Yeah, this is probably a bad idea. And yeah, this will almost certainly be completely out of date and wrong by the time the third season of "Legends of Tomorrow" or the fourth season of "The Flash" start back up. The chances of them using anything that I've come up with is almost zero. So canon will make this an AU almost instantly.
But I don't care. This idea is too good to pass up. And yes, I'll admit it. I miss having Snart around and I don't want to leave Barry in the Speed Force (though we know the latter isn't permanent). And just because the writers of the show forgot/ignore Mick's time as Chronos doesn't mean that I have to do so. I've decided to take the scenarios established by the season finales for the third season of "The Flash" and the second season of "Legends of Tomorrow," add some comic book science, and see what I can come up with.
I do not own DC comics, the CW, "Legends of Tomorrow," "The Flash," any of the characters, or the concept of time travel or the Speed Force. If I did, then Leonard Snart would have already popped back up from his sacrifice and would have spent the entire season making snarky comments at Nate.
It's Never Too Late
Los Angeles: April 4th, 2017
Mick sat in the galley with a sandwich while scribbling on a napkin a series of equations that would make Professor Stein gawk.
After their attempt to visit Aruba in 2017 ended with the Waverider crashing in a weird amalgamation of various eras, it seemed pretty obvious that the team had now officially broken time. Not long after, the jump-ship returned with a very frustrated Rip Hunter who'd also ended up being dumped there. Time travel was officially off the table until someone figured out how to compensate for temporal damage. From there, all the nerds and geeks started theorizing with the history experts on how they were supposed to fix things when their attempts to time travel just dumped them in futuristic dino city. No one even batted an eye when the resident criminal remarked loudly that he was hungry and wandered off. It wasn't like the thug with a fondness for fire could possibly contribute to the conversation.
He took another bite of the sandwich as he worked, trying to ignore how recalling the weird math involved left Mick feeling cold and uneasy. He hated thinking about his excessive knowledge of time, timeships, the various oddities and quirks that messing with the time stream could produce, future technology, and tracking down targets across history. Sometimes a useful fact would bubble to the surface, but he mostly kept everything squashed down where he didn't have to remember that entire span of time. Mick would rather remain the straightforward, impulsive, crude, and violent guy that his criminal life shaped him to be than what those people made him.
He hated remembering that dark time after Snart left him in that forest and the Time Masters found him, breaking him down until they could rebuild Mick into their weapon. He hated anything to do with being Chronos.
But it was still there. It was still a part of him. The team didn't erase it from his skull. Snart and the others just managed to pull him back to who he used to be and he shoved the rest down, ignoring it and pretending that it wasn't there.
But he did have all that knowledge the Time Masters drilled into his head, trying to ensure he could hunt down even the most difficult targets in the most extreme circumstances. After all, how could they expect him to hunt down time pirates and the occasional rogue Time Master if they knew more than him? He had the knowledge they gave him to be their bounty hunter. And now that time had shattered, something only theoretical before and yet something they'd prepared for, Mick found himself drawing upon that knowledge.
This was a unique situation. And it offered unique opportunities.
Mick had rolled around the possibility in his head a few times in the months since Vandal Savage died permanently. He really wanted it. He wanted it almost as much as Sara wanted to save her sister. He'd even questioned Gideon, trying to find a speck of hope. But it was impossible. Even if he involved Ray and Stein, Mick knew it wouldn't work. So he fell back on more familiar and comforting pastimes like drinking, fighting, and burning lots of flammables. He just gave up.
But with time shattered, the circumstances had changed. And what was once impossible… was now merely improbable.
Besides, recent events had managed to rip open old wounds again. And he'd softened enough from his time with the team that it seemed to hurt more.
He looked over the calculations again. Thinking about it still made him uneasy, reminding him of how it felt to be Chronos and he did not want to spend too much time in that mindset. But the equations should be enough to get him where he needed to go. Adjusting the time ship's settings to take the damage to the timestream into account, using the moment they encountered their alternate future selves as the starting point for the math, Mick should be able to time travel correctly.
He'd worked out a method to travel through the shattered timestream. And he knew exactly where to find a speedster and a geek with the power to open portals, both of which possessed a heroic streak to match Haircut's. If there would ever be a chance of making this work, it would be before the team fixed the current crisis and stabilized time once again.
Mick dropped his head and ran a hand along his scalp tiredly. Devising plans was never his strong suit. But he could do it a little. He'd watched Snart do it enough times over their long partnership and Chronos certainly could figure out how to capture or kill his targets, no matter the challenges. He just preferred letting someone else do it while he just fried or punched whoever got in their way. Between the headache from the math and the uneasy memories of his Chronos' days this all stirred up, part of him wanted to drop the idea and burn the napkin.
Burning something would be so satisfying right now. The flickering flame, the bright colors, and the pleasant warmth would be so beautiful and would quiet some of the turbulence in his head for a while. If he couldn't enjoy a vacation in Aruba, shouldn't he at least get a small fire?
But Mick couldn't ignore this chance. It wasn't as if he really had that much to lose and they didn't leave one of their own behind if there was even a slim chance. And not trying this would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Besides, he needed to do something right. The current mess was his fault. Or at least a version of him. The details were a little sketchy, but the treatment from his future self told him a lot. Apparently that Mick betrayed the team and sided with a harsher version of Snart and the Legion of Doom (still a stupid name). Reality was rewritten and time broke because of a future version of himself. A version that Mick was only a few hours from become before things changed.
He messed up. A lot. He might do a lot of good and he might have saved them at various times, but he'd also done a lot of stupid things that was bound to stay in the back of their minds. He didn't always think things through and sometimes it came back to bite him. There were plenty of reasons why so many of his teammates distrusted, disrespected, and disliked him far too often. He hated how much truth that past version of Snart spouted before the fight. Sometimes, but not always, they saw him as a dangerous animal on a leash they needed to watch closely rather than a part of the team. But he knew why they would.
Mick knew he'd betrayed them to the time pirates. And he'd come close to doing so again, his loyalty to any version of his partner coming into conflict with his loyalty to the team. He didn't want to do something that stupid again. He didn't want to give them any more reason to hate him.
Yeah, he'd gone soft. Or rather, people change. And yes, it clearly bothered him enough for his brain to conjure hallucinations. But it didn't bother him enough to try going back to the way he used to be. Not anymore. Not when one version of himself died trying to ensure he not make the same mistake.
Mick looked back at his scribblings one last time. He knew the equation and he knew where to plug in the numbers. He didn't understand the science or why the equation produced the corrected settings. The Time Masters just gave him the relevant information. They wouldn't want their bounty hunter to fail to deal with his target due to a little thing like time breaking apart, after all. And he somehow managed to make it work despite the lack of formal education.
He was going to do this. He was actually going to do this. It was crazy.
Good thing Mick was crazy.
"Gideon," he said. "Is everyone still busy talking about how to fix this mess?"
"Ms. Jiwe and Dr. Heywood have moved towards the library to do research and Mr. Jackson is doing repairs from the crash. Everyone else is where you left them, Mr. Rory," reported Gideon.
Taking a final bite of his sandwich, Mick said, "You know what I'm going to do, don't you?"
"Based on some of our past conversations, the current condition of the timestream, and what is written on that napkin," said Gideon with something resembling concern in her tone, "I have a fairly reasonable prediction. Are you certain you want to attempt this?"
"Got to try," he said with a shrug. "He'd do the same for me. In fact, he did. It could have been me blown up by that thing. So I'm going." Standing up from the table, he asked, "Keep an eye on these idiots while I'm gone. And don't tell them I'm leaving."
There was a moment of silence before Gideon said, "If Captain Hunter or Captain Lance ask directly, I will have to inform them. But I can remain quiet on the topic for a little longer."
"Thanks," Mick said, stuffing the napkin in his pocket.
"Good luck, Mr. Rory."
With that brief exchange, Mick headed out. His first stop was to grab his Heat Gun. Even if he didn't plan to do any fighting in the near future, he had no intentions of going unarmed. Especially since his plans rarely go smoothly. Once his weapon was in his holster and he took a final look around his chaotically-messy quarters, Mick slipped back into the hall.
Right outside the jump-ship, just as he opened the door, an unexpected voice said, "Mick? What are you doing?"
He closed his eyes briefly before turning to face her. Standing at the end of the hall was their newest teammate, the former JSA member from the 1940s with the magic necklace. Mick could admit that Amaya was an attractive woman, but he was perfectly fine with her being a friend and ally. And she clearly had a thing for Nate and vice versa. Animal magnetism or something. He rather liked spending time with her and she seemed to think there was more to him than violence and flames, which was a miracle since they started out with a knife to his throat. But Mick really didn't want to talk to her right now.
She was there, though. So he might as well face things head on.
"Do you trust me?" he asked.
"What?" asked Amaya, blinking in surprise at his question.
"We both know what almost happened. What I did or almost did. What the other me did. Handing over the Spear to Snart from 2014. I didn't do it this time, but I apparently did the first time around. And you ended up dead," he described. "The team didn't say a word after it was all over, but we know I would have. So tell me. Do you trust me?"
Amaya didn't immediately answer. She simply stared at him with a thoughtful expression, crossing her arms. Mick hoped she would hurry up. He didn't know how long the others would be distracted.
"He was your partner for years," said Amaya slowly. "Even if I didn't see it, there must have been something in him that made your partnership worth it. That would make him part of this team eventually."
"He was at his coldest and most ruthless point when Thawne and the others recruited him. Working with people he didn't trust for too long. Finding out he was destined to die in a few years probably didn't help either."
"And the team doesn't always act as if they respect or like you, though we both know they do care," she continued. "They… underestimate you sometimes. I understand the temptation you must have faced. I'm not happy that you almost turned against us, but you didn't. None of us are perfect. I've had to face my own flaws since joining. So yes, I still trust you."
Mick didn't give himself a chance to reconsider. He pulled out the napkin and memorized the relevant numbers. Then he handed it over to Amaya.
"Then I need you do something for me. Wait ten minutes and then give that to the Professor. It should help. I just need a bit of a head start."
"You're leaving?" asked Amaya, her tone a mixture of confusion and concern.
He produced a sound that was not quite a chuckled and not quite a grunt of acknowledgment. Having someone worry about him like that was still a novel concept. While he and Snart had been partners for decades and watching each other's backs during that time, it wasn't the same as this. Snart used to express his concern when plans wrong by chewing him out for not listening to what he was supposed to do, which eventually led to their partnership straining. After one particularly bad job that ended with him hurt from one of his fires, they ended up splitting off until they teamed back up in Central City a few months later. Just because they were partners for so long didn't mean that the partnership wasn't volatile on occasion. Especially when they were both at their worst.
Having teammates who worried about him without framing it as concern over the possibility of failure was something that didn't happen much until after Rip recruited them. It was yet another change that came from hanging out with these hero types. Associating with heroes just seemed to cause change all around.
It changed Snart. And it had changed Mick.
"I've got to, Amaya. I have to fix this."
"And you can't tell me any more than that?"
"I can tell you that it's important. I can tell you that if it works, the team will get back something we miss. And if it doesn't work," he said, pausing briefly as he looked back at the jump-ship, "the only thing lost won't really matter."
He still recognized some doubt in her eyes as she looked between the napkin and him. But for reasons he still didn't completely understand, Amaya liked and trusted him enough by now to accept his vague explanation.
"Then I won't stop you. I don't know how far you can go with the timestream broken like this, but I won't stop you," she said.
A quick nod of thanks and he started to climb into the jump-ship. Then a thought occurred and Mick paused.
"And Amaya? Keep an eye on Haircut while I'm gone," said Mick. "Otherwise he'll probably get himself eaten by a dinosaur or something. And make sure Axel gets fed."
She smiled at his words in a knowing fashion. And with a short nod of agreement to his request, Amaya turned and vanished down the hall. Mick took that as his cue to get in and start adjusting the jump-ship's navigational settings. He needed to leave before the entire team started questioning him.
"So having us meet our alternate future selves, attempting to time travel with our alternate future selves, Mr. Thawne bringing in dozens of his past versions simultaneously, and reality being rewritten all at the same point put too much strain on the timeline," summarized Stein. "And from that specific point, time began to crack."
"But it took a little while to completely fracture," Ray continued. "That's why we could return the surviving members of the Legion of Doom to their rightful times before everything went wrong."
Pacing around the captain's quarters, Sara said, "Great. So we know what happened and how. Now, how do we fix it and how do we get out of the weird futuristic dinosaur city?" She glanced over at the previous captain of the Waverider and asked, "Did the Time Masters ever have a contingency plan for this sort of thing?"
"Actually, yes," he said. "If the timestream broke, all the Time Masters are supposed to return to the Vanishing Point until our greatest minds can study the phenomenon and devise a solution. And since the Vanishing Point is outside of time, we would actually be able to reach it without getting knocked into a mishmash of history like this place." Running a hand through his hair, Rip said, "But since we put an end to the organization, that's not really an option anymore."
"Perhaps we can find a workaround," suggested Stein, adjusting his glasses. "If we could compensate for the fractures to the timestream, we might be able to navigate through time again."
That sounded promising. If they could get the Waverider back into the Temporal Zone without it spitting them back out, they would stand a better chance of fixing things than if they were stuck. If they solved at least that one problem, maybe they could start working on the bigger issue.
"Can you figure it out, Stein?"
Straightening, the man said, "Of course. It just might take me a day or two to figure it out. There are a lot of variables to take into account and predicting the patterns of how time shattered is not something I have attempted before, but I am quite confident that I should be able to work it out fairly quickly."
Sara nodded, sharing his confidence. There were certainly benefits to having several geniuses on board. She, and probably Rip, would be the first to admit that the team wasn't exactly the easiest to lead. They were a chaotic mess of personalities, quirks, and skills that sometimes made her feel like she was back babysitting again. But they were all very good at what they do when given the chance. So if Professor Stein claimed he should be able to get them time-traveling again, then she believed him. And she also believed that they would find a way to fix time itself.
"I think this might help with that," said Amaya, striding into the room with a confused Nate trailing behind her.
Sara didn't know what to expect as the woman handed over a paper napkin to Stein. But from how his eyebrows shot up, it was clearly not what he expected either. His mouth worked silently a few times as he read over whatever was scribbled on it.
"Astonishing," he said in awe. "This… This equation is exactly what we need in order to compensate for the damage to time. It's even been solved for the specific instant in history that it started from. Did… did you find this in the library somewhere? Or did Gideon have this in her data banks? How did you find this?"
"Actually, Mick gave this to me. I think he solved it," said Amaya.
That produced a reaction from everyone in the room. Various looks of shock and disbelief overtook their faces as they stared at her. Stein looked like his entire world had flipped upside down. And possibly like his brain was faltering at the very idea.
"Mick? Mick Rory? He did this?" he stammered. "That's… That's not… How?"
"How would Rory know enough to figure this out first?" asked Nate. "I mean, he's not exactly an expert on temporal matters."
"Mr. Rory might not be," Rip said slowly. "But Chronos certainly would know about it."
That darkened the mood in the room. None of them really wanted to remember that part of their history as a team. In fact, they tended to forget about it the majority of the time. Mick made it so easy, never mentioning or even hinting at his time as a Chronos if he could help it and acting like the dumb brute around them.
"I'm not exactly sure who Chronos is," said Nate. "Anyone?"
"Oh, right," Ray said. "We never really told you and Amaya about this part. Before he really became a team player, Rory kind of… tried to betray us to time pirates so he and Snart could go home. So Snart decided to strand Rory somewhere out of the way until the mission was over. I guess he planned to pick him up five minutes after leaving, that way he wouldn't cause any more trouble or hurt anyone. But the Time Masters got a hold of him first. They brainwashed Rory into working for them, turning him into one of their best bounty hunters and sending him after targets all throughout time. Including after us."
Understanding spreading across his face, Nate said, "And they called him 'Chronos,' right? And if he went after people across history, he would have picked up a lot of things."
"Like apparently revolutionary techniques for correcting for temporal damage while time traveling," Stein said in a strained voice, clearly not handling it well.
"So what happened?" asked Amaya.
"We managed to capture Chronos and figure out who he was," Ray said. "It wasn't exactly easy, but Snart managed to eventually reach his old partner. Rory rejoined us and we headed to the Old West to lie low for a while. That's when we met Jonah Hex and I became sheriff."
"Hey," called Jax as he jogged into the office. "What's going on, Grey? I can't concentrate with how much you're freaking out."
"I'm not freaking out, Jefferson. I am merely… disconcerted," he said. "The notion that Mr. Rory would solve this problem before I could even make a proper attempt is highly unexpected. It just took me a moment to adjust."
Jax crossed his arms and smirked at his partner. Having a psychic connection meant trying to downplay his reaction was doomed to failure.
"Okay," said Sara, trying to wrestle things back on topic. "Gideon, tell Rory to meet us on the bridge. If he knows about how to navigate through a shattered timestream, then he can join us and help fix this mess."
"I'm afraid that is quite impossible, Captain Lance," reported the A.I. calmly. "Mr. Rory took the jump-ship and departed approximately fifteen minutes ago."
That announcement sparked off a series of shouts and questions from the team. For a few moments, it was pure chaos and individual words were impossible to decipher. Sara managed to notice that Amaya was silent and didn't even look surprised. But most of Sara's focus needed to remain on the fact that their arsonist wasn't on board.
It would be different if he'd said something before leaving. If he's said he was going to see if there was something worth stealing in one of the buildings or to see if he could fight a dinosaur, that would have made sense. And if he wanted to go back to their own time, which he could apparently accomplish since he knew how to deal with a broken timestream, Sara would understand. After all, Rip tried to retire from the team and move on. He just couldn't go very far before he got tossed back by time breaking. And there were days she was surprised the arsonist stayed with them after Savage was dead, the Time Masters killed, and Snart gone.
But by now she knew he at least cared enough about the team he would at least say goodbye if he ever decided to leave them. If he wanted to go back to the criminal life or something, there would have been something. Mick didn't tell them. He just went to grab something to eat and then vanished.
Something was up. Sara could feel it.
"He left? Why didn't you say anything, Gideon?" Rip asked.
"Mr. Rory requested I not tell anyone and no one asked about his location before now."
Looking a little forlorn, Ray asked, "But why would he leave? Is he worried we're mad at him about what the other Rory did? Because we're not, right?"
"He can't travel that far, even if he has the cheat codes for a broken timeline," said Sara. "He has maybe one good trip through time in the jump-ship, even with Jax's upgrades. We'll just catch up with him and see what's going on. Gideon, any idea where he's heading?"
"I've tracked the jump-ship to Nanda Parbat on November 20th, 1960," the A.I. reported.
Sara frowned at the time and location. That was only months after her second stint in the League of Assassins. Or her first since time travel complicated things. While Mick heading to 2017 Central City or even Aruba made sense, she couldn't figure out why he would leave without warning to visit Nanda Parbat of all places. What could he want there?
"Uh, out of curiosity, did anyone ever do something about Chronos' timeship?" asked Jax slowly. "The one he left camouflaged and parked right outside Nanda Parbat in 1960?"
All the original members of the team exchanged uneasy and sheepish looks. With everything that happened that day, they didn't know what to do with the thing. They just left it there, intending to let the Time Masters deal with it after Savage was gone. Because Rip still believed they would eventually see reason. But that was before the team realized just how thoroughly corrupt the upper members of the organization were and the destruction of the Oculus. And afterwards, they were too busy protecting history on their own for several months. One hidden and abandoned timeship managed to slip their minds.
But clearly not Mick's. And if he reached his old timeship, he could go throughout history however much he wanted and they may never find him. Not unless they could figure out his ultimate goal.
Remembering how unsurprised she was at learning of his departure, Sara asked, "Amaya, do you have any idea what he's after?"
"Mick said he's trying to get back something," said the woman, glancing down momentarily with a thoughtful expression. "Something the team misses. Something important."
"Well, that's vague and not very helpful," Ray remarked. "That could be almost anything."
"I believe Mr. Rory intends to retrieve Mr. Snart," said Gideon.
I've already got a few thousand words of the next chapter written out. I just need to finish the rest of the chapter up and then type it. And just in case you're wondering, the next chapter should have appearances by some of the characters from "The Flash." Not to mention technobabble, comic book science. While I'll certainly draw upon some real science later on, there is only so much I can do when it comes to time travel and the Speed Force.
Besides, in "The Flash" episode "Family of Rogues," Leonard Snart used his Cold Gun to freeze the security laser beams to access a vault. I repeat, Snart froze light. If they are bending science enough to do that on the show, I think my eventual technobabble should be fine.