From the early moments of the morning Zari can see something up between Sara and Mick. Not only did she fall asleep long before Sara showed up in the RV last night, but this morning during breakfast she sees Mick give The Captain a look. It's one of their silent agreements, something that probably concerns the rest of the team but for now those two are keeping it to themselves.

She really hates when they do that.

She doesn't say anything on the way to the beach, and even once they're there and set up she still waits until Ray, Nora, and Charlie have all disappeared to the ocean and John has wandered off. She might hate Sara and Mick keeping secrets, but she's been the responsible one enough times over the last few months to understand why it's necessary sometimes.

"Ok spill," she demands once it's finally just the three of them. "What's going on?"

The two of them exchange a look, and then Sara sits up to rest her elbows on her knees.

"Ava called last night," she says, "And I double checked with Jax this morning, before anyone was up. The Waverider isn't in good shape."

Zari knows her mouth has fallen agape, she wasn't expecting that.

"What do you…" She doesn't know how to finish; her mind is too busy reeling. Her first thought is her and Ray are really going to need to get their android up and running now, if the ship is toast, and then she starts to worry how bad the Waverider's condition actually is. Is there even anything of Gideon left to salvage? Was their project too little too late?

"There's still a chance," Sara is saying, but she doesn't exactly look hopeful. "Jax is heading to S.T.A.R. Labs today, he's going to see if maybe they can help. But… we might have to face the fact that this is out last mission."

Her mind is still reeling, trying to take in the news; she almost doesn't notice that Sara is still talking.

"Which means… you're going to have a choice to make."

That halts her thoughts in their tracks. It takes her too long to understand, she almost asks what choice and why just her, but with the way Sara is looking at her the question doesn't need asking.

She has to choose a time.

If The Legends are over with at the end of this mission then that means she is either going to have to stay here in 2019 and live through the whole world going to hell for a second, possibly third depending on this mission, time, or she can go back to 2042 and attempt to pick up the broken pieces of her life.

She nods at Sara, "I'll think about it." She promises and Sara nods in return.

Suddenly she doesn't think she can sit still in her chair anymore, so she gets up and decides to go check on their teammates down by the ocean.

She can't find them at first, not that she's worried. The waves aren't huge or rough, but they're big and constant enough that swimmers keep disappearing below the surface before popping back up.

The water is cold, and the deeper in that she wades the more the temperature brings her out of her thoughts. She gets about up to her hips when she starts really feeling the pull of the tide around her, waves crashing out just beyond where she's standing and giving her the backlash of the spray.

And, when one crashes particularly close to her something hard knocks her under.

She tumbles through the water and along the sand, tangled up with… something. Something that's flailing around every bit as much as she is, something pushing her away and holding onto her at the same time, something-

The tide finally recedes and she's left lying there in the shallow water, with Charlie strung out on top of her.

"Oh," Charlie says, coughing up some water. "Hey Z."

Zari is coughing as well, even as the two of them untangle themselves and get to their feet.

"Sorry 'bout that," Charlie apologies, an adrenalin induced smile still on her face as she catches her breath. "Didn't get through it in time."

Zari hums in reply, still admittedly a little distracted.

"Are you alright?"
She opens her mouth to answer Charlie and assure her that she's fine, but before she can Ray and Nora appear next to them.

"Hey," Ray calls, "Did you guys see that plane?"

Zari furrows her brow at the odd question, as does Charlie.

"Sorry Ray," The former shape-shifter chirps, "We got knocked under."

"Oh, one of those planes with the advertising banners just flew by, and the banner said something about half priced admission at a waterpark! It probably isn't far!"

He looks so hopeful, and while Zari can think of about a million reasons she should be shooting the idea down, Charlie's face has already lit up in a huge grin and, really, this can't be the worst idea they've ever had.


This has to be the worst idea that Nate has ever had.

He is just starting to forge a relationship with his father, one that isn't based upon mutual distain anyway. Taking the step to go golfing with him already feels like stepping around a field of landmines, but going golfing with him and knowing that he has to ask about the Time Bureau getting some additional funding for repairs to The Waverider that may not even be possible is just sounding like a death wish.

But, he was the idiot who suggested they talk about work over golf, so he has nobody to blame but himself.

"You're up son," his dad says, stepping aside so that Nate can tee up.

That's what it's called, right? Teeing up?

God this is going to be a long day.

He goes for the tee, balancing the little white ball on the tiny wooden perch.

"Thanks," he mumbles as he straightens up and starts lining up a swing, even though he's sure it's obvious to his father that he has no idea what he's doing.

"So dad," he says, pausing just long enough to swing for the ball, and hit it with a surprising amount of accuracy. "You remember The Waverider, right?"

His dad chuckles and they trade positions so that he can set up his own shot.

"Of course Nathaniel, it's a little hard to forget coming face to face with a real life Minotaur."

"Right," Nate acknowledges and then his dad hits his ball far off into the distance. "Well, Ava wanted me to let you know that there's been an accident. With The Waverider."

"Oh no," his dad at least appears genuinely concerned by the news, so that's a good sign. "Is everyone alright?"

"Everyone's fine," he assures him, "But the ship's in pretty rough shape. It got torched by a dragon. From the inside-"

"What?"

"It's a long story." Ok, everything with The Legends is a long story and this is probably one of the shorter ones, but considering it probably could have been prevented by Mick and Ray being a little more vigilant, his dad doesn't need to know that. "The main thing is that there's a lot of damage to the ship and, well, The Bureau could really use some additional funding in order to fix it."

A frown spreads across his father's face as the two of them gather up their bags and start the walk for wherever their balls have landed, and while the expression is far from comforting it doesn't exactly scream rage, so Nate is going to mark it as a small win.

"So this is about money." His father doesn't sound as disappointed as he has when saying those words in the past, he doesn't mean them in the same way, but Nate can't deny it still stings.

"Hey I warned you there would be shop talk."

"I know," his father says, somewhat apologetically. "I guess I was just expecting nothing more than a status report, preferably something I don't have to go back to my office worrying about." He laughs at his own words, before his face grows a touch more serious again. "At the most I expected to maybe hear about the condition of that wolf man, I've heard he's returned to you?"

"You mean Konane?" Nate asks, "He's doing alright, apparently he was being held captive by a demon but-"

"A what?" His dad interrupts, "And Konane? I'm talking about the creature who escaped his containment six months ago."

"Yeah," Nate knows he sounds a little impatient, but God his dad needs to get better at listening. "His name is Konane, and he didn't escape, he was kidnapped. By this demon named Neron. He's basically possessed this guy Desmond and is hunting down some saucer to bring about Hell on Earth and-"

"What?" His father interrupts, stopping in the middle of the green. "A demon?"

"Yeah," Nate replies with little more than a shrug. "Just like Minotaurs and shape-shifters, demons are real and there's one on the loose. This one, Neron, needed Konane because he knew where to find the first piece of this Hell bringing saucer. Right now he has two pieces and-"

"What does this Desmond look like?"

Nate scrunches his brows together. That's an… interesting, question.

"Nathaniel." His father continues, and he suddenly looks very, very, worried. "What does he look like?"


The waterpark is definitely one of their better ideas, in Charlie's opinion at least. Running around history is fun and all, but there is nothing quite like the rush that comes with sitting at the front of a double tube and plummeting at high speed over a plastic hill. Zari is shrieking behind her, which only serves to further her laughter, and before she knows it they're being dumped into the pool at the end of the slide.

"Well, that was fun." She muses while the two of them dismount over the side of the tube, pulling it along while wading through the water.

Zari hums in agreement, and once they've gotten out of the pool and placed their tube onto the pile she turns to survey the landing area of the two slides.

"Did Ray and Nora beat us?"

Charlie looks out at the pool as well, they had set off at the same time as their friends, and so it would stand to reason that the pair of them would have come out around the same time.

Sure enough, as though on cue, Ray and Nora's tube comes bounding out of the second slide and hits the water in just the right way that Ray gets thrown over the side of it.

Zari cringes and Charlie laughs at the sight, and they wait patiently for their friends to come to the steps.

"Well that was fun," Ray says, clearly unbothered by the water still in his eyes.

"Yeah," Charlie agrees, though she is already scanning around for their next endeavor.

And she thinks she's found it.

"Anyone up for that?"

She points over to a large, open slide not too far from where they are now. It's tall; possibly the tallest in the park, and one big shoot almost straight down.

"Uh… sure. Why not?" Ray replies, looking a little pale. "We've faced worse."

"I'm gonna sit this one out." Nora claims

"Same, I want to get a water." Zari seconds, so it looks like it's just her and Ray.


After splitting off from Ray and Charlie, Zari tags along with Nora, weaving in and out of the crowd of people.

"So…" Nora draws, a little awkwardly, once they're in a slightly less crowded area. "Where did you spend your one day of shore leave?"

Zari can't help but to frown at the memory, specifically the smell she encountered.

"I was living with Charlie in Ray's old apartment, which would've been fine except he didn't clean out his fridge when he left a year ago."

Nora crinkles her nose at that, remarking a disgusted "ew" as they find a line for a water stand. "So what made you decide to live there with Charlie?"

She shrugs, that hadn't been so much of a decision as it had been a natural happenstance. They'd both needed a place to stay and Ray had one that was big enough for two.

"Just worked out that way." She shrugs, "Why do you ask?"

Now it's Nora who shrugs, looking away with her cheeks flaring red in a way that has Zari furrowing her brow.

"I'm not exactly great at making friends." She eventually says, "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Zari says, quickly paying for her water and feeling like a bit of an idiot. "Besides, making friends with The Legends happens whether you want it to or not. You've already got Ray wrapped around your finger, and you've got me."

Nora beams at that, the expression a little awkward but sincere nonetheless.

"Thanks." She hesitates after that, some other words apparently frozen on the tip of her tongue. "What about… What about Sara? Do you think she, you know, hates me?"

"Hates you?" Zari asks with a furrowed brow, "Because of Mallus? No, Sara wouldn't-"

"Not Mallus." Nora interrupts, "My father. He… he killed her sister."

Oh.

Zari is fully aware that she isn't being even the tiniest bit discrete when she takes a long gulp of her water, but she needs a few seconds to think. She had known Sara had lost her sister, but the details of how were never exactly given to her. She'd figured it had been unexpected; the possibility of murder had even crossed her mind. But she never would've considered it had been the doing of Damian Darhk.

Damn, and Sara was willing to work with him in the end.

"That's a conversation you'll have to have with her." She finally answers, swishing her water around as she carefully considers her next words. "But… the Legends were founded on second chances, from what I understand. Sara is usually open to hearing all sides of the story. Like I said, talk to her, but I don't think she has anything against you because of what your dad did."

Nora doesn't appear completely convinced by that, but even if she could think of something else to say she wouldn't get much of a chance, because the very woman they've just been discussing suddenly appears through the crowd and in front of them.
"Where are Ray and Charlie?" Sara demands, eyes wide and urgent.

"Over on that thing," Zari answers, pointing over to the giant slide.

"Ok," Sara huffs, "Go get them, because we've got to go."


Let the record show that Nate almost doesn't grab Mona around the waist and hold her back when she moves to punch his father square in the jaw, and while she is thrashing about in his arms he seriously considers letting go. He doesn't steel up, so he'll think of that as "if she gets out, oh well."

But she doesn't get out. She calms down enough that he can set her down and trust she isn't going hit anyone, and then he has to restrain himself from punching his father himself.

"I'm sorry!" His dad is still pleading and he grinds his teeth with a scowl, turning and glaring at the older man.

"Save it." He spits, "Just save it. You've already done enough damage."

When he turns around he is fully intending on following Mona out and leaving, he really is, but he just can't and instead he swivels back around.

"What were you thinking?!" He shouts, "Working with Neron!?"

"I'm sorry! I told you, I didn't know anything about these creatures and he said they could be valuable!"
"So what? You were just going to use whatever creatures the Legend's brought back as expendable soldiers?"
He doesn't know what he's expecting for an answer, but this painful silence isn't it.

"Oh my god."

"Nathaniel-"

He holds up a hand, and it's enough to stop Hank from saying anything.

"I don't want to hear it." He says, his voice somehow firm and broken all at once. "Just save it, I have to go and clean up your mess."

Hank does try to say something else, but he doesn't listen. He walks away and leaves the traitor alone in the conference room.