DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Perchance to Dream
by Gabrielle Lawson
Chapter Seven
So maybe dream time-traveling was a little like controlling a DVD player. With Gideon's coaxing, he thought about fast-forwarding, and everyone moved faster around him. Pirates came and went, though he and Gideon seemed to still be in real-time. As real as a dream could be. She told him when to stop, and Snart got to follow Eve Baxter out to confront a Rip Hunter that turned out to be a hologram.
And he could pause the action and move to a different place. He watched Ray shrink his broken and burnt self and put him in a device that looked a lot like a bulky gasses case. He realized it had to be a form of stasis or he woudn't have survived. He watched Timestalker strafe the Acheron. He saw Firestorm and Rip take out the extra cannons.
He went to the Waverider, though he did stop to watch Amaya chase down two runners. He was no speedster but she was faster than a human. Mick had said she fights like animals. Was that a horse or cheetah? He got to see Mick burn off Valor's legs. He still had a lot to catch up on.
Gideon suggested he might like to see his send-off after he was thought to be dead. That was interesting. But he liked what they had to say about him. Most of it he'd said about himself at one time or other. He really liked what Mick said. A bad guy who did good. Maybe that was what he was. He didn't think he'd ever been a hero like Barry Allen. He didn't want that. But he could live with being a bad guy who did good.
Of course, that made him want to check in on Lisa. He didn't want to see her right after she'd found out. He didn't want to see her crying and not be able to touch her or comfort her. So he chose a month later. Then he dismissed Gideon.
Lisa was struggling. Most days she didn't leave her apartment. She paid the bills with money she made from exchanging something gold, of which she could make an endless supply. She had her groceries delivered, but she didn't eat much.
She did go out once though. He followed her. She didn't meet with anyone on the way. She didn't try a heist. She went to a non-descript building and down to its basement. A group of chairs were arranged in a circle. Some were occupied. Then he saw a familiar face. Cisco met her where she hesitated in the doorway.
"I'm glad you came," he told her, taking her hand. He led her to the chairs, and they sat down together. The leader of the group started by asking if anyone wanted to share. A woman sitting across from Lisa talked about her son's suicide, and Snart realized what kind of group this was. It was a grief support group. He left the room. It seemed wrong to lurk. Besides, he still couldn't comfort her or tell her he was alive after all. He started to go, but he heard her voice and he just couldn't move.
"They told me he died a hero. He was my hero. My brother."
Leonard couldn't do it. He couldn't listen to her grief. He'd never wanted to be the cause of her grief. He went back to her apartment to wait for her. He could walk through her locked door. That was kind of weird but Gideon had told him his physical body was still sleeping on the Waverider. So was he more like a ghost now or something different?
While he waited, and to take his mind off his sister, he experimented. He tried to affect objects in his environment. She had some dishes sitting dirty beside her sink. He tried to touch a glass. His hand passed through it. He walked around trying to touch other things without success. Finally, he just sat down on the couch to wait for her. And then he realized he was sitting on the couch and not falling through it.
Lisa returned a little after an hour later. She'd been crying.
Leonard stood up. "Lisa, it's me." But she didn't seem to notice. He tried to touch her face but that didn't work either.
What good was this new way of dreaming except as an escape from the pain of the stasis chamber? He could move forward and back in time, even pause so he could go somewhere else. But it seemed he could only observe. "Gideon?" he called out.
The brunette woman representing the Ai appeared beside him.
"What was the plan?" he asked her. "You said it was just to get me started. Started with what?"
"Lucid dreaming," she replied. "Mr. Jackson had shared that his cousin could control her dreams and thus think her way out of nightmares. We hope by my stimulating you to think that you could do the same."
A lot of good that was doing? "Only instead of dreaming, I'm traveling through time and actually observing true events."
"Yes, though, in a sense, you are still dreaming. You are not here in a physical sense."
"The only things I can control now," he argued, "are where and when I go. If I were lucid dreaming, wouldn't I be able to more?"
"Well, some lucid dreamers have reported being able to wake themselves up, to change dreams from one to another, to use objects in the environment or even to make new objects. In one account, a youth dreamed of an unkillable murderer chasing her. She tried various means to kill him but he always got up again or pulled himself back together. She finally decided on shooting him, then slicing him into thin slices and putting him through a paper shredder. She reasoned that it would take him so long to reconstitute that morning would come and she'd wake up."
That was pretty complicated thinking for someone who was asleep. Though it was kind of farcical. "A paper shredder?"
"Another lucid dreamer mentioned using 'dream logic', which to him meant that he wasn't bound by the restrictions of reality."
"Why can't I do that?" Snart asked her. "I can sit on a couch but I can't touch a dish or comfort my sister."
"The evidence would suggest that you are somewhere between lucid dreaming and time travelling. Perhaps you will gain more control with practice."
Snart didn't like that answer, but he accepted it. This was his first time after all. No successful heist had ever worked for him without putting in a lot of prep-work. "I can't stay here. It hurts to see her like this."
Gideon's expression softened. "Where would you like to go?"
Hadn't Mick said they'd killed Savage three times at the same time? "I want to see how they defeated Vandal Savage."
"You'll need to visit three different times and locations to see it all. You can start in Harmony Falls, 1958."
When Snart decided he was ready to return to the Waverider and wake up, he found his body was stiff from having slept so long. He had seen the end of Vandal Savage. All three times. He'd even seen the team's adventures in 1942. Gideon had then had to explain the time scatter. So he was there to see Nate and Oliver Queen wake Mick up from his own stasis. He saw the regrouped team—without Rip—get trounced by the Justice League of America, of which Amaya was a member.
He had caught up with the main events of the next year, right up to when the team broke time. He wasn't able to visit the altered reality that the 'Legion of Doom' had created. But he did get to experience the very crowded Waverider with two of almost everyone. Then Sara used the spear to take away the power of the spear, and some zombiefied version of a speedster took out the speedster in yellow. That's where he decided to wake up.
"Gideon," Snart asked as he stretched. "How long was I asleep?" He did feel a lot better now.
"Ten hours, twenty-six minutes," the disembodied voice of the AI responded. "I would like to see you in the medbay for a neural scan. You have obviously gained a new ability since the destruction of the Oculus."
Obviously. "If you mean that I had never time traveled in my dreams to eavesdrop on past events before, yeah, that's new. But let's keep this between us for now. It's not a particularly useful ability at the moment."
"Acknowledged. I would still like to scan you."
"Only if no one else will walk in and ask annoying questions."
"The others should be retiring for the day in four hours."
Four hours. He could manage four hours. "Okay, where are they now?"
"Mr. Jefferson is affecting repairs. Drs. Stein and Palmer are in the lab. Ms. Jiwe and Dr. Heywood are in the library. Captains Lance and Hunter and Mick Rory are in the brig."
That had to be interesting. Snart got up and headed for the brig.
Rip didn't get angry. Mick was Mick after all. He was quite used to Mr. Rory's fiery temperament by now. "Let me have just five minutes with her," the arsonist insisted.
"Eve Baxter wasn't always bad. She let her grief take over. Valor's influence was likely a factor as well."
"I can hear you, you know." Baxter spat out behind him. "You're the criminals, not me. What did you do with Jon?"
Rory leaned in close to the glass. "I roasted his legs off!" he told her, scowling.
She stepped back. That's when Rip noticed Snart standing in the doorway. "Ah, Mr. Snart, you look well rested."
Sara met him at the door and took his arm. "Just the one we needed to see right now." She turned to the others. "I said it was his decision and I meant it."
"My decision for what?" Snart asked, leaning against the wall.
"Murderer!" Eve screamed at him. Snart didn't react. He had murdered people before after all.
"She's the Time Bastard who set you up as bait for us," Mick Rory explained.
"Ah." Snart had grasped the situation. He always was astute. He strode confidently to the doors. "Mick, may I borrow your gun?"
Rory snickered and handed the weapon over. Snart keyed open the door and pointed it at Baxter's head. Rip moved his hand closer to his own weapon. He could let him just kill her. Not like that.
Snart stepped in and Baxter backed into the wall. "Why shouldn't I roast you slowly from your toes to the top of your head?" Snart calmly asked her. He lowered the weapon until it pointed at her shoes.
Eve's eyes pleaded with Rip's, but he gave her nothing. Snart hadn't shot her yet. She looked back to the thief. "I saved your life," she tried.
Snart tilted the heat gun up. "True, but only to a point. You also managed to torture me at the same time." He brought the gun back down.
"You killed hundreds. Destroyed the Vanishing Point."
"I destroyed the Oculus," Snart argued back. "Everything—and everyone—else was just icing on the cake."
His calm demeanor must have confused her. "Why?"
"Rip didn't tell you?" Snart asked. "That your precious Time Master overlords were in league with Vandal Savage, a megalomaniac who killed thousands?
"Millions," Rip corrected.
Snart tipped the gun toward him "Millions. Didn't he explain that they used the Oculus to control time, not just observe it? That they manipulated us right from the start? Even had Rip's family killed to motivate his escapades?"
"Lies," she argued, but without conviction. She looked to Rip.
"It's true," Rip told her. "They showed me. We caught Savage with future technology. Turned him in only to have them give him a timeship and send him back to murder my family. Everything we did to try and stop him, they manipulated so we'd fail. They were going to kill us all. The only way to be free of their control was to destroy the Oculus."
"We were the good guys in this story," Snart told her. "You threw in with pirates."
She had no retort.
"You threw away all your morals," Sara told her. "Went against everything you believed in."
"What did you do with the others?" Eve asked. She'd lost all her bravado.
Sara stood next to the cell. "Marooned in a permanently stationary and cloaked timeship in the Vanishing Point. They'll live, but they'll never be discovered and they'll never escape."
"Including stumpy," Mick added for effect.
"You could send me there," Eve suggested.
"With all your Time Master training?" Snart said. "I don't think so."
Perhaps he thought she could repair the Acheron and get it running again.
"I think I'll need to sleep on it," Snart finally decided. He left the cell and closed the door after Sara was clear. "Now that I can sleep." He handed the heat gun back to Mr. Rory and walked out.
Sara went with him. "So the device worked?"
"As intended," Snart told her. "We'll have to send Jax's cousin a thank you note."
"I was a little surprised you didn't fry her," Sara admitted.
"Heat's not my thing," he confessed. "My gun is in disrepair."
She smiled. "Ray had to take it apart to stop a bomb from destroying Reagan's White House."
"So I've heard."
"So what did you dream about?"
That was a little too personal at this stage, but it did tell him that they hadn't asked Gideon when he was sleeping. "Gideon got me out of the chair, then I just dreamed other things. I don't really remember."
"As long as it wasn't exploding," Sara said, "it's all good. I'm glad it worked. You were out for a long time."
"Ten and a half hours," Snart replied, agreeing. "I almost feel human again."
Sara stopped him in the corridor. "You really going to make her wait?" she asked. The bridge was behind her.
"She made me wait."
"Hey look who's up!" Jax called out. He joined them and put his hand on Snart's shoulder. "Good to see ya, man!"
"It's good to be seen." Snart didn't really want to be the center of attention but he had just recently come back from the dead, so to speak.
Stein joined them and they moved to the bridge. "I take it our device was helpful?"
"Like a charm," Snart told him.
Ray, who was already there, beamed. "You're alive!" And then he hugged him. Snart was not the hugging sort. Ray, on the other hand...
"Don't smother him, Haircut!" Mick ordered. That only left Rip and the new people. It was old home week on the Waverider.
Ray let go and Snart dropped into one of the chairs. "So how did you manage to break time anyway?"
"We caused a temporal paradox," Jax admitted.
The others helped fill him in on what he already know. He'd seen it. Whatever had happened after the Legion used the spear must have been really bad for them to risk it. And even though they did the world a favor, they still earned the consequence.
After telling the end of the story, Nate and Amaya joined them. They all went on to tell of the adventures with George Lucas and JRR Tolkien, or how Mick Rory now had a statue in DC. He'd witnessed all of it in one ten and a half hour nap. What was he going to do all the rest of the nights he had left?
Somehow, everyone had ended up in the galley still filling Snart in on all he'd missed while Amaya made dinner. Nate even demonstrated his "steeling up." Finally, someone yawned and they all got ready to turn in for the night. Snart waited for them to all go to their rooms, then he went to the medbay. While Gideon scanned him, he thought about what to do with Eve Baxter. A part of him did want to kill her. But he also felt like a quick death was too easy.
The scan finished. "Well?" he asked Gideon.
"I took the liberty of scanning you while you were in stasis. Your DNA was altered due to the influx of temporal energy. I expected there to be less temporal energy now due to the fact that so much of your body was—pardon me if this is indelicate—cut away before regeneration."
That all made sense but he caught that the AI had expected a certain result which most likely meant that is not what she found now. "So now there's more?" he asked.
"Yes. The highest concentrations are in your brain, but it is circulating throughout your body."
That could certainly explain why he could do what he did when he slept. "Is that a bad thing?"
"I'm uncertain. What happened to you is unprecedented. When Captain Hunter absorbed temporal energy from the time drive, he lost his memories. He was able to regain them with time and the team's help. The amount of temporal energy in the Oculus was far greater still."
"Let's continue keeping this to ourselves for now," Snart ordered.
"Of course."
Snart left the chair. "See you in my dreams, Gideon." He headed back to his room.
But four and half hours awake did not make him sleepy after ten and half hours of sleep. He tried sleeping but it just wouldn't come. So he sat on his bed and played solitaire. He talked to Gideon, getting more details about his rescue, how things went on without him and the last year in which he joined the Legion of Doom. And he asked for her suggestions for dealing with the Time Master in the brig. Finally, she told him that the others were starting to rise. He left to beat them all to the bathroom.
When he exited, Amaya and Nate were in line. "Oh, you're up!" Amaya smiled for him. "Did you sleep all right?"
"I didn't," Snart told him. "It was too soon."
"Dude," Nate said. "You are going to crash at some point. They said you needed to sleep for a week."
Amaya slipped into the bathroom. "I imagine I will," Snart replied. "But not before we deal with Eve Baxter." Sara showed up to join the line.
"Have you decided what to do with her?"
"I believe so," Snart answered. "See you in the brig."
He went to the galley next and grabbed a bite to eat then headed to the brig. "You're right about one thing," he told Eve Baxter, waking her up.
She shook her head slightly then pushed herself up. By the time she was standing, Snart was in front of the cell door.
"I am a murderer. I killed people long before I joined this team. But back then it was all about me. What I could get out of it. I'm a thief, after all."
"But this time was different?" she added and Snart didn't miss the sarcasm.
"It was," Snart agreed. "Before, I was a bad guy doing bad things. This time, I was a bad guy doing a very good thing. You wouldn't have fallen in love with your prisoner if the Oculus had remained. Not unless your minders wanted you to fall in love with him. You had free choice to fall in love, to plot your revenge because I destroyed it."
"Are you going to kill me?" Eve asked.
"The thought crossed my mind." Snart made sure to keep his expression neutral.
"You could maroon me with the others."
Snart squinted. "In your ship? Still don't think so. If I don't kill you, slowly, I'd have to leave you somewhere you could never, ever do anything meaningful again."
Sara and Rip entered just then. "What do you have in mind for our captive here?" Rip asked.
"There was that place Ray ended up after the time scatter," Snart said.
"Where was that?" Eve asked.
"Not far from a tyrannosaur nest," Sara told her. "Has potential. Nate said Ray secured his camp site."
"From tyrannosaurs anyway," Snart added. "What about where you ended up?"
"Ooh, I could see her being accused of witchcraft," Sara said. She turned to Eve. "Especially if you try to tell everyone what happens in their future."
"I'm guessing where I ended up is out entirely," Rip said.
Snart turned toward him. "Film school?" He opened the cell door then stepped in and took her arm. "I have killed people with my bare hands, you know. Try anything and I'll demonstrate."
Rip produced a pair of binds and bound her hands behind her back. "I'd rather he didn't demonstrate."
"Take her to Chronos's ship," Snart told him. "I'll be along shortly."
When he was alone with Sara, he told her his plan. She smiled. "Good choice. I'll make sure she's dressed appropriately."
Snart went to the jump ship bay. It also led to the Timestalker's air lock. It was the first time he'd been back on that ship since he'd left it with one less hand than he'd been born with. There were still a few pieces of it there on the deck. The railing was still broken. Only now it was Eve Baxter sitting on the steps that led to the bridge. She was still bound. She was trying to convince Rip to let her go, banking on their previous friendship. Rip paid her no mind. "Ah, Mr. Snart. Have you decided on a destination?"
"I'm thinking the Dark Ages," Snart told him stepping around her. "Someplace very primitive, maybe Bohemia. I'll even be generous, put her down between the Plague years."
Sara stepped in holding some clothes and a pair of simple leather shoes.
"You should get changed," Rip told Baxter. "You'll want to fit in."
"I helped you when you needed it," she told him, standing. "You owe me."
"Perhaps before you tortured Mr. Snart here and tried to kill me and the rest of the Legends."
"Legends?" she scoffed. "No one will even remember them."
Snart leaned in. "You will."
"Regardless," Rip said. "You along for the ride Captain Lance?"
"Nah," Sara waved him off. "I'll get our girl here dressed then let you boys have this little trip." She pulled Eve back to the back and undid the cuffs.
Rip turned to give her privacy. Snart was already facing away. "I wouldn't try anything," he told the prisoner. "Sara used to belong to the League of Assassins. She doesn't need weapons either."
"Ah ah," Sara said behind them. "Bras and panties weren't in fashion."
It took only a few minutes before Eve was dressed and cuffed again. Snart sat her down on the steps and Sara closed the airlock on her way out.
"You might as well just kill me," Eve tried. "I don't speak the language."
"I hear they have words without vowels," Snart told her. "But I don't even know if they had written language then so it doesn't matter anyway."
"Immersion is a very effective way to learn a new language," Rip said as he set the course. It didn't take long for Timestalker to arrive. "I'll even give you your first word: Chleb means "bread," not to be confused with "Cheb" the name of your new home town. The year is 1351. The plague ended here last year."
Snart leaned down to her. "Don't worry, it will come again."
He leaned back up and brought her with him. Rip joined them as they marched the few steps to the door at the back of the ship. They both led her out of the ship. They were in a forested area. "May I?" Rip asked. Snart nodded his head toward the smoke in the distance. He let go and just watched. He didn't fully trust Rip, but he didn't think he'd do anything to help her.
Rip moved her away from the ship. "I'm sorry it came to this," Rip told her. "But you chose vengeance and torture. Snart is being rather merciful, you know. He's not a good guy."
"Then why save him?" she said, giving one last try, "if he's a bad guy."
"Because he did good," Rip replied. "He's evolved, as has Mr. Rory and Sara Lance. Rory and Snart would take offense at being called heroes. But it didn't stop them from behaving heroically. In the end, they do the right thing, though maybe not in the right way. If one can accept that, they make valuable members of a team.
"But it doesn't matter anymore, not for you." He held up a memory flasher and flashed it in her face. "Do try and stay clear of the rats," he told her as he freed her hands. "Bubonic plague visited Bohemia more than once before it was all over. There's a town that way. See the smoke? Do try and stay out of trouble."
She started walking and Snart joined him where he waited. "She has no memory of being a Time Master," he told him. "She's in a time where she can work no technological advantage or influence, especially as a woman in these repressive times."
"Sounds good enough. She'll do okay. Real meat and potatoes people here."
"I didn't think you were well traveled," Rip remarked as they headed back to the ship.
"Mom's side of the family," Snart replied. Then he yawned. "Looks like I'm finally ready to sleep again."
A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. One reason that I found myself with 5 different stories to write in 5 different fandoms. I finished one of them so now it's just 4. The more recent reason was my fear of the coronavirus. I was deemed likely exposed to a person who had test positive at work. I was afraid if I wrote, I'd infect the paper then the pages may have to be destroyed. Well, it's now been 16 days since the last possible exposure to that person and I still feel fine. I'm not infected.
