Hey there.
I know it's far from ideal to start yet another full-length story when you have other works incomplete but here we are. I stopped watching Legends sometime during season 3 but recently got back to watching the newer seasons. I have mixed feelings about the newer seasons - while I like the craziness and the fact that they never really take themselves too seriously, I hate how they have developed Sara and Mick's characters. I have nothing against Ava but I am a little meh about AvaLance - but that's just my opinion. Anyway, I realize I am talking too much.
As I mentioned, this is going to be a multi-chapter proper full-length story. I will try my best to update it as frequently as I can but I am just slowly getting back to writing after a super-long hiatus and I may have my off days when I don't find any inspiration to write.
This takes place after Crisis on Infinite Earths and diverges from canon season 5 onwards. Also, this will start off as AvaLance but will (obviously) end as CaptainCanary. This chapter sets the entire story into motion and is shorter than what I intend the other chapters to be.
I do not own Legends of Tomorrow obviously.
And finally, a ton of thanks to bodysurfer27 who is a gem and guides me through everything that I write, no matter which fandom it is for.
With all that said, the world right now is a scary place. Please take care of yourself and your family while we navigate our way through these times.
It's a strange case, even by the Legends' standards.
"A man frozen in ice?"
"In the middle of Central City?"
"Isn't this the wrong cinematic universe for that?"
"Guys!" Sara barks, instantly cutting off the excited chatter of Ray, Nate, and Behrad. "Focus, alright? Gideon, what else you got?"
"It's cold in Beebo lalala loves you."
"Not again," Sara groans, throwing her head backward in exasperation. "I thought you fixed Gideon, B!"
"I did." Behrad looks visibly confused. "Or wait, was that... a dream?" He widens his eyes dramatically.
"Dude, focus," Nate whispers conspiratorially to Behrad, earning an eye-roll from Sara and a confounded expression from Ray.
"Alright!" Sara announces with a clap of her hands. "Shenanigans over, team. Ray and Behrad, fix Gideon. The rest of us, it's time to see what's thawing in Central City."
"Babe, are you sure you want to sit this one out?" Sara asks Ava, winging her eye-liner with the utmost patience. They are in their room on the ship as Sara adds final touches to her appearance before they embark on their mission in Central City. She eyes herself in the mirror one last time before she turns around to face the other woman.
"Yes. Positive." Ava ambles her way to Sara and wraps her arms around her partner's waist. "I will kill someone if I have to visit the twenty-first century again," she adds with a groan.
Sara chuckles at that. "Keep an eye on the boys, will you?"
"Aye aye, captain." Ava's voice dips and sends chills down Sara's back. She lowers her head immediately and brushes her lips against Sara's. "You look stunning, by the way." Her lips find the hollow of the captain's neck and Sara moans in response.
And then there is a loud banging on their door which forces them to pull back. They sigh, glare at the door with vehement displeasure and then mutter under their breaths, almost in unison, "Ugh, Rory."
"This is as simple as it gets, alright?" Sara is in the bridge with the team, huddled in the center.
"Which essentially means we have higher chances of messing it up," Nate replies promptly.
Sara shoots him a death stare and he raises his hands in defeat.
"So, as I was saying, this is as simple as it gets. We infiltrate the building where they have this ice guy. We see if he is important to history. If he is, we bring him along with us otherwise we leave. Quietly." Sara looks at Mick as she says the last part, giving him a meaningful stare.
"Since John and Charlie are off doing their own thing, and Ray and Behrad are busy fixing Gideon, I will QB from the ship," Ava chips in.
"Which leaves me, Pretty and the Boss to go look for some ice zombie," Mick grumbles and chugs the rest of his beer. "Perfect."
It is everything but perfect though and Sara realizes it when she enters the room that houses the man they are in pursuit of.
She curses herself and her stupidity: how could she not join the very obvious dots that had been blatantly displayed in front of her?
"Babe?" Ava's voice rings in her comm. "Who is it? Any idea?"
Sara can't find her voice. There is a lump forming in her throat and she has no fucking idea what she is supposed to do.
"Sara?" It's Ava again and Sara switches off her channel without any hesitation.
Sara manages to steady herself, takes a deep breath and tries to calm her thrashing heart. "Mick?" she speaks slowly, afraid she will forget the words she is looking for. "It's Len."
"That's not possible," the older man's voice booms through the comm. "He is dead."
Sara feels her head throb as she thinks of the new earth that they have created. Anything is possible here. "It's him, Mick," she repeats, in a daze, mostly still trying to convince herself.
"Sara, it could be Leo Snart, right?" Nate speaks for the first time.
It could be but it isn't because Sara knows where Leo Snart is: home with The Ray. And also because the first thing that caught Sara's eye was the glint of metal on the unconscious man's fingers; the same stupid pinky ring that she has on her fingers. "It's not," she answers.
"But he is dead!" Mick is adamant.
"Not on this earth, Mick," Nate says quietly and Sara is glad she doesn't have to do the explaining.
There is no response from Mick and Sara doesn't know what to say either. She just stares at the man – Leonard – bound in metal chains in front of her.
"Sara." It's Nate again. "We don't have a lot of time. Whatever we do, we have to do it fast."
That snaps her back to reality. This is the easiest decision she has ever made. "We are taking him back with us."
They put him in the med bay because he is still unconscious. Gideon runs a scan immediately and confirms what Sara has always known: it's him.
"What are we going to do?" It's Ray and it's another team meeting.
Nobody answers him; everyone contemplates how best to answer that question.
Sara breaks the silence. "Nothing for now. We wait for him to wake up."
Ava doesn't look too convinced. "Look," she starts hesitantly. "I know he was part of your team but we don't know what memories this version of him has. Are you sure it's safe not to have him in captivity?"
It's not completely unreasonable but this is Leonard, not some random figure from history she can tie up in chains and toss into the brig. She is about to phrase her thoughts when Mick thumps the central console with his hands.
All eyes turn to the man clad in black. "It is safe." He glares at Ava and then proceeds to scathe every other member with a similar glower. "We are not going to stand here and discuss Snart like he is one of the bastards freed from hell."
"Mick–" Ray ventures.
But the man in question is already out of earshot, storming out of the bridge without so much as a glance backward.
Most of the team disperses quietly after that altercation leaving Sara and Ava in the bridge.
Sara knows what's coming even before Ava opens her mouth. She knows it from the curt replies she has been receiving ever since she came back to the ship with Leonard; knows it from the way the other woman is looking at her right now.
She does deserve it, Sara ruminates. You are not supposed to turn off the comm when your girlfriend is on the other end, worried about your whereabouts, especially after you have found your ex... something.
"Sara–"
"I am sorry, Ava." Sara sees no point in prolonging this. She knows she is wrong and she knows what to do when she is wrong.
Ava's eyes soften and Sara feels her heart clenching, guilt crippling her. "I know this is difficult for you." Ava's words are sincere and only bury Sara further under feelings of self-loathing and culpability. "And I am here for you, babe. Just... please don't do what you did today again." It's almost a plea and Sara's heart breaks.
"I really am sorry," she repeats, not knowing what else she can say. Words are treacherous and useless, she thinks.
Ava gives her half a smile, kisses the top of her head lightly and then leaves her alone.
There is no point trying to keep herself confined in the bridge or the captain's chambers when her heart lies somewhere else altogether, and so she finally relents and allows herself to enter the med bay.
Mick is already there and they regard each other with a nod.
"How long have you been here?" Sara questions him as she pulls herself an empty stool to sit by Leonard's side.
"Not long." He clearly isn't in the mood to talk.
Sara nods, doesn't prod him further.
Silence befalls them, gives enough opportunity to thoughts she doesn't want to confront to demand her attention. If Leonard remembers it all – the Legends, the rooftop, the bar fight, Russia, the parka around her shoulders in a freezing room, the card games, the me-and-you, the Oculus, the kiss – it will change everything. And she is no stranger to change; her life has ensured that. And yet this terrifies her, fills her with dread and makes her almost hope that he doesn't remember any of it.
Almost but not quite.
She wants him alive, she decides. But not as her Leonard – the one who knows her bloodlust, the one who knows her card tricks, the one who looks at her with hooded eyes that sets her skin on fire. She wants him alive, yes. But as someone who does not know her at all and remembers nothing of their shared history. Because she knows, knows it with all her heart, that if her Leonard found his way back to her, she would wreck everything in her path to give herself the story with him that the Time Masters made impossible. And Ava... Ava does not deserve that. No one deserves that and—
"Do you think he remembers?" Mick breaks her train of thought.
I hope not, she wants to say. It's selfish, she begins to realize. Mick deserves to have a Leonard who remembers it all back in his life and so she says instead, "I hope he does."