'Sorry to contact you like this, Captain Hunter, Graciela. But I can't risk putting any more lives in danger, 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. A war is coming.'
"Why are you two still in here?" Graciela startled the hell out of Jax and Stein inside Rip's secret hatch room. Her dark eyes flickered from one man to the other, clearly expecting to be answered.
"We want to make sense of this message from our mutual, future friend," Stein said, his voice stuttering a bit.
"Yeah, which I still don't understand," Jax spike more calmer since this hadn't been his idea anyways. As far as he knew, the message Barry sent wasn't even for them. "You said that Barry still thinks you're in prison, so why would he leave you this message?"
"Beats me," Graciela shrugged her shoulders. It wasn't like she'd been thinking about it all night, possible nights. As far as Barry Allen, Belén Palayta and Oliver Queen knew, she was still imprisoned in the future.
"Aren't we going to do something about it?" Stein asked, gesturing to the screen still waiting to once again replay the message.
"Like what?" Graciela walked over and switched the screen off. "Contact future Barry? Forget it. I'm trying this thing where I don't mess up Time anymore. I will leave it up to Rip when he comes back."
"Yeah, but what if Rip...doesn't…?" Jax trailed off when Graciela's eyes narrowed on him.
"He will. I'm not going to stop looking until I find him," she vowed and nodded the two out of the room. "From now on this room is strictly forbidden. I don't want anyone else finding this room and sticking their noses where it doesn't belong."
"We didn't stick our noses," Stein remarked rather offhandedly.
"You kinda did. It's why we're here," Graciela patted his arm as he walked out of the room.
After getting the two out of the hatchroom, Sara called them in through the comms. telling them they had in incoming message. The rest of the group was gathered inside the study where the library screen was bright and alive.
"We've got something. I don't know when I am. I've activated the temporal beacon. You get in the Dauntless and you get out here and rescue my ass," a man was raging the message at them.
"We just got this message from God knows who," Sara crossed her arms and leaned back against the desk.
"Does anybody here not open messages that weren't sent to them?" Graciela muttered under her breath before taking a look at the message again. She re-watched the small clip and hummed. "Definitely not a Time Master. I've seen plenty to know they're not vulgar—actually it's what made them even more pompous."
"We're thinking he's a Time Pirate," Ray spoke up. "He activated a beacon. We have to go after him."
"He's a Time Pirate. Why would we rescue him?" Nate looked at the others with a sense of confusion. It certainly seemed like a waste of time.
"Because if he ends up somewhere he shouldn't, and does something he shouldn't...it's Aberration-palooza," Graciela popped the 'p' and whirled around. "So let's see where he's going to end up in, shall we?" she clapped her hands and started for the bridge.
It took Gideon only a minute to track the origin location of the Time Pirate's message, and the location was...
"Looks like Mississippi, 1863," Graciela read out loud, not too thrilled.
"Height of the American Civil War," Nate added with a somber look. "It's also the bloodiest year in American history."
"We gotta watch each other's backs out there," Ray gulped.
"You're absolutely right, Ray," Graciela's nod was a sweet, sarcastic one that only Ray didn't see coming. "Which is why I believe you should watch all our backs from the Waverider."
"Huh?" Ray's crestfallen face did no number on Graciela. This was simple math to her in war strategies.
"If you don't mind, someone has to stay behind as backup. I always do this for precautions," she assured and nodded the others to start filing out.
~0~
"This is hideous," Graciela was the first to speak about their period attire. She was in a purple and brown, plaid dress with puffy sleeves. "God, I've never gone to war in such a ridiculous disguise."
"I'm with you there," Sara was not having the best of time with her own blue and white, puffy-sleeved dress. "I find black to be more slimming for these occasions."
"Words of wisdom by the assassin," Graciela noted but this was no offence for the blonde.
"Purple's not so bad either," she shot Graciela a wink. For once, they shared a mutual laugh.
The two hurried up and got finished dressing up then headed down to the compartment where the rest of the team was already waiting. Ray was offering them brown paper bags for some reason.
"Along with comms devices, I also packed sacked lunches," he gave one bag to Graciela. "I figured the food in 1863 is pretty lousy."
"Are you always so…?"
"Yes," Sara answered the question before it was even finished. Ray didn't seem to mind so neither would Graciela.
"All right, the operation is simple. We isolate the target, we eliminate the timeship, and we get out of there," she instead addressed the team as a whole. "I don't want any trouble, if that is even possible for you all." By the looks of the team, they didn't even know.
"Come back safe," Ray wished them all good luck but unfortunately since he couldn't go out into the field, he found another way to stay close by.
Everyone continuously rolled their eyes as Ray gave them the weather report of 1863 Mississippi. Eventually when he started going through random trivia facts, Sara shut off her comms. Her victorious smile prompted everyone else to assume what she'd done.
Graciela wondered if shutting off Ray's comms would be the better solution, even though it was rather rude since Ray was ideally trying to help in however he could without his suit. But, when he moved onto known songs of Mississippi 1863, she had to do it as well.
"Did you just shut off his comms?" Nick was the first to ask after their ears had felt silence.
"Unfortunately."
"Good. It's the first good thing you've done," Mick walked passed her, missing Graciela's look of offence.
"Believe it or not that was actually a compliment," Jax patted Graciela's shoulder, offering her a small smile.
"I'll show him how we compliment where I come from," the woman muttered and picked up her pace.
Following the coordinates got the team to a dusty looking pod that had shattered front windows.
"I can't believe it. It looks to be some kind of escape pod," Amaya was astonished by the clearly advanced ship on the ground.
Stein made a round on it, examining its condition. "No doubt, it fell out of the Temporal Zone."
"No sign of anyone," Sara and Nate each had a look while Jax took observation of the engines.
"Well, the power core looks exposed."
"That mean what I think it means?" Mick stepped forwards, hand grabbing his heat gun.
"Just do it," Graciela gave the order, furthering his like for her in that moment.
He incinerated the ship from the inside with one fire. There was a big grin on his face that Graciela had to side-glance in concern. "Ah, what's next?" Mick looked around for any more requests.
"Seriously, you in the rebellion would've been amazing...for my side of the team," Graciela admitted.
"This is turning out to be one of our easiest missions yet," Stein said in genuine awe of their luck. Of course that was cut short when they heard a man screaming for help at a distance.
Sara shot the professor a look. "You had to say that, didn't you?"
Amaya was the first to spot a man running away from what looked to be a group of soldiers. "It's over there!" Before she could love away, Jax held onto her arm.
"Whoa, wait, we're not supposed to interfere with historical events!"
Amaya swiftly shook his hand off her arm. "Try and stop me."
"Is she for real?" Graciela jerked a thumb in Amaya's direction as the latter stalked off. "She stows away and she just expects to do what she wants? Um…" As she turned around, the team caught a flash of purple glimmering in her eyes, letting them assume what she would do.
"Hey!" Nate reached over to stop her. "In her defense, she just started—"
"Stowed away. She stowed away."
"Look, she's either gonna get herself killed or completely screw up history," Sara tried a different approach that seemed to do the trick.
The purple in Graciela's eyes calmed as she sighed. "Fine. Go end it fast."
Jax was ready to go with a hand out for Stein. "Let's get those Confederates off his back."
Firestorm took off into the air, leaving the others to follow in their direction at their own pace. In one quick blow, Firestorm took out the group of Confederate soldiers. By the time the others caught up, Firestorm was gone but there was one lone man still terrified for his life.
"What was what?" the man panted as he tried to catch his breath, though his eyes flickered from one member to the next in case one of them decided to attack him too.
"We didn't see anything," Nate shrugged ever so casually that it made Graciela roll her eyes.
She moved forwards, only stopping when she saw the man retract the same steps backwards, clearly suspicious of her intentions. "Look, I've got no interest in what you were doing. We're just passing through." And with that, she glanced back at the rest of the team, eyes specifically lingering on Amaya. "My team—" she spat the word out, "—knows when to follow orders. So let's go."
The others didn't need a reminder of what was at stake so they each got going. As Graciela passed Amaya, the latter incredulously spoke up. "We can't just leave him here."
"You don't get to stow away on a ship and do what you want," Graciela responded with, garnering the same incredulous look Amaya had seconds ago.
Unfortunately, though Amaya wouldn't say anything, Nate did. "You're dispatch, aren't you?"
"Seriously!?" Graciela whirled around to Nate. This had to be a newbie kind of thing.
"Wait, what's a dispatch?" asked Jax, who, in Graciela's opinion, wasn't helping the case.
"It's a former slave providing information to the Union Army," explained Nate, now sheepishly smiling at Graciela. He recognized his mistake and the sharpness in the woman's eyes was quite intense.
"My name is Henry Scott. I'm a free man from Trenton, New Jersey," the man introduced himself deposited being confused by everyone.
"Well, you're a long way from home and we need to be getting out of here," Graciela clapped her hands together and once again looked at her group. "Right?"
"Yeah, hold that thought," Sara hitched the sides of her dress and moved forwards to see the dead group of soldiers now rising from the ground.
Graciela followed Sara's direction and didn't know whether to laugh or scream at what she was seeing. "You have got to be kidding me. Those are actual—"
"Don't... don't... don't say it!" Stein burst into shouts of plead. He never wanted to hear there was a group of now undead Confederate soldiers running towards them. Zombies weren't real.
"Zombies. There are zombies…" Graciela nodded slowly like she was just going to accept that this was one more thing they would be seeing from now on. And she had seen plenty in her time. "Someone take care of the zombies now, please."
Firestorm took lead as it merged once again. Sara whipped out her shuriken while Amaya underwent the strength of a gorilla to take down incoming... zombies. Purple flickered across Graciela's eyes before there were sudden ruptures on the ground, sucking in some zombies. There were zombies making it past them, so Firestorm took lead and shot the ground with awesome fire power. Several of the team below were blasted away from the impact, including Henry Scott.
"Is everybody okay?" Jax asked once Firestorm had disbanded and the two men were on the ground.
"Never mind us…" Graciela groaned as she pushed herself up from the dirty ground. "When the hell did we get zombies in the 1800s? Where's the historian!?"
"Don't say that word!" Stein practically pleaded, even planting his hands on his ears. "I know they're essentially a myth, but I have this irrational fear of…"
Graciela tilted her head at him, partly amused though she kept it well hidden behind a cool face. "Zombies."
Stein shook his head fervently. "Please, don't say it!"
Graciela raised an eyebrow, looking so tempted to continue the taunt on the man, but the cries of Jax turned their attention to see Henry had been hurt during their fight. He had a metal plunged through his chest, blood was already spilling from his mouth too.
"Satch- my my satchel!" the man croaked in-between the blood spills his mouth was doing. "Are you...are you...Union?"
Jax have a bob of his head. "Kinda…"
"My... my orders. Collins Plantations. Confederate troop movements. Without them…"
Jax preferred that Henry keep his strength but even before he could say it out loud, Henry died.
~0~
"Hey! Nice job blowing up the Time Pirate's escape pod!" Ray cheerfully exclaimed when he saw the team coming into the control room. "Put another win in the mission column!"
Jax shot the man a sharp look for his insensitive words. "Did you not see what happened next?"
It was then that Ray noticed the grim faces of the others. "No, I took a break. Had to go to the bathroom. What happened?"
"Zombies happened," Graciela's answer was met with a skeptical look from Ray but she didn't notice it as she went up to the console.
"What?" Ray waited for someone to laugh and say the real problem, but when no one did that he turned again to Graciela. "What?"
"I should have been more attentive," Graciela was already going through information, propped as a hologram above the console. "The Time Pirate's distress call referenced something called a TX-90. It's a futurist bioweapon. I remember learning about it."
"What exactly does it do?" Sara came around the console, "Besides the whole zombie thing?"
"Stop saying that!" Stein clapped his hands over his ears.
Both women rolled their eyes at him and carried on with their conversation.
"It was a weapon created to cut our population in half. I believe you are all familiar with the lovely virus Vandal Savage helped release?" Graciela laid sharp eyes on all of the crew, though only Amaya and Nate looked concerned about it. "This is just another version of it. And if the infected Time Pirate is out there spreading this virus, then we need to go back and put an end to it all."
"No kidding. Having zombies, or whatever they are, running around the Civil War is not a good thing," Nate pursed his lips together, unable to think of that much chaos in an already bloody time period.
Not a second later did they hear something crash against the floor. Mick had suddenly gone down.
"You have got to be kidding me - let me guess, he was bitten?" Graciela didn't even look concerned about it, which she earned a look from Amaya for.
"He could be seriously infected," Amaya warned while they watched Ray, Stein and Jax carry Mick towards the medbay.
"And this is a time ship, he'll be okay," Graciela returned to the controls to do something else. She pulled down the bioweapon information to search for something else. "Besides, I heard Ray is good at concocting creations. Just ask Nate." At that, Nate had to give an agreeing nod. "What is not going to be okay is history…" Graciela stepped back when the hologram displayed the new timeline before them.
"I'm guessing, thanks to the zombies, the Confederacy won its independence from the Union," Sara scrunched her face, knowing fully well they had a lot of work to do.
"It wasn't just them," Nate started coming around as he skimmed more of the details. "That guy, the dispatch, his mission orders are from General Ulysses S. Grant. He was supposed to infiltrate the Collins Plantation and steal Confederate troop movement orders."
"And let me guess, in the original version of history, those plans helped win the war?" Graciela sighed and brought a hand to her forehead.
"The plans Scott stole helped Grant win the Battle of Champion Hill, hugely important," Nate left it at that.
"I swear leading a rebellion group in a worldwide war was a lot easier than this," Graciela let her arms drop to her sides. "What is it with all of these aberrations?"
"We got rid of the Time Masters," Sara reminded her, but Graciela still shook her head.
"Even then, this is too much. It's too intricate to be random." Graciela didn't know a lot about timelines but thanks to her two friends who used to be Time Masters, she knew enough to be sure that all these aberrations couldn't be just from the erasure of an organization. It had to be helped - pushed - by something else. Graciela rubbed her face and brought her elbows up on the console. "Back then, Rip and Kai, my other friend with the Time Masters, they used to tell me how Time was a delicate thing. It was malleable; delicate. We shouldn't mess with it."
"Yeah, we got that speech too," Sara nodded, "Though I guess it's a paradox considering we went in and changed Time anyways."
"But did it work out?" Graciela countered, knowing fully well that while Savage was gone, Rip still lost his family and the Legends lost one of their own. "Time can be pushed, it-it can be changed and sometimes when it's changed there's these...ripples that happen as a result."
"The aberrations is a result of us wiping out the Time Masters," Sara said, slightly puzzled while Graciela was going on about this if she already knew that they were aware of the consequences of their fight against Savage.
"Yeah, but you wiped Savage out of existence, the Time Masters were only killed. Their accomplishments, save for Savage, remained in touch meaning that these aberrations can't all just be from wiping out Savage."
Sara considered the possibility with a degree of dread. Could they have unknowingly done something else to cause the aberrations? If they had, Rip hadn't known about it either. He would've said something. They'd gone past the stage of him keeping secrets from them. They were a team, after all.
"Something else had to have happened for this many aberrations to arise," Graciela mumbled. She thought and thought until something hit her, smacked her more like it. Barry's message. Her heart nearly stopped, she nearly keeled over.
"...while you and your team have been in the temporal zone, I made a choice that affected the timeline."
Graciela's eyes widened. No, no...that...that couldn't be...
"Even if that was the case," Amaya started, pulling Graciela and Sara out of her thoughts and making Graciela lean away from the console, "It doesn't matter right now. We need to make sure history stays on track."
Nate agreed with a nod of his head. "We need to make sure we set everything back to the way it was."
Graciela ultimately agreed. "We'll need to sneak in and wing it basically."
Just as the others were going to agree, Jax returned and with a look of determination on his face. "No, it has to be me. There's a reason black people were used as spies. Because we were invisible."
"I don't want to put you in that kind of situation…" Graciela bit her lip, clearly nervous about the whole ordeal. It was the first time she'd shown any type of emotion close to concern for anyone in the team.
"If anything happens, it's on me," Jax promised her but she shook her head.
"No, it's really not. A leader is responsible for her team and even though I don't know any of you that well I am still responsible for you." And the weight of that showed on her face. "I already have Mick turning into a zombie because I was careless so I don't want to put anyone else in harm."
Jax acknowledged that, but there was no changing his mind. "That's great, but I don't like the idea of having a flag that has 20 stars on it. Do you?" The question rang true for Graciela and everyone else. It was a tough decision, that much everyone could see.
"Fine," she ultimately spat. "But I'm definitely not letting you go in there alone. That's my deal."
"Fine," Jax agreed. "Amaya and I can go." He locked eyes with the woman in question and shared a mutual nod with each other.
"Alright, Ray and Stein will stay with Mick and hopefully stop the latter from becoming a zombie," Graciela truly hoped for the best in that area, "And Nate, Sara and I will go warn the lucky Union Army that they are about to be ran by infected zombie soldiers." She stopped to process what she just said and could not believe the sentence had actually been said. There was something she never thought she'd have to say.
~0~
"You know, when we get to wherever we're going, maybe I should be the one that breaks the zombie news to General Grant," Nate finally gathered the courage to say midway through their trip through the woods. "I'm someone he'll listen to."
Graciela side-glanced the man with a rather sharp look. "I'm pretty skilled in this area, you know. I did lead a rebellion, remember?"
"How could I forget?" Nate cleared his throat, wondering which one of the women would smack him first. Sara wasn't looking too happy either.
"He meant it because he's a man," the blonde filled Graciela in.
"What's that got to do with it?" Graciela wondered and earned herself double looks on both sides.
"I'm guessing they've solved all the gender inequalities by the 22nd century," Sara bobbed her head at the idea, impressed.
"Yeah, when there's a worldwide war we kind of let those issues go," Graciela confirmed and then proceeded to look at Nate. "And I'm certainly not gonna let some 19th century man make me feel less."
"I didn't mean any offence - all I'm saying is, maybe, just maybe when we get to the Union Army, you let me do the talking—" Nate stopped when he felt a cool weapon pressed against the side of his face.
"Wait where you are. Right there," a soldier ordered just as several more men appeared with threatening weapons.
Graciela and Sara raised their hands, simultaneously rolling their eyes. "Fine, you do the talking," they said at the same time, both even looking at Nate with the same expression.
Needless to say, he was not amused. Though the more time they spent with the soldiers - being forced to walk towards a campsite they presumed - he seemed to get over it on account of the reality around them.
"This is incredible. I did my sophomore thesis on the Civil War," he almost giggled at the reminder, bit the women did not.
"I smell a history lesson coming," Sara meant that as a warning for Graciela but Nate allowed no chance of cover before jumping right in.
"Fun fact: Did you know, out of the 3 million people who fought on both sides, 300 were women in drag?"
Graciela made a gesture at him while looking at Sara with an expression asking if he was really like that all the time.
Sara shrugged. "We don't know him that well yet."
The soldiers around them stopped when they reached a campsite. A taller, dark haired man dressed accordingly arrived at the scene, eyes immediately laying on the trio.
"General, we caught these two outside the northeast perimeter," one soldier informed him.
"This here is a war zone, so either you three are Confederate spies, or you...are very lost," the general said to them.
"Is there a third option you got somewhere?" Graciela asked, putting on an American accent, earning herself a deadpanning look in return.
Nate stepped in, clearing his throat as he addressed the famous man. "Actually, we're neither, General Grant."
"How do you know my name?"
"Um...I'm a fan. Actually, I'm, like, a really big fan. And you are surprisingly taller than I thought in real life—" Nate groaned when he felt Graciela's elbow dig into his side. He was getting off topic. "Um... I'm a Colonel in the Union Army. Colonel Sanders. I'm Colonel Sanders with the 31st Pennsylvania Infantry."
"Then why are you not in proper uniform, son?"
"My uniform's in the wash, sir."
"Or you are a Confederate spy."
It was no shocker that the soldiers all drew their guns on the trio of travelers.
"This was your plan?" Graciela made a face at Nate, utterly unimpressed.
"I thought I had more time," he mumbled.
Graciela rolled her eyes. Before she made her plan of fighting, she decided to employ a more docile strategy first. "Alright listen," she addressed the general, which drew more shock than she thought die to different times, "We are not Confederates, and if we're being technical, we're not a part of the Union either. But we are here to tell you that your company is in danger."
Though the general didn't straightaway believe her, he made the motion for his soldiers to lower their weapons. "In danger? Of what?"
"Zombies. And they're headed your way."
"What is a zombie?"
"They're not familiar with that word for another 70 years," Nate mumbled to Graciela who groaned in frustration.
"Okay, first thing we do when we get back to the Waverider is give me a review on history!"
"Sorry, I didn't think we would be dealing with zombies so soon in my tenure on this team!" Nate returned with the same irritation.
Beside the two, Sara shook her head. "Everyone stop," she clapped her hands to get their sole attention. "Fact is, we've got zombies coming in and you're gonna need our help."
"I still don't know what you're talking about," the General reminded her.
"It's just really hard to explain. And it would be a lot easier if I just showed you," Sara started backing away, exchanging nods with Graciela. "And if I'm not back for any reason, feel free to shoot them."
"If you can," Graciela smiled sweetly at the men. "I look small but I'm quite terrifying when I want to be."
~0~
"Keep me posted please," Graciela instructed Ray before ending their short briefing over the comms. She raised her head and gazed at the small campsite. It was beginning to get dark and Sara was still somewhere out there. She knew exactly what Sara was planning and, to be honest, Graciela couldn't wait to see the soldiers' reactions.
"Was that Ray?" Nate came up beside her.
"Yeah," Graciela nodded, looking none too pleased which Nate saw immediately.
"And is there another problem?"
"Mick being a fully transformed zombie qualifies as a problem right?"
"Uh...yeah, it does."
Graciela sighed and brought a hand to her forehead. "Great. And Jax called in to say he hasn't found the plans too. I want him out of that house as soon as possible but I can't do anything to help him from here."
"Amaya's with him," Nate reminded her, but it just made her even more worried.
"And that's still not a better plan. I don't trust Amaya, truth be told." Graciela walked a little from Nate, planting her hands on her hips. She looked ahead to see if there was any sign from Sara.
"Why? Because she stowed away? We know why she did it—"
"And I can't tell you how many people have done that in my time," Graciela turned around to face him. "Those who infiltrate are the deadliest. You don't know what they want nor what they will do to get it."
"Okay, with all due respect, you're kind of looking at this from your leading-a-rebellion perspective," Nate meant that as kindly as possible. He thought this could be a form of PTSD without the actual trauma (as far as he could tell). "We're not in war." Graciela tilted her head, eyes purposely flickering to their surrounding to remind him where they were. "Okay, well, we are but...what we do, it's not war."
"With all due respect, you haven't been here long either. You and I...we're probably only weeks apart from boarding the Waverider," Graciela started packing back and forth. "We're at a big disadvantage. We don't know the team's mind set, we definitely don't know the ropes of time travelling yet. We need to be extra cautious and when I look at Amaya, I'm not comfortable because she's not part of the team. Nobody knows her."
"You can't start being comfortable if you don't give her the chance," Nate's words rang some truth that Graciela didn't want to admit. It was harder than he thought.
"This isn't my permanent team, Nate. I can't just bring people into the Waverider when I'll be leaving it as soon as Rip comes back," Graciela started walking back towards the general's tent.
"Why are you leaving as soon as he comes back?" Nate asked the winning question. Graciela stopped walking but kept her back to him. "I don't understand why you think you'd have to leave. What, does this Rip guy hate you behind our backs or—"
"Something along those lines," Graciela interrupted him and wasn't at all phased by his shock. "That letter he wrote was written a long time ago when we were friends. Things happened and this is where we are. My tenure here will be short, that I promise you."
Nate was left with a thousand more questions to the answers she provided, if that even made sense.
~0~
"Alright listen up," Graciela strode into the general's tent with no care for how it looked that a woman was taking command. "Zombies are coming and they are literally going to eat your brains. So unless you want to die, you need to start listening."
General Grant eyed the woman with a degree of weariness, as if she was more crazy than honest. "And I keep asking, what in perdition's flames is a zombie?"
Instead of answering, Graciela smirked and pointed behind her just as Sara came back. The blonde ex-assassin slammed a zombie's head into the table.
"That," Graciela nodded at the disgusting head.
"I found him and 50 others just like him less than a mile outside of your camp," Sara went on to reveal. "And, yeah, I said less than a mile. Which means we don't have a lot of time."
"You ready to listen now?" Graciela asked but was pretty sure she knew the answer.
~0~
As night crept into the sky, it became a harder harder task to keep the zombie soldiers away. As soldiers continuously shot zombie soldiers, Graciela secretly moved behind the soldiers with her flashing purple eyes, helping out as much as she could without giving herself away.
One zombie may have tripped over, another may have gotten shot when they weren't going to be. Still, Graciela came to a weary stop beside Nate and Sara.
"This isn't working, there's too many of them to single out individually," she muttered to the two. "And I can't exactly fire out can I?"
"That would be bad," Sara admitted.
"But not as bad as getting killed by zombies!"
Sara also admitted that was true.
"We need more of your odd weapons," Graciela told the general, rolling her eyes when Nate very kindly whispered they were using sharpshooters. "This is like ancient history to me," she reminded him.
"I can't spare the men," General Grant answered nonetheless. "We have to think about the battle that lies ahead. If we don't take Vicksburg, we won't control the Mississippi, and we need command of the river to win the war. At this rate, I'm afraid we will be out of ammunition before dawn!"
At that, none of the three travelers could argue. It was true they needed to keep the timeline intact but they also needed a quick plan to get rid of all the zonbies.
"Okay, we'll just need some back up," Sara turned to Graciela to see if they were on the same page.
"Wouldn't that be nice," Graciela said before stepping aside to get in contact with the rest of the team. Getting through to Jax and Amaya may as well have been talking to a wall because neither answered her. So, she had to move onto the ship. "Ray? Stein? First of all, I've lost contact with Jax and Amaya. Second of all, I really could use some help out here."
"Uum, Graciela, here's the thing: we'd love to come help but my vaccine didn't work, and Mick got turned into one of those things," Ray awkwardly cleared his throat. "And he's confined us to the galley. Until we can cure him, you guys are on your own."
"That's just...great." And yet, Graciela couldn't say she was all that surprised. It didn't take a lot to see that this team basically ran on good luck and quick wits. On some level, she was mildly impressed they'd made it this far. She turned back to the problem with a heavy weight on her shoulders. General Grant was relaying the current situation to Sara and Nate.
"We've only seen these things downwind from here. We can pick them off in this valley until they're all gone. I got my best men on the ridge to the West. But reports are, they are running out of ammunition."
No one saw Sara throwing a spade at a nearby wooden table. The two men, and Graciela, gave her a look. "What? Helps me think," the blonde shrugged and went on her way to continue thinking.
"Well, without ammo, we can't take all these zombies out, even with perfect shots," Nate said the obvious and felt worse about it.
Graciela looked around for a moment, forgetting the blaring noises of men's screams and gunshots, or the fact that Sara was still throwing shuriken. "I got it!" her sudden snapping fingers got the attention from her two teammates. She grabbed Nate and Sara by the arms and dragged them towards the tent while calling out to General Grant to keep firing. She didn't take long to explain the concept of her idea, but she did have to stop to make sure Nate was on board with everything. "I know what I said about your powers but since you're hellbent on using them—"
"I'll do it," Nate said, though there was a hint of fear lacing his words.
"But are you sure?" Graciela put her hands together, hoping he thought this through. "I presented the idea and I want you to understand the full consequences of it. Do you?"
Nate released a big breath and nodded. "My survival hinges on me accessing a superpower I'm not familiar with, and even though I'm a little 'uhh' about it, I'm willing to try."
Graciela couldn't decide whether to be happy her idea was a go or be ashamed for bringing Nate down a road of uncertainty concerning death. Either way, things were rolling from there.
"Those things are right outside the perimeter," General Grant's warning was nothing of a shocker. They were finally wearing down the last round of their ammunition and there seemed to be more zombies coming to them.
"On my mark," Graciela's voice rose in volume perfectly, almost as if this wasn't the first time she'd done something like this. Her eyes skimmed the perimeter and once she saw the zombies at the perfect distance, she yelled, "Kill the lights and hold your fire."
Everything went silent, leaving only the growls of the zombies to fill the air. Even though no one was meant to fire, Graciela secretly released some bits of power to help keep some soldiers safe from being bitten.
"Hey, over here! Come and get it, you ugly freaks!" Nate had ran out from a hiding spot carrying a torch. The light of the fire drew the zombies away in a snap, bit it meant Nate had to keep keen on his feet to survive. "Follow me, you big dummies! Come on! Follow the light!"
"That gentleman is either the bravest man I have ever had in my ranks, or the dumbest," General Grant admitted, leaving Graciela and Sara to shrug beside him.
"I guess we'll find out soon," Graciela swallowed hard.
A couple minutes later, they heard and saw an explosion from a distance. That was the end of the zombies, but was it the end of Nate too? Graciela couldn't wait so patiently there, some she dashed off.
"What—Grace!" Sara went after her.
"I shouldn't have asked him to! I shouldn't have asked him to!" Graciela repeated while she practically zipped through the woods.
Sara finally caught up to her and managed to round her back by the arm. "Dude! You don't just run into a fire where there were zombies! You need back up!"
"But what if he's dead?" Graciela gestured in the direction Nate would be in. "What if he couldn't access his powers—what if he died and-and—"
Sara rested her hands on Graciela's shoulders. "Breathe," she instructed. "We can't think like that. That is literally a rule here. Everyone makes their choices here. Now get it together and let's go find Nate."
Graciela followed the instructions and sucked in a dependent breath then followed Sara. She couldn't afford to lose it like that ever again, or at least until she was done leading teams. Together, they gathered some men with General Grant and scoured the area for Nate. They followed the trail they knew the explosion was until they found a whole ring of dead zombies.
"You see your man anywhere?" Grant allowed the women to move around a bit.
"Just dead zombies," Graciela whispered.
"What the?" they heard one soldier cock his gun. Everyone turned to see the soldier aiming his gun at a spot of zombies that seemed to be moving.
"Wait, hold your fire!" Sara shouted and watched with big eyes as Nate burst from the pile of zombies, drenched in some type of goo.
The man seemed close to throwing up as he looked down at himself. "I...am covered in zombie guts."
Graciela laughed and rushed over, though she did keep her hands to herself in the end. "But you're alive!"
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Nate started to gag on the spot.
~0~
Thankfully, everyone else in the team seemed to be in good survival mode. Graciela was relieved to see Jax and Amaya returned safely, along with others who needed their help, and Ray and Stein were successful in their endeavor to cure Mick. Everything was...good. And yet, Graciela didn't feel it 100%.
"Miss Haynez?" General Grant walked up to the woman, looking pretty much grateful. They'd managed to save some soldiers on both sides so that there were no more zombies interfering in their war.
Graciela put on a political smile. "You'll be safe now, in what fits anyways. Sorry about the war…"
"And yet you seem no so surprised by the environment," his observation startled Graciela for a second. "Your man Colonel Sanders, he, uh... tells me you're his captain."
"I am?" Graciela repeated with honest surprise. She was sure no one in the team saw her yet as a true captain and she wasn't particularly interested in being one for them either. The title never sat well with her.
"In any case, he mentioned something about you having regrets about putting men in harm's way."
"And yet it's all I seem to do," Graciela admitted with ease. "I used to have another team and...I lost more than I can count. I don't think that's something I can ever get used to."
"You know, by the time I had taken over this division, there had already been three other generals in place before me. They'd all stepped down and given up. But I believe in my men. And I believe in the good that we're doing. Do you? Do you believe in your mission, Captain Haynez?"
"I did, but then...my mission changed. Now I'm doing it out of obligation."
"Are you, though?"
Graciela pursed her lips together and bowed her head. That was the question, wasn't it?
And whether or not she wanted to say it out loud...the answer was pretty clear.
~ 0 ~
Later on in the evening, Graciela found herself in the hatch room again. She listened to Barry Allen's message over and over, pausing it every now and then to make sure she was hearing right.
"So you need to know that, while you and your team have been in the temporal zone, I made a choice that affected the timeline. As you know, whenever you alter the past, those changes affect the present and get compounded in the future."
Graciela paused the message again. Her fingers drummed over her leg while her mind worked to fill the gaps of her theories.
Could these ripples be a result of what Barry did? Oh God, Rip is going to kill me. More than that, he may be gone because of this new timeline.
Even without all the answers, she knew she was way out of her element here.
Author's Note:
Dun, dun, duuuun! I always theorized that Barry changing the timeline (in s3) left more than just Thawne for the Legends to deal with. So in this world, his actions will not only screw his team but he's also screw this OC as well :))
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"