“Sounds like a vacation,” Snart said.
“Or a chance to piss off Elsa,” Xander commented. The others looked at him, except Rip who walked into his office.
Rip picked up a notebook. “I’m sure we’ll avoid your specialty, Mister Harris.”
Xander’s eyebrow rose as he grinned. “Keep hoping, Rip.”
“Professor Boardman theorized Savage would be here. He did not die in vain if we can capture Savage.”
“Can’t we go back and save Aldus?” Kendra asked.
“He was our son,” Carter urged.
“Look, I’m sorry,” Rip addressed all of them while flipping through the notebook. “We can’t go back and change events in which we participated. Time would fold in on itself, creating a temporal vortex.”
“Which sounds way cooler than it is,” Palmer admitted.
“Forgetting physics for a second,” Sara interrupted, “shouldn’t we figure out what Savage is doing in Norway?”
“Cold war arms race,” Xander said.
Rip looked up in surprise. “How did you…”
“Some of my…friends are way old, used to organize things like this.”
“You have friends who participated in illegal arms?” Stein asked.
“They like money.” He shrugged. “And when you need a weapon guarded for long periods, there was nothing better than these guys.”
“Arms dealers and terrorist aren’t exactly our kind of people,” Snart said, leaning against the console, “but they are the next best thing.”
“Well, looks like you and your lapdog get to earn your keep,” Carter said.
“I’m no one’s lapdog, bird-man,” Rory growled.
“What does one wear to a black market arms bazaar?” Kendra asked.
“The Waverider has a fabrication room which can fashion temporally-indigenous, uh, fashion,” Rip told them.
“You got a room that makes clothing?” Jax asked.
“Doesn’t everyone?” Rip asked as he returned to his office, still flipping through the notebook.
88888888
Dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, Xander prepped and set a gun in the cargo bay in case the team got in trouble. He had been chosen not to participate, his skills too obscure. So he remained behind with Rip.
“Who do they think they are?” Rip ranted as he paced.
“Based on their history, they don’t trust easily,” Xander pointed out.
“I’m the former Time Master.”
“Which they were misled about when you recruited us.”
Rip came to a stop. “You are incredibly…calm.”
“About being left behind?” Xander guessed. “I’m human with Slayers, witches, and demons as friends. I remain behind a lot. Besides, they are all a little too hotheaded to listen at the moment.”
“You have a prediction?”
“Savage will burn all of them. Not literally,” Xander defended. “He is going to make all of them because Carter and Kendra.”
“You think there is a connection between them?”
“I don’t think you track two people down in every incarnation without the ability to sense them.”
“You did not make your concerns known.”
“They aren’t going to trust my intuition, especially because I can’t explain where my experience comes from.”
Rip studied him. “Do you trust them?”
“Palmer’s do-gooder intensions. Stein’s knowledge. Their skill sets, yes. But I don’t trust the people themselves yet.” Xander scratched his head. “I trust Rory and Snart’s partnership and Stein and Jax’s dependency. But that’s all. There is nothing to suggest a team, unity.”
“You truly see all that?”
“Yes.”
“What about Kendra and Carter?”
“That’s a situation I’m familiar with: he’s in love with her, she’s just being polite. She’s trying to figure things out and she’s made it perfectly clear she isn’t the woman he’s loved.”
“They are destined.”
Xander grinned. “Destiny is a tricky thing. Or you wouldn’t be rogue.”
Rip swallowed and looked away.
88888888
They had returned to the bridge to monitor the team’s movements, and it had gone bad. There was evidence of a firefight and a barely contained nuclear explosion.
Rip ranted under his breath as he checked data over with Gideon.
They could hear the team arguing as they moved on the ship.
“At least there’s one less nuclear bomb on the planet,” Kendra reasoned, trying to find something good to focus on.
“Here, here,” Rip said sarcastically. “Now you all deserve a hearty congratulations. Not only did you fail to capture Savage, you exposed yourselves and your powers to him, giving away the element of surprise for now and all time. Well don-”
Xander elbowed Rip. “They screwed up, they get it, stow the sarcasm.” He eyed Rip. “Time Masters worked alone, didn’t they?”
Rip glared at him, but Xander ignored it.
“We know Savage is in Norway, we’ll just find him…” Carter suggested.
“Unfortunately, we now have bigger problems than Savage,” Rip told them. He took a deep breath. “The timeline is delicate. It only takes someone paying attention to be able to alter the natural progression of time.”
“Or in this case, technology,” Xander said tapping the console table.
Palmer looked at his Atom suit, inspecting his arms. “Whoops.”
I am unversed in modern American colloquialisms. Is ‘whoops’ slang for ‘oh shit’? Gideon asked.
“Yes,” Rip sneered.
“According to this the entire timeline is changing,” Xander said.
“Come again?” Snart drawled.
“Armed with Doctor Palmer’s future technology, Savage’s engineers develop a weapon far more destructive than anything here in 1975.” He tapped the console, bringing up a holographic view of a crumbling city. “This is Central City in 2016. At least it was. I’m not sure what the neo-fascists who took control of it are calling it these days.”
“Th-there must be a way to correct this somehow,” Stein said.
Xander could see Rip battling some inner demon. “Fortunately,” Rip finally said, “Gideon is just showing us a forecast of the future you’ve all created. Time is like cement. It takes time to become… permanent. In this case, until Savage’s team have worked out the mystery of your future technology and molded it to their own ends. And when they do, that you see here is no longer just a forecast. This…this is history.”
Xander looked at the team, everyone seemed to grasp how far they screwed up. Except for Rory, but he seemed the simple type, the concepts of time were too complicated for him to bother. It belied, not stupidity, but apathy.
“Recharge, check your damages,” Xander said. “Meet us back here when you are willing to work as a team and follow directions.”
“Who put you in charge?” Rory asked.
“No one. It’s not about being in charge, it’s about cooler heads prevailing. And right this second, I’m the only one not racked with guilt over what has happened.”
“Rip wasn’t there,” Jax pointed out.
“But he is the Time Master, he recruited you and pointed you at an enemy. As far as he’s concerned, he’s allowed you to break the tenets of time-travel. Repairing it is now more important than destroying the man who slaughtered his family and hundreds of thousands in the future.”
There was a flash of guilt on all of their faces, except Rory who started fiddling with his weapon.