God, this chapter gave me a headache. 'Progeny' honestly wasn't one of my favourite episodes, even though the Captain Canary hints and the scenes with Len and Mick were important.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Legends of Tomorrow.
WORD COUNT: 1183
Tuesday, November 7th, 2147
Dear Lisa,
Well, we've managed to screw up another mission, but Mick is sort of back on our side. I just hope I'll be able to see out of both eyes again soon.
We landed in 2147 on Friday, November 3rd, a time Rip always knew we could find Savage in, but deemed it too dangerous to go to, but after the 50s were a bust, we didn't have many other options. He knew Savage was connected to this evil dictator named Per Degaton who would take over the 'Kasnian Conglomerate' (a country that doesn't exist yet in our time, and roughly covers Greece, Albania, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Montenegro) in 2152, but it wasn't until this trip that we learned that the dictator was still only a kid, and that Vandal Savage was his tutor, and had more influence over the kid than his own father, the country's current leader. Everyone was arguing about whether or not we should off the kid to stop him and Savage, but Rip and I seemed to be the only ones open to the idea. Believe me, I don't like being on Rip's side in any argument, but we do have a job to do. Everyone was so worked up about killing a kid, like being young means he's innocent. I've seen kids like him in Juvie; they were worse than some adult criminals they have in Iron Heights. And this one was practically raised by VANDAL SAVAGE. How in the hell are we supposed to ignore that? And if his age is such a big issue, why can't we just time-jump forward a bit, to when he's older?
I had other things on my mind, anyway. Sara kept trying to talk to me about Mick, or more specifically to get me talking about Mick. She'd gotten it in her head that he and I needed to work things out. As if he hadn't already made it clear where we stand. But she was right about one thing: I've been wondering what would've happened if I hadn't marooned Mick, if I hadn't left him vulnerable to the Time Masters. I screwed up in the worst way, there, and now we can't go back and fetch pre-Chronos Mick now that we have this one on board, something about the timeline folding in on itself and doing absolutely nothing to solve the original problem. I dragged Mick onto this job; I could've just gone on my own instead of convincing him to come along with me. Maybe I couldn't have seen this sort of shit coming, but in a way, this is my fault. Fucking 20-20 hindsight.
Back to the issues with the kid. Since everyone else was all freaked out over killing a kid, we went with the strategy of kidnapping the brat instead and removing him from the timeline that way. Rip, Sara and I put together a plan over the weekend while Kendra, Jax, and the 'Nerd Twins' (props to Sara for coming up with that nickname) did their research to find out who had built these homicidal robots that act as police in this era (something about the tech being stolen or modeled off Raymond's work). It was pretty easy to nab the kid on his way to gymnastics class yesterday, even with his six armed escorts, but it wasn't enough to change the timeline, so Rip took matters into his own hands by taking the kid on the Jump Ship and flying off. But Savage and the kid's dad found us, and we had to fight off Tor Degaton's men. It looked like the fight was starting to go our way when Raymond shut the enemy robots down, but then Savage got the jump on Sara and held her hostage. If anyone could get the jump on her, I guess it would have been the guy who's had 4000+ years to work on his fighting skills. He wanted to trade her for Rip, but then Rip showed up with the kid (I guess he didn't have the guts to go through with killing him, though I'll admit I don't know if I could pull the trigger on a kid in-person, either). He made his counter-offer: Per Degaton for Sara. Savage and the brat himself didn't want to make that trade (Savage has that kid completely brainwashed), but Tor Degaton made the trade to save his son.
So, long story short, the kid slipped out of our grasp, and according to Gideon, Tor Degaton will die much sooner – tonight, actually – and Per Degaton will be named the new leader of his country with Vandal Savage as his guardian and representative until he's actually an adult. We've actually sped up Savage's world conquest instead of stopping it.
But that wasn't my biggest concern last night. I decided that Sara was right: Mick and I needed to settle things. But you know us, Lis; we don't get very far with words. So I offered him a deal: if he beat me in a fight, he could take the Jump Ship and go home. Mick has always been a better fighter than me, and his training with the Time Masters has put him almost at Sara's level, possibly. I barely even landed one hit, and even hours later, I feel like one giant bruise. He could have killed me, but he stopped at the last second before landing the deathblow. I don't know why, and I'm not sure he does, either. But he told me and the team about a bigger threat. There's another group of Time Master bounty hunters called The Hunters (how imaginative) who'll be coming after us now that they've probably figured out Mick failed. And they'll try to kill him, too, for his failure. So now that we have a common enemy, he's going to be working with us again. Jax, Ray, and Stein are thrilled, Rip and Sara are glad to have him back but still a little cautious, and Kendra's accepting it, but Chronos killed her son from a past life, remember?
As for myself, I still don't know if I can trust him in the long run, though. He's still mad at me for the decisions I made, and if there's one thing he picked up from the Time Masters, it's patience. He could've gone after me right after becoming Chronos, but he took his time and made a name for himself before Rip had even formed this team. He could wait until the threat to his own life is over before going back to looking for revenge. So like I said before, don't trust him unless I specifically tell you that you can.
I don't pretend to fully understand why Len walked into Mick's cell and proposed a cage match to the death. This was the hardest part of writing this chapter. But while Len probably knew going in that he could die and fought Mick anyway, he's omitting it in this journal for Lisa's sake.
I spent several minutes looking at a clip from this episode that shows the Kasnian Conglomerate on a map and comparing it to Google Maps to guess which countries it covers. I may have missed some.
EDIT 08/05/2016: Yep, I did miss some. Kosovo and Montenegro are right in the middle of all those countries, so Kasnia covers them, too.
The mention that 'Team Kidnapping' spent a weekend planning said kidnapping comes from a few small details. In 'Leviathan', Leonard states that the clip of Savage, which took place on the first day of this episode, was on November 3rd, 2147, which will be a Friday. Yet when Len uses some futuristic goggles/glasses during the actual kidnapping, one of the bits of information it provides is that it is Monday. Therefore, Saturday and Sunday must have been spent planning.
I've also decided that the conversation Savage and Per Degaton have at the end of the episode (and Savage's seriously skewed telling of the Oedipus myth) happens on the next day, and Len also writes this entry that morning. Per kills his father Tuesday night, and Savage assumes control on Wednesday.
Also, one last little bit of random info: in the 'Long Way Home' continuity, Dr. Brice's first name is Petra.