Later, sitting on her bed against the wall, watching Nyssa stretched on her belly so comfortably in front her, Sara confesses:
"Merlyn offered me a chance to change my history. In exchange for the amulet. I've had those before, you know."
"What do you mean?" Nyssa asks. Twice, because the first time is muffled by the pillow she's resting on.
"I mean, that temptation is a hazard of time travel. But I've been given a lot of opportunities to not get on that damn boat with Oliver," Sara clarifies.
Her fingers walk up Nyssa's spine, and she grins despite the subject matter. Nyssa twists back to look at her. Her hair falls in waves behind her, and it's these moments when Sara feels how acutely she missed her.
"Why didn't you take any of them?"
"A lot of reasons, honestly. But mostly - you."
She loves that soft look in Nyssa's warm brown eyes. She loves Nyssa.
"If I didn't get on the Gambit, Ivo would have still done awful things, and maybe he'd have been successful. Shado could have still died, and Slade… But what I definitely know is that if I skipped the Gambit, I would have never met you. And that's something I couldn't live with. Not ever."
"I remain honored by that, habibti."
Sara smiles, then suddenly remembers. She kisses between Nyssa's shoulder blades and then jumps out of bed.
Nyssa sits up, and Sara pauses in rummaging in the drawers under her bed long enough to grin at the view. Nyssa rolls her eyes.
"What are you doing?"
"One sec."
"Sara."
"One sec!"
There it is. She pulls the cigar box (swiped from Rip's office years ago) out and puts it on the bed. It's a little chilly, so she grabs the closest discarded shirt (Nyssa's, she happily notes) and slips into it.
"This is for you," she says.
Nyssa has half-heartedly pulled the sheet up against the same chill.
"What is it?"
"It - well, they - are things I've been collecting for you. Little things that made me think of you, throughout time."
"You've collected them. For me?"
Sara nods, then realizes what that means at the same time Nyssa does:
Sara always expected to see Nyssa again.
Nyssa looks so touched that Sara kinda feels like an asshole. For waiting for so long. For making Nyssa doubt they'd ever see each other again.
They go through them together, trinkets of the type they'd always brought each other from their League travels, just from separate time periods. She tells the stories behind them, team antics and history jokes, and Sara wonders how it took her so damn long to do this.
Until this moment, this all felt like a dream, or a vacation, rather than her new reality. She vows now to do everything she can to make this stick, including doing her best to remove her head from her ass and stop pulling an Oliver.
"I do want you here. This team is my family, and I want you to be a part of that," she lays it out.
"I would like that very much," Nyssa says softly, and Sara grins.
"And I do want your advice on this whole Captain thing. You have a lot more experience. This isn't the League, but I do value your opinion."
"Well, my first piece of advice is to stop letting me openly disregard the chain of command simply because we are… us."
"Guess we've switches roled. No more playing favorites - got it. No special favors 'cause you're banging the Captain."
"Sara."
Sara grins cheekily: "Well, you are."
"It also means you must be willing to send me into any situation and utilize my strengths. Which are considerable."
"Of course," Sara laughs to cover the lingering fear in that realization.
"Additionally -"
"Jeez, I really opened the floodgates on this one."
Nyssa reproaches her with a look.
"Your team."
"What about them?"
"They must be trained. Immediately. They are… a mess, habibti."
Sara wants to defend them, but can't.
"Okay. Sure. We'll train them. Just be patient. They aren't League recruits."
"I shall try," Nyssa sighs. "We - you - also need to establish a chain of command beyond just you. I think Jax would be best as your second, but Ms. Jiwe is also well-qualified-"
"What about you?"
She can give Nyssa an order, but she really can't imagine anyone else doing it…
Nyssa shakes her head, though.
"I am a newcomer, an interloper. I must find my own place as a member of the team, not be elevated above them simply because-"
"You're banging the captain?"
Nyssa turns the tables on her, eyes twinkling instead of rolling: "Precisely."
"Okay. I guess we can do that." She pauses. "It's really, really nice to have you here."
Nyssa smiles, and Sara can't help but kiss her.
'Morning' finds the Waverider, and everyone wanders out of their quarters looking for breakfast, and most importantly, caffeine. Noise in the cargo bay draws the whole crew's attention away from the mess, though, and one by one they make their way to the growing crowd at the door.
Inside, the Waverider's two (former) League assassins have bos in hand, exchanging blows.
"Are they… fighting?" Ray asks.
"Sparring," Jax clarifies.
"Pretty sure it's like foreplay for them," Mick says. He's munching on some popcorn he brought for the occasion.
"Don't you like having vision in your right eye?" Amaya asks, reproachful but gentle, too, and Mick grins at her.
"I've never seen anyone keep up with Sara like that," Nate says.
"I believe it is the Captain who is keeping up with Ms. al Ghul," Martin says.
He's right: Sara's holding her own, but Nyssa is clearly the better of them.
"Nyssa did teach Sara everything she knows," Jax says. "That's how they met."
"Ah-ha. Hot for teacher," Mick chuckles. "Ow."
"Just doing it before Sara can," Jax shrugs.
"Sara really doesn't like it when you do that, Mick," Ray adds.
Mick grumbles but curtails his comments.
There's a beauty (albeit a lethal one) in the way they spar. It almost looks choreographed, all leaps and spins and really, really hard hits. After a few near misses (two of which draw gasps from the assembled crew), their Captain is finally on her back, bo staff held to her chest.
"I told you I could still best you," Nyssa says, smiling for the first time most of the crew has ever seen.
"And at my own weapon," Sara complains as she takes Nyssa's offered hand and is pulled to her feet.
"Yes, imagine if it were swords we'd chosen," Nyssa teases.
"We've got an audience," Sara gestures towards her entranced crew.
Nyssa turns to them all.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it. Because every single one of you needs more training before I will go into the field with you. Training begins after lunch."
"Hey wait-"
"Captain's orders," Sara grins, leaning on her bo.
"Those of you with superpowers rely far to heavily on them, and you must learn to fight as a team. Dr. Palmer, your suit is a tool, not the source of your power. You must learn to fight and then let the suit become an extension of you."
"Hey, Oliver said that to me once," Ray grins.
"I suppose Mr. Queen cannot be wrong every single time he opens his mouth," Nyssa notes, then she turns to Jax and Stein. "Jefferson, you too must learn to fight without your powers first. You as well, Professor. In fact, you'll need to learn to fight together. You will be tied together at all times."
"Wait, what?!" Jax cries, while Stein just looks bewildered.
"Mr. Rory, you at least have considerable bulk and raw brawling powers."
Mick nods his appreciation of her assessment, then his face falls into a scowl as she continues:
"Your strategy needs considerable work, however. Dr. Heywood, it would certainly be beneficial if you learned how to do something besides turning to steel and standing in front of moving objects."
Sara is holding her laughter in as best she can, but Nate's face is making it so hard.
"Ms. Jiwe."
Amaya's spine straightens as she readies herself to accept any and all constructive criticism. It is likely her time with this team has made her sloppy.
"I have no complaints yet. But I would appreciate the chance to understand more about your totem's abilities. And we must all learn to fight together. Do what you think you must to prepare. It will not be adequate."
The crew disperses, murmuring about the upcoming training. Sara heads off with Jax for their usual walkabout. Nyssa decides that if she is to fully integrate into this crew, there is one conversation she must have first. She finds her quarry alone in the mess, getting a second cup of coffee.
"Raymond."
"Oh hey, Nyssa. It's been good to see you again. What can I do for you?"
"That's what I wished to speak about." She wishes she did not need to have this conversation, but she must know what Sara knows. "Have you ever spoken to Sara about your time in Nanda Parbat?"
"No, not really," he says, after a pause where he seems to try to remember. "She knows I've been there, I think, and maybe that I met you. But that's it."
"So nothing of my… marriage?"
His eyes turn from earnest to sympathetic, and she hates that.
"No. That's not mine to tell. And if I may add - totally not okay. Really not okay."
Nyssa blinks. No one has ever said that to her, and it feels… something.
"I don't know if she knows. I have no indication that anyone in Star City ever told her."
"Yikes. Not even Oliver?"
Nyssa's eyes express her opinion on that matter.
"Fair enough. Well, she won't hear of it from me. I promise. Teammate to teammate."
She's touched by the sincerity.
"Thank you."
"She should hear about it from you, though."
Yes. Eventually.
"There's a new player on Team Loser," the Speedster announces.
"What do you mean?" Merlyn asks. He didn't find any of the people he encountered on the Waverider particularly interesting, besides, perhaps, the captain.
"A woman. Tall. Beautiful. Dark hair. Unplaceable accent. Actually seems competent."
Merlyn can't decide if he is more excited or annoyed when he asks:
"Maybe looking particularly close to Sara Lance?" Merlyn asks. That could explain a lot about this interactions with the wayward canary. He rubs his jaw.
"Sure," the Speedster shrugs.
Merlyn shares a look with Damien Darhk.
"Nyssa al Ghul."
Recognition sparks in Damien's eyes since Merlyn has caught him up on some details of the League's demise: "The last Ra's al Ghul."
"You know her?" the Speedster asks.
"The bane of my existence," Merlyn complains, then adds more helpfully: "And Sara Lance's lover. Though the last I heard, that was past tense."
"And the daughter of the man who was Ra's al Ghul for most of the last couple centuries," Damien says. "And the last holder of the ring of Ra's al Ghul."
"Destroyer of the ring of Ra's al Ghul," Merlyn adds bitterly.
"Oh, and the reason our friend here is down an appendage," Damien chimes in.
"I thought that was the Green Arrow," the Speedster says.
"He swung the sword, but it was Nyssa's doing," Merlyn says.
That reminds him… His mood begins to brighten. Well, now, the possibilities are endless.
tbc