Laurel opened her eyes and gasped as she looked around.
"She's awake," Someone said as they rushed over. "Hey, take it easy," They cooed.
Laurel shook her head, "Where am I?" She asked.
They laughed. Yeah, this was a side effect of what they had done. "Just take it easy, sit up. And we'll tell you," The woman told her in a soothing voice.
Others came into the room. Faces that she recognized, but couldn't quite put memories too. Maybe she'd seen them in a crowd. She still couldn't gather where she was, but she sat up and felt a pain in her stomach.
She grabbed for it and the woman put her hand over it gently. "From where you were stabbed remember?" She asked.
The memories came flooding back. She died. She was dead. Darhk had stabbed her with an arrow, but she'd been fine. The doctor patched her up. She had to tell them she was okay. "I've got to go," She said as she tried to push herself up and run.
But all that happened was she fell into a heap on the floor.
The woman shook her head. "You have to rest. You have to heal." She ordered in a firmer tone. "We spent a lot of energy keeping you from death. We don't need you running back to it," She told Laurel.
"Who are you?" Laurel asked finally as they picked her up and put her back in the bed.
The woman nodded. "I'm Diana," She said. "But most people, they know me as wonder woman," She smiled a little. "Dr. Fate told us of your grave injustice. And we couldn't let it go on. He brought you to us."
"I died," She said. "Oliver, I saw his face. The last time I saw his face was when I died." She howled.
Diana nodded a little sadly. "We can take you back there. Reunite you with your family, but you have to be careful. Dr. Fate's intervention only comes around once in awhile Dinah," She said. "And you," She caressed the side of Laurel's face. "You are destined to be a legend,"
Laurel shook her head. "I'm not a legend. Rip didn't choose me. He chose Sara. She's the legend in the family," She said as she looked down at her feet.
Wonder woman lifted Laurel's chin. "Your family is full of legends. You are the start of them. You are the biggest legend in your family. You started the tradition of heroes in your family, don't you forget that," She said.
There was a look of defiance in Wonder Woman. Yeah, okay, maybe she did start the hero business in her family. Maybe not directly, but she certainly allowed her sister to flourish which helped her flourish which would help future generations.
She nodded. "I need to get back," She said.
"First, rest," Wonder Woman said. "You have plenty of time," She promised.
Laurel nodded. She then thought of the thing that landed her in the care of Wonder Woman in the first place. Darhk. "Diana?" She asked.
Wonder Woman stopped in her tracks in the middle of the doorway and turned around. "Hmm?" She asked.
"Do you have something that I can use against Damien Darhk?" She asked. "Not something to kill him, but something to permanently stop him, so he can be brought to justice?" She asked. "Also while we're at Merlyn. I'd like to see him brought to justice as well."
Diana laughed. There was the fighter spirit of the Black Canary in every universe. She was formidable. This one was no exception. "We'll work something up for both of them," She told Laurel. "Now, rest," She said.
A few weeks went by and Diana's people treated her well. She was getting better. Stronger. She was able to get out of the bed for increasingly longer periods of the day, until she was able to go a whole day before she had to rest. "You seem restless," Diana noted.
"Just missing home," She told Diana.
Diana nodded. "Well, we'll get you there, but first, I want you to see something that might make you feel better," She told Laurel.
Laurel, intrigued, followed Diana to a training room where she saw her picture hanging on the wall. Except it wasn't her, but a version of her. And then another. And another. "These are me?" She asked as she looked at all of them.
"Just a couple of versions of you. From the different universes." Diana said happily. "Punk rock you is from Earth 12. Police force you is Earth 7. Flower you is Earth 5. And we're gonna have to put lawyer you up there too. Earth 1. All of them could kick so many asses." She said looking at the mural. "And love so fiercely."
Laurel didn't know what to say. Her legacy. She wasn't used to being a legacy. She wasn't used to being anything. Everyone told her she wouldn't be anything. She would never measure up, but it wasn't true. She could see it. Everyone here told her so much of what a Black Canary had done for them. All of them were shaped by the imprint Black Canary made.
Tears ran down her face. What could you say when everyone was so invested in you?
"We also gave you something special," Diana said as she pressed her hand to the mural, close to flower Laurel. She looked to Laurel and smiled. "You're going to your universe as a metahuman," She told her.
Laurel's brows furrowed together, "Like Barry?" She asked.
Wonder Woman nodded. "You'll have so much power. But first, let's help you control it," She said. "Now scream," She ordered.
Laurel screamed hesitantly and the floor shook. She looked to the floor and back to Diana who nodded to her. Laurel did it again and the rumble became more clear and the lights started to flicker. That was so cool, Laurel thought as she burst into a smile.
Diana looked at her. "Now, aim your scream at that dummy," She pointed at the dummy in front of Laurel. "Make it go down." She told Laurel.
Diana knew that making that dummy go down wasn't easy. She designed it that way. This gym was state of the art. So when Laurel tried the first time, it barely swayed even as the floor rumbled. Laurel did it again, for longer and it wobbled consistently but didn't go down.
She took a breath and tried again. It almost went down. Diana was impressed. The level of decibels that she was reaching, they were incredible. If she hadn't been an amazon, she might have worried for her own biology.
One more try. The fourth time, Laurel actually started to hurt Diana's ears by doing it. And the dummy finally went down. It didn't actually go down, the sonic screech actually made it rip at the seams and so it poofed into a million of pieces of carbon fiber and leather.
"Well, now you know how much you can do," Diana grinned, "But you're going to have be able to do it under pressure," She said. "We'll work on that later, but for now, I'm sure you want to train. Work on your skills." She said.
Laurel nodded. Fighting would be good. It would keep her a little bit sane. It would allow her to avoid Darhk again. Not that he was exactly going to be looking for her like this. Still, having her skills honed would mean never having to worry about an arrow to the gut again.
Diana left and Dr. Fate glowered in the hallway. "We're not seriously sending her back to that timeline," He anguished. "This woman deserves to be revered. She deserves mountains named after her. They can't even keep it together long enough to give her the proper week long memorial she deserves." He said.
"She wants to go back," Diana said. "And as a member of the council, she gets what she wants," She told him.
"But this one is not a member of the council," Dr. Fate reminded her.
Diana shook her head. "Then why don't you go tell her that. Or better yet, let Superman tell her that. Let's see what hell that cry can do when she's in agony," She told him. "You saw her training. Even when she just exerted herself a little bit, she became stronger than any of us could have predicted making her a meta," She said.
"She'll never be able to go home to them," He told her.
Diana shrugged. "What she does once she gets back to her own world is up to her. We don't get to decide that for her, Fate." She said.
"You're breaking all the rules. For what? For One?" He asked.
She nodded. "Without Black Canary, the whole damn world falls apart and into chaos. Do you know how many people she inspires?" She asked. "Too many to count. In every universe, she's too important an asset to be needlessly killed by such a force." She said. "And this one?" She asked him. "This one is special. She has the potential to be the biggest of them all. Maybe because she's from Earth One. Saved the world without thinking about it multiple times. Disbanded the League of Assassins with kindness. Do you know how many wars she stopped because of that? How she changed the course of history?" She said.
"She's the best hope we can give anyone," She told him. "She's going back,"
Dr. Fate didn't like the fact that Diana got so emotionally wound up in the story of Black Canary, but even so, he had to admit that there was a reason he wanted to save her too. "Fine," He glowered. "But make sure she's ready. We can't do this again." He warned her.
She nodded and went back to the lab where they were working on Laurel's gifts. The ones that would stop Damien Darhk and Malcolm Merlyn.
A few more weeks went by and Laurel got stronger and better. Diana could tell she was itching to get back to her world, but she also helped people while she was here. She gave lessons to anyone who wanted them and you could ask her legal advice and she would freely give it.
She would even counsel abuse survivors about how brave they were. She was everything. Batman and Superman couldn't be here, but they would be in awe of her too. She knew it. They would go over all of this footage and see how dedicated to such a cause they could be.
Laurel looked over to Diana and grinned as she taught a class. Diana put a hand on Laurel's shoulder and she stopped. She nodded. "Okay guys, take a break," She said as she looked over to Diana. "Are we ready?" She asked.
"Almost," Diana said. "There's just one thing. To make sure you're ready." She said.
Laurel nodded. "Anything," She told Wonder Woman.
"A simulation to make sure you can control your new powers. Then your gifts," She said. "And finally, back home," She told her young protege. She was so pure.
Laurel nodded more firmly this time. "Of course," She said. "Lead the way," She told Diana.
In the simulation room, there was glass to see how she was doing, that Laurel couldn't see through, but that the council would be able to look on. "Push the difficulty up," Fate said. Diana nodded tersely. They were going to see all that she could do.
"Are you sure?" Powergirl asked with her hand on the lever.
Diana nodded. "She can handle it," She told her companions.
Powergirl knew that Diana never trusted anyone without reason and so she pushed it all the way up. The level that only Batman, Superman, and Diana had ever beaten and even so they'd been together. Black Canary was all alone in there. But Wonder Woman believed in her and so they all would.
Laurel saw an army appear out of nowhere and she shot herself up in the air with her grappling hook and they all looked up, angry. That definitely wasn't good. She looked at the people she was going to aim at and opened her mouth and screamed. Enough to knock a few of them out, but they caught on pretty quickly and put earplugs in.
"So now she can't use her cry," Fate mused. "She's toast. These guys are three times her size," He said.
"Shh," Diana said as she kept her eye on Laurel who regrouped for a second when she saw them put their earbuds in. She couldn't get to them in a normal way, but she could still make the earth shake with her cry and she still had her fight skills.
Still there was probably a hundred of them left. It would take her all night. Whatever, she thought. This was her battle. And she would do it most effectively.
She swung away from where she was perched because they started firing on her with guns. Guns. Guns, she thought. If she could get a gun, she'd be able to incapacitate some of them without having to kill them either. There were plenty of ways to win.
She grinned and Diana grinned too. This was the Black Canary. The one who faced armies. The one who commanded armies. You could see it in her face. She was a leader. She was a born warrior. And as she picked them off a couple at a time, it was slow and methodical and every time they seemed to catch onto her tricks, she started something different.
Eventually, there were only about fifteen left. The strongest and most elite who wouldn't make it very easy for her. This was the true test. Yes, there had been plenty tests, but if she could get to these guys, well then she would show her true capability.
And one by one she picked them off too. She didn't even realize when she was the only one left in the room, heaving in the battlefield where she thought she was.
Fate sighed. There was no mistaking that this was the sign of a true warrior. This woman was a warrior who was also a step ahead of everyone else. Came out of the womb screaming for justice. And had only now ever been given the permission and tools to create such a thing on her world back home.
She would have a tough time. There would be questions. Questions she would not be able to answer, but Fate nodded and stepped into the room with Diana as the battlefield vanished into the air and Laurel looked up to them.
"You did a good job," Diana said. "We're ready now,"
Laurel nodded and stood up, her legs lightly shaking as she followed them out of the room, down to the lab where there were gifts sitting on a table, including her outfit. She was going back to her universe. Back to her Oliver. Back to her sister. Back to everything she knew.
She would finally be able to understand this part of the narrative.
The coming back part. She was always the never leaving part. She was the stay when shit got hard part. She was the grit your teeth and buck up. She was the always surviving part. This part. This, she never got to be.
She took her outfit and smiled. "God, I can't wait to put this back on," She said as she felt a couple of tears attempting to burst out of her eyes.
Fate seemed unamused by all of this. "You're risking a lot going back there, you know," He told her. "So much could be undone by your existence there."
She shrugged. "I can't leave them alone," She told him.
Diana grinned. "And you won't have to," She promised as she took the two other gifts off the table. "This one is for Darhk. It will ensure that his magic is turned off for a very long time and cut him off from HIVE. You will be able to try him without difficulty." She promised.
The other one just looked like a tape and a rather large file. "And this is everything that Malcolm Merlyn has done in your world with hard proof attached to it. You should be able to make the case that Malcolm only be locked in a majorly heavy duty prison. I suspect, you may even be able to convince the population of Star City to make one specifically for him." She told Laurel. "I know how that undertaking of his shook your city."
"It's time," Fate said.
Laurel nodded and changed back into the Black Canary costume, fitting the choker around her neck, even though she didn't need it anymore. It was still nice to have. Cisco made it. He would be ecstatic to hear what happened here.
Maybe he wouldn't even believe it. But he would be hyped to hear that she was a metahuman now. She knew that much.
"Ready?" Diana asked when she peered into the room.
Laurel grinned and took her hand. "Thank you," She said. "For everything."
"One day," Diana said. "You will repay the favor to my Earth One counterpart." She told Laurel. She wasn't supposed to. It was against the rules to tell things like that. But it still felt like it needed to be said.
Laurel nodded to her. "I won't let you down."
"You never have," Diana promised as she kissed Laurel on the forehead. Dr. Fate looked away from the gesture of affection, his way of keeping his distance.
"Are you ready?" He asked her.
Laurel nodded, silently.
He took both her hands and closed his eyes, let her close hers too. They whooshed through all of the potential outcomes, all the universes and worlds that they could have put her on. Ones where she would be respected and people would love her.
She didn't want any of that. She wanted to save this world. Earth One. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing though. When they stopped, she still had her eyes closed and he sighed, almost sad that he would be leaving her here, where he could never save her again.
Diana was stupid for letting her choose to stay here. He apparated away as if he was never there and she opened her eyes.
"Are we-?" She stopped when she did not see him in front of her and didn't feel the touch of his hands. "Thank you," She whispered.
No one talked about the single tear that ran down Fate's face when he heard that. She was just special, they all agreed.
She looks to the skies and sees the smoke billowing from a tall building and she flies from rooftop to rooftop to see what is happening. It is a fire, started by an abusive husband to try and keep his family inside the house. To keep them locked in danger. She throws a scream his way, knocks him unconscious, and let's the family out of the apartment.
She puts him on the fire escape, and hurries away. She doesn't want to have to explain how it happened just yet. She just wants to save them. Wants to put Darhk away. Wants to find Darhk, but in order to do that, she has a couple of people she has to see first.
It doesn't matter, because when she gets there and knocks on the door, she hears the soft voice of a long time friend, "I'm coming," She says. But when the door opens, Barbara, who is now in a wheelchair, beautiful and regal still, is not the only one there.
"Laurel?" The other voice asked.