All was quiet on the Waverider; no new aberration had occurred since the 1942 incident. The Legends had shown Graciela to a room for herself after the chaos. They were going to show her the rest of the ship until Graciela told them that she basically already knew where everything was. There was no hesitation on her part to show it by revealing a stash of hidden alcohol that Rip stored in his study. It was a done deal after that.

In her room Graciela laid on her bed with one arm over her forehead and her gaze glued to the ceiling. The letter left for her was resting over her chest, still unopened by her hands. She couldn't bring herself to do it just yet. The last time they spoke to each other, the last time they'd been in the same room, it was like every chaotic possibility happened. The screams and yells of that last argument still echoed in her head. Rip had made it very clear that he didn't want to see her ever again, much less on the Waverider.

So why didn't you get rid of the letter?

Graciela couldn't come up with a plausible reason. Her dark eyes flickered to the side. "Gideon?"

"Yes, Miss Haynez," the A.I. dutifully answered.

"The letter—did Rip really keep it voluntarily? Or did he just forget about it? Be honest, please." Graciela waited patiently as much as she could to hear the answer.

"The exact reasons as to why Captain Hunter kept the letter, I cannot say—"

"Gideon."

"Contrary to my impressionable talents, mind reading is not one of them."

Graciela rolled her eyes with a hint of a smile. She did miss that A.I. more than she cared to admit. "Do you know why he kept it? Did he forget about it? Is-is that why it's still here?"

"No, he was very aware of that letter," said Gideon. "In fact, I was privy to when he pulled it out after years of it being hidden."

Graciela blinked. She turned her head up to the ceiling. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Graciela pulled the letter off her chest and raised it up. She could see some of the words through the light but for the main part, it remained unknown. "Why'd he do that?"

"He edited something. I'm not sure what."

Graciela breathed in at the thought. What could Rip have done with the letter? She knew the first edition of the letter word for word. What could have changed? Her thoughts were interrupted with the loud sound of a thump out in the hallway. She sat upright and waited for another sound. Eventually, she left the letter on her bed—neatly folded—and walked out. Only two steps were taken in the hallway before someone dropped in from behind and knocked her out-cold.

Amaya Jiwe had stowed away on the Waverider.

~ 0 ~

Mick Rory planned to have himself a nice lunch. Graciela had given him the bottle she revealed in Rip's study. It wasn't much but it was his lunch and it tasted damn delicious. He was momentarily taken aback when Amaya literally dropped out of nowhere and threatened him with a knife at the neck. Despite her smaller stature, she had grasped him from behind and refused to let go.

"Look, if this is about me taking all the mayonnaise, you might be slightly overreacting," Mick said calmly.

"You killed him!" Amaya growled.

"Killed him? I've killed lots of people. You're gonna have to be more specific," Mick attempted to reach his sandwich again but Amaya pulled him back.

With a roll of his eyes, he reached back for her and threw her to the ground. Amaya touched the golden totem around her neck and an ape's figure and growl erupted in a blue mist above her. She charged forwards and threw Mick over the table. Amaya jumped over the table and meant to finish her work when a silver hand grabbed her wrist. Amaya's eyes widened in alarm but that didn't stop her from attempting to fight her newest opponent.

Nate's entire body was shining silver and of...steel? Even he didn't look quite sure of what was going on. Amaya tried punching him but instead hurt her own hand. Nate then hit her over the head with a lone hand and knocked her out.

Mick stared, dumbfounded, at the new sight of Nate. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I really...don't know…" Nate went honestly, raising his steel hands to look at them better.

~ 0 ~

"Let me get this straight..." Graciela rubbed her temples and not because of the pain she felt from Amaya's hit. This team was definitely something else. "You can now turn into steel?"

Nate was once again back in the infirmary and was with Ray and Graciela. His skin was non-steel at the moment but everyone was pretty freaked out by is new ability. "He injected me with Nazi serum," Nate pointed to Ray as his main defense. He definitely hadn't been searching for this.

"Good point," Graciela turned on Ray, making the taller, dark-haired man go high with alert. "Ray, what the hell did you do!?"

"U-uh, I...well..I had redesigned the serum to quintuple my own strength and transform my skin into an alloy a hundred times stronger than steel," Ray said then smiled to himself. "Steel, that's a cool name."

Nate agreed with a light smile of his own. "Yeah, especially since my grandfather was called Commander Steel. But what does that make me? Corporal Steel? Mr. Steel? Citizen Steel?"

"Who cares?" asked Ray. "You got superpowers now, dude."

"This is not a laughing matter!" Graciela interrupted their bit. "We don't know what side effects this...this thing caused. Ray, I need you to fix this!"

"Woah, hey!" Nate got up from the bed to argue over this 'fixing' bit. "I don't need fixing. If anything, I just need to learn how to control this steel-changing."

"Nate, listen to me, you don't want this," Graciela promised him. "This is some experiment gone wrong! You don't know what could happen—what could be happening—to you because of this!"

"I feel fine!" Nate snapped, and loudly. "And because it's my choice I choose to keep these powers! Ray, you can start teaching me now."

"Uh…" Ray's eyes flickered from Nate to the pretty upset Graciela.

She growled and stormed out of the night wing. She made a direct beeline for the holding room where Amaya had been placed during her unconscious state. By the time she arrived, she was more put together. Demanding and cold were one of the things she was infamous for in her days.

"What's the situation?" she asked Sara, ignoring Amaya for the moment.

Sara didn't look any happier than Graciela and Amaya did. She had her arms crossed and was facing Amaya suspiciously. "Well, she stowed away before the time jump from 1942—"

"Clearly," Graciela rolled her eyes.

"Well, she's claiming Mick killed Rex so she wanted to kill him in retaliation."

"Wait," Graciela blinked and now faced Amaya, "Rex Tyler? The Hourman? He was murdered?"

Amaya gave a curt nod. "His killer stole the Askaran Amulet."

"As surprising as that is—and it is—I'm sorry to say that Mick hasn't done any crime while I've been on board."

"He's a thief and a murderer!" Amaya rushed up to the clear wall separating her from Graciela and Sara.

Graciela shrugged. "Yeah, I know. But as far as we know, Mick hasn't been off the ship since we dropped off your team at the JSA."

Amaya still didn't seem very convinced. "With his last words, he told me his killer was a time traveler."

Graciela didn't care but beside her Sara stiffened. "Well, hate to break it to you, sweetie, but there are plenty of time travelers. Some of them are pirates and this is the sort of stuff they loot for."

Sara cleared her throat and put a hand on Graciela's arm to get her attention. "We've, um...we've been tracking someone who's been trying to alter history." Graciela's head whipped in Sara's direction, her eyes wide with surprise. "We think it's the same person that gave Krieger the super-serum. This might be your time traveler."

"What?" Graciela stepped back from Sara, completely lost. "Why am I just hearing about this now?"

"Because you've been locked away in your room!" Sara exclaimed. She had tried coming up with a way to give Graciela the rundown of the things that happened in Rip's absence but she literally disappeared for hours after 1942. Sara went for the control pad of the holding cell. "Look, if I let you out of here, you promise not to hurt Mick unless he really deserves it?"

Amaya nodded her head and watched as Sara unlocked the cell. She then stepped out and glanced at Graciela, just to be sure they were all on the same page. Graciela, though still processing what Sara revealed, motioned for Amaya follow.

"So you want to tell me a little more about this time traveler person we're facing?" Graciela didn't waste time and prodded Sara for information.

"There's not much to tell, honestly," Sara admitted. "Because we don't know a lot. This is sort of the thing we would want from you, you know…"

"Look, I may be from the future but you saw where I was from. I'm a rebellion fighter—"

"You're a what?" Amaya now oddly staring at Graciela's back.

"It's fine, I was fighting to build the city again," Graciela waved her off casually. "My city had been destroyed by this man called—"

"Vandal Savage, yeah," Sara nodded. "We know. We're We're the ones who stopped him!"

Graciela snapped her fingers in Saran's direction. "And I thank you for that. Seriously. You gave me my freedom for that."

"What?" Sara raised an eyebrow but Graciela didn't explain. It wasn't the first time she said something along those lines.

"I knew Rip before he went into their training as well as another friend there...and I may have been arrested by them for some unauthorized time traveling I did a year ago."

Amaya was still stuck on the earlier words Graciela had said. "When you say 'rebellion fighter'..."

That, Graciela would answer happily. "They took down the dictator of my city but when he was gone, every politician raced to take the power he left behind so naturally there was still some fighting left to do for the city."

Sara was silent. They supposed that none of them ever really considered what aftermath would take place with Savage's defeat. Rip certainly never talked about it either, but they all figured it was due to the loss of his family.

"Okay," Amaya started again, "So...can't we just go back in time to save Rex? This ship is a time machine, right?"

"Because we're dealing with another time traveler," Sara answered her. "If we go back and save Rex, the time traveler will just go back before then and kill Rex again, so instead of chasing our own tails, we need to identify who we're up against."

"Impressed you actually knew about that," Graciela mumbled but Sara heard perfectly.

"Rip did teach us some things…"

"I don't understand any of this," Amaya cut in again.

"Look, I just need you to trust us," Graciela turned around. "I didn't know about the rogue time traveler but now that I do, I promise we'll find them. In the meantime, Gideon will fly you home."

"I'm not going back until Rex's killer is brought to justice," Amaya said like it should have been obvious that was what was going to happen.

"You're from 1942 and part of the JSA, I'm pretty sure it'd be detrimental to have you here."

"You're from the future—"

"—yeah, so my legacy has already been jotted down in history, unfortunately," Graciela said quietly. It wouldn't be the best legacy but it was there. "But don't worry, everyone here is a professional who knows what they're doing." But just as the words flew out from Graciela's lips, the three women heard an incessant blasting above them. "Most of us," Graciela added before going to see what was happening.

They walked into the entrance of the ship where they saw Ray, in his Atom suit, shooting at Nate who was once again steel. The energy would simply reflect off him or bounce off.

"You're kidding me," Graciela's voice was enough to get their attention for about ten seconds before they started going back and forth.

"Professionals?" Amaya reminded her.

"I just met them."

"I know you not gonna take that, Ray," Jax laughed after Nate threw a humorous joke apparently. "Go crush this Tin Man."

"Nate, you shouldn't test yourself—" Graciela barely got to say before Ray was thrown against the ship's cargo door, managing to bust it open. Green clouds swarmed in the open and threatened to suck everyone out.

"Hold on, I'll close it!" Nate pushed through the force trying to pull them out. He clapped a hand over the control but electricity crackled against his steel hand and blasted him back. He was sucked out into the vortex.

Ray began to push himself closer to the door.

"Ray, get inside! We have to close the door!" Sara called to him.

"No, I got to go after him!" Ray activated his suit's helmet and flew out after Nate.

"Gideon, shut the cargo door!" Sara then shouted to their A.l.

As soon as they could, everyone rushed out of the cargo room. Alarms blared with the ship's several malfunctions and with only Jax to fix them, it was going to be a tricky one.

"What's happening to the ship?" Stein demanded when the group strode into the main room. He and Mick were standing with obvious confusion.

"Your idiots of a team," Graciela explained it with that, and frankly it was enough to understand. Sara helped her with the communications of the ship to get ahold of Jax in the engine room. "Jax, what's our status?"

"I've rerouted power from the secondary manifolds!"

"Where are Dr. Palmer and Dr. Heywood?" Stein looked around.

Graciela turned around, crazy angry. "Doctors? Ha! They don't deserve those titles! From now on, they're idiots 1 and 2!" Sara thought about defending the two but then she figured it wasn't such a far fetched statement.

"How is it you people haven't managed to kill yourselves yet?" Amaya rushed to get a seat. The ship was rocking and it wasn't gentle.

"The day is still young," Mick said just as calm as ever.

"Shut up!" Graciela snapped. She re-opened up the comm. with Jax. "Jax?"

"Yeah, I'm working on it!"

Graciela then followed up with Gideon. "Alright, Gideon, I don't know how you work exactly but can you track down Ray and Nate and take us to their position?"

"The explosive decompression caused us to lose corrective altitude, which put too much strain on the station-keeping thrusters," Gideon replied dutifully.

"For God's sake, say it how it is," Mick said gruffly. "We're screwed."

"We're screwed," Gideon repeated.

"You're a wonderful team!" Graciela ran her hands through her hair, fresh out of ideas.

Since there would be no option but to physically go and retrieve Ray and Nate, it was best to figure out where they were in the meantime and how best to find them in the new land.

"Fugile Japan? Seriously?" Graciela looked over to Sara to see what she made of the situation.

"At least we know they're alive," the blonde had settled for. "We best go get them before they get into trouble."

"How can you bring a thug on a rescue mission?" Amaya was quick to as once they group started for the wardrobe room. Mick grumbled at the insinuation. "I've known men like you. Men who take and prey on the weak."

"Listen, girly, I'm risking my neck for two morons who fell out of a ship. Why? 'Cause they'd do the same for me," he retorted in return.

"Gotta say that some crooks have a code," Graciela spoke up then added, "No offence, Mick."

"None taken. It's the first useful thing you've said."

Graciela rolled her eyes. "Now do you think Jax and Stein can really fix the ship, then?" She asked from Sara since the blonde had instructed the other two to work on the ship's malfunctioning parts.

"Rip taught Jax everything about the ship, he knows what he's doing," Sara reassured.

"Why are you on the ship?" Mick continued to argue behind them with Amaya.

"Cause I'm a member of the Justice Society of America. It's my job to protect everyone!"

"Except for me. You snuck up behind me and threatened to slice my throat like a ninja."

Amaya shot the man an annoyed look. "There's no such thing as ninjas, you idiot."

"Tell that to Chuck Norris."

"Who's that?"

"And I'm the idiot," Mick rolled his eyes this time.

Amaya resented that insult and snapped back. "And by the way, I'm not your girly—"

"Oh my God, shut up!" Graciela had stopped to turn around, her dark eyes blazing with irritation. "Now don't think I won't lock you both up in the same cell if you don't shut the hell up." She put a finger to her lips, warning them not to continue their argument and continued to walk on, though she called for Sara to lead her to the wardrobe room again.

~ 0 ~

The day was dark when Graciela and the others emerged from the Waverider. Thanks to Gideon's help, they had acquired a device that would pick up on Ray's suit signals. It would make for an easy find, hopefully, and then off to find Nate.

"The Signal from Ray's ATOM suit is getting stronger," Graciela read off the handheld device. Her boots trudged along the muddy grass, but they were dirty as it was so it didn't really matter.

Unlike Sara and Amaya, Graciela had refused to change into a typical Japanese clothing because she fully believed this would be a quick 'in and out' plan. Sara then told her she still had a lot to learn. So there she was, dressed in jeans, a purple and white, buttoned up blouse and dirty brown boots.

"Hm," Mick was the one to stop when he figured where the device would lead them. Graciela stopped and glanced back at him. "Doesn't exactly look inviting, does it? It's like "Ninja III: The Domination."

Confused, Graciela followed his gaze and saw what could only be an emperor's living quarters. This was definitely not going to be a quick 'in and out' trip.

"Never took you for a cinephile," Amaya was close to laughing as she passed Mick.

"All I know is ninjas like to hide in trees. I don't see anything," Mick's eyes were wide as he spoke. "You don't find them, they find you."

"Just because you saw ninjas in a movie, that doesn't make them real," Amaya rolled her eyes, thinking of it as nothing but stories.

Sara, on the other hand, spoke up to agree. "I have to side with Mick on this one. They're real."

Amaya couldn't decide how worse this team could get. "You think there's a secret brotherhood of men trained in the art of assassination?"

Sara almost laughed at the irony of her back story. "I hate to break it to you, Amaya, but I'm basically a ninja."

"A deadly one," Graciela agreed in front, not that delved into the topic. She'd only read the profile of Sara left by Rip and was genuinely stumped how he could have chosen such a dangerous woman.

Then again, she never understand what Rio did anyways.

~0~

It was easy to slip into the Shogun's building. It almost made Sara sneer at how their security was primitive for such an important man. Amaya, on the other hand, insisted they not get ahead of themselves and just find Ray. Graciela agreed. If there was anything she learned in her past is that what started easy rarely ended easily.

The group crossed a hallway in silence, following where the handheld device led them to. The strode into an empty room where they thought Ray stood inside his suit.

"Haircut, let's get out of here," Mick motioned Ray with his heatgun to the door. "We're saving your ass, again."

The man, however, turned around to reveal to be the Shogun himself. "It is you who needs rescuing."

Graciela lowered the handheld device with a sigh. "Seriously? He let the Atom suit get taken?"

The Shogun revealed a teethy, smug smile as he took a step towards them. "You are already defeated before you have even begun. I have been trained in the art of war by Shimura himself."

Sara didn't seem very concerned as she took the same step towards him. She whipped out her staffs and declared, "League of Assassins, class of '09. Don't take it easy on me." She zoomed past Graciela and started fighting the Shogun.

She did her best to fight him off but she didn't expect to find a more skilled opponent. The Shogun kicked her backwards and started for them when Graciela snapped her fingers and a purple beam of energy passed over the ceiling. A part of the ceiling then crackled until it fell over the Shogun.

"Interesting," Sara blinked at the sight but Graciela grabbed her arm and yanked her into a run. "How did you do that!?"

"Explain later!" Graciela hushed and nearly crashed into Ray on the turn.

"Oh, hey guys!" Ray was cheery enough to greet.

"Wrong way, Haircut!" Mick pushed him to keep going, but Ray wouldn't budge.

"What about my suit?" He froze when he saw the Shogun making his way out of the room with bits of ceiling over him. "We can get it later," he decided and rushed away.

Getting out of the forest was definitely easier by the time dawn arose. Now that they had Ray with them, they could turn over their attention to getting Nate back. Although the nab didn't have something like the Atom suit to stand out, since there was only village it was not hard to find the American amongst them.

"Nate, you're alive!" Ray beamed after he opened the door to a small cottage house.

Nate was indeed alive, and in good company with a woman. "Oh, hey, guys! You found me…" he said with a fake smile.

"I'm sorry, was this a bad time?" Graciela raised an eyebrow.

"Nope," he cleared his throat and got up, though with some groaning from his injury. The team questioned him with sharp looks but he didn't answer.

"Masako, these are, uh, my friends I was telling you about," he instead gestured to the woman with him.

She courtesy bowed at the others. "Hajimemashite. Can I get you something to drink?"

"Sake, lots of it," Mick didn't fail to answer.

Amaya shook her head disapprovingly. "What he meant to say is thanks for your hospitality, but we must be going."

Mick's gaze lowered to her with even more dislike. "No, I didn't."

"But she's right," Graciela said, siding with Amaya for logical reasons. She herself was a bit distrustful of Amaya at the moment. "Nate, let's go."

"I can't," the man made a face and soon earned the confused eyes of his team.

Graciela's eyebrows raised together, but before making a scene she smiled at Masako then flexed her finger at Nate to come over. Knowing he would have to explain himself, he followed the team out into the field where they would get some privacy.

"Why are you limping?" Sara eyed Nate's hand which wouldn't leave his abdomen for more than a minute. It was also where there was a blotch of blood. "What have you been doing!?"

Nate waved her off with a little groan as he moved to face them all. "We can't leave. Masako's supposed to marry the Shogun Tokugawa lemitsu."

"Yeah, met him. Not a fan," Sara sarcastically shrugged. She was mighty bitter he'd managed to beat her at something she was practically a master at.

"Well, the reason he sticks out in the history books is because he likes to murder his wives, and I can't leave Masako to his mercy."

"Especially since he stole my ATOM suit," Ray remarked.

"Exactly," Nate agreed before it actually hit him what Ray said. "Wait, what? You let the Shogun steal a 21st century super-suit?"

"After I crash-landed trying to rescue you," Ray made sure to remind How they all got into this mess in the first place.

"How the hell does the Shogun even know how to operate your suit?" Graciela had been wondering ever since they escaped the Shogun.

"I designed it so an idiot could use it."

"An idiot does," Mick grumbled from his spot. He'd made himself comfortable over a wagon full of hay, even looking close to falling asleep.

"Guys, bottom line is, if the Shogun has the ATOM suit, it's not just Masako and the village we have to protect. He can use it to conquer the whole region," Nate pointed out for them all to see the true danger of leaving prematurely.

"You said the Shogun's coming for your new girlfriend?" Sara eyed the field past Nate.

"Uh-huh."

"Easier to defend a village than to attack a castle," Sara then directed her glance at Graciela to see what she would say.

"Yeah, experience says that," sighed Graciela. "But here's the thing, that Shogun with the suit is practically invincible. He threw Sara like a ragdoll."

"But steel—" Sara moved towards Nate and rested an arm over his shoulder, "—is stronger. There's our win."

Nate cleared his throat rather awkwardly. "About that, I'm having a little problem accessing my powers."

"Sounds like you're having performance issues and it looks like you're not done training him yet," Sara told Ray who opened his mouth to retort when Graciela went on.

"Alright, fine. Ray and Nate can work on the Shogun strategies while the rest of us figure out how to defend a village. It should be easier than a city but I don't want to get too cocky."

"Wake me up when the action starts," Mick moved himself slightly for a better position. He spit out the thread of hay from his mouth and shut his eyes.

Graciela's look was sharp. Her eyes flickered purple, causing a same colored beam to hit the wagon and tilt it over to the side. Mick dropped with a thud and he quickly shook himself up, confused with the matter. Graciela shook her head and started back for the house.

"Did she just…?" Nate's finger moved from where Graciela had stood to the tilted wagon.

"Yeah," Sara lowered his fingers, eyes glued to Graciela's direction. "I'm curious myself of what else she's hiding."

~0~

Jax and Stein had discovered a secret room that Rip never told then about, peeving Jax off especially since he'd been forced to learn every inch of the Waverider. They'd managed to enter the dark room, which turned out to store numerous weapons.

"It appears to be some sort of armory," Stein remarked after his flashlight illuminated a row of large guns inside a glass case.

"Among other things," Jax saw a pile of books over a desk, barely lit from a computer screen. "There's a reason why Rip didn't want us in here. Some things you can't un-see."

The lights of the room turned on, giving them full view of the armory. Stein lowered his flashlight, flicking the switch off at the same time. His eyes landed on the screen and saw a familiar name blinking in and out. "Look, Jefferson, our old friend has hailed the Waverider."

Jax saw the name and blinked. "Well…" he moved towards the screen and stopped when he saw a leather bound book at the stop of the paper stack.

"Let's play it," Stein was more focused on the video. He pressed his finger against the blinking message.

'Sorry to contact you like this, Captain Hunter, Graciela. But I can't risk putting any more lives in danger…'

Jax briefly looked up from the open book he'd picked up. "Thought this was from Barry Allen?" He had made a face at the deep voice of the message. That certainly didn't sound like the speedster they knew from Central City.

"It is. Only from 40 years in the future," Stein pointed at the date beside Barry's message.

"Yeah, but he also knows Graciela? A woman born a century later?" That alone made Jax even more suspicious.

'And neither can this. Which is why you'll keep what I'm about to tell you a secret. Even from the rest of your team…'

Jax stopped passing the pages of the book, which turned out to be a journal of some sort, when he spotted a familiar person in a photograph.

~0~

Training Nate would be a little more difficult than he thought but it was not impossible. There was only a bit of a pressure since Graciela had planted herself a couple feet from them with arms crossed and a serious face that versaw everything. The woman reminded Ray of Oliver Queen at that moment.

"The ATOM suit is made of and powered by dwarf star alloy. It's strong enough to withstand bullets, arrows, and explosives." Ray had built a target out of a scarecrow and used a stick from the ground as a pointer.

"So it's impenetrable?" Nate asked, his hopes of winning beginning to dwindle.

"Not quite. Underneath the left thruster is the alpha-stabilizer. If you destroy it, the photons that stream from suit's weapons systems will overheat, theoretically causing somatic overload."

"Theoretically, that's... that's comforting..."

"You have to get close to the Shogun, and in order to do that, you have to be able to harden."

"Well, when you're putting it in those terms it isn't helping!"

Graciela rolled her eyes at the two and finally moved forwards. "Ray, how did you get him to turn his powers on the first time?"

Ray tilted his head in thought. His eyes gazed over the stick in his hand, and suddenly he whacked Nate on the side with it.

"Ow!" Nate cried but Ray him a second time.

"Interesting," Graciela mused but Nate was not having fun.

"It worked the last time," Ray almost pouted before continuing to whack Nate, this time on the back of the legs. "Come on. My serum is flawless!"

"The serum was genetically engineered," Graciela set her hands on her hips. "Nate was not. It's probably your lack of focus."

That was like an alarm set off inside Nate. His eyebrows knitted together in outraged anger. "You think I'm not focusing!?"

"Well, you did fool around when I first asked you to train with Ray and then instead of trying to find us after crash landing—on your ass I may add—you waste time with some woman—"

By the time Graciela finished her answer, Nate's anger had risen to the next level. "You don't think I don't want to save the girl, spare the village, and be a hero for once in my damn life? I spent half of my childhood in the hospital where it didn't even occur to me to dream about having superpowers—"

"And did it ever occur to you that I know what it's like to be locked away without any remote possibility of escaping?" Graciela's louder voice was able to cut him off. "I know exactly what it's like to know that you won't amount to anything good in the world. If you knew where I spent the previous year of my life, you would think twice before telling me that," she spat and stormed off.

~0~

Stein and Jax emerged from Rip's secret hatch room with troubled faces, one more than the other.

"Should we tell the others?" Stein inquired over Barry's future message.

"Barry sent the message to Rip and... Graciela, so maybe we shouldn't," Jax bitterly said as he went through the journal he'd insisted on taking. "But this—" he pulled up a photograph from the journal, leaving Stein to wearily stare at it again, "—is something we can't let slide."

A prison mugshot of Graciela was definitely something Stein would never forget.

~0~

Graciela sat lonesomely on the back porch of Masako's home, picking and tossing hay between her hands. She saw Ray's shoes coming towards her but did not initially say something when he sat down beside her. She knew the spectacle she'd made back there. It was completely unnecessary when the situation was so dire.

"Ray, I'm sorry," she surprised him with. He barely blinked when Graciela continued, "I was busy yelling at Nate when you're the one about to lose your suit."

"Well…" Ray hadn't necessarily talked about the fact he was about to lose his most prized possession.

"I'm not a top notch scientist but I know what overload means," Graciela faced him with a sad smile. "I'm sorry." Ray's shoulders slumped forwards, his eyes stuck on his lap. "I should have been more attentive to everyone and not just Nate, I just…" she sighed, shaking her head and throwing the last of her hay. She picked her head up, eyes flickering to the side. "I guess I'm just trying to be like Rip in this...team…"

Ray smiled in amusement. "Are you kidding? Rip would never shout like that, I mean he'd attempt to but Sara would shut him down. You're not like him, and I don't think that you should try."

"He was a good Captain," Graciela said, reminiscent. "I remember him, he was... just...amazing."

"Rip was…" Ray tried to figure out the best word to describe their troublesome Captain. Graciela chuckled as Ray swayed his head with no words coming to mind. "He was one of a kind, I guess, and I think if he left you in charge it was because he thought you were the best woman for the job."

Graciela's eyebrows knitted together, a slight guilt pouring from her. "I'm not so sure," she whispered. She put her hands on her knees and pushed herself up. "But I suppose it's time I stop wondering what Rip wanted and I just start doing what I always do."

"And what would that be?" Ray watched her go.

"Cause trouble," Graciela's eyes glowed purple as she smirked, much more determined now.

~0~

The Shogun made his appearance at the scheduled time the team estimated he would. He first met Nate - who was shot down by Ray's suit - and then moved on to find Masako in the fields. The rest of armed men went on a hunt for the villagers.

Sara stood tall and ready for her looming battle. The gates behind her were shut to keep the villagers protected and they were going to remain that way. Her eyes gazed over the challenger who stared back at her condescendingly. "Rematch?" Sara gave a twirl of her swords.

The man seemed more amused. "Who is your master?"

"I have no master."

"A ronin. You're not worthy of the effort."

Sara's eyebrows raised, her smirk pulling the man into the battle. The two charged at each other with all the intent of winning. Amaya charged on with her totem's help - using the strength of a lion - and went after the other men threatening them.

In another part of the forest, Mick had a run in with the very fantasy he always dreamed of. "I don't want to shoot you guys," he raised his hands, complete with his heat-gun. "I love ninjas."

The three ninjas surrounding him did not feel the appreciation.

Ray was having his own battle against the Shogun himself and was having trouble getting his sword to make damage on the Atom suit. Eventually, the Shogun knocked Ray down with the sword and let it drop to the ground. Just as the Shogun aimed his fist, powered up by the suit, Masako cut in with her family's sword.

"You dishonor my family and torture my village," the woman breathed hard and held her sword ready to use it.

The Shogun sneered and snatched the sword from her and, in the process, pushed Masako down. He raised the sword. "I will enjoy killing you."

Before he could do anything, a steel-covered hand grasped the sword. Nate had finally re-acquired his lost powers and was more than ready to use them for good. "We haven't been introduced. Name's Steel."

Back with Sara and Amaya, Amaya was going through the men as best as she could. Despite her super strength and agility, it did not make her impenetrable. As she was finishing up with one, another was trying to sneak up on her. She kicked the man in front down and heard the rise of a sword behind her. Turning around, she found the sword only midway down because someone else had grabbed it.

Graciela's eyes were fiercely purple, no sign of pain on her face despite the sword cutting her palm. "Game's over," she declared. Her purple energy encased the sword and made its texture rusty enough to break. She raised her boot and smacked it hard against the man's chest.

At the same time, Sara ran past them and appeared to go directly beside her challenger. They both came to a stop, breathing heavily, but the man began to cough. Blood spilled from his mouth and Sara turned around with a smaller blade in hand.

There was silence for a couple of seconds until the three women heard the crunching of footsteps nearing them. Thinking it was another of the Shogun's men, the three prepared themselves. A black-clothed figure stepped out with a familiar heatgun in hand.

Mick pulled off the cowl of his ninja apparel with a biggest grin possible. "Ninjas are so real."

~ 0 ~

When the team returned to the Waverider, they spotted Jax and Stein in the main room having their own personal conversation. As soon as Jax saw the group coming in, he closed down the journal he'd taken from Rip's hatchroom and waited for them all to gather.

"So, is the Waverider good to go?" Graciela came up and planted her hands on the console. She swallowed down her hiss when her bare, cut up palm touched the cold metal of the console.

"Uh, yeah, all good," Stein gave a firm nod and glanced at Jax.

Graciela's eyes flickered from one half of Firestorm to the next, and soon the rest of the team figured there was something off.

"What is it?" Sara asked, crossing her arms.

Stein seemed reluctant but Jax was determined to get some answers. "We found something," Jax took lead and picked up the journal from the console, waving it for the team to see.

"Is that Rip's?" Graciela assumed since the ship did belong to the man after all.

"Yeah, but, uh...it's about you." This is where Jax's suspicions resurfaced. His eyes narrowed on Graciela who blinked and looked back at the team. "Tell us, Graciela, what exactly is this?" Jax raised the mugshot of Graciela for the others to see.

There were various reactions from the team upon seeing the photograph. Sara's eyebrows raised together, clearly interested in the story behind that picture. Ray and Nate's mouths fell open with shock. Amaya's face hardened with even more suspicion against the team as a whole.

Mick was the only one to give a sound of reaction, it being a low grumble. "You just got more interesting."

Graciela passed a hand through her curls and sighed. "I don't think you were supposed to find that…"

"But we did," Jax went around the console with the picture still held for the others. "And you were in jail. You said that before, when you first arrived, but I didn't really think you were being serious."

Graciela snatched the mugshot from him and stared down at her face. She figured this was on her for not telling the team of her backstory, but in her defense she didn't think they would go snooping around and beat her to it.

"What were you in jail for?" Sara asked out loud, knowing that was the question everyone behind her had.

Graciela turned around, lowering the photograph. "Gideon? Pull up my case in the Time Masters' archives, please."

"Of course," Gideon pulled up a hologram a video.

"Play it, please."

The video began to play from where Graciela was forcibly pushed down into an interrogation chair. Her wrists were forced down on the table and kept there like magnets. The team could see two men walking past the camera to stand across Graciela.

"You are being charged with stolen possessions of a Time Master, illegally time travelling and trying to alter history," spoke one particularly deep-voiced man.

Graciela blew some air to get a curl out of her face. She raised her head at the pair of men. "You want me to plead guilty? Fine. Yeah, I did it." There was absolutely no regret in her voice.

"The stolen time watch belonged to Rip Hunter—" the second man began to say, alarming Graciela.

"Hey - I stole it!" she exclaimed. "He didn't even realize I did it. He had nothing to do with it!"

"You also had contact with the Time Master Kai just before making your trip—"

"He also had nothing to do with it," Graciela enunciated slowly for them to understand what she was saying. "I made the decision to go back in time, find Vandal Savage and terminate him. It was all me, alright? Me!" she shouted. She smirked, all too proudly. "And if I could, I would do it all over again."

Graciela gave the order to stop the video. She wouldn't face the others just yet. "A couple hours later is when they would tell me that everything I did in the past wouldn't even matter. Vandal Savage wasn't dead."

"You went back in time to stop Savage?" Sara blinked. "How—we...we were trying to do that!"

"I know, that came after my failed attempt," Graciela sighed heavily. "See, I went back in time about a year ago from my perspective. I went back to Central City 2016 to stop Savage. I met the Flash there and then later the Arrow and the Azalea. All of us fought against Savage, including the reincarnated Hawks, and after fighting, after thinking he was gone...I was arrested." She chewed on her bottom lip. "No jury, no court—I pled guilty and I was sentenced to a life in prison."

"But when the Time Masters were wiped out...then you must have…" Stein moved past Graciela to join the others.

"We were set free, the lot of us. I didn't understand how but the guards there - the remaining Time Masters that weren't in their headquarters didn't know what the hell had happened so...they set us free."

"But why did you go back in time in the first place?" Jax demanded.

Graciela shrugged. She supposed now was a good of a time to tell them the truth. "My name is Graciela, but to a lot of people I'm known as the Jinx. Now that name—that mantle—I took from my mother who took it from her mother and so on. From where I'm from, the Jinx was known as an evil sorceress who was capable of anything. Authorities led by Savage at that point thought it would be in the people's best interests to dissect metas and...my kind of people...and experiment on them. You have no idea how many people I lost to that," she swallowed hard. For the first time, the team was privy to a vulnerable side of her. "My parents were one of those people. My grandmother...important people. They weren't the best people—I certainly am not one either—but they did not deserve to die like lab rats for a dictator."

Her teary eyes and her shaking body reminded the team of Rip when they'd first came along the Waverider. The man had been nothing but determined to stop Savage in the past to prevent his dictatorship in the future and thus save his family. It sounded like Graciela had made a similar decision, only she had been unsuccessful and caught.

"I was sentenced to prison because I made a bad call, but I don't regret it," Graciela clarified. "I'm just sorry it didn't make a damn difference." She put the mugshot on the console and walked off into the corridors. The last thing she wanted was for the others to see her cry.

~ 0 ~

It was beyond Graciela why people would decide to bother her after such a spectacle she made earlier. She was sure it nearing sleeping time - if not it had already passed - so when she heard a light knock on the kitchen threshold and saw none other than Jax coming in. Graciela wasn't upset with him but he certainly wasn't her favorite person at the moment.

"Can I help you?" She stuck a spoon into a carton of ice cream she'd found. There had been a label of 'Sara' but she figured she could replace it before the blonde even found out.

"Um, first I would like to apologize for bringing up your, uh...history," Jax left it at that and forced himself to look at Graciela's sharp eyes. "I just wanted to make sure there was no danger to my friends alright?"

"That's fair," she agreed. "Everyone before me was...pretty bad. Me? I'm...Well, I'm not going to lie, I was a really terrible person. I was a crook, a criminal...and I liked it." She waved her spoon in the air before stabbing her spoon into the ice cream again. "But I like to think that I'm not completely terrible if I managed to switch sides wholeheartedly. I turned a new leaf and ended up leading the rebel team…"

"I'm sorry," Jax reiterated and took a seat across the table. "But I think there's something you need to listen to."

Graciela scoffed and stuck her spoon into her mouth. "Like what?" came her muffled question.

Jax pursed his lips.

~ 0 ~

Graciela followed Jax down the corridor, still eating Sara's ice cream, into Rip's secret hatchroom. She chewed calmly - something that made Jax wince because who the hell chewed ice cream?

"Leave it to Rip to hide the goodies," she mused over a glass display of guns.

"Yeah, that's not why I brought you here," Jax walked up to the large computer screen still holding Barry's message. "At first we didn't know whether or not to show you this—"

"We?" Graciela started for him.

"Stein and I were here earlier," Jax explained but moved on. "And we found this message from, uh, our friend which I guess you know."

Graciela had come up to stand beside him and saw the screen. "Barry Allen? Huh. Never thought I'd see that name again."

"You said you fought Savage together so...you know who the Flash is…?" Jax asked, just to make sure this wasn't a mistake.

"Course I know. And of course I remember him. You should've seen his face when I was arrested in front of him," Graciela held her spoon to the screen. It occurred to her that from where Barry stood, she was still imprisoned. "Did you play the message?"

"Uh, yeah, and we don't really understand it…" Jax admitted. Neither he nor Stein had been able to decode Barry's message despite all the possible topics they came up with. "But maybe you can since you're from the future...and it is addressed to you too."

Graciela made a face at him, but he just went ahead and replayed the message. Despite the good ice cream in her hands, she ended up putting her spoon back in the carton once Barry's message finished playing. Her mouth slightly opened, her eyes widening to match. Jax ultimately decided to leave her with it but was sworn not to say anything to anyone.

Graciela put her ice cream carton on the desk and stared at the screen. There were various questions that came to mind, starting with what the hell had Barry changed that would now alter the future. But then another curious thing caught her attention - why would Barry address the message to Rip and her? This ship belonged solely to Rip, people probably knew that. So...why would Barry think otherwise?

Author's Note:

So here we are with a basic overview of Graciela's background. We'll see more as the story goes on! Once again, Graciela is not the original Jinx. She's a descendant!

Graciela is OC #2 out of 3 total Arrowverse OCs. The first one being OC Belén Palayta from my Flash fic on my profile and the third being Anais Allen-Mjorkland from my Supergirl fic that are all under my profile! Feel free to check them out!

As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"