"What do you think was so important that Mari needed me to leave AMA from the hospital?" Oliver wondered aloud.
"Oh please. You know you were happy for an excuse to get out of the hospital," Laurel teased.
"Whatever," Oliver sulked into the corner of the lair's elevator.
Laurel looked over at her boyfriend and realized he was worried about something else.
"I don't think this is Mari's way of asking for our help again," Laurel consoled. "You don't have to feel guilty."
The tension visibly left Oliver's shoulders, just as the elevator arrived at the lower floor. He walked into the cortex with increased confidence, and Laurel smiled at being able to make him feel better.
"Oliver. Laurel," Mari greeted them immediately. "Now, before you go any further, I need you to prepare yourselves."
"Did something happen to Thea?" Oliver beseeched.
"No...there's no word on Thea still," Mari reassured. "But there's something else that might, for lack of a better phrase, shake your world."
"Just tell us what's going on," Oliver urged.
"It's easier if you see for yourself. But like I said, be prepared."
Mari stepped aside to let them through. The pair of vigilantes gave each other a questioning look before Oliver took the lead. He wanted to be sure to protect his girlfriend from anything that may be too traumatic for her to han-
He stopped dead in his tracks, the shock of what he was witnessing too paralyzing to turn around and warn Laurel. He saw a group of six people standing in a row on one side of the room: among them two people he thought he would never see again.
Laurel broke past Oliver and came to the same realization, tears instantly flowing from her eyes.
"Sa...Sara?" Laurel stammered.
"Laurel!" Sara Lance rejoiced.
"You're alive!" they both said in unison as they reached out to hug each other.
Both groups temporarily set aside their distrust for the other and watched the happy reunion unfold in front of them. The moment was short lived, however, as Captain Hunter cleared his throat loudly.
"Shut it, Hunter," Sara snapped, and she continued to hold her lost sister.
"Perhaps, Mr. Queen, you and I can move on to the task at hand while they finish," Captain Hunter proposed.
"You can start by explaining just who you are exactly, and what are you doing with my girlfriend's dead sister?" Oliver demanded.
"And my dead boyfriend," Felicity stammered from the outskirt of the group.
Oliver had been so distracted by Laurel's reaction to her sister that he had forgotten about that Felicity must be going through the same thing. He glanced at her to see if she was okay; she had a look of wonder and disbelief as she stared at the man she had fallen in love with.
"I'm Captain Rip Hunter," he stated.
"He says he is the captain of a...what was it called again? A time ship?" Mari questioned.
"Yes, the Waverider. And my crew of Legends and I travel throughout time to correct any aberrations that occur in the timeline."
"I didn't realize time needed fixing," Oliver questioned.
"More than you know," Captain Hunter shot back. "My crew and I experienced a rather large time-quake which caused a rupture so large, in fact, that Gideon had trouble pinpointing an exact time. She was only able to give a 30 year window of when the cause occurred. Since the Legends were taken from this year, within said window, we decided to investigate and check on their loved ones. Only now we discover everything is- different."
"You expect us to believe that time travel is real?" Oliver scoffed.
"And that you guys are what...the time-police?" Mari joked.
"It's possible," Felicity interjected.
"Are you saying you believe him?" Mari wondered.
"Einstein theorized that time travel could be possible when he developed his Theory of Relativity."
"We actually met Einstein," Dr. Stein blurted from the back of the crowd.
"Yeah...and we punched him in the face," Mick added with a smile.
"Let's say we believe you," Oliver condescended. "You said everything is different now."
"Yes," Captain Hunter reaffirmed.
"Different how?"
"Well for starters..." Captain Hunter pointed at the two sobbing sisters. "Given Laurel's reaction is it safe to say Ms. Lance is not amongst the living?"
"She died when the Queen Mary sank," Oliver emitted.
"As you can see Ms. Lance is alive and well; minus the occasional bloodlust from being resurrected by the Lazarus Pit. And in the timeline we are from Laurel-" Hunter began.
"Don't!" Sara roared.
Laurel turned back and forth between Captain Hunter and her sister, piecing it together from the grim looks on their faces.
"Oh..." Laurel faltered. "How did it happen?"
"Maybe it's best that you don't-" Sara started.
"No, I want to know."
Sara let out a long sigh, and looked down at her sister's feet as she spoke.
"It was Damien Darhk. He cornered the whole team and they barely made it out alive…except for you."
Sara looked back into her sister's eyes before continuing.
"I'm so sorry, Laurel! I wasn't there when you needed me the most! I was off with these people because I wanted to be a Legend and-"
"It's okay! It's okay!" Laurel soothed.
Another silence fell upon the group for a minute.
"And me?" Ray asked, looking at Felicity.
"You died in an explosion at your lab in Palmer Tech," Felicity explained.
"Oh, well then I'm not really dead," Ray rejoiced. "You probably never found my body, right?I'm just shrunken down in the prototype A.T.O.M. suit somewhere."
"No. We found your body. Burned almost beyond recognition. It was identified by both your dental records and DNA. I checked them myself."
"Oh," Ray deflated.
"Tell us, what else has occurred?" Captain Hunter requested.
"What do you mean?" Oliver asked.
"What is happening right now in this city?"
"Well, my sister was just kidnapped by some boomerang wielding maniac named Digger Harkness, who injected her with a drug called Mirakuru. Speedy is out trying to find their hideout so we can figure out what their real agenda is."
"Wow! There were so many things wrong with that statement I don't even know where to begin," Captain Hunter moaned.
"How did Captain Boomerang escape from the A.R.G.U.S prison on that island?" Jefferson wondered.
"What are you talking about? I've never been able to capture him; and that's a stupid nickname by the way," Oliver retorted.
"Hey I didn't give it to him, Cisco did."
"Who's Cisco?"
The crew of the Waverider looked at each other uneasily with that response.
"You know, Cisco Ramon," Jefferson pointed out.
"You mean the tech billionaire? I'm sorry to tell you but not all billionaire playboys know each other."
"Do you know someone named Barry Allen?" Sara asked.
"No. Who is that?"
"What about The Flash? Do you know who that is?"
"You mean Kid Flash?" Mari corrected. "Nobody knows who he really is under that mask."
The crew huddled together, and began whispering to each other. Oliver clutched a broken arrowhead from the workstation next to him in case whatever decision their visitors came to was something less than peaceful. Laurel had the same idea and held a retractable staff in her hands behind her back.
God I love her, Oliver thought.
The whispering grew louder, and the crew all nodded in agreement before breaking away from the huddle.
"Thank you all for answering our questions," Captain Hunter stated matter-of-factly. "We will take our leave and continue our investigation in Central City."
The sound of shuffled feet filled the quiet chamber as the crew began to disperse and walk away.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Oliver boomed. "You're not going anywhere. You seem to know way too much personal information on all of us to be able to just walk on out of here."
"Oliver, it's okay. I can vouch for them," Sara insisted.
"To us you died five years ago, so I have a little hard time trusting you're really who you say you are."
"Well, okay. I guess I can see why you would feel that way. But you can trust me. Tell him Laurel."
One look over at her sister and Sara knew that she wasn't going to get the answer she was expecting.
"I'm sorry," Laurel shook her head. "But he's right; you died five years ago. And no offense, but you weren't exactly the most loyal person back then either."
"What are you going to do then? Hold us prisoner?" Dr. Stein questioned.
Oliver clenched his arrowhead tighter as he noticed the crew shifting their stances ever so slightly. Laurel placed a hand on his arm as she tucked the retractable staff into her back pocket.
"We'll go with you," Laurel suggested.
"No. Absolutely not," Captain Hunter protested. "Restoring the timeline is way too intricate of a process to have a bunch of amateurs run around mucking things up."
"But that's exactly what we do," Jefferson pointed out.
"I'd like to think we've gotten better at it," Ray countered.
"I for one don't give a crap what we do to the timeline," Mick drawled.
"Knock it off, Mick!" Sara chided.
They continued to prattle on, until Mari let out a loud whistle.
"Yeah, I think we better go with you," Mari uttered. "If anything, to save you guys from whatever dysfunctional thing you got going on."
"Fine! Fine. Everyone get on board the Waverider," Captain Hunter conceded.
Once again the crew of the Waverider shuffled around, hesitating in case there was any further protest from Team Arrow. Finding none, the crew finally strode towards the elevator, with Team Arrow following closely behind.
"I see we have new guests," Gideon pronounced from her holographic projection.
"Yes, Gideon," Captain Hunter confirmed. "Please set a course for Central City. Full cloak."
"Right away, Captain."
"Wait, this is Gideon?" Felicity queried. "I thought Gideon was a person."
"I am an interactive artificial consciousness in charge of operating the Waverider," Gideon explained.
"That's so cool!" Felicity cheered.
She let out a small yelp as Mari poked her in the back.
"We're here to keep an eye on them, remember," Mari reminded. "Don't get distracted."
"Right," Felicity affirmed. "But I think that, maybe, since I am the tech girl I should keep an eye on the cool disembodied holographic image of a super advanced AI and get to know how it ticks."
The two girls stare at each other, Felicity's eyes pleading for permission.
"Okay, whatever," Mari relented. "But I'm not cleaning up after it."
"She's not a pet!" Captain Hunter brayed.
"You know you still haven't told us what exactly we are looking for in Central City," Oliver said.
"Not a what. A who," Captain Hunter countered. "If my suspicion is correct then there is one person at the center of all this madness: Nora Allen."