So, I'm sorry to say that I'm going on hiatus after this chapter. There are several reasons why:
1) Full versions of episodes 9-17 are scarce on YouTube, and in some cases nonexistant. I've written a few scenes based on the clips that are there, but nothing more. Chapter 14, which will cover Flash 3x22 'Infantino Street', is almost fully written (as in, I've got the entire episode covered and just need to bulk it up to my 10K word count goal). CTV is running reruns and Episode 9 should be on in late July or early August, and I plan to record it and the others, which should help until I get the actual S2 DVDs after they're released in August.
2) My Microsoft office is currently down. The night before I posted last chapter, it suddenly decided that it was no longer a licensed product, and I had to borrow my Dad's laptop and its properly-functioning Office to get these last 2 chapters up. So even if the episodes were available to me, I'd have a hell of a time actually writing these chapters. There are workarounds, but I'd prefer to have saved Word docs.
3) As much as I love this fic (seriously, this has basically become my baby), I could just really use a break.
I promise this fic will not go unfinished, but for now, I cannot give you a date as to when I will start up again. Just hang in there!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Legends of Tomorrow or any of its characters. Any recognisable dialogue is not mine.
WORD COUNT: 10608 (10230 on MS Word)
"Don't tell me they're at it again," Jax groaned as he joined Len and Sara on their way to the cargo bay, following the boom sounds that indicated that Raymond and Heywood were being idiots once again.
"They are," Len confirmed, "Gideon said that they've nearly made as much of a mess as they did last time."
Jax blinked and stared at him. "Last time, they broke the cargo bay door, and having it open in the Temporal Zone did even more damage to the ship. 'Nearly' is still more than bad enough, in my book."
"Mine, too," Sara agreed as they entered the room. "Hey!" she shouted just as Raymond and Heywood were about to start another tussle, "What do you think you're doing?!"
The cargo bay was a mess, crates that had once been carefully stacked and strapped down now strewn over the floor, a few of them open with their contents spilling out. Len just counted them all lucky that the door hadn't been damaged – again.
"I, uh, it's a spar," Heywood offered up lamely as an explanation.
"Yeah, he's helping me calibrate the new suit," Raymond added.
"Last time y'all decided to spar, you wrecked my cargo bay," Jax scolded them.
"Yeah," Heywood remembered with a grin, actually raising his hand to high-five Raymond as if that were actually an accomplishment to be celebrated.
"Hey!" Sara snapped, "Don't make me come down here again." She pointed at her eyes and then at them in the universal gesture for 'I'm watching you', and turned and left the room, with Len and Jax following behind her. They didn't even get halfway up the stairs before they heard the two nerds jokingly mimicking her threat like a pair of children. Sara turned right around and yelled "Hey!" at them again, before retreating once she believed they were properly intimidated.
Len hung back. "Unless you want our Captain to skewer you later on, I'd suggest cleaning this mess up."
Heywood scoffed. "Oh, come on, it's not that-"
"If my baby sister had the maturity to clean up her own messes at the age of six, I'd expect no less from two grown-ass adults with PhDs." He walked away as the pair looked down in shame.
"What is goin' on with them?" Jax asked as Len caught up to him and Sara.
"You don't have any brothers or sisters, do you?" Sara answered his question with another question.
"Nope."
"Sibling rivalry," Sara explained as shouts and the sound of Raymond's lasers resumed behind them, "Nothing to be too worried about."
"Are you sure about that?" Len asked dryly as the ship shook and the lights flickered after a particularly loud crash.
"This is why I'm glad I'm an only child," Jax sighed, shaking his head at the utter immaturity of two of their resident geniuses, "I'm gonna go see what Gray's up to." He split off from them and headed towards the library, in search of saner company.
Len shrugged. "Lisa and I never really fought like that. Of course, our fights mostly consisted of arguments about how late she could stay up, or why she wasn't allowed to wear her skirts as short as she wanted to."
Sara developed a wicked grin. "Oh, that brings back memories."
"Right, you said you used to be Daddy's Little Delinquent when you were a kid."
"It was just one shoplifting charge – well, that was just the one time that I got caught, anyway."
"Really? What was it?"
"These really cute earrings I saw in a little boutique at the mall. I had enough money on me that I could've just bought them, but my boyfriend at the time dared me to steal them. And then he bailed on me when I got caught by mall security. Needless to stay, he wasn't my boyfriend for long." She shrugged. "Of course, it wouldn't have mattered, really, because when I went to school the next Monday, Brittany Drew was wearing the exact same pair, and she would've given me hell for having the audacity to wear the same thing as her. God, I couldn't stand that girl…"
A high-pitched siren interrupted Len's response, and he glanced up at the ceiling in confusion. "What the hell is that?"
"Pardon me," Gideon announced, "But Dr. Heywood's Time Seismograph has detected an Aberration."
"That doesn't explain the annoying sound effects," Len growled as he and Sara made their way to the bridge.
"Who installed the alarm?!" Mick demanded grouchily when he entered shortly after Len and Sara.
"That'd be me," Heywood admitted.
"Kill 'em," Mick growled, and Heywood obediently shut the annoying thing off.
"We got another one?" Jax asked as he and Stein arrived.
"Yeah," Heywood confirmed, "and judging by these readings, it's a major one."
"Is it really cause for all this alarm?" Stein asked, "Perhaps the… Aberration isn't as large as we think!"
Len looked over at Stein quizzically. There was an odd underscore of… something… in the professor's tone, but Len couldn't quite figure out what it was.
"The temporal tremors originate from Union Station in Chicago, Illinois, October Seventeenth, in the year 1927," Gideon reported.
"That's fantastic!"
Now everyone was giving Stein curious looks, except for Jax, who smacked him on the arm and gave him a stern glare. What was that all about?
"I mean, I've always wanted to visit the Roaring Twenties, right in the middle of Prohibition."
"That means no drinking," Mick pointed out, "That's not good."
"Well, actually," Heywood corrected him, "under Capone, Chicago was a hotbed of vice. There was illegal drinking, gambling, prostitution…"
"Well then, let's fire up the tub and get there."
"Grab your fedoras," Sara instructed them all with a grin, "We're going to the 1920s."
Monday, October 17th, 1927
When they got to Union Station, the team split up. Len, Mick, and Amaya took up a position on a balcony, the two men disguised as employees, to get a bird's-eye view of the whole situation. Raymond and Heywood dressed up as businessmen waiting on their next train, Stein and Jax took up position on the sidewalk outside, on either side of the station's main entrance, and Sara coordinated everything from the Waverider.
"I can't believe we're here," Amaya sighed, wearing the biggest smile that Len had ever seen on her face.
"What are you so happy about?" Mick growled.
Amaya grinned at him. "When I was younger, I'd read my mother's magazines, and I'd see photos of Chicago. I never thought I'd see it with my own eyes."
"Well, keep those eyes focused on whatever's causing those temporal tremors," Sara reminded them.
"Copy that," Raymond replied.
"That's Eliot Ness," Heywood reported only seconds later. Len would've asked who that was, except he'd seen The Untouchables. He was the FBI Agent (or whatever they were calling it in the '20s) who took down the notorious mobster Al Capone.
Raymond had also seen that movie, apparently. "He doesn't look like Kevin Costner," the scientist commented with a scoff.
"What if somebody tipped off Capone that Ness is a future threat?"
"Then his life's in danger. Don't worry. I'm on it."
"Those two sentences shouldn't fit together," Len muttered to himself. If solving the problem had involved anything science-related, he would've had faith that Raymond could handle it, but the inventor tended to botch anything people-related.
Standing on the balcony with Mick and Amaya, he watched as Raymond dashed out of the station after a man in a black hat and coat. Their comms allowed them to hear Raymond's part of the conversation:
"Mr. Ness! Mr. Ness! Hi, uh, you don't know me. My name is Ray Palmer. I have reason to believe that your life may be in danger. It'd be best if you came with me."
Len frowned as he saw two police officers approach them, and after saying something to Raymond, the man left with them, and Raymond didn't bother trying to stop them. Something was wrong.
Heywood raced out of the station, coming up to Raymond. "What just happened?" the observers on the balcony heard him ask.
"Well, it's the strangest thing. Two cops just escorted Eliot Ness to the Bureau."
Len sighed in aggravation. "Raymond, you goddamn idiot!" He turned and started for the stairs. Maybe Raymond hadn't actually seen that movie.
Heywood was clearly of the same mind. "They're not escorting him to the Bureau! They're gonna throw him in the river!"
"What?"
"Ray, in the 1920s, Chicago PD was the most corrupt police force in history. Almost all of them are on Al Capone's payroll! Did you or did you not see 'The Untouchables'?!"
"I did," Mick piped up, having followed Len along with Amaya, "Cops win and the criminals lose? I hated it."
"Jax, Stein," Sara ordered the two halves of Firestorm stationed on the sidewalk on either side of the station's main entrance, "I need you to intercept Eliot Ness. He's being escorted by two police officers."
The cops and Ness had been heading in Stein's direction, and while the old man wasn't all that skilled at what he called 'fisticuffs', Len figured that the old man could at least be trusted to effectively stall Ness and his ill-intentioned 'bodyguards'.
Or not.
By the time Len and company got there, Jax was fuming and Stein was stammering apologies; Ness and the cops had walked right by him, and he'd done nothing to stop them. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Len demanded.
"What the hell happened back there?!" Sara demanded once they all got back to the Waverider, "How come you didn't stop him?"
"I'm sorry," Stein apologised again, "I got distracted."
"By what?"
"Tell her, Gray," Jax prompted, still looking pissed at his partner.
"It's not the Professor's fault," Heywood chimed in, "Ray let Ness walk right into Capone's hands."
"Sounds like they can both share the blame," Len compromised.
"They were police officers!" Raymond protested, "And who's to say they didn't take him to the FBI like they said they would?"
Heywood sighed. "Gideon, pull up the Chicago Chronicle, October 24th, 1931."
"Ah, yes," Gideon responded as a newspaper headline appeared on the screens of the central console, "The day Al Capone originally went down for tax evasion. Only, in this version of history, he becomes something far worse than a criminal. He becomes a politician." Sure enough, the main headline read 'MAYOR CAPONE KICKS OFF OKTOBERFEST', and featured a picture of Capone raising a huge stein of beer while a pretty girl kissed him on the cheek.
Len smirked. "Looks like even AIs agree that politics are evil."
"Al Capone becomes mayor," Raymond repeated dully, shame written all over his face, "Okay, I take it back. Ness probably is screwed."
"Well, let's find out where they took him," Sara said, "so we can un-screw him before this happens."
"I'll start looking up Capone in the library," Heywood volunteered, "See if any of his past crimes can give us a hint."
"I'll help," Amaya volunteered. She and Heywood both exited the bridge, Mick following behind them. Len and Sara exchanged a look, remembering what Len had noticed developing between the JSA member and the pyro back in the Old West.
Only half an hour later, Heywood came running onto the bridge, declaring that he'd figured it out. Apparently, Capone had had a favourite spot from which to dispose of his enemies, so much that the surrounding area had become known as 'Cadaver's Cove'. Sara ordered the entire team to suit up in their actual battle gear instead of bothering with their 1920s disguises.
They got to Dock 39 just in time to see Ness, with his wrists bound in front of him and cinderblocks tied to his feet, falling into the water with a scream and a splash. Of course, by 'falling', that meant 'getting pushed'.
"All this for some booze?" Mick asked loudly, getting the attention of Capone and his gang, "I like it."
Capone just smirked at the sight of them. "Nice get-ups. Seems our new friends have got some 'friends' of their own. Get 'em, boys!"
The gangsters (ten plus Capone) opened fire; those without armour or transmutation powers ducked behind Firestorm, Heywood, and Raymond, but only for a brief moment. Len, Mick, and Raymond opened fire, while Amaya dashed to the edge of the dock and, summoning the power of a dolphin, dove in to rescue Ness.
Up close, the grunts were painfully easy to beat, apparently having no real combat skills besides shooting and the most basic of streetfighting tactics. Mick was able to down one with nothing but a single punch. Len was pretty sure another one was about to wet himself before he clocked the wimp in the face with his Cold Gun.
"I'm going after Capone!" Raymond called.
"Let him go!" Sara countered, "We've got Ness!"
Indeed, Amaya had pulled the federal agent out of the water during the melee, and the Legends gathered around them once Capone's goons were all down, aside from the ones that had escaped alongside Capone himself.
"Is he dead?" Mick asked.
"Unconscious," Amaya reported worriedly, "He took on a lot of water."
"Let's get him back to the ship," Sara ordered, "If we can't even trust the cops here, taking him to the hospital will also be too much of a risk. And they might not be able to help him the way Gideon can."
Mick grunted in agreement and helped Amaya lift Ness and carry him away from the dock. The rest of the team followed, but Len glanced back. He couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched.
"That's a stupid idea," Mick voiced his opinion of Heywood's plan to keep Capone's arrest on-track: to impersonate Ness while he was still recovering from his brain damage from oxygen deprivation, and to lead his men to seize a ledger they were supposed to get their hands on soon.
"It's pre-internet," Heywood protested, "Nobody knows what Ness looks like!"
"Nate's right," Raymond agreed, "I got this."
"Actually, I was thinking I got this." Apparently, their 'sibling rivalry' from earlier today had still not died down.
"Well, yeah, I mean, if the mission was impersonating Brad Pitt, you'd be the man. But I think we can all agree, if anyone looks a G-Man here, it's me."
"Well, we're in this situation because you learned history from a movie."
"And not very well," Len piped up, deciding to take Heywood's side.
"Alright, enough!" Sara snapped, "Ray, I'm sorry, but Nate knows more about this era than any of us. What's the plan?" She handed the briefing over to Heywood.
"Okay, so if Capone's ledger is anywhere, it's probably at his primary speakeasy, the Chelsea Club. So Ray and I will go to the Bureau, assemble Ness's team, lead 'em to bust the place up, grab the ledger."
"Great. Take Rory with you."
Mick choked on his beer. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," he protested once he stopped coughing, "Does this face look like a cop to you?"
"It's not a good idea," Len advised, remembering the one time he'd tried to have Mick disguise himself as a security guard for part of the heist. That hadn't exactly gone well, so trying to make him play a full-blown cop was bound to be even worse. "Trust me, I'm speaking from personal experience on this one."
"If this were a JSA mission," Amaya weighed in, "we'd probably also send someone undercover at the club."
"Well, I'm not doing that either," Mick grumbled, holding up his beer bottle, "I'm done playing dress-up."
Sara rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll go to the club with Len, Jax, and Stein, and you can stay here, drink your beers, and watch over Ness."
Mick shrugged in what they guessed was agreement.
"What about me?" Amaya asked, the only one to not have an assignment.
"You can watch over him."
"What?!"
"Sorry," Sara called over her shoulder, already walking away.
Len just shrugged at her. "At least we're not actively planning on having him start a fight this time."
Tuesday, October 18th, 1927
Len and the others encountered no trouble gaining entry into the Chelsea Club, probably because security wasn't making an effort to stop anyone from coming in. It was in ordering the drinks themselves that things got secretive. Jazz music played, and all sorts of people gathered and talked and enjoyed their drinks. Sara walked around disguised as a new employee, carrying a tray of what looked like packs of cigarettes, while the three men sat down at the bar.
"This place is quite lively," Stein commented, "considering we haven't seen a single bottle of alcohol."
"Well Nate said it was a speakeasy," Jax murmured.
"Yeah," Sara confirmed as she walked by them, "That's why it's called a speakeasy."
"You've got to know how to ask for the good stuff," Len elaborated.
Stein nodded, then caught the attention of the bartender. "Excuse me, I'd like… a 'club soda', please." He followed that up with a wink that was anything but subtle.
Len and Jax exchanged a look. Len had a feeling that wasn't going to work. "Just water."
"One club soda and one water, coming up." The bartender moved away. Stein smiled victoriously.
"Here's what I wanna know," Jax wondered, "Why would somebody in the future be interested in helpin' Al Capone?" He glanced up nervously as the bartender returned, placing glasses in front of Len and Stein before walking off to deal with other patrons.
"That's what we're here to find out." Stein took a drink of his 'club soda' and grimaced. "This is just a club soda."
Len smirked. "That's because you still don't know how to ask for the good stuff."
Sara rolled her eyes and set her tray down nearby. "Ray? Nate?" she asked over the comms, "What's your status?"
"Be careful," Heywood warned them, "We're comin' in. Don't get caught in our net."
Len and Stein both got up from the bar and joined Sara as they made their way towards the door, but found their path blocked by a man in a grey coat with black fur trim and a black hat pulled low over his eyes. When he lifted his head, they all recognised him immediately. "What are squares like you doing in a place like this?" Damien Darhk asked.
"You," Sara growled. Despite her decision to not kill Darhk, her hatred of him was still very much there.
"Jefferson," Stein muttered worriedly. Jax got up from his bar stool and the two halves of Firestorm reached out to merge. Not the best idea in a bar filled with unsuspecting staff and patrons.
Before Len could tell them that, however, they were interrupted when a flash of red lightning zipped in between them, causing them all to stumble. "What the hell?!" Jax gasped.
The red lightning reappeared, coming very close to Len – and taking Sara with it. "SARA!"
He didn't even notice Darhk turning and calmly walking away.
"Jefferson, the speedster is here!" Stein cried, "Run!" He vanished in another flash of lightning.
"Gray!"
"Jax, come on!" Len grabbed Jax by his coat sleeve and began to pull him towards the exit, only for the pair to be forced to stop when the red lightning returned, only this time the speedster stopped long enough for Len to actually get a good look at him. He looked ordinary enough, just a blonde man in a normal-looking black leather jacket and pants. But then again, Barry Allen had never looked all that dangerous, either, even in his stupid red suit.
Len reached for his Cold Gun while Jax vaulted over the bar for cover, as if that would help, when the speakeasy doors suddenly burst open.
Len never got to actually see who was coming in, however, as he felt himself being lifted off his feet as the world blurred around him before going dark.
"This whole Capone Aberration was a distraction!" Pretty Boy Number 2 announced. As if they all hadn't figured it out by themselves. "Darhk and his speedster pal knew it would attract our attention."
Mick wasn't facing the others, instead sitting in his Jump Seat and trying to drink away the memory of that… vision of his old man. There was no way he was really there; Mick knew the bastard had burned up a long time ago. But there he'd been, standing in the Med Bay door like nothing'd happened, his voice the same as Mick remembered it as he taunted Mick about going soft and staying with this bunch of do-gooders.
"But why kidnap Sara and Stein?" Jax asked. Mick listened, if only for the distraction. "I mean, what could he want with them?"
"Still trying to work that one out," Haircut admitted.
"Are you alright, Jax?" Amaya asked the kid.
"I'm pissed."
"Let it go, kid," Mick advised him, "There's nothin' you can do about speedsters." Even the Cold Gun and Heat Gun hadn't been enough to stop the Flash from catching them.
"We'll see about that." Mick glanced over his shoulder when he heard a funny clicking noise, and saw Jax unlatching a big, metal case he'd set on the main console. "Long story short, Rip had a secret armory." That caught Mick's interest; he and Snart had cased the whole ship when they first started the whole time-travel gig, but they hadn't found that. "Me and Gray found it when you guys were out in Feudal Japan."
"And you didn't tell us?" Mick didn't have to look back to see Haircut's patented Kicked-Puppy Face.
"This speedster killed Rex and kidnapped our friends," Amaya growled, "We need him in the brig before dawn."
"Yeah. If this weapon does what I think it does, it'll stop him dead in his tracks. Which is a good thing, because Snart had the Cold Gun on him when he was taken."
"Yeah, well, that's all well and good," Heywood interrupted, "but we still need to get Capone's ledger, otherwise history's screwed."
"Since your last plan was a total bust," Haircut gloated, "I suggest somebody else do the strategic thinking."
Mick groaned quietly. Raymond taking charge and making plans? No thanks.
"Let me guess, that's you?" Mick was with Pretty Boy Two on this one. "Alright, so, let's hear your brilliant idea."
Haircut was quiet at first. "Well, I don't have one. But it's gonna be better than yours."
Mick decided he was done with playing by the rules. If Rip, Sara, and Snart – the real planners on the team – weren't available, someone else who knew what they were dealing with would have to take charge. And this was one of those rare cases where that someone else was him. "Enough!" He stood up. "If you wanna nail Capone and Rex's killer, you can't do it by playing a Boy Scout or a historian or a policeman." He looked Amaya in the eye, remembering her telling him about her silly childhood dream just hours ago. "We do this my way. Like a criminal."
Len groaned as he lifted his head. God, he hated being knocked out.
He quickly took stock of what he was aware of so far: mainly, that he was in a sitting position, and that there were restraints around his wrists and his chest. He wrenched his eyes open. Blinking, he saw that he was in some kind of dimly-lit room, tied to a chair and surrounded by wooden barrels. Some sort of storage room, then. Sara and Stein were similarly restrained on either side of them, the Professor already awake while Sara was still stirring.
"Nice place," Len commented sarcastically as Sara finally joined them in the realm of the waking.
"Yes, the Ritz-Carlton it is definitely not," Stein agreed.
"How did we get here?" Sara wondered aloud.
"It appears our speedster friend got the better of us."
"And he wasn't working alone," Len added bitterly, "Damien Darhk, another predictable ally for Al Capone."
The door to their left suddenly swung open, admitting one lone man. "And don't forget about me."
Len knew of this man, if only through pictures and some second-hand stories he'd picked up from Sara, Raymond, and their friends. Malcolm Merlyn. This was the man responsible for the huge earthquake in Star City back in 2013 (or Starling, as it was called back then). This was the man who brainwashed his own daughter into killing Sara. This was the man who sided with Damien Darhk after losing leadership of the League of Assassins in 2016, and this was one of the many people who were present when the bastard had fatally stabbed Laurel Lance.
"It's been a long time, Sara. You look good for someone who's come back from the dead."
Sara just gave him a derisive smile. "Why am I not surprised that you and Damien Darhk would find each other?"
"What do you want with us?" Len asked coldly, "I seriously doubt your little speedster buddy brought us here just so that you and Sara could catch up."
Merlyn tipped his head in acknowledgement and started casually pacing around Sara's chair. "You have something we need. And while my partners think I'm a fool for trying, I would like to broker a deal with you." Three guesses as to what that 'something' was. "You have in your possession an amulet." Bingo. "Give it to me…" He stopped his pacing to look Sara in the eye. "…and I will give you nine years of your life back."
Sara glared at him. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, maybe Oliver didn't tell you. But I was the one who arranged to blow up the Queen's Gambit."
Len's blood froze. He'd eventually learned that the Gambit had sunk due to sabotage, and not an accident, but neither Sara nor Raymond nor any of their friends had dropped the name of the person behind it. At this point, Len was starting to wonder which one had done more to hurt Sara: Damien Darhk or Malcolm Merlyn.
"That was the day everything changed for you, Sara. Hundreds of dominoes toppling. Dr. Ivo, Slade Wilson, the League of Assassins… losing your sister."
Sara didn't even blink. "Oliver did tell me. He also told me that it led to you losing your son, too."
Something akin to pain crossed Merlyn's face. "We both get clean slates."
"Why don't you just ask your speedster friend to take you back in time?" Stein demanded.
"Because Malcolm's just his errand boy," Sara declared, "sent to retrieve the amulet."
"The low man on the totem pole can't just ask such a favor from his big, bad boss," Len taunted.
"Why's it so important?"
"What does it matter?" Merlyn countered, sneering at Len's comment but otherwise ignoring it, "I'm giving you and your sister a chance to live normal lives, to go back, maybe go to college, meet a nice boy – or a girl – and settle down."
It had to be tempting for Sara. To be rid of the pain and horrors she'd gone through in the past decade. But the selfish part of Len couldn't bear it if she took it, because that mean they'd never meet. At least, not in the way that they had. Even with Barry's annoying optimism that he could be a hero getting into his head, Len would never get as far as he had without Sara's influence, and a Sara who'd never known pain and darkness could never convince him to be a better man. Who knew where he'd be – what kind of person he'd be – if not for her?
"No, thank you. I was never meant for those things. And I know that, now. And besides, you can't just go back and change things like that."
Merlyn chuckled. "Well, why not?"
"Because time is sacred. And it can't be changed to suit any one person's desire without harming the lives of countless others."
Merlyn stepped closer to her. "But you wouldn't remember any of this, would you? You would be blissfully unaware of time-travel. Of loss. Of heartbreak. You'd be happy. And isn't that what matters most, in the end?" He started to walk out of the room.
"Hey, Malcolm!" Sara called back after him. Merlyn paused in the doorway and turned around to listen. "Clearly, you aren't aware of what happened on our previous mission. I'll take a nightmare that's real over a dream that's a lie."
Merlyn scowled and left, shutting and locking the door behind him.
"That was remarkably selfless," Stein praised Sara.
Sara smiled. "Well, I had a good teacher."
"Yes. Captain Hunter."
"No. I was talking about you." She looked over at Len. "And you played no small part in it, too."
"Me?"
"Yeah, you. You're the one who, out of the two of us, has always been better at looking at the big picture, thinking about cause and effect and consequences." She sighed. "I can't believe Malcolm thought I would actually take that deal."
"But you were tempted, weren't you?" Len asked.
"Of course. But for one thing, I wouldn't have met you. I told Malcolm I'd rather live in a nightmare that's real, and while this life isn't perfect, it's not all bad. And besides, we can't let a man like that change history. Imagine the havoc that it would cause."
"Ah, yes," Stein murmured, "When it comes to time-travel, even the best of us can wreak havoc."
"What do you mean?"
Len glanced over at Stein. "It almost sounds as though you're speaking from personal experience."
Stein only sighed in response.
"Martin?" Sara prompted, "You have been acting weird ever since we fought the Dominators. What's going on?"
Stein was quiet for another few seconds, but then he finally gave them an answer. "It was an innocent mistake. I… I was just trying to give myself a bit of marital advice."
"You mean, when we met your younger self in 1987?" Len guessed.
"Yes. Never did I imagine it would have an effect."
"You caused an Aberration?" Sara gasped.
"I… have a daughter."
Well, damn. Adding a whole new person to the timeline would definitely count as an Aberration.
"A what?" It seemed that Sara didn't think that she'd heard correctly.
"Full-grown, human progeny. One I never even knew I had. She's beautiful, brilliant-"
"And not real!" Sara snapped.
"At first, no. But… then I remembered. I… remember the- the countless nights I spent pacing the neighborhood with her stroller, trying to get her to sleep. The, the way my heart melted the first time she smiled at me. The… the distress she caused her kindergarten teacher when she insisted on singing the Periodic Table instead of the Alphabet. I, I- I remembered all of it."
"But none of that happened to you," Sara tried to remind him.
"But the memories are real. They are a part of me, now. She is a part of me, now. And… I love her."
"Martin, you were the one who talked me into not killing Damien Darhk! Into not bringing my sister back because of the damage that it will do to history!"
Before the argument could continue any further, the doors to their cell opened again, only this time it was Damien Darhk who entered. "Ah, I'm sorry, but my ears were burning. I understand Malcolm tried to play nice and offer you a deal. Since you didn't bite, we're gonna have to be a little… rougher."
Len rolled his eyes. "Spare us the euphemisms, would you? We know you're planning to torture us. I was actually expecting it to start a lot sooner."
"Do your worst," Sara told Dark coldly. Len knew that, as a trained assassin, she could probably take it even better than him, but the thought of Sara being tortured still turned his insides cold.
"Oh, you didn't think that I meant you?" Darhk asked with a chuckle, "Oh, I fear, with your League training, torture, while fun, would be a waste of time."
Movement to their left alerted them to two trench coat-wearing henchmen entering the room through the door Darhk had left open.
Darhk moved away from Sara and stopped in front of and between Len and Stein. "Now… which one to choose? The one who'll break more easily? Or perhaps the boyfriend?"
"Don't you dare!" Sara threatened, lunging against her restraints.
Darhk smirked. "I think we'll go with the boyfriend. Gentlemen?" He pointed at Len, and the two men came up to him and undid the ropes around his wrists.
Len fought back, of course. The man on his left got an elbow to the throat. The man on his right got a punch to the face. He would've done more, but Darhk moved over to Stein and pulled a gun out, holding it to the professor's head.
"Ah, ah, ah," Darhk chided, "You see, I really only need one of you two gentlemen. Believe me, Mr. Snart, if you continue to resist, I might just decide that two is one too many." He released the safety on his weapon, making Stein gulp audibly.
Len glared at him hatefully, but stopped fighting. "Sara, whatever you do, don't give them anything!" he told her as they dragged him out of the room.
"Len!" Sara cried, "LEN!"
Len was dragged down the hall – 'tunnel' would actually be more accurate – until he could see the exit. A flight of stone steps illuminated by moonlight. But there was someone in his way: a man standing halfway up the stairs, his features obscured in shadow.
Even as he was contemplating a way to escape his captors' grip and run back to Sara and Stein (which would prove useless unless Darhk was no longer there to threaten the professor), Len found himself being roughly thrown to the ground. He looked up to see the henchmen closing a gate behind him, leaving him trapped on the other side with the silhouetted man.
The man stepped forward. "Mr. Snart, am I right?"
Len stood and dusted himself off. "Do I know you?" he snarled.
"Well, not really. We never actually had the pleasure of meeting. And even if we had, you wouldn't recognize me as I am now." As he neared Len, his face became visible in the light illuminating the tunnel. It was the speedster. He held up a small-ish, square, boxy, silver object. "I'm not going to lie to you: this, uh, little toy usually leaves the subject, well, dead. But, uh, I've adjusted it so that you should only feel… a little pain." He pressed a switch on one side, causing what looked like the point of a long needle to pop out and the device to start making a whirring sound. "In theory."
Len wasn't about to just let him stick that thing anywhere near him, but it didn't seem like he had that much of a choice. The speedster lunged forward, shoving Len into the gate behind him, fast enough and hard enough that it was like being punched in the gut by a Steeled-up Heywood. The henchmen, still on the other side of the gate, reached through and grabbed his arms while he was still stunned, holding him in place.
Len kicked and swore, but it was all for nothing as the speedster advanced on him and casually jabbed the device into his shoulder.
God, it hurt. Len could only imagine that this was what electrocution felt like, but it wouldn't stop. Every nerve ending was on fire, and he couldn't stop the screams.
Less than a minute later – or maybe more – the pain finally stopped. Len sagged against the gate, his limbs feeling like jelly. He blinked a couple times to restore his blurred vision, and then several more times when his brain refused to accept what he was seeing in front of him.
But it was there. The speedster kneeled down, now wearing a face identical to his own, even dressed in the same clothes. "Now," Len's own voice drawled from the speedster's mouth, "let's hope that your friends come to the rescue in a timely manner."
Amaya had been skeptical when Rory had decided to take charge. Sure, he was one of the team's resident criminals, but Snart had labelled himself as having always been the brains of the operation, the one who put the plan together. When Ray had voiced that same opinion, Rory had just snorted and said that thirty years of following Snart's plans had taught him enough about actually making them. And it was fairly simple; a bit of historical research by Gideon and Nate had pinpointed a truck that would be carrying one of many illegal alcohol shipments to Capone's main base of operations, although they couldn't be sure their captive teammates would be held there. Still, it wasn't like they had anywhere else to look, and it was likely that the ledger would be there, so at least they wouldn't be walking away from this completely empty-handed.
Amaya and Mick had hijacked the truck, then followed the directions that Mick had scared out of the original driver all the way to Capone's warehouse, with Ray and Nate riding in the back. Two men greeted them at the loading dock. "You're not the regular driver," one of them noticed immediately, "What happened to Vinny?"
"Vinny?" Mick questioned, "He, uh… He's hangin' out with your mother."
"What?!"
"What?" Mick parroted back, mocking the man.
The two thugs were so focused on Mick that they didn't see Ray and Nate jumping down from the back of the truck and attacking them from behind. Nate smashed the first guy's head against the hood of the truck while Ray knocked the second one out with a punch.
"So, here's the plan," Ray began.
Amaya was having none of it. "It's for us to rescue the people who got caught because of you." She was getting seriously sick of Ray and Nate's recent – and immaturely petty – obsession with one-upping each other.
"She's talkin' about you," Nate insisted, pointing at Ray.
"No, I think she's taking about you," Ray retorted.
"Shut up!" Mick snapped at both of them, "You're supposed to be partners. Partners have each other's backs!"
Both Ray and Nate looked shamefaced at being told off. "Alright, Mick's right," Nate admitted, "We can all agree that we need to get Capone's ledger. Fair?"
"Agreed," Ray grumbled. The four of them made their way inside.
From there, they split up. Ray and Nate made their way upstairs in hopes of finding Capone's office and the ledger therein while Amaya and Mick swept different halves of the lower floor. Amaya held the anti-speedster gun at the ready. That bastard would not harm anyone else she cared about, not if she had anything to say about it.
She tried a door to her right; it was unlocked, and she cautiously entered. Relief flooded her when she saw two familiar faces. "Sara? Stein?" She ran forward; both of them were seated in wooden chairs with their wrists tied to the arms and additional loops of rope holding them against the backs of the chairs. What was worrying, however, was the empty chair between them with discarded ropes just lying there. "Are you okay?"
"We're fine," Sara confirmed, "We need to find Len; they took him. I think they're torturing him to try and make us give them the amulet."
Amaya hurriedly untied the two of them, and the trio set off on a search.
It didn't actually take that long to find Snart; behind yet another unlocked door, they found a couple of thugs standing over him where he was tied to a different chair with his nose bloodied. One thug was casually wiping blood off his knuckles.
They barely even saw Sara coming; the former assassin had them both unconscious and even bloodier than her lover before they could even defend themselves. "Len, are you okay?" She carefully lifted his head while Amaya watched the door and Stein quickly untied him. "Len?"
"…Sara?" Snart's voice was weak, quiet.
"Len, what did they do to you?!"
Snart blinked a few times. "Used… some weird thing… must be from the future. Stings like hell."
"And the bloody nose?" Amaya asked.
A weak smirk appeared on his face. "That guy just didn't like what I was implying about his mother." He tried to stand, but would have dropped back into his seat if Sara and Stein hadn't caught him.
"Easy," Sara told him softly, "We're gonna get you out of here." Together, she and Stein slung his arms over their shoulders and began to lead him out.
They ran into Ray and Nate along the way. "Hey! You found them!" Nate stated the obvious with a big grin on his face, "Are you guys okay?" He shot a worried look at Snart, who was still being held up by Sara and Stein.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Snart told him breathlessly.
"Let's get outta here," Amaya insisted.
The six of them only moved a few yards forward, however, when they ran into a problem. Al Capone himself was blocking their way, along with two of his thugs.
"Oh my God," Nate gasped, "You're Al Capone! That's Scarface!" He sounded like he was… what was that word Jax had used once? Fanboying. Nate was fanboying over Al Capone.
"Yeah, I don't think he likes that nickname," Ray whispered back.
"No?"
"I don't like when people try and steal what's mine," Capone snapped, "How do you think it makes me feel, seeing all you thieves on my property?"
"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say not good," Nate muttered.
Capone smiled thinly. "See, the doctor used to give me these pills, said it would help calm me down. Then, one day, I realized the only thing that makes me feel any better is killin'." He raised his Tommy Gun. "Time for some therapy."
Capone and his men opened fire on them. Amaya, Sara, Stein, and Snart ducked behind some crates for cover while Ray took shelter behind a Steeled-up Nate. A roar of anger, followed by a thud, brought the gunfire to a close. Sara vaulted over the boxes she and Snart were huddling behind and kicked one thug in the face. Amaya peered out from behind her shelter and saw Mick belting the other one in the face and knocking him out. Capone himself could be seen struggling to get up in one corner.
"Let's go," Sara insisted, helping a still-dazed Snart to his feet and leading the way out of the building.
Eobard Thawne knew it was only a matter of time before the Legends – idiots though they were – realised that something was off about 'Snart', especially his little girlfriend. He had to find the amulet, and quickly. It was just a good thing that he just so happened to excel at doing things quickly. But the irony was that his speed would not be enough to save him should his pursuer arrive in this time, so he needed to find that amulet if he ever wanted to stop fleeing his fate.
As soon as he got away from the crowd of sickeningly-concerned Legends (they were reminding him a bit too much of Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin), he wandered the ship until he found what appeared to be a library. An excellent place to keep the amulet, especially if they wanted to research it to figure out its origins. Not that they would have found anything yet – it had taken Eobard exhaustive searching and investigation just to locate the damn thing himself, and he'd already known what he was looking for.
He zipped around the room, searching through every drawer he could find, checking the inside of all the books for those cliché hollows in them. And he found nothing.
Eobard was just about to check for equally cliché hidden compartments in the walls and furniture when he heard them – footsteps. He stopped and grabbed a random book, leaning against the desk and pretending to be reading.
Sara Lance walked in only two seconds later, having already changed back into her regular 21st century clothes, with a serious look on her face. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
"I'm alright," Eobard answered shortly, hoping she would go away.
Instead, she stepped closer. "Look, Len, whatever they did to you, you can talk to me about it. Like after what happened in Keystone in '89, or after the Oculus blew you to 2024, or… or after Mick captured you as Chronos." She actually reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand, but Eobard pulled away, hoping it wasn't too out of character. Girlfriend or not, Snart had come across as the standoffish type, anyway, and probably wouldn't be one for talking about feelings. "Hey, are you okay?" Lance asked in concern, "You're kind of warmer than usual. You're not coming down with anything, are you?" Dammit. Eobard knew that speedsters had a higher body temperature than normal, but he hadn't been considering the possibility that that, of all things, might give him away.
Dr. Nathaniel Heywood then came in through the library's other door, looking anxious. "Sara, uh, Jax and I were, just on the bridge, and, um…" The historian coughed nervously. "We want to talk to you about ship stuff."
Oh no. Heywood's request was so horribly vague and ambiguous and awkward that it could only mean one thing: that Heywood was trying to get Lance out of the library without having to say why. It could mean that he and the others were onto Eobard.
"'Ship stuff'?" Lance questioned.
Heywood glanced at Eobard nervously, and the speedster knew at that moment that his cover had been blown. "…Yeah."
Lance shrugged. "Okay."
Eobard grabbed her arm as she started to walk past him. "I'm sure there's no need to rush off. You and Jax can wait, right, Nate?"
Lance looked at him suspiciously. "Since when do you call him 'Nate'?"
Heywood was still trying for subtlety. "Actually, it's, uh, it's pretty urgent. We should go now."
Lance seemed to finally get what he was saying, and nodded. "Okay."
There was a long, tense silence, as Eobard still had Lance by the arm. Then he decided to give up all pretense. He dashed forward at super-speed, grabbing Heywood as well and throwing both of them into the wall. Then he stood in front of them and vibrated the illusion away (the main purpose of his modifications to his doppelgänger device being to make the change only temporary). He let the pair stare at him in horror before running off. It was time to resort to Plan B.
What Eobard wasn't expecting was to suddenly be hit with something that felt like a punch to the gut and sent him crashing to the floor, rolling several feet until he came to a stop. Even worse – he could feel his speed leaving him, his powers vanishing. He looked up, groaning, and saw Jefferson Jackson standing over him, daggers in his eyes and a large weapon pointed at Eobard.
Fortunately, Eobard recognised the weapon in question. "A speedster weapon. Impressive." It was just too bad for the kid that no one had ever managed to make the effects of such a weapon permanent. Eobard felt his speed coming back already, enough for him to get up, disarm Jackson, and pin him to the wall by his throat before the boy could fire again. "Unfortunately for you, the effects are only temporary."
"What did you do with Snart?" the boy demanded.
"Oh, I wouldn't waste my energy worrying about him right now." His fingers tightened over the boy's throat.
"Whatever you're gonna do," Jackson choked, "Do it now."
"In a rush to die, are we?"
"I wasn't talkin' to you."
Movement drew Eobard's attention to Jackson's right shoulder. A miniaturised Dr. Palmer jumped off and at Eobard. Eobard stumbled back, his speed not completely restored yet, but not quickly enough to avoid being punched in the face as the inventor re-sized himself (he was never telling Darhk or Merlyn about this part).
He ran, thankfully fast enough to avoid the blast shot at him by Dr. Palmer. Prof. Stein appeared in his path with a simple stunning weapon (which he was holding incorrectly), and Eobard just punched him as he ran past, before the professor had time to try to shoot him with it. He made it to the bridge, closing the doors and sealing himself inside before Palmer and Jackson could get past them. Then, thanks to his research on time ships, he was able to disengage the cloaking shield and open the cargo bay door to allow Malcolm and some of Capone's goons entry.
Fear. That was the first thing that Sara felt when she saw her boyfriend – except it wasn't really her boyfriend – morph into the speedster. For all her assassin training, this man could both kill her and Nate before they could even perceive his attack. Then, when he ran off and left them alone, that fear for her own life changed into fear for Len's. If they'd brought the speedster onto the ship, then where was the real Len? Was he still alone with Darhk and Malcolm and Capone? Was he still being tortured? Was he even alive?
Nate scrambled to his feet first, racing off after the speedster. Sara opted to grab some weaponry first, which turned out to be a pretty good instinct when Gideon pleasantly announced that the ship's cloaking shield was down and, seconds later, that the cargo bay door was opening. She growled. Like how she and Len had used Jonah Hex as their Trojan Horse to get into Quentin Turnbull's camp, the speedster must have used his disguise as Len to get onto the Waverider and let his allies on board. The news that Stein had been hurt just pissed her off even further.
Sara turned a corner and was nearly turned into a piece of human Swiss cheese, only her assassin reflexes allowing her to duck back behind the corner without getting shot. She peered out, sighting two men – some of Capone's thugs, judging by the way they were dressed – shooting at her with Tommy Guns from either side of an open door. She fired back, hitting the one to her right, then his buddy on her left.
Another gangster took the first man's place, however, and kept firing.
Sara had to duck back and reload. "Guys?" she called over the comms, "Could use a little help, here." It took less than a minute, luckily, for Nate and a fully-armoured Ray to show up, although a fourth gangster had arrived, as well. "Steel up," she told Nate, who nodded and promptly did just that.
He and Ray stepped out, bullets ricocheting off them for a few seconds until the gangsters apparently ran out of ammunition. "Isn't that just like a thug?" Ray asked, doing what seemed to be a Sean Connery impression, "Brings a Tommy Gun to an Ion Blaster fight?" He shot the two of them and brought them down with ease.
"Nice work, guys," Sara breathed, "Make sure the four of them stay down. I'm going to check Rip's study; someone will probably be searching for the amulet there." She ran off before either one of them could disagree, making it to the bridge and finding the study undisturbed, unlike the library.
Deciding that ambush would be a better tactic in this case, Sara used a chair by the door and the doorframe itself to climb up and hide, pressed between the frame's ledge and the ceiling. She didn't have to wait long; Malcolm Merlyn calmly walked onto the bridge, his coat draped over one arm and his hat in hand. He casually tossed the hat onto Rip's telescope as if he were in his own home, and then began to search the room.
Sara dropped down, unable to completely silence the sound of her feet hitting the floor (League training could only do so much against the laws of physics).
"The League taught you well," Malcolm said before turning around, "But unless you hand over the amulet, I'm going to have to teach you a few new lessons."
"Those who cannot do, teach," Sara mocked. She spun around and kicked at him, but he dodged by jumping and flipping over the table. Sara jumped over it as well and landed one kick to his chest, then swung out with her left fist and missed.
Malcom managed to punch her in the face once, then grabbed her by the back of her head while she was disoriented and slammed it into the table. Sara grabbed a heavy book off that same table and smacked him in the head with it. Malcolm ducked her next swing and tackled her around the waist, pushing her back, until Sara regained her footing and used his own momentum to throw him out of the study – as a bonus, his head even smacked against the doorframe while he was in mid-air. Sara kicked him again while he was still getting up, but he caught her follow-up punch and used it to flip her over and onto the floor. Turnabout was fair play, as Sara grabbed Malcolm's arm and did the same thing to him. He kicked her in the gut and stood up when she stumbled back, drawing a knife from his pocket. Sara dodged his blade multiple times until he got lucky and slammed her up against the central console, leaving her struggling to keep his knife away from her throat.
"I gave you an out," he growled, "Not just a chance to survive, but to live a better life!"
"I already found a better life," Sara retorted, "One without you in it!" She forced his hand away and punched him in the nose, slammed his head against the console like he'd done to her, then followed up with another punch that sent him to the floor. Sara didn't give him any time to recover, pressing one knee against his back, pulling his head up by his hair, and holding a blade of her own to his throat.
"What about your boyfriend?" Malcolm grunted, "Leonard Snart, wasn't it? I see you still have a thing for bad boys and girls."
Sara pressed her blade harder against his throat. "Where is he?"
"My dear, that information comes at a cost."
Len didn't make it easy for Capone. Though he was still weak from whatever the speedster had done to him, he put up a hell of a fight regardless and gave them a hell of a time just tying his wrists together and taking him back down to Dock 39. Even now, he was struggling against the two burly men holding him near the edge of the dock. "Don't look so glum, Mr. Snart," Capone was saying, "You'll be in good company at the bottom of this here river. Thieves, snitches, a couple cops… they've all run afoul of my organization, but you? I've never had to whack someone quite like you." He held up Len's Cold Gun. "And I look forward to playin' with this new toy you've given me. This'll help me move up in the world, eh, boys?" The two thugs on either side and behind him chuckled.
"Like hell," Len growled. He elbowed the thug on his left in the stomach as hard as he could, causing the man to double over and loosen his grip, then punched the second guy in the nose before shoving him over the edge and into the water. A knee to the face knocked the first guy out.
The whine of the Cold Gun starting up forced him to stop; Capone was pointing his own weapon at him, while the other two thugs aimed their regular guns. "Now, that wasn't very nice. Maybe I'll just test out my new toy instead o' just throwin' you in the river."
Suddenly, both thugs went down with cries of pain; as they fell facedown on the dock, the throwing knives sticking out of their backs were glaringly obvious.
And then Sara was there, punching Capone in the face when he turned around. "Thank God," she gasped, rushing forward to untie Len.
"The speedster," he told her, "He did something to make himself look exactly like me, clothes and everything. You have to-"
"We know. He's already shed his disguise, after we brought him onto the Waverider and before he let Malcolm and four of Capone's men on board. Malcolm and the speedster are long gone, and the thugs are dead."
"How'd you know where to find me?" he asked, rubbing his wrists once he was free of the ropes.
Sara looked down. "Malcolm told me… I gave him the amulet."
Len stared at her. "What?"
"He wouldn't tell me where they had you, otherwise. And we can get the amulet back someday, but we can't get you back if you die!" She stood on her toes, laced her fingers behind his head, and pulled him into a desperate kiss.
The sound of Capone's groaning had them breaking apart a few seconds later. "We should probably take this elsewhere," Len murmured. He walked over to Capone picked up his Cold Gun. "And I'll be taking this back, if you don't mind." Then he kicked Capone in the face. "I didn't think you would."
Wednesday, October 19th, 1927
Len was taken straight to the Med Bay when they returned to the Waverider. The team had Gideon scan him over and over to be sure that he was the real deal. Len grew impatient with this about five minutes in – unfortunately, the scanning and 'precautionary measures' lasted about half an hour before Sara finally put her foot down and told the nerds to stop fussing. She then spent the rest of the night showing Len just how grateful she was to have him back and in one piece.
In other news, Stein was recovering from his concussion quite quickly, and the speedster had nearly killed Mick and Amaya, but had just run off for whatever reason when, according to Amaya, his futuristic wristwatch started beeping. Whatever that was all about.
Len looked up when Sara re-entered their room the following morning, plates of fruit and toast in hand. "How'd your talk with Stein go?"
"It went alright." She set the plates down on the side table and sat down next to him on the bed. "I've decided to not bother changing time, in his case."
He raised one eyebrow. "What happened to 'Time is Sacred'? Just last night, you were telling Stein that she wasn't real."
Sara shrugged. "I checked with Gideon. Lily Stein isn't doing any damage to the timeline. In fact, she made a major contribution to our fight against the Dominators, and that sort of made her integral to the timeline. I guess that either the timeline adapted itself to her existence without really changing, or maybe Stein was always supposed to go back and make the change. Either way, erasing her from existence could actually do more harm than good. And I really didn't want to have to do that to Stein, anyway."
Len turned over her words in his head. "How did Stein's daughter – you said her name was Lily?" Sara nodded. "How did Lily contribute to fighting the Dominators?"
"Well, apparently she's got her dad's brains, and Caitlin brought her in to help with the science angle – since everyone in 2016 now believes that she always existed. Those nano-weapons they came up with? Lily was the one who made the big breakthrough with those."
"Well, there's a point for not going back and erasing her. Dunno how long we would've been able to hold out without those things. Are we going to tell the others?"
"I've left that decision up to Stein. She's his daughter, after all. Jax already knows, and the others will find out eventually, but Stein will decide the when and how of it all."
Len smirked. "Which means that, with our luck, she's going to walk up to everyone and introduce herself before he has a chance to explain."
Sara grinned at that. "Yeah, that sounds like something that would happen to us." She reached over and grabbed a now-cold piece of toast from her plate, playing with it in her hands instead of biting into it. "So… sorry to change the subject, but is there anything else you remember from when you were alone with the speedster? Anything we can use to figure out who he is?"
Len frowned, thinking back. "He knew my name, but he also said that we've never met, and that I wouldn't recognize him if we had. I'm not sure what that means."
Sara hummed in thought. "He could've just done his research; you're fairly well-known in Central City, and we don't even know what kind of resources he has, but considering he's a time-traveling speedster who can get into pretty much any facility he wants, I'd say he has a lot."
"So… we're still at Square One?"
"'Fraid so."
I'm assuming that Capone takes the place of Anton Cermak, who was elected as Mayor of Chicago in April 1931 IRL. There was a mayoral election in 1927, but I couldn't find the exact date, and it didn't seem realistic that Capone could go from gangster to 'legitimate' mayoral candidate in less than a year, anyway.
Why didn't Thawne search Rip's study while he locked himself on the bridge? It's shown that the Legion is in possession of communicators just like the Legends, so Malcolm wouldn't have gone to search the study unless Thawne hadn't already done so.
So, that's all she wrote for now, folks, but I look forward to getting back to my baby as soon as I can.
Love!
Spectre