Chapter 11

(Next morning, STAR Labs hangar)

"I can't believe that you guys escaped an alien spaceship," Cisco said in amazement, as he led Oliver, Diggle, Sara, Nate, and Ray into the hangar. "Keywords, alien spaceship. I have questions."

"They can wait," Oliver demanded. He turned to Nate. "Thanks for helping me get my sister home."

"Yeah, man," Nate replied.

"What's our status?" Oliver asked, as he and the others walked up to Barry, Clark, Conner, Kara, Ollie, Felicity, and Stein.

"Nothing since the Dominators paid their little visit to mess with our heads," Barry answered.

"Why would they do that?" Nate asked.

"What if they were trying to pit us against each other in order to gain intel about meta-humans?" Ray suggested.

"Man, I wish they would just send us an IM with a questionnaire," Felicity remarked.

"Meta-humans pose the biggest threat to their invasion," Clark pointed out. "It's no surprise they would wanna get to know their enemies."

"By kidnapping people," Stein added. "Perhaps they were searching your minds for potential meta-human vulnerabilities."

"I think it's time we return the favor," Oliver said.

"Wait, you wanna kidnap one of them now?" Ollie asked.

"Ever since we fought off that one ship, they've kind of been in short supply," Barry said.

"Actually, I know where to find one," Nate said. He headed over to one of the computers. "I've been reviewing old army footage of their first encounters with the Dominators. And I think I've pegged the fight to Redmond, Oregon, 1951."

All the heroes in the hangar watched as the screens on the wall showed black and white footage of soldiers combatting Dominators.

"You're suggesting we travel to 1951, abduct a Dominator, and interrogate it to determine their intentions," Stein said.

"They kidnapped us, seems fair," Sara pointed out.

"Time travel," Cisco gushed. "I'm definitely in."

"Okay, hold on there," Barry said to Cisco. "Professor Stein and Caitlin have been talking about a way to take down the Dominators. They could probably use your help."

"Pass," Cisco declined.

"Yeah, I mean, I'm with him," Felicity said, agreeing with Cisco's 'time travel' choice. "Mostly because I just don't wanna lose my geek cred, but time travel..."

"I could take Amaya and Mick," Nate suggested.

"Do it," Oliver agreed.

"I think I'll tag me and my green leather along on this one too," Ollie said.

"I'll come with you," Conner said with a grin, not wanting to pass up the chance to travel through time, something he had only experienced once before while on a mission in the 25th century with Booster Gold and Blue Beetle.

"All right," Ollie nodded in agreement, as he, Conner, Felicity, and Cisco started following Nate out of the hangar.

Clark stared after Ollie and Conner with a pointed look, as he was highly tempted to stop them for joining a mission that involved time travel considering how dangerous it was. However, he decided against trying to stop them and only hoped that his best friend and brother would be careful while they were gone.

"And, uh, the new President called," Barry announced to everyone else, "which would be cool under different circumstances, but she wants to meet with us."

"Let's bring Ray and Sara as backup," Oliver instructed.

"What about me and Clark? We can do backup," Kara offered.

"Kara, Clark, I need to talk to you two for a second," Oliver said, looking at them firmly.

Clark and Kara exchanged glances before following Oliver to the side.

"I think I know what this is about," Clark said. "You don't trust us."

"This is not personal, but I would like to minimize you guys' involvement in this," Oliver said.

Kara grimaced. "Why? Because we're aliens? We also happen to be your biggest weapons."

"You and Clark are unknown variables in this fight and, like I said, this is not personal," Oliver said.

"Except that's exactly how this feels," Kara said, clearly offended. "Is it not enough that we helped save you and your friends in outer space last night?"

"As much as I appreciate what you did, that still doesn't change the fact that I know next to nothing about you two," Oliver said. "The last time I gave someone I didn't know the benefit of the doubt, everyone paid a very high price for it." At that moment, his mind flashbacked to the night Laurel died in the hospital, which could've been avoided if only he and his team had seen through Andy Diggle's deceit sooner. As he then thought of Slade, Oliver added, "And years before that, a man who I once trusted with my life and called a brother turned into one of my greatest enemies I've ever faced."

"Trust me, I know exactly what that's like," Clark said in understanding and saddened tone as he thought about Lex, who had been his best friend once upon a time before Lex's descent into darkness caused the two of them to drift apart to the point of becoming each other's worst enemy.

"Then you'll understand why I am asking you to please stay here," Oliver said, before walking off.

"I have to say, I definitely prefer the blonde and witty Oliver Queen," Kara said with a sigh, drawing a chuckle from Clark. "He's so much more fun to talk to."

"This Oliver does have a valid point, Kara," Clark said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder as he noticed an exasperated look on her face. "Given that he doesn't know very much about us or Kryptonians for that matter, I can understand why he would want to be cautious with us. There are times in the past when I've acted similarly whenever a new hero showed up in either Metropolis or Smallville."

"Well, at least being stuck in here with nothing to do for the time being will allow us to keep each other company," Kara said, producing a smile. She sat down in one of the chairs, while Clark remained standing. "You and I never really had the chance to talk and, you know, compare notes between our worlds. So your Krypton was destroyed too."

"It was," Clark answered with a heavy sigh. "When I was a baby, my parents sent me to Earth minutes before Krypton exploded. My ship landed in a town called Smallville, where I was found by..."

"Let me guess, Jonathan and Martha Kent," Kara interrupted, and Clark nodded. "That's exactly what happened to my Kal too. Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Martha found him in a cornfield and raised him as their son. I was sent to Earth at the same time as Kal to protect him, but things didn't go according to plan. Krypton's destruction sent a shockwave that knocked my pod off-course and into a place called the Phantom Zone."

Clark's eyes widened at the familiarity of Kara's last two words. "The Phantom Zone? If your universe's version of that place is anything like the one in mine, I can't imagine you having anything good to say about the time you spent in that hellhole."

"Well, thankfully, I was asleep for the twenty-four years I was inside there," Kara said. "Eventually, I made it to Earth like I was supposed to but it turned out that my cousin had already grown up and become Superman. And since time doesn't pass in the Phantom Zone, I was still a thirteen-year-old girl when I arrived. Kal wanted me to have the same safe human-type childhood he had. So he placed me with my adoptive family, the Danvers, scientists who once helped him understand his own super-abilities. Since then, I decided the best thing I could do is fit in. And so I hid who I really was until last year when I saved a plane that my adoptive sister Alex was on, which revealed me to the world. That's when I became Supergirl."

"Interesting," Clark said, smiling faintly that this version of his cousin seemed to have led a contented life despite having lost her entire planet. "A lot of that is very different from what my Kara went through, except for the part where she was also sent to Earth to look after me. Instead of ending up in the Phantom Zone, she made it to Earth directly, but her ship crashed into a reservoir, leaving her in a state of suspended animation for almost two decades until the nearby dam got heavily damaged while I was in a battle with an alien criminal who had escaped from my world's Phantom Zone. When I met Kara, she hadn't aged a day either but she looked around nineteen instead of thirteen. She stayed with us adjusting to a life on Earth for a while, but eventually moved to the 31st century to forge her own destiny."

"So because your version of me was already pretty much an adult when she woke up, she was never adopted like I was," Kara said, taking in what Clark had just told her about her counterpart. "What about Superboy? How is he part-human?

"Conner's backstory is quite complicated, but half of his DNA came from me while the other half came from the human who was responsible for creating him," Clark explained, deciding against revealing that the human half of Conner's DNA, in fact, belonged to Lex.

"Created him?" Kara said, incredulously. "Are you saying that Conner is some kind of clone who is a hybrid of you and this human that created him?"

"We use the word 'brother' instead of 'clone', but technically speaking, yes," Clark nodded. "After a bit of a rough start, Conner adjusted pretty well to a normal life and, after honing his abilities, went on to become Superboy as well as a member of our team the Justice League."

"The Justice League? That's a catchy name for a superhero team," Kara said. "I guess now I know why Conner literally looks like a teenage you."

"It's no doubt that our Kryptonian genes are much stronger than the genes of humans," Clark said and Kara nodded in agreement. To this day, Clark was grateful that Conner had inherited many more of his personality traits than Lex's villainous ones.

(Waverider)

"This ship is everything," Cisco gushed, as he, Felicity, Nate, Ollie, and Conner were walking through the Waverider.

"This looks so cool," Conner said in amazement. He turned to Ollie. "I doubt even you would be able to afford to get your hands on a time-traveling ship like this."

"Not that it would stop me from trying if I wanted to purchase it," Ollie quipped. "I'm sure Chloe would love to be here right now."

"What type of propulsion system does it use?" Felicity asked Nate, as she also eyed the Waverider's interior in amazement.

"No idea," Nate answered in a serious tone.

"Oh, my God, that construct on the bow looks like it could be some sort of Time Sphere," Cisco said, eagerly.

"Yeah, no idea," Nate repeated, not in the mood for Cisco and Felicity's geeky behavior.

"To operate a ship of this size, the deep-link nets would have to be..." Felicity started, before Cisco interrupted.

"Oh, my God, you'd have to use, like, a quantum neural chipset..."

"Hey, guys," Nate cut Cisco off in a serious tone. "Guys. Amaya and Rory are waiting for us on the bridge. Can we just keep moving this along?"

"So who are you?" Ollie asked. "We haven't been introduced."

"Oh, I'm Nate Heywood," Nate answered.

"Oliver Queen," Ollie said, as he and Nate shook hands.

Nate then frowned in confusion. "Oliver Queen?"

"Not exactly the one you know," Ollie said.

"Long story short, he and I are from another universe," Conner said to Nate. "I'm Conner Kent, also known as Superboy."

"Wait, another universe?" Nate said. "As in the Multiverse?"

"The Multiverse is just as real as time travel, believe it or not," Cisco said. Glancing at Ollie, he added, "And don't even bother asking how this guy looks different from the Oliver we know. That's just how it is."

As they arrived in the bridge, Cisco, Felicity, Nate, Conner, and Ollie took their seats along with Mick and Amaya Jiwe. With Mick sitting at the controls, the group of heroes made their way to Redmond, Oregon in the year 1951, parking and camouflaging the Waverider in a grassy field.

"Whoa, what a ride," Ollie muttered.

"We made it," Cisco said, incredulously. "This is the '50s."

"Oh, sick," Felicity muttered, before suddenly bending over and vomiting.

"You okay?" Ollie asked her.

"Severe time jumps can cause nausea, temporary deafness..." Nate started to explain. As Felicity tried to speak only for her words to come out as what sounded like gibberish, Nate added, "Linguistic disorientation."

Felicity tried to say something, but her words came out as gibberish again. Panicking, she placed one hand over her mouth while gripping Cisco's arm with her other hand.

Mick pointed to Cisco. "You, clean it up." He then turned to Conner. "And you, watch the ship and," Mick gestured to Cisco and Felicity, "keep them safe. The rest of us are gonna kidnap an alien."

Conner looked at Mick incredulously. "What? You're telling me to stay on the ship? I did not just travel through time with you guys only to sit back and do nothing."

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Cisco added.

"And no offense, but I'm you guys' best shot at capturing an alien," Conner pointed out.

Mick looked at Felicity, who had a look of disappointment on her face. "Ponytail, you're staying on the ship." He turned to Conner. "And if we need your skills, that's when you'll come in."

"All right, fine," Conner gave in with a sigh, as he sat back down.

Felicity tried to exclaim something in protest to Mick, but her words once again came out as gibberish.

"I'll take that as 'have fun storming the castle'," Nate remarked, before he, Mick, Ollie, and Amaya walked off.

"Oh, for real? You're gonna use Princess Bride against me?" Cisco said in annoyance, as he pointed to himself. "Against me?"

Suddenly, Felicity bent over as she vomited again.

"Whoa," Conner said, as he and Cisco started rubbing Felicity's back.

"We got you, girl," Cisco said.

(Outside)

"Celebrating July 4th early?" Mick asked Nate, who was now clad in his dark blue and red Steel uniform which contained a silver star on the chest.

"Ray made it for me," Nate replied.

"You look like a star-spangled idiot," Mick remarked, and Ollie couldn't help but suppress a chuckle at that.

"You know, I don't get is why you decided to bench Superboy," Ollie said to Mick. "You do realize he's our biggest gun on this mission."

"Exactly," Mick said, bluntly. "We can't let Red S have all the fun and make things too easy for us."

"Not that I don't get what you mean by that speaking as a fellow human who at certain times feel useless around the heavy-hitters, but I'd take too easy over dying any day of the week," Ollie said. "Wouldn't you?"

"We need to find the Army," Amaya said.

Just then, the four heroes heard the sound of an explosion and gunfire erupting in the vicinity. Ollie, Mick, Nate, and Amaya turned towards the sound and saw a large spacecraft hovering over the area where a raging battle between the soldiers and Dominators was taking place.

"I think we already found them," Nate noted, as he and the other three heroes stood there for several moments watching as the Dominators were brutally attacking the soldiers who didn't stand a chance against the super-strong aliens.

"Well, what are we waiting? Let's grab one of the murderous space invaders and get the hell out of here," Ollie said, as he pulled an arrow from his quiver and nocked it on his compound bow.

"Just waiting for one of the weaker ones in the herd," Mick said, as he was starting to regret ordering Superboy to stay behind on the Waverider.

"I don't think there are any weaker ones," Amaya noted.

"Maybe it was a mistake leaving Superboy behind after all," Nate said.

"Tell me about it," Ollie agreed.

(Waverider)

Cisco was lying down on the floor of the time-ship, while Felicity was sitting in a chair yawning and Conner was pacing back and forth with his arms crossed against his chest. The three of them were bored out of their minds.

"Do you guys have any idea what's going on out there?" Felicity wondered.

"It's a real-life Spielberg movie, and we're stuck in here," Cisco replied, glumly.

"Okay," Felicity said, as she got up and walked towards Cisco. "I think I know what's really bothering you."

"I'm having the worst case of FOMO while everyone else is out there kidnapping an alien?" Cisco remarked.

"You're not the only one," Conner said. "I'm half-alien with the same powerful abilities as Clark, yet I'm stuck in here when I could've gone out there with the others and made the job a hundred times easier."

"No, that's not what I'm talking about," Felicity said to Cisco, as she stood over him. "I think you escaped 2016 to get away from Barry."

'Mm-mmm," Cisco denied, as he stood up. "Excuse me, I escaped 2016 so that I could come see the Waverider, and so that I could time travel."

"And?" Felicity asked, knowing there was more to it than what Cisco had just said.

"And... also, yes, I wanted to get away from Barry," Cisco admitted.

"Ha!" Felicity exclaimed. "You realize that's insane, right? You're holding a grudge against your best friend when the world is potentially gonna end?"

"I'm sorry, 'my best friend'? He only killed my brother," Cisco said, harshly.

"He didn't kill..."

"Okay, you're right, he didn't literally kill my brother," Cisco said in the same harsh tone. "What I mean to say is, he was responsible, okay? He just needed to save his family and in doing that he ended up destroying mine!"

"I know it's not any of my business or anything, but I can't say that I blame Barry for what he did," Conner joined the conversation.

"That's because you're not the one who lost a family member because of Barry's reckless actions!" Cisco snapped.

"You're right, I'm not dealing with what you're going through," Conner said. "What I mean is we all do things we regret, things we wish to take back. Even the best of us." He sighed as he thought back to his horrendous actions from before Clark's DNA had kicked in, especially shooting a kryptonite bullet at his and Clark's adoptive mother Martha Kent in the hopes of killing Clark, memories which had gradually returned to him over time. He also thought about his red kryptonite incident, when he had turned his back on Clark and almost killed Lois. While Conner hadn't been in control of his actions, the heavy guilt he felt would be there for the rest of his life.

"From what I understand, what Barry did is no different than the time Clark saved who was his girlfriend at the time only for his adoptive dad to die in her place," the half-Kryptonian continued. "Clark still beats himself up over that incident even to this day. And when I lost my girlfriend Courtney two years ago, I wanted more than anything to go back and prevent her death, but Clark convinced me it wasn't a good idea since I could make things worse. Of course, I was angry with him for taking away my only chance to get Courtney back and didn't talk to him for weeks, but even as I realized that Clark was right, there are still times that I feel very tempted to use a Legion ring and go back to the night she was stabbed to death. Can you honestly tell yourself with a straight face that you wouldn't do what Barry did if you were in his position?"

Cisco sighed as he turned away from Conner and Felicity, allowing the former's words to sink in. After a moment, Cisco said, "I just don't think I'll be able to get past this. I can never forgive Barry for what he did. He went too far and my brother paid for it."

"You don't have to forgive him, but the least you should do is try and see things from his point of view," Conner advised. "Imagine what he must've been feeling when he made the decision to save his parents."

"Yeah, especially since Barry had just lost his dad in a really horrible way and wasn't thinking very rationally," Felicity reminded Cisco, as she and Conner moved closer to him.

"Look, I don't know Barry as well as you do, but from what I've seen of him so far, it's safe to say he's a pretty stand-up guy not unlike Clark, who is the most compassionate person I know," Conner said to Cisco. "People like Clark and Barry are the ones we could easily rely on."

Felicity placed a comforting hand on Cisco's shoulder. "And right now more than ever, we have to be able to rely on our friends."

"I really wish I could right now, Felicity," Cisco said in a sad tone. He turned to Felicity. "But he's not my friend."

With that, Cisco walked away, leaving Felicity and Conner staring after him.

(Outside)

Ollie, Mick, Nate, and Amaya watched as the Dominators were dragging the dead bodies of the soldiers before they were beamed up into the spacecraft above.

"They're taking off," Amaya noted.

"I don't get it," Nate said. "Why are the Dominators attacking us, then just leaving?"

"It's definitely for a reason," Ollie pointed out.

"It's a RIF mission," Amaya said. "Reconnaissance-In-Force."

"Ah, look, a straggler," Mick noted with a smirk, as he and the others saw a lone Dominator grabbing a dead soldier.

"Prepare to get any weapons and superpowers ready, everyone," Ollie instructed, as he pulled an arrow from his quiver and nocked it on his compound bow.

Mick stepped forward, more than eager to hurt the Dominator.

"We need him alive, Mick," Amaya said, firmly.

"I'm just gonna rough him up a bit," Mick said.

"I'll help you with that," Ollie said, lifting his bow and aiming it directly at the Dominator.

Ollie fired the arrow. However, it seemed that the Dominator knew the arrow was coming as the Dominator caught the arrow in its hand. A moment later, the arrow exploded in the Dominator's face, dazing the alien for a few moments.

The four heroes started approaching the Dominator, Mick pulling out his heat gun. "Hey!" Mick shouted, getting the Dominator's attention. Before the Dominator could attack, Mick started torching it with his gun, causing the Dominator to scream in pain. "Squeal, you pig!" Mick shouted.

Ollie fired a cable from his bow, restraining the Dominator, while Nate turned his body into steel for a moment and punched the Dominator in the face, knocking it out cold.

"Nice job, team," Ollie said. He and Nate both kicked the Dominator lightly, making sure it was unconscious.

"Well done," a male voice announced.

Ollie, Mick, Nate, and Amaya turned around to see a man with glasses in a black suit approaching them. The next thing the four heroes noticed, they were surrounded by about a dozen other men who were pointing guns at them.

"Great, this is just what we needed," Ollie said, sarcastically.

"I see that you've managed to catch us a specimen," the glasses-wearing man said to the heroes.

"We didn't do it for you," Ollie said, glaring at the man, who was undoubtedly bad news. "Sorry, Mr. Secret Agent Man, but this E.T. isn't on the market."

"I'm afraid we're gonna have to keep this one," Nate added.

"Who are you?" Amaya asked the man.

"Just a humble civil servant," the man answered, as he pulled out a badge and showed it to the heroes.

"Humble?" Ollie scoffed. "Says the guy who got us surrounded by men pointing guns at us."

"I don't like guys with badges," Mick snarled, glaring hatefully as he lunged towards the man with glasses.

"Easy, Mick," Nate said, holding him back.

"We just wanna ask a few questions," the man assured the heroes.

"You know, if I had dollar for every time I heard that exact sentence only to end up in a not-so-desirable situation, I'd be twice as rich," Ollie quipped. "Okay, obviously that's an exaggeration, but I'm sure you get the point."

"We'd love to answer your questions, but..." Nate started to say to the man.

"We're in a bit of a hurry," Amaya finished.

"And so are we," the man with glasses said with a smug smile.

With that, the other agents shot tranquilizer darts at Ollie, Mick, Nate, and Amaya, causing the four heroes to collapse to the ground.

"Dammit," Ollie groaned in frustration. As two particular people suddenly came to his mind, he muttered, "Chloe, if I don't happen to make it out of this alive and get back home in one piece, tell our son Roy I love him."

Immediately after that, the entire world went black before the emerald archer's eyes.

Nate looked up at the glasses-wearing man, managing to stay conscious longer than the other three heroes due to his meta-human physiology. "You don't understand," he muttered. "We're here to save the future."

"And you can tell me all about it," the man said, smugly. "When you wake up."

And with that, Nate's world went black as well.