Episode 2: The Devil You Know

Part 2:

Ray was walking out of the conference room. He was going to go visit Zari with the others, although he can't seem to find Sara. Knowing her, she was probably off with Ava trying to figure this whole thing out. She'll probably stop by later. Before he could join the others, though, David held his arm out in front of him.

"Mr. Palmer, I wanted to speak with you."

This made Ray slightly nervous. He knew about his past with Sara, and that she was avoiding being alone with him. He had never seen Sara afraid of anyone, not even Damien Darhk or the demon Mallus himself. Wishing he could steel himself like Nate, he stopped to face David.

"Yes, David?" Ray asked cordially.

Despite Ray being a good foot taller than David, he couldn't help but feel menaced by him.

"Now, Mr. Palmer, you're respected among the so-called 'Legends', are you?"

Ray smiled a little. "Well, yeah, a fair bit. Sara considers me her second-in-command now that Amaya's gone-"

"Yes, yes, wonderful." David cut him off. "Point is, do you trust her as your leader. I mean really trust her?"

"Of course," Ray said, bemused. "Sure, I don't agree with everything she does, but her heart's always in the right place."

"Interesting," David said. "But what about the times where you don't agree with her?"

Ray was about to think about it, but then realized what was happening. "Wait, are you trying to pit me against her?"

"Look," David began. "I know she's your captain and you respect her, but I think you'd make a much better leader, personally. You have...certain skills that Sara doesn't."

"Like what?" Ray was getting slightly annoyed.

"Director Sharpe and Sara Lance simply can't handle the pressures. Over the course of several months, they've both either been kidnapped, possessed, or screwed things up beyond belief. They've made so many mistakes-"

"And I've screwed up as well. We all make mistakes, and they're no different. We all learn from our mistakes. Now, what's your real issue with them? Hmm?"

David glared at him and said, "You don't know her and her family like I do. The Lances are a group of maladjusted individuals who are incapable of any healthy relationships. Sara Lance is without a doubt the worst of them. She lets her demons gets the better of her, and oftentimes acts before she thinks. That's not even getting into..." David hesitated to find the right words, "...preferences."

"I think I've heard enough," Ray said angrily, getting in David's face. "Now, you listen to me, and you listen good. Sara isn't perfect, but she's not only the best captain I've ever known, she's also one of my best friends. I don't care if you don't like her because of who she is, or what she is, or who she dates, but if you try and bully or make her feel bad about any of those things, then you won't have to worry about her. You'll have to worry about me, and at least a dozen people who will be in line right behind me."

Ray walked around David. He looked back to see David give him an evil look. Ray brushed it off and regrouped with the other Legends.

()()()()

Sara was trying to wrap her head around Black Siren's story. "So, you've joined this group of supervillains?"

"To infiltrate them!" Siren said quickly. "I've been staying with Ava over here in her apartment for the last few days in the hopes that you'd come back. If there's anyone I can trust in this world, it's you."

Sara wasn't quite sold on this story. "Why should I believe you, though?"

Siren smirked. "I don't blame you for being suspicious. I would be, too. I'm asking you to at least hear me out, and afterwards you can judge me on whether or not you believe me."

"Go ahead," Sara said. "I'm listening."

After Da-I mean Quentin died, I've been doing some self-reflection. He never gave up on me, even when everyone else thought I was lost."

Siren took out a picture she had in her pocket. It was a picture of Sara, Laurel, and her parents.

Sara looked at the photo. She couldn't have been more than five in that picture, placing Laurel at around seven. Her father had that stupid mullet that she made fun of him for until she was sixteen. She noticed, however, that something was wrong.

"We never took that picture," Sara said.

"I know," Siren said. "You never had this picture taken, but this was taken on my dad's birthday. This was the only thing about my old life I had with me when I left my Earth."

Siren put the picture away.

"I can't change my past," she continued, "but I can change my future. I want to honor both our families and do the right thing. I want to make Quentin proud."

Sara wasn't sure, but Ava seemed convinced. "Since she's stayed in my apartment, she's not left it before now, and has only been contacting the Society from my phone. I have motion sensors set up in my house that are required for all high-ranking Time Bureau officers, and my phone records any and all calls Ms Lance here makes. She can't even so much as order a pizza without me knowing about it."

Siren nodded. "The Society doesn't trust me enough just yet, so they haven't told me what their end-game is. They call me when they need me. So far they only use me for information on you, Sara, but they've been asking me to come on field missions with them. I told them I've had some heat on me in the last few days, so I couldn't join them."

"Who's in it?" Sara asked.

"I'm not sure," Siren said. "I've never had contact with the actual leader. I do know they have a mimic and some sort of magician, and they said something about a Speedster."

Ava was taking notes. Sara was at a loss. "Anything else?"

"Just two things. The first is that they mentioned releasing something. They won't say what they're releasing. Just that it isn't good."

"And the other?"

Just then, the alarm went off, followed by all the lights going out. Down the hallways, they heard doors locking down. Ava ran for the door, but the metal sheet clanged shut as she reached for the handle.

"They said they were planning some sort of attack on the Bureau," she said.

While she didn't completely trust Siren, she was willing to bite the bullet on this one.

"Assuming you're telling the truth," Sara said, "you wouldn't happen to know what we're up against?"

"Afraid not," Siren said.

"Great," Sara said. "Hope the others can handle it until we get out of here."

()()()()

Ray, Mick, Nate, and Constantine were sitting around Zari's bed. She was still in a coma.

"I still remember when she first joined the team," Ray said. "She hated us and thought we were idiots."

"Yeah," Nate said. "Then she had her Groundhog's Day incident with Gideon. Apparently I was the first one to even help her. Felt pretty good knowing my love of Billy Murray would end up saving the day with her."

Mick took a swig of his beer and said, "I called her a bitch. I never apologized for it. Wish I did, though."

"Oh, enough of the winging," Constantine said from the corner. "She's not dead yet. We have about eleven hours, which is plenty of time for our good friend Mr. West to get here."

"Constantine's right." Ray stood up. "We shouldn't just sit here doing nothing! We should try and find another blood donor!"

Just at that moment, the alarm went off, followed by the lights going out. Zari's life support systems went down for a terrifying few seconds, then reactivated. The others jumped up to see what was going on. Ray ran out the door and looked back into the room.

"On second thought, we might want to deal with this first."

The crashing of metal sheets over doors was echoing through the hall. Mick and Constantine left the room and joined Ray in the hallway, but Nate was too slow. He was trapped behind the metal sheet in the medical room.

Ray banged on the sheet. "Nate!" he called. "You okay in there?"

He heard Nate steel up and try and bang on the sheet from his side. "Yeah! Damn thing's not budging!"

They heard a scream come from down the hall, followed by a horrible crunching sound.

"Well, that doesn't bode well," Constantine said.

"Listen, Nate," Ray said. "Something's going on. We have to go help. You stand guard of Zari. Do not let anyone who isn't a Legend or a Bureau agent into that room."

"Will do," Nate called back. "It's not like I've got much else to do."

Ray, Mick, and Constantine ran down the hall. They turned a corner and saw several agents dead throughout the hall. They saw a mysterious man with two robed figures.

"Oh," the man said. "I'm a bit lost. Will you mind telling me where I could find Zari Tomaz?"

"Not happening!" Mick shouted. "Get the hell out!"

"How rude," he said. "Oh well. I'll have to go find her myself. In the meantime, I'll let my friends deal with you. In the unlikely event you survive, please tell Zari that Rick says hi."

The two figures blocked Rick from the Legends' view as he left through a hole in a metal sheet that led to the stairs. The others assumed that it's how they first got in.

The two figures pulled down their hoods to reveal bald, grey heads. They had no expression on their face, but moved forward menacingly. Mick took out his flame gun and fired it at the figures, but it had no effect other than singeing their robes. The three slowly backed away from the figures.

"Uh oh," Mick said.

"Ah, bollocks!" Constantine shouted. "It's fext!"

"A what?" Ray asked.

"Fext. Reanimated dead blokes of Slavic mythology. Only a powerful sorcerer could summon them. They're immune to most attacks-

Gunshots sounded downstairs.

"-especially bullets."

"Spectacular," Ray snarked. "What does kill them?"

"According to texts, technically glass bullets are the only way to destroy them. Really, any glass should work, though. The only other time I faced one of these things, my then-girlfriend got rid of it with a large glass di-"

"I get the message." Ray cut of Constantine. "But all the rooms are closed off by metal! Where the hell are we gonna get glass?"

One of the fext ripped off a metal sheet covering a door and flung it towards the three. They managed to get out of the way and ran into the room. It was a small conference room, not unlike the one the Legends left a while ago. There was, however, no glass in there. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in Ray's head.

"John," he said. "Can you cast a darkness spell?"

"Of course I can!"

"Well, here's what we'll do. You cast darkness, and we'll make a break for the door. Mick and I will run one way, and you the other. One of them will try to throw another door at one of us, and we can get some glass. Once one of us gets some, we'll regroup and go from there."

"What are the odds of this actually working?" Constantine asked.

Mick replied, "roughly zero."

"Right, just checking." Constantine rolled up his sleeves. "Ac tenebras dimittere."

Everything went black. The three knew where the door roughly was, and as soon as they completely lost sight of the fext they bolted straight for it.

As soon as they exited the room, they could see again. The darkness spell did not extend beyond the conference room.

"Go go go!" Ray and Mick ran to the left, while Constantine ran to the right. If this worked, Ray thought, then Ava would finally let him run training missions for Bureau recruits. Assuming they all survived this experience, at least.