"We're going to die." That was the only thing coursing through Wally's mind as he subconsciously tightened his grip on Evelyn's hand, holding onto her like a lifeline. He was so sure that the floor would open up under them at any moment and they would go plunging into the dark depths of outer space. What was it that he had been taught would happen to a human exposed to the elements of space without protection? Would they simply suffocate? Or had he heard somewhere that they would explode? He had always been a fantastic student in the subject of science, but right now his mind couldn't seem to form a logical thought. All he could think about was his family, how he was never going to see them again. About what Courtney said about his future powers, and how he would never get the chance to use them.
Wait… Courtney.
"Hey," he finally spoke up, becoming the first to dare and move. He only turned his head, but it was more movement than the others had attempted since the cage was lowered. "You're from the future, right?" He asked, gaining Courtney's attention as well as Jax's, he already had Evelyn's.
The blonde nodded, still too afraid of an impending drop to speak, but calm enough to listen.
"Did this happen before?" Wally questioned her, but she shook her head.
"No," She managed to get out, "I've never…" she trailed off with her answer, realization dawning on her.
This is what she had been sent back to stop.
They were dealing with the future counterpart of Merlin, which explains where he got the time ship. She had heard rumors during her training, that Malcolm had stolen some files that contained information on the Reverse Flash, and lord knows he already possessed all the information he could need on Damian Darhk. He had stolen a time ship in 2019, no doubt the old one Rip had given to the league for emergencies, and gone to recruit past versions of Darhk and Thawne. This was their plan, to trap the league in the Phantom Zone before they could even form as one.
"Courtney?" Jax questioned, snapping her out of her thoughts and back to their current predicament.
"The others can't get on this ship." She deadpanned fearfully, the pieces of Malcolm's plan falling into place within her mind.
"Why not?" Jax asked, not that he was a particular fan of their friends getting on board a ship belonging to three of their greatest enemies, but Courtney seemed more worried about it than he would've expected her to be.
"Because the second they do, Malcolm's going to plunge it right down into the Phantom Zone." She revealed, the look of horror in her eyes only receiving looks of confusion from the others.
"Come again?" Evelyn questioned when it became obvious that none of the three understood what she meant.
Courtney sighed, knowing that despite her instructions not to reveal anything about the future she was going to have to come clean.
"The Phantom Zone," she repeated, "Otherwise known as the swirly cloud of death directly below us." She began, the others briefly glancing down at the clear floor beneath their feet to get a look at what she was talking about. "Nothing that goes in ever gets out, it's a frozen dimension, meaning that anything that ends up inside, freezes."
"And you think Merlin will plunge us all in even if he can't get away?" Evelyn asked, her voice taking on a mocking tone that quickly vanished at the serious look on Courtney's face.
"Yes," she deadpanned before sighing, conceding to disobeying her orders. "In August of 2018 a powerful alien army will invade earth, the second in as many years. Your teams will all play a hand in stopping the threat, they will succeed, and decide that with threats only growing larger they need to be more than allies, they need a new team, and the Justice League will be founded."
"Justice League?" Jax questioned, looking curiously at his friend as he pieced together the puzzle. "But you said-"
"I lied," she quickly cut him off. "The Justice Society of America disbanded back in the 1960's, and I would appreciate it if nobody told Amaya that." She requested before continuing, "I can't say too much, but I can tell you that the reason I was sent on the mission with Rip is because I'm one of the newest recruits to the league and have no connection to any of it's founding members. I don't know enough to screw anything up, but there was a temporal anomaly threatening the league's formation."
"And you think this is it?" Wally asked and Courtney nodded.
"Thawne and Darhk are already dead. These are versions of them from their pasts, so if they plunge into the zone it'll only help Merlin."
"Except you're forgetting that Merlin will freeze too," Jax interrupted but the blonde shook her head.
"He isn't your Merlin, he's mine." She explained, "He came back from my time, and it doesn't matter if he freezes because so long as even half of the founding members of the league do, there will be no league. His present self will be able to pursue whatever power hungry plans he has, and his frozen future self will be nothing more than a sacrificial lamb, like a time remnant." She explained, Wally's eyes widening as he understood the comparison, knowing that it meant the present Merlin would not be affected even if this version of his future self became frozen in the Phantom Zone, even when time caught up with him.
It was then that the sight of the Waverider approaching, so that their teammates could board the enemy ship in a rescue attempt, caught the attention of the teenagers.
"We are in a lot of trouble," Evelyn drawled, summing up the situation perfectly.
Meanwhile on the Waverider, the verdict wasn't any different. They knew that their friends, as well as themselves, were all in huge amounts of trouble, but not even Rip understood how much. Sure he knew about Courtney's true assignment, but without the knowledge of the Reverse Flash's involvement as well as Damian Darhk's he had not yet been able to put together to pieces. How Malcolm Merlin got his hands on a time ship, again the ship possessed by the future Justice League being unknown to Rip, didn't sit right with anyone. But they didn't have time to question it; all they did was prepare for battle.
The plan was for Felicity, Caitlin, and Rip to stay behind on the Waverider while Oliver, Barry, Ray, Mick, and Sara headed over to the other ship to rescue their teammates. Stein would also be staying behind on the monitors, but hopefully Jax would be able to get back to the Waverider quickly and merge with him, then the two of them would be able to return to the enemy ship if need be and help in the fight. Barry was also taking Courtney's cosmic staff, her favorite weapon, with him. He may have no clue how to use it but that wasn't the point. The point was for him to speed into the brig and get the cage back into the ship, at which point he could give the staff to Courtney in order to defend herself. Sara tried giving him a knife for Evelyn but Ollie forbade it; claiming that while he had been training Evelyn, as well as Curtis and Rene, to fight with knives, the teenage girl was not yet ready to use one in the field.
"What are you, her dad?" The blonde had mocked her old friend.
"Wouldn't be the biggest shock, I heard you're Courtney's mom." He teased her back and like a child she stuck out her tongue at him.
"Yup, her and Snart even scarred her for life like real parents." Mick informed with a dirty grin as he approached, taking the safety off his gun and earning a glare from Sara.
"Not information I needed," Oliver decided and Mick only smirked all the more.
"None of us need it, but we all hear it." He continued to mock, only laughing harder when Sara slapped his arm as her futile means of asking him to shut up.
"If you all are done behaving like children, we do have a mission to attend to." Rip scolded.
"Which ironically is saving their children." Felicity chimed in, earning a glare from Rip that pleaded with her to zip it, not that she hadn't ever received worse from Oliver.
"Just get to the cargo bay," the Englishman pleaded with those going on board the enemy ship. "We'll connect our ship with theirs so you can get on, and we'll hope Merlin and whoever he's working with aren't waiting at the door to kill us all."
Meanwhile back in the cage, the four prisoners could see the Waverider drawing ever closer and the tunneled ramp extending onto the ship that they were being held on.
"What are the chances they're all on board?" Evelyn questioned as they watched the Waverider and it's occupants draw ever closer to a worse than deadly trap.
"Doesn't matter," Courtney decided, "Once any of them are in the Phantom Zone there's no getting them out, especially when none of them know it's a future Malcolm they're dealing with."
"Then we have to get out of here," Wally decided.
"How?" Jax demanded, "You want to bust out into the airless vacuum of space?" He continued but Wally only shrugged, clearly not having any actual ideas.
"Hey Jax?" Evelyn asked while pacing the cage, eyeing the ceiling skeptically. "When you went all over the cage on your ship with a fine tooth comb, did you try getting out through the ceiling?" She asked, "Because ours now leads to an empty room." She said and with the other three now looking at him Jax considered the idea, because he hadn't before.
"I'm assuming Oliver keeps as many weapons on him as Sara, and since he's teaching you, you got anything on you?" He asked and with a curious expression, as though she were unsure, Evelyn opened up her jacket and began going through the inner compartments.
"Just few bandages and a knife I barely know how to use," she answered, holding out the object that was obviously going to be more effective at the moment.
Jax nodded before looking up at the ceiling, realizing that getting up there was going to be a challenge. But then he looked back at Evelyn, eyeing her critically and trying to determine if the idea processing through his mind would work or not.
"Ok, I've got a plan." He finally said, deciding it was worth a shot. "You good with climbing?" He asked Evelyn who shrugged.
"If I got something to climb." She replied and Jax nodded,
"Think you can get onto my shoulders?" He asked and she nodded.
Acting quickly, Jax cupped his hands and Evelyn placed the handle of her knife between her teeth. She clamored up Jax's body with only a little help from Wally and Courtney, and they stood by to catch her should she fall once she was up. Taking the knife in her hand and stretching onto her toes, causing Jax to wobble just a bit but not enough to cause Evelyn too much panic. She tried wedging her knife into any sort of gap on the edge of the ceiling but there was none, and she soon began informing Jax of that in a very frustrated manner.
"Well try harder," Jax ordered and Evelyn scowled,
"Oh yeah, busting through a solid steel ceiling with a standard issue knife, yeah it'll work if I just-"
A sudden movement of the ship abruptly cut her off, sending both her Jax crashing down and the knife flying. Wally cried out as they all landed and Evelyn's knife sliced through his shoulder before dropping harmlessly to the floor.
"Wally!" Evelyn exclaimed in a mix of worry and guilt but the boy had no time to respond to her.
"It's too late," Courtney declared in horror, watching the Waverider outside being pulled down as both ships began plunging into the Phantom Zone below. It looked as though the Waverider were trying to break away at least, but even if they did manage to get it out of Merlin's hold it would hardly matter.
Suddenly, the ceiling above their heads opened up, revealing Barry standing over them.
"Hey guys," he greeted casually, though even under the cowl one could see the worry on his face. "Courtney, I believe this is yours." He said, holding down her staff.
He didn't let go once she grabbed it, instead letting her latch on and use it as a means of climbing out of the cell. She wasn't even fully out when they ship's downward motion increased, forcing both her and Barry to grip the staff for their lives and she just barely managed to clamor out.
"Go!" Jax shouted up when he saw Courtney looking back at them, behind him Evelyn was already working on Wally's shoulder with her emergency bandages.
"Jax-" Barry started but the younger man cut him off.
"There's no time, get her back to the ship and get away!" He ordered and while Barry looked partially convinced that this course of action would be a suicide move on Jax's part, Courtney knew better.
"Can you run with me?" She asked the older speedster, who now looked at her as though she was the crazy one.
"We can't leave them," he tried to say but she wouldn't listen, there was no time.
"Trust me," she ordered and so with an apprehensive nod Barry agreed, and with one last look of sorrow to her friends, Courtney climbed onto his back.
Barry took off through the ship, and although he wanted to stop and help he knew that if he did he and Courtney would both be goners. He could feel the world around him freezing, becoming trapped in one eternal moment of stillness. When they reached the boarding ramp it was the only thing moving, and it was moving away. But he made the jump, his speed making it so the lack of an atmosphere didn't even effect him or his passenger, and the two of them crashed in a heap on the floor of the Waverider's cargo bay.