Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrowor any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.
S.T.A.R. Labs Hangar
"Thanks for getting Roy and Thea home." Oliver told Nate gratefully.
"I can't believe that you guys escaped an alien spaceship; key words – alien spaceship." Cisco said, excited. "I have questions."
"They can wait." Oliver said before glaring at him. "And you just couldn't keep your mouth shut, couldn't you?"
Cisco scoffed. "He had to come clean, Oliver…"
"In a middle of war with aliens?!" Oliver snarled. "Didn't you think that there would be time for that later?!" He raised his voice.
"We can't trust Barry anymore, Oliver!"
"Save it and grow up, Cisco!" Oliver shot back. "I get that you two have issues and it's not something you can simply just get past but we're in a middle of war with aliens; if you can't keep your personal feelings aside during a mission, you're a liability! Besides, it's not like Barry just upright murdered your brother, so either you can stop whining like a little child and focus and be useful, or get out and don't come back here until it's over!" Bruce, Diana and most of the Justice League, alongside with Laurel, Tommy, Barbara, Oliver, Tatsu and Henry glared at Cisco, not that he was affected by it not one bit.
"Fine, I'll keep working on how to fend off Dominators, if you want, almighty Oliver." Cisco said sarcastically as he raised his hands in surrender and waltzed off.
"What's the status, Bruce?" Oliver asked.
"Nothing since they were probing in your minds." Bruce said.
"But why?" Barbara asked.
"Maybe they were trying to pit us against each other, in order to gain intel about metahumans?" Ray deduced.
"Metas pose the biggest threat to their invasion; it would make sense they would want to get to know their enemies." Kara noted.
"By kidnapping people; perhaps they were searching your minds for potential vulnerabilities." Stein agreed.
"I think it's time that we returned the favor." Oliver suggested.
"What do you wanna do, kidnap one of them?" Diggle asked.
"Ever since we fought off that one ship, they've been in short supply." Barry noted.
"Hal tried to find them but he couldn't risk drawing their attention back to Earth." Bruce warned.
"I know where to find them." Nate remembered as he approached one of the computers in the hangar. "I've been reviewing some of the old army footage of their first encounter with Dominators and I think I pegged the fight to…" The monitors showed black and white forage of soldiers fighting in the desert against a Dominator. "Redmond, Oregon, 1951."
"You're suggesting that we travel back to 1951, abduct a Dominator, and interrogate it to determine their intention?" Stein asked.
"They kidnapped us. Seems fair." Sara pointed out.
"Time travel, I'm definitely in." Cisco said, excited.
"Hold on, Cisco, professor Stein, Caitlin and the rest are figuring out the way to take down the Dominators; they could probably use your help." Barry said.
"Pass." Cisco glowered and Barry winced.
"Cisco!" Laurel snapped at him but Cisco just scoffed, ignoring the fierce glares they were throwing at him.
"Barbara, Henry; you're coming with Mick and Amaya as a backup." Oliver ordered as Barbara and Henry nodded.
"And the new president called; which would be cool under different circumstances; she wants to meet with us." Barry said.
"Let's bring Ray and Sara as backup." Oliver suggested.
"What about me? I can be a backup." Kara volunteered.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" Oliver gestured aside with his head as Kara followed him. "I would like to minimize your involvement in this."
"Why?" Kara asked offended. "Because I'm an alien? No offense, Oliver but you have here a cyborg, an intergalactic cop, a king of Atlantis and a demi-goddess; we're your biggest weapons."
"This isn't personal, Kara but to me, you all are unknown quantities."
"Except that's exactly how this feels, Oliver." Diana said, approaching him and hearing the conversation.
"When I was starting this live, it was just me, I went against human threats; that I can handle; then it was metahumans and I can handle that; and last year, I went against magic; this year it's multiple Earths, aliens brainwashing…"
"I'm sure that was unnerving." Kara reasoned.
"I don't get unnerved." Oliver said, with a forced calm tone. "But when I go against something new, I push back. Right or wrong, it's just who I am and it's just what I do, so I'm asking for a little bit of space because I have to draw the line somewhere. I need to claw back a sense of normalcy. Please, stay here."
"Oliver, don't you think we deserve a benefit of the doubt?" Diana asked. "Everyone here trusts us; why not you? I think people like Kara, me, Arthur or Victor deserve a chance."
"Because last time I gave someone benefit of the doubt, people I cared about got hurt in ways that scarred them all forever and the world found out who I am, remember?" Oliver reminded as Kara and Diana winced. "You were there, Kara; blind trust is not exactly a luxury I can afford. I'm sorry."
1951, Redmond, Oregon
As Amaya, Mick and Nate went out hunting, Barbara, Cisco and Henry were in Waverider as Cisco was lying on the floor, annoyed.
"I… never want… to… do this… again…" Henry groaned as he recovered from the time jump. "I'm glad I'm back on my feet."
Barbara nudged Cisco on the floor with her foot. "Cisco, be honest with us. You didn't come on the ship to time travel, you came to avoid Barry in 2016." Cisco got up on his feet and was about to open his mouth before Barbara raised her hand, interrupting him. "Don't try to dodge it, OK?"
"OK, I wanted to get away from Barry!" Cisco snapped, stretching his arms.
"Cisco, don't you see how childish you are?" Barbara snapped back. "I know about the issues with time traveling and Barry causing your brother's death; it's not like he put a gun to his…"
"I don't need to hear this, OK?!" Cisco shot back. "He needed to save his family and doing that, he ended up destroying mine!"
"And what would you have done, if you had the same powers Barry had and a metahuman had just killed a member of your family?" Henry retorted. "Can you honestly tell us that you wouldn't have done the exact same thing? Going back in time, saving them, regardless the consequences? It's not like he knew what would happen. If I had a chance to go back and save my daughter after I had just lost her, I wouldn't hesitate to take it. And Sara, she might have caused Oliver being outed by saving Laurel; you didn't even think of that?"
Cisco glowered, sighing as he leaned onto the desk. "You know, all this time traveling, aliens… I used to dream about stuff like this as a kid."
"A lot of kids did." Henry nodded. "My daughter used to dream about angels."
"This doesn't feel like a dream." Cisco said sadly. "It just… feels weird."
"Things always get weird, Cisco." Barbara reasoned. "That's why we have friends to lean on to."
"Barbara and I were there for each other, when one of us got low." Henry added. "Barry's been trying to help you as your friend; don't you think you owe him a chance? He couldn't have known that Dante would die. He just lost his father and was grieving and all he wanted was to save his parents. Do you really think he deserves your hatred? If you and Barry were in opposite positions, what would you have done, if you wanted to save Dante?"
Cisco sighed, knowing they were right but was having a hard time to accept it.
Later, they saw Mick, Nate and Amaya being tranquilized by government agents. "Oh, shit." Henry swore as he got up from the chair. "This isn't good. We have to do something."
He and Cisco went to the armory as Barbara went to suit up.
Present, Central City
"So, where's the president?" Sara asked as she, Green Arrow, Atom, the Flash and Batman were waiting.
"I figured she got a lot on her plate with the whole alien invasion thing." Atom quipped.
"And her predecessor getting killed." Sara agreed.
"Hey, what did you say to Kara earlier? It seemed to me that she seemed angry and I didn't know she was even capable of being angry." Flash asked.
"We've got movement." Sara noticed as they turned around to see black SUVs surrounding them and the agents going out.
From one of the cars went out an elderly man wearing glasses in a suit. "I am sorry. The president couldn't make it."
"And who are you?" The Flash asked.
"If I tell you, I'll have to kill you." The man said.
"I think we have a misunderstanding." Atom tried to reason. "We're the good guys; the president invited us here."
Batman and the Flash glanced at each other and nodded quickly as the Flash rushed at the agents, disarming them before a 'bang' went off, grazing Atom's armor.
"Sniper!" Green Arrow yelled.
"On it." Flash rushed to the source of gunshot as Green Arrow, Sara, Atom and Batman took down the agents and the Flash neared the elderly man. "We're trying to help you. This is how you thank us?"
"You don't understand." The man said. "The reason the xenomorphs are here…"
"Is because they have a beef with the metahumans; tell us something we don't know." Sara said.
"Like what exactly have we done to them?" The Flash asked.
"Nothing. Yet." The man said. "But they see individuals with powers such as yours as a future threat. And frankly, so do I."
1951, Redmond, Oregon
"Small guarding crew, a couple of prison cells; sounds easy enough." Batgirl said as she, Henry and Cisco rushed in, taking down the guards and opening the cell for Mick, Nate and Amaya.
"You OK?" Henry asked as they nodded. "Good, we gotta get out of here."
"Waverider is ready to take us back to 2016." Cisco said. They went into a corridor before they heard an inhuman shriek from behind.
"What the hell is that?" Henry demanded.
"A Dominator; if we leave him here, they're gonna kill him." Nate said.
"So, what? He's an alien." Mick said passively.
"Just because they're douches, doesn't mean that we have to be." Cisco said.
"He's right; no need to stoop down to their level." Batgirl agreed.
"We gotta send him home." Cisco suggested.
"How?" Amaya asked.
"Don't we have one of their ships on the Waverider?" Cisco asked.
"It's damaged, Cisco." Henry explained.
"We can fix this." Cisco proposed. "Right?"
Henry sighed. "It's not like we have more options to go by."
Again, the shriek went off from the corridor. "That doesn't sound good." Amaya noted.
"Guys, it's time to show the Dominators that we're better than this." Cisco implored.
"I'll cover Cisco and Hank, you take care of that Dominator." Batgirl said.
Later, the Dominator ship flew away as Cisco held in his hand a small device as they all got into the Waverider.
"What's that?" Barbara asked.
"I think it's a transponder." Cisco said.
"How did you get this?" Henry asked.
"I may or may not have stolen it from his ship." Cisco quipped as Henry and Barbara stared at him, widening eyes to the size of table tennis balls.
"Cisco, are you crazy? What if that thing's bugged? Or if it compromises our tech?!" Barbara yelled. "You can't just steal some alien tech just like that, much less from the past!"
"What harm could it do?" Cisco shrugged. "He could say 'thank you'."
Barbara and Henry groaned. "You're an idiot." Henry muttered. "Let's get out of here before I knock his teeth off."
Present, Central City
Sara asked. "If you're such BFFs with the Dominators…"
"Then why don't you call them off?" Green Arrow added.
"We know you sent them packing before in 1951." Atom pointed out.
"That was just a reconnaissance mission." The elderly man said.
"What brought them back?" The Flash asked.
The man neared the speedster. "You did, Mr. Allen."
"He knows who you are." Atom whispered.
"You threatened the entire universe when you used your powers to upset the normal course of time." The man explained.
"You're talking about Flashpoint?" Atom asked. "How do you even…"
"They told us."
"I made a mistake, OK? I won't let that happen again." The Flash tried to reason.
"For the past sixty years, we have enjoyed the truce with the so-called 'Dominators'. You broke the truce." The man said as the Flash turned his head, guilt and shame flooding.
"What do they want?" Batman asked.
"I negotiated a deal with them." The man explained. "If Mr. Allen surrenders himself, they will leave us in peace." He looked at the Flash. "You really want to save the world? Here's your chance."
S.T.A.R. Labs Hangar
"This is insane!" Diana protested upon hearing the news. "Barry can't do this! And we cannot trust that the Dominators will uphold their end of the bargain!"
"If they're that threatened by metahumans, it's hard to believe that they'll be satisfied with just one." Ray agreed.
"If I know Barry, he's gonna want to be that one." Cisco noted.
"Bruce and Oliver are trying to talk him out of it." Sara said.
"What's the collateral damage of their bomb, if Barry won't give himself up?" Victor asked.
"Projected casualty count is two million non-metahumans." Cisco said, to everyone's shock.
"And what if we negotiate with them?" Nate suggested.
"I don't know if you noticed but our last chat didn't go so well!" Cisco snapped.
"What do we got to lose?" Nate asked.
"It's worth trying." Tatsu said. "But I doubt they'll listen."
"We have a bigger problem." Diggle said as a screen behind them turned itself on. "Dominator ships are coming worldwide."
"Including Central City." Cisco noticed.
"They're just standing there and doing nothing, for now at least." Diana noticed.
"So much for the truce that secret agent negotiated." Ray drawled.
"They're trying to leverage us into handing Barry over." Sara realized.
"This isn't up for debate." Barry said in front of the Birds of Prey, the Legends and the Justice League. "It's not even a close call. If I turn myself over to the Dominators, they'll leave the rest of the world alone. Simple."
"It's not that simple." Tatsu disagreed.
"You can't commit suicide, Barry." Laurel implored. "You can't."
"It doesn't matter what you've done; you can't do this." Diggle agreed.
"Sacrificing yourself to save the world; that's not an answer." Diana implored, remembering a sacrifice of someone she had loved… a lifetime ago.
"It's been an honor to know all of you; to fight alongside you." Barry said. "Now it's up to you to keep our home safe." Barry was walking away before hearing Oliver's voice.
"Barry! I'm not letting you leave!"
Barry smiled. "No offense, Oliver but you and what army?" He turned around to face the Justice League, the Birds of Prey, the Legends, Cisco, Henry, Tommy and Diggle.
"This one." Kara quipped.
"We're all in this together, Barry." Bruce said. "All for one, and one for all."
"Listen, Red, I don't like you; but when you have a crew, you don't take a hit for the rest." Mick said and Barry smiled.
"That was actually pretty inspiring… up until the point where Mick compared us to a bunch of criminals but…"
"According to the Dominators, we might as well be." Amaya noted.
"And they may have a point." Arthur nodded. "We might make things worse than better but this is our chance to find out."
"But don't think, not even for a single moment, that we're going to let you sacrifice yourself so that we could live." Diana insisted. "Someone I cared for once did that a lifetime ago for me and the rest; and the world and I were poorer for his sacrifice."
"We're not letting you sacrifice yourself." Cisco approached him. "No way. I don't care if it means to be a hero; you're not a hero to me. You're my friend."
"Yo, guys!" Jax and Sara rushed in. "The mothership that landed in Central City?"
"It's opening up."
"Here we go." Oliver quipped.
"The entire fleet is scouring the entire Earth!" Victor said as he looked at the monitor. "And looks like they're deploying their meta-bomb."
Laurel widened her eyes. "That doesn't make any sense; why would the dropships…"
"It was just a diversion; they're trying to keep us busy, so we can't stop the meta-bomb!" Oliver realized.
"Too bad because we're gonna stop it, right, honey?" Henry asked Sara as they and Cisco were aboard the timeship.
"Let's hope." Sara said.
"OK, Stein has small devices that are gonna put the Dominators through a lot of pain." Bruce said.
"But we need to do it fast because if we won't, they'll know what they're up to." Stein said.
"Barry, Kara, you're up." Oliver ordered.
Sara flied the Waverider near a large metallic bomb as Cisco and Henry widened their eyes.
"Damn, that is…"
"Huge. Now what?"
"You got me." Sara said. "I only know how to punch, stab and skewer things."
Green Arrow, Spartan, Merlyn, Katana, Batgirl, Huntress, Catwoman, Atom, Vixen, Steel, Firestorm, Heat Wave, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, Supergirl, Aquaman and Cyborg were facing the Dominators on a rooftop as they rushed at them, engaging them in close combat as Green Arrow and Merlyn fired their arrows, Spartan from his gun, Huntress from her crossbow, Heat Wave from his flamethrower, Atom, Green Lantern, Cyborg and Firestorm were giving an air support and Batman, Katana, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Vixen, Steel and Aquaman engaged the aliens in close combat.
"Fry, you freaks!" Heat Wave roared as the Flash was placing the devices on the Dominators. Supergirl shot the Dominators with her heat vision and Green Lantern was using energy blasts from his ring as they flied in the air.
The timeship was tilting as Sara tried to keep it steady.
"It's slowing down but like… barely." Cisco noted.
"Oh, really? Very perceptive of you!" Henry snapped as the ship trembled.
"Strap in, guys!" Sara ordered. "Firestorm, Lantern, if you guys are done playing defense out there, we could really use your help!"
The Justice League, the Birds of Prey and the Legends kept fending off the Dominators as one of them tossed the Green Arrow off the roof before Supergirl caught him and got him back on the roof, while the Flash kept placing the devices on the aliens throughout the city.
"Flash, Supergirl, they're still all over the country, we need your help!" Laurel yelled over the comms.
"Firestorm, Lantern, we're holding it up!" Sara said as she kept trying to keep the Waverider steady.
"But… like… barely…"
"Not helping, Cisco!" Sara and Henry snapped simultaneously.
Green Lantern tried to help the Waverider keep the bomb in the air as Firestorm landed on the bomb, touching it and trying to transmute it.
"Naomi, now!" Green Arrow ordered as the Dominators suddenly started to scream in excruciating agony and teleporting away. "It's working."
"What about the superhero bomb?" Heat Wave asked.
"I can't! I can't do it!" Jax groaned as he struggled with transmuting the bomb.
"You must, Jefferson." Stein insisted. "I have a daughter. Her name is Lily and she's counting on you. She's counting on both of us." Jax screamed out, trying to put all his power into it…
… as the bomb transmuted into water, falling down upon the city.
"We did it!" Henry yelled cheerfully as he jumped out from his seat.
"We did it!" Sara exclaimed as she and Henry hugged each other and kissed and Cisco rolled his eyes.
"Get a room, you two."
"It's working, guys, they're disappearing from all around the world." Naomi said as she looked at the screen.
"They did it." Oliver said.
"No, Oliver." Kara disagreed.
"We all did it." Barry corrected as the Justice League, the Birds of Prey and the Legends looked at the sky at the Dominator mothership flying away.
Later, S.T.A.R. Labs Hangar
After a ceremony at which the Justice League, the Birds of Prey, the Legends and the rest of the heroes were praised, they all started to celebrate as they were enjoying champagne, save for Laurel and Bruce grabbed Oliver and Diana by their arms as he dragged them aside.
"Well, I wanted to say 'thank you', Oliver." Bruce smiled at him. "It was nice to know how much we all can accomplish if we work together. I see that the idea of forming the Justice League has brought good fruits as seen from cooperating with your and Lyla's team."
"It has, Bruce." Oliver nodded.
"But, if another alien threat shows up again, we need more eyes in the space, because as we have seen, we are not alone." Bruce said as Oliver narrowed his eyes.
"What are you proposing?" Oliver asked.
"I think we need to create some kind of base of operations, the kind that can observe threats not just on Earth but from outer space as well."
"You mean that you want to build a space station?" Oliver asked incredulously.
"You don't approve?"
"Considering what had happened… it's not that bad of an idea. We need some kind of a watchtower." Oliver admitted before approaching Laurel, who hugged him and gave him a passionate kiss.
"If they killed you; I would have used Lazarus pit to bring you back and kick your ass." Laurel said as Oliver laughed and hugged her back tightly. "Never scare me like that again."
"You know that won't happen." Oliver said. "I'll always be there if you need me, Laurel. For you and for our baby." He held Laurel's stomach as she smiled at him.
"Well, that was… interesting." Henry quipped as he and Sara walked down the hangar. "First magic, now aliens, what's next, evil twins from parallel Earth?"
Sara laughed. "I can't imagine." Henry looked at her, smiling.
"So, look, I know that you and Ollie will have to leave soon but I wanted to ask you something." Henry said, following Laurel's advice. "Look, I know that… this might not work out between us but Ollie and Laurel are trying and I think that you're… great, beautiful and…" He blushed, trying to find the right words. "What we had before was a short-time deal but I've been thinking… it's been a long time since I've had something meaningful with a woman and I wanted to try things with you and I get that if you…"
"No, it's… I was actually going to ask you the same thing." Sara said.
"So… we're gonna give this a shot? I mean, it may not be the most functional relationship, since you'll be away a lot but…"
"We don't know that until we try, don't we? I think the least we can do is to see it through." Sara nodded as she held Henry's hand as they smiled and started to dance as they saw Roy and Thea and Oliver and Laurel and Bruce and Selina dance together.
A few months later, A.R.G.U.S.
Lyla was at her desk, business as usual before someone knocked on the door and she raised her head, tensing.
"Slade. Can I help you?"
"We have a problem." Slade said. "There's a new player. An assassin; like none I've seen before. Deadly, ruthless, leaves collateral damage and a mess behind. Strikes with military precision; he tries to avoid civilian casualties but he's been on radar of a lot of agencies for the past few months, ASIS sent me here to inform you. Your cheerleader team might be needed, Lyla."
"Why do you need the Birds of Prey?" Lyla asked as Slade tossed a file on the desk and Lyla opened it, gasping to see a man in an armor, with a red hood and a red helmet, holding a rifle on the rooftop.
"Do you believe in ghosts? I heard that Barbara Gordon used to know him."
"He's back." Lyla whispered. "Why now? No one has seen him for years…"
"I don't know." Slade said, worried. "But whatever he is up to, the Bat and his friends might be the only people who can stop him before things get messy."
So, what do you guys think about it?
Please review and let me know if you are enjoying this so far.