Sara Lance, Queen and benevolent Overlord of all, sat in front of her dressing table while her golden hair was brushed. The woman wielding the hairbrush was meant to be a part of the Central City heroes and Sara found it amusing that she was now merely a servant. One who served Sara's every whim.

"Enough," Sara halted the activity, "Iris, you can leave now and perform your other duties."

Nervously the other woman placed the hairbrush down in its proper place, before she hurried away. Amusement filled Sara as she watched, Iris West once a kick-ass journalist who threw herself off a building while people shot at her just to get a story, meekly follow orders. Once so brave now she would barely lift her head unless told to.

Sara knew the fact she had Joe and Wally West in her power helped keep the other woman in line. Both were kept under guard, but Joe knew how to cook so Sara had put him to work in the kitchen. Making sure he knew that everything he cooked was tasted by his son before it got anywhere near her.

Leaving her room Sara walked to her throne room. It allowed her to look over her entire domain which, once she got what she wanted, would be much bigger than it currently was.

She just needed to break the former AI.

The woman had resisted all attempts to make her talk. Sara knew how to inflict pain but she had been reluctant to do so because Sara wasn't sure what would happen if she tortured the woman. Gideon seemed to have the ability to leave her body whenever she didn't like the conversation, something Sara had seen during her training for the League of Assassins.

What she needed was someone or something that Gideon treasured above everything else, but she didn't know what that could be. She knew very little about the AIs the Time Masters used in their ships and had no idea why this specific one had become human.

Sara knew that she needed an expert but finding one of the Time Masters that had survived had proven extremely difficult. They had all disappeared into the city and she'd had no luck trying to trace them.

What she needed was a way to lure one of them to her but she currently didn't know what that was.

x

Sara entered her throne room, the Lazarus Pit sitting ready for her to slide into. The guards standing there didn't move a muscle when she sauntered past, sliding her robe off before she walked into warm water.

Taking a breath Sara submerged herself in the waters that had brought her back to life once and now she used them to prolong her rule over the insignificant.

One of her first acts when she took over the world was to kill Ras-Al-Ghul before taking his place as the leader of the League of Assassins. They were now her loyal guards, with one exception which hurt despite her attempts to lock away any feelings she had.

When she emerged from the waters, the towel was wrapped around her by one of her other loyal servants.

"Mr Snart," she purred, "I hope you bring something other than a towel with you."

Leonard Snart smirked slightly, "News."

"Of?" she asked, enjoying the banter at the moment but if he didn't get to the point soon she would stop enjoying it.

"There has been a sighting," Snart told her, "Not far from here. Mick and I are ready to retrieve your old friend the moment you give the word."

Sara mused over this as she dried herself before allowing Snart to slide her robe on her, "How long has he been there?"

"From the information we received," Snart replied, "Six weeks."

"Set up surveillance," Sara ordered, "He can give me what I want but it will be less trouble to let him lead us to it than trying to force the location from him."

Snart nodded, "You got it."

"However," Sara stopped him from leaving, "There are some prisoners of no use to me in the cells. If Mr Rory feels the need to burn something."

Giving her a quick nod, Snart left and Sara smiled to herself. She knew they would be useful to her and, as usual, they proved it.


Cisco wasn't expecting them to come. He was sure they'd both pretend they'd never gone to the meeting.

But he'd still arrived an hour earlier than the agreed time.

He was on his second burger when the door opened and the man who'd called himself Atom walked in. Looking around the room he spotted Cisco and waved hello. Atom ordered himself some food and a drink, sliding into the booth Cisco was sitting in once he had it.

"Hi," Atom grinned, "I wasn't sure you'd be here. What about Zee?"

Cisco shrugged, "Not here yet but she's still got ten minutes."

He nodded, "I'll admit I wasn't sure about coming here today but I needed to know more."

"Good," Cisco murmured softly, taking a long drink.

They sat in silence for ten minutes, then for the next fifteen before Cisco sighed, "I guess it's just the two of us."

Before Atom could reply the door opened and Zee hurried in, relief covering her face finding the two men sitting there.

She bought a bottle of water before sliding into the booth beside Atom, "Sorry. There was an accident which held me up."

Cisco nodded, "I'm glad you both came."

Zee took a quick drink, "So, what did you not put in the message?"

"What do you know about Time Travel and Alternate Universes?"

x

Ray frowned at the question the other man asked, "I know the theories but it's science fiction."

Vibe shook his head, "Normally I would agree with you but when I wrote about the world being wrong part of my note also explained not only about the ability to move to other universes but also through time."

Wincing slightly, Zee asked, "You did say you were very sleep deprived and had drank a lot of coffee when you wrote it."

"True," Vibe replied, "But, everything else made sense."

Ray chewed on one of his chips as he thought, "Okay," he finally said, "Considering we know that something is wrong with time then I suppose time travel isn't too far out of the box but other worlds, just slightly different from ours," he shook his head sighing, "I can't believe that."

"Forget about the other worlds," Vibe told them, "The thing that is important is time travel. According to what I wrote there was supposedly an organisation called the Masters of Time who watched over time making sure things like this didn't happen."

"Then someone screwed up," Zee noted blandly.

Ray nodded in agreement.

"I know," Vibe sighed, "I don't think they exist anymore, but what I wrote mentioned a small group of them hiding something," Vibe continued to explain, "As well as a man who carries the hope to fix things."

Zee rolled her eyes, "There's nothing we can do if the time travelling organisation couldn't do anything."

Vibe winced, "Actually I'm thinking of redoing my experiment and seeing what else I can learn. Maybe even find this man."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Ray asked concerned, "From what you've said you were ill for days after it."

"I know," Vibe replied, "But I want to learn more about what I've already seen, and I think I can."

Ray folded him arms before nodding," But we do this together. From now on you don't do something that could potentially put you in hospital without some supervision."

Vibe frowned, glancing at Zee who folded her arms in solidarity with Ray and sighed.

"Alright," the younger man said, "Are either of you busy now?" At the other two shaking their head, Vibe nodded, "Then let's go."


Gideon lay on the bed in her cell, Sara had finally allowed her to be released from the chains.

Her arms ached from being held to the wall, but she had managed to find a position where her shoulders weren't filled with fire.

"The Queen wants to see you," one of the guards said.

Gideon didn't move, "Then she can come to me."

Listening to the cell door opening, Gideon couldn't stop her cry when she was unceremoniously yanked off the bed pain shooting through her back and shoulders. Gideon was dragged along the corridor, her feet scrambling on the floor to trying to get them under her again. She was thrown onto the floor in front of a throne where the self-professed Queen sat watching her amused.

"You wanted to see me?" Gideon forced out, keeping her voice steady as though she were on her ship simply answering a call from her Captain.

Sara leaned forward, "I thought we could have our discussion in a slightly different setting. Get you out of that room for a while."

"You mean cell," Gideon replied, "And I was quite comfortable. It was also a waste of your people's energy since my answer is still the same."

Sara laughed, "I thought it might be. I have decided to change tactics concerning you."

"Torture?" Gideon asked, amazed her voice stayed steady.

Shrugging Sara moved closer, "No. I can't risk your life and considering the way previous conversations have gone with you, you will annoy me enough I may accidentally kill you. Instead I have another idea."

Gideon forced herself to remain calm, "Which is?"

A slow smile covered Sara's face, "I am going to give you two more days to tell me what I want to know. If by then you still won't give me an answer I will choose two people from my subjects and you will watch as my guards kill them."

Horror filled Gideon.

"If after that you still won't tell me then the same will happen to two more every two hours," Sara continued, "Allowing for some variety of how they die of course. I don't want you to get bored."

Before Gideon could make any kind of reply she was dragged out of the room and thrown back into her cell. Crawling onto the bed, Gideon pulled the pillow to her feeling tears fill her eyes.

"Captain," she whispered, "Please tell me what to do, please help me because I can't tell her about you, but I can't watch her kill people because of me."

As silence answered her Gideon buried her head in the pillow and cried.


Peeling open his eyes Rip lay on the bed staring at the ceiling. This was the only moment of respite he received, in that few seconds between being asleep and awake. The second he moved, even slightly it would begin again.

Reaching out he found the half-empty bottle of whiskey sitting on the bedside cabinet, he took a long swig the burn in his throat distracting from the assault of his mind. Rip sensed someone in the room with him but didn't care who it was or why they were there. He briefly felt a hand gently touch his forehead before the other person was gone again.

It took several minutes but the smell of food finally entered his senses and, forcing himself to sit up, Rip devoured the two rolls filled with sausages that had been left for him.

Finishing the bottle, he grabbed a full one before staggering out the room, he needed to be out in the world.

x

Eve Baxter stood watching Rip leave the building, the bottle in his hand and the glazed look in his eyes. The man at her side was about to make a move to stop him but stalled when Eve caught his arm.

"You're just letting him leave?" Tollan demanded, "Considering what's in his head…"

"We tried that at the beginning," Eve explained, "He became violent towards everyone, including himself. He'll find his way to one of us by the end of the night. We make sure he has food as well as a place to rest safely."

"And more alcohol," the man frowned disapproval in his voice.

Eve shook her head, "Without it he curls in a corner and screams."

Tollan continued to frown.

"Rip knew the risks when he took it on," Eve reminded her colleague, "All we can do is care for him and make sure she can't find out about him."

Sighing Tollan noted, "He wouldn't have had to do it if the council hadn't become corrupt. If we had noticed sooner."

Eve nodded, "We did our best, we just have to do better now. Once you've had something to eat, get back to work."

Tollan nodded before noting, "If we could get to the Vanishing Point then we be able to assist him properly. We'd have the medical equipment to sedate him and maybe find something that can truly help."

"But we have no way there," Eve stated coldly, "Unless you've come up with an idea. And we're doing all we can to help Rip with what we've got."

He frowned again but knew there was nothing further he could say. He turned and watched Rip Hunter, the one who held the key to saving everything, stumble along the street talking to himself.